1. Discuss how Joe could address the importance of understanding how people form perceptions and make attributions about others with his employees. As a President of Great Northern it is Mr. Salatino’s is accountable for building up, influencing and engineering the organizations sales team. Perception is a declaration of the way individuals sift, arrange and interpret sensory information and attribution is an explanation of how individuals respond to the actions of others (Hellriegel & Solcum, 2011). Mr. Salatino needs to demonstrate how perceptions are influenced in relations to his business. This would require him developing a model for his sales team to use as selective screening when seeking potential customers. Within the model he should focus on the external factors that relate to his organizations goals. These factors consist of as size, intensity, contrast, motion, repetition and novelty and familiarity. Then, internal factors should be infused into the equation, these factors include personality, learning, motivation. Combined, both internal and external factors create importance of perception into employees.
Mr. Salatino is responsible as an effective leader to ensure they have an accurate perception of the organizational goals so that his sales team will be able to execute effective decisions in relation to customer sales (Duggan). In an effort to do so, he could address the importance of understanding how people form perceptions and make attribution through observing his employees behaviors, as well as the environmental conditions that affect their behaviors. As an effective leader, he would attempt to sway external events in order to pilot employee behaviors (Hellriegel & Slocum).
Through implementation of weekly mandatory workshops with his sales teams Mr. Salatino could also communicate keys to perception and attribution through focusing on the core competencies. These competencies fused concept of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) required by an individual, team or organization for effective performance. The most essential being ethics, self, diversity, across cultures, communication, teams and change all of which contribute to the assurance an organizational is ran effectively. Essentially, competencies focus on the significance of all employees (Hellriegel & Slocum). Through feedback and comparison from my suggested weekly sales meetings where employees can discuss and share results, vital information can be revealed to ultimately implement change.
2. Evaluate which learning theory (either operant conditioning, social learning theory, or the learning theory you researched in Week 3) would be most appropriate for Joe to apply in this situation and explain why.
As President of Great Northern it would benefit Mr. Salatino, his sales team and the organization if he applied the social learning theory. This theory requires knowledge obtainment through the mental internalization of information by observing and imitating others which is ideal in sales. Social learning theory is inclusive of five characteristics, symbolizing, forethought, vicarious learning and self-control (Hellrigel &Slocum). By Mr. Salatino leading by example and sharing the results with his sales team gives them a mental picture of how they are essentially the back bone of the organization and are a directly linked to his success, the organization’s success and their own success. It is clearly a motivating factor to know that your company’s president monitors the overall success of the organization on how much he is able to pays you.
3.) Discuss ways that Joe could apply the learning theory you selected to improve employees’ performance.
Through the implementation of the five essential characteristics of social learning theory Mr. Salatino could improve employee’s performance. First, through the forethought gained at the suggested weekly meetings. These meetings will focus on competencies and the desired responses of situations expressed through the communication between Mr. Salatino and his sales teams. When the sales team is presented with scenarios they can reflect on skills, knowledge and abilities they have already been acquired (Hellriegel & Slocum). By creating opportunities for operational learning it allows for the sales team to see how things are done through video, articles, or books. The sales team is able to mimic what they have observed and be able to execute what they have learned. This is an ideal method for Mr. Salatino to utilize and incorporate professional development (Cushard, 2011).
Mr. Salatino will need to focus on vicarious learning at my suggested weekly meetings as well. Observation through open and honest communication at the weekly meetings and the continued reinforcement of the previously discussed competencies essentially promotes overall organizational effectiveness without reliance on potentially costly trial and error. The sales team is also able to inherently reap the benefits of reward for behavior through vicarious learning. Mr. Salatino himself believes that employees who have established solid relationships with their customers basically earn significantly more money than those who are unable to foster positive relationships with customers and this concept feeds into his working theory (Hellriegel & Slocum).
The self-control factor would benefit Mr. Salatino, Great Northern and the employees. Self-control implements goal setting, empowerment and can promote opportunities to increase performance through tutorials and workshops opportunities presented at weekly meetings. The self-control factor gives the sales team empowerment to determine their own goals and ways of reaching them to acquiring their desired needs. It in turn, it relinquishes Mr. Salatino from micromanaging a fully competent sales teams (Hellriegel & Solcum, 2011).