Improving Performance with Feedback, Rewards, and Positive Reinforcement

Chapter Eight

Copyright © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill/Irwin

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After reading the material in this chapter, you should be able to:

• Specify the two basic functions of feedback and three sources of feedback.

• Define upward feedback and 360-degree feedback, and summarize the general tips for giving good feedback.

• Distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, and give a job-related example of each

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After reading the material in this chapter, you should be able to:

• Summarize the research lessons about pay for performance, and explain why rewards often fail to motivate employees.

• State Thorndike’s “law of effect” and explain Skinner’s distinction between respondent and operant behavior.

• Demonstrate your knowledge of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction and explain behavior shaping

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Improving Individual Job Performance

Figure 8-1

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Providing Effective Feedback

• Feedback - objective information

about individual or collective performance shared with those in a position to improve the situation

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Two Functions of Feedback

• Instructional - clarifies roles or teaches new behaviors

• Motivational - serves as a reward or promise of a reward

• Can be significantly enhanced by pairing specific, challenging goals with specific feedback about results

Question?

Grant is responsible for training new employees. He wants to make sure everyone knows their role in making the firm successful. This is __________ feedback.

A.PersistentB.MotivationalC.TutorialD.Instructional

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Sources of Feedback

• Others- peers, supervisors, lower-level employees,

and outsiders

• Task• Oneself

- Self-serving bias and other perceptual problems can contaminate this source

Behavioral Outcomes of Feedback

• Direction• Effort• Persistence• Resistance

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Nontraditional Feedback

• Upward feedback - employees evaluate their boss

• 360-Degree feedback - comparison of anonymous feedback from

one’s superior, subordinates, and peers with self-perceptions

Question?

When Janine evaluates her supervisor, she is providing __________ feedback.

A.UpwardB.DownwardC.HorizontalD.Diagonal

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Popularity of Nontraditional Feedback

1. Traditional performance appraisal systems have created widespread dissatisfaction.

2. Team-based organization structures are replacing traditional hierarchies.

3. Multiple-rater systems are said to make feedback more valid than single-source feedback.

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Popularity of Nontraditional Feedback

4. Advanced computer network technology greatly facilitates multiple-rater systems.

5. Bottom-up feedback meshes nicely with the trend toward participative management and employee empowerment.

6. Co-workers and lower-level employees are said to know more about a manager’s strengths and limitations.

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Upward Feedback

• Managers resist upward feedbacks programs because they believe it erodes their authority

• Anonymous upward feedback can become little more than a personality contest

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Why Feedback Often Fails

1. Feedback is used to punish, embarrass, or put down employees.

2. Those receiving the feedback see it as irrelevant to their work.

3. Feedback information is provided too late to do any good.

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Why Feedback Often Fails

4. People receiving feedback believe it relates to matters beyond their control.

5. Employees complain about wasting too much time collecting and recording feedback data.

6. Feedback recipients complain about feedback being too complex or difficult to understand.

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Commonsense Guidelines for Feedback

• Relate feedback to existing goals and deliver as soon as possible

• Be specific and identify observable behavior or measurable results.

• Focus feedback on things employees can control

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Commonsense Guidelines for Feedback (cont.)

• Cultivate a fair and constructive climate by including positive feedback

• Take time to listen to employees’ reaction

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Key Factors in Organizational Reward Systems

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Types of Rewards

• Extrinsic rewards - financial, material, or social rewards from the

environment

• Intrinsic rewards - self-granted, psychic rewards

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Question?

Angelo derives pleasure from the task of book writing itself. He can be described as __________ motivated.

A.ExtrinsicallyB.FinanciallyC.MateriallyD.Intrinsically

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Distribution Criteria

• Performance: results - tangible outcomes

• Performance: actions and behaviors - teamwork, cooperation, risk-taking

• Non-performance considerations - contractual

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Pay for Performance

• Pay for performance

- monetary incentives tied to one’s results or accomplishments

Why Rewards Fail to Motivate

1. Too much emphasis on monetary rewards

2. Rewards lack an “appreciation effect”3. Extensive benefits become entitlements4. Counterproductive behavior is rewarded5. Too long a delay between performance

and rewards

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Why Rewards Fail to Motivate

6. Too many one-size-fits-all rewards7. Use of one-shot rewards with a short-

lived motivational impact8. Continued use of demotivating practices

such as layoffs, across-the-board raises and cuts, and excessive executive compensation

Question?

