operant conditioning

operant conditioning

How Operant Conditioning is Used to Change Employees Behaviors
There are numerous ways that operant conditioning is used to change employee behaviors.   Cherry (2010) states that the definition of operant conditioning, is a learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior when an association is made between a behavior and consequence for that behavior.   Operant conditioning also assumes that all observable behavior patterns that result are the product of conditioning (positive and negative encouragement or reward and punishment).   Operant conditioning is sometimes called instrumental conditioning.   We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us (Cherry, 2010).
B.F. Skinner’s full name is Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990). He is considered one of the most celebrated psychologists since Sigmund Freud (Boeree, 2006).   The notion of reinforcement had been introduced by Edward L. Thorndike(1874-1949), and Skinner developed this idea of operant conditioning   much further (Boeree, 2006). Boeree descriebds operant conditioning as follows, “the organism, while going about its everyday activities, is in the process of “operating” on the environment.   In the course of its activities, the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer.   This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer.” (2006) Skinner specifically addressed the applications of behaviorism and operant conditioning to educational practice. He believed that the goal of education was to train learners in survival skills for self and society. The role of the teacher was to reinforce behaviors that contributed to survival skills, and extinguish behaviors that did not (Boeree, 2006).  
The first step of using operant conditioning in the work force is to identify goals and what target behavior is desired(Cherry,2010).   The target behaviors can vary from...