In the case study “The Manager who doubled Productivity” Cliff took advantage of the principles of operant conditioning to modify his staff behavior by reinforcement. By using positive reinforcement with his staff it better motivates them to work harder and get more done. Reinforcement is the process by which a stimulus is created to increase the probability that a preceding behavior will continue. Cliffs predecssors strategy of punishing undesirable behavior did not work because it was putting the staff members down and not making them feel good about their work. Their confidence is low because they don’t know how the new boss will react to a job well done. Positive reinforcement is the best solution in that kind of situation. Cliff made use of partial reinforcement schedule when he set daily goals and the staff members that met their daily goals. Every Friday he would buy the members who met their goals lunch, so that taught them if they worked hard than it is appreciated. The staff members who didn’t reach their goal for the week just made them work harder for the next week. Cliff uses two types of schedules with his staff, Fixed-Ratio and variable-interval schedules. He uses the fixed-ratio schedule when he sets a goal for the staff to complete everyday and then uses the variable-interval schedule when he does random checkups on the workers. If Cliff wanted the staff to complete a more complex task, than he would have a better chance of the staff succeeding if he used the tactics above. Positive reinforcement and having random check ups to make sure the staff stays on track, these would ultimately give a better chance of the more complex task being