Kim’s company has given all employees a “performance bonus” each year for the past 17 years. Employees have come to expect it no matter what the company’s profitability. Why would this “pay for performance” system fail to motivate employees?

A.Too much emphasis on monetary rewardsB.Rewards lack an “appreciation effect”C.Extensive benefits become entitlementsD.Counterproductive behavior is rewarded

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Thorndike’s Law of Effect

• Behavior with favorable consequences is repeated; behavior with unfavorable consequences disappears

Read an article on the “Law of Effect”

Question?

When Grant is praised for a work behavior, he will try hard to repeat it. This follows the law of ___________.

A.AffectB.EffectC.EffectivenessD.Efficiency

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Positive Reinforcement

• Respondent behavior - Skinner’s term for unlearned stimulus-

response reflexes

• Operant behavior - Skinner’s term for learned, consequence-

shaped behavior

Contingent Consequences in Operant Conditioning

Figure 8-3

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Contingent Consequences

• Positive reinforcement - making behavior occur more often by

contingently presenting something positive

• Negative reinforcement - making behavior occur more often by

contingently withdrawing something negative

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Contingent Consequences

• Punishment - making behavior occur less often by

contingently presenting something negative or withdrawing something positive

• Extinction - making behavior occur less often by ignoring

or not reinforcing it

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous reinforcement - reinforcing every instance of a behavior

• Intermittent reinforcement - reinforcing some but not all instances of

behavior

Schedules of Reinforcement

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How to Effectively Shape Job Behavior

1. Accommodate the process of behavioral change.

2. Define new behavior patterns specifically.3. Give individuals feedback on their

performance.4. Reinforce behavior as quickly as possible.5. Use powerful reinforcement.

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How to Effectively Shape Job Behavior (cont.)

6. Use a continuous reinforcement schedule.7. Use a variable reinforcement schedule for

maintenance.8. Reward teamwork—not competition.9. Make all rewards contingent on performance.10. Never take good performance for granted.

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Shaping Behavior

• Shaping - reinforcing closer and closer approximations

to a target behavior

Question?

Employees at ABC Manufacturing strive to operate at a zero-defect level because each gets publicly recognized for their individual and team accomplishments. This is an example of

A.Extinction.B.Positive reinforcement.C.Respondent behavior.D.Punishment.

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Supplemental Slides

• Slides 40-45 contain extra non-text examples to integrate and enhance instructor lectures

- Slide 40-41: Yearly Reviews- Slides 42-43: Fear of Feedback- Slide 44: Receiving Feedback- Slide 45: Video discussion slide

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Yearly Reviews

• Why don’t managers and employees like performance reviews?

• Where you work or have worked, how often did you receive feedback?

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Yearly Reviews

• Jack and Suzy Welch’s advice:- Sit down with each direct report and provide a

single page that says, here’s what you do well, and here’s what you can do better

- This should happen three or four times a year, particularly with every raise, bonus, or promotion

• What are the pros and cons of this approach?

8-41Source: Ideas The Welch Way, BusinessWeek, February 26, 2007

Fear of Feedback

• Maladaptive Behaviors- Procrastination- Brooding- Denial- Jealousy- Self-sabotage

8-42Source: Fear of Feedback, Jackman, J.M., Strober, M.H. (2005) Harvard Business Review

Fear of Feedback

• Adaptive Behaviors- Recognize emotions and maladaptive

responses- Get support- Reframe the feedback- Break it into parts

8-43Source: Fear of Feedback, Jackman, J.M., Strober, M.H. (2005) Harvard Business Review

Receiving Feedback

• To help clarify feedback, receivers can ask:• Could you give me an example of the behavior

that concerns you?• Can you help me understand how you came to

that conclusion?• Can you help me understand the situations in

which you have seen the behavior and what you see as the impact?

• Can you clarify what you would like to see me do differently?

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Video Case: Slacking Off

• Are workers from today’s generations exhibiting a “slacker” attitude at work?

• Do you think more is being expected of workers today than there was in the past?

• Are workers today less productive as a result of having “slacker” attitudes?

• Is the nature of work different today than it was in the past? Could this be part of the issue?

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