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Joe Salatino, President of Great Northern American Case Study

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Joe Salatino, President of Great Northern American Case Study

BUS 520

Dr. Powers

July 21, 2012

Joe Salatino, President of Great Northern American Case Study

1. Discuss why Joe’s employees need to understand the importance of how people form perception and make attributions.
Joe Salatino is the President of the 35-year old company, the Great Northern American. Salatino gauges his success by the amount he pays his employees, and so far he has been successful. His sales team is a self-motivated and highly energetic. Their tactic is simple they motivate their 30 person sales staff with commission and bonuses. The quality and dedication of their employees is what has made this company the success it has become. Joe’s employees attribute their personal success to four main factors, ability, effort, task-difficulty, and luck. By this it can be assumed that they will succeed because they were capable of doing the job, that it their ability attribute. The effort attribute is because they logged the time, and worked hard at reaching their client base. Task-difficulty is easily overcome when the necessary effort is being made. This is how their success was achieved, because they overcame the difficulties. Finally consider luck. Even with ability, effort, task-difficulty they have to attribute a certain amount to luck. Consider time and mood of the individual to coincide with the luck of the employee. Joe’s employees do need to understand the importance of how people form perception and makes attributions. “It is not hard to see how the assumption that high job satisfaction leads to high performance came to be popularly accepted.” (Lawler & Porter 2008) It is equally safe to say that job performance and satisfaction is directly affected by ones personality as well. If one is well in control of their thinking and personality characteristics that will directly control their job performance and satisfaction. An example would be Susan, she has a positive attitude towards her job, but she is an introvert that may affect her work performance. She maybe more laid back and unaggressive in areas that she needs to be more outgoing for her job. That could limit her personal success and also make her dislike her job. Joe believes his telemarketing success is because of his employees. The outgoing, personable employees who take the time to establish a relationship with their customers to keep them coming back. His employees are self-motivated and continue to push to higher accomplishments. They keep a positive attitude towards their work and when things do not go as planned, they adjust and start again.
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.
Joe should apply operant conditioning theory with his employees. Operant conditioning is explained as, “the term "Operant" refers to how an organism operates on the environment, and hence, operant conditioning comes from how we respond to what is presented to us in our environment. It can be thought of as learning due to the natural consequences of our actions.” (Learning Theory and Behavioral Psychology, 2011) Joe needs to be able to observe the behavior of his employees and the circumstances that affect them. If he changes an external situation to maneuver his employee’s behavior in the manner that is more beneficial, he has successfully utilized the operant conditioning. Teaching employees how to act based on the outcome of a situation. For example, if an employee reaches the desired goal through persistent calling, than encouraging that repeat behavior can duplicate the same desired outcome. Something to consider that is important with operant conditioning is that personal behavior will have consequences. The level and severity of such consequences will determine how well the operant condition behavior is working. Salvation’s motivation methods seem to be primarily based on positive reinforcement. This has been an aid in the success that Joe has found. Joe uses visual stimulants like flashing lights to also motivate his staff. This reinforces the tremendous deals they are offering their consumers. The commission offered to the employees are also a method of incentive. With commission falling between 5-12%, the sales team can determine the level at which they want to profit, based on their own personal contribution and effort. This is also a motivational factor for employees to come to work; if they show up they could make more money.
3. Discuss ways that Joe could apply the learning theory you selected to improve employees’ performance.
If Joe would utilize the Social Learning theory he could ideally improve his employees’ performance. Social learning theory talks about how both environmental and cognitive factors interact to influence human learning and behavior. It’s learning within a social context. “It considers that people learn from one another, including such concepts as observational learning, imitation, and modeling.” (Abbott, 2007). This theory is based on employees learning new actions and or behavior simply by observing other workers in performing the desired actions. This theory is simply to base an action off of mimicking another’s action. Social learning is the process of mocking a favored behavior of others. For example, John gets praised for processing more sales than any other employee in the entire department. The other coworkers want to accomplish the same tasks, so they begin to watch and copy his actions in order to have the same type of outcome. These people learn by participating in the success that others find. Learning is when the other sales people watch his actions and chose to reenact them to the best of their ability. Individuals will learn faster by watching an individual who has had the success, instead of trying to figure things out on their own. There is a lot to be said for those who lead and find out things the hard way. Trial-and-error can be a costly lesson that is avoidable by following proven patterns. Social learning theory is emphasized by symbolizing, vicarious learning, self-efficacy, symbolizing, and self control. Joe considers his success to be based on the amount of money he is able to employees. His self-competency is what has made him successful and in turn directly affected his profits. The symbolizing that Joe uses is a way of creating a mental image to guide an employee and help them learn faster. They learn what will work for them and what will not by observing what others do. This is an important part of employees’ self-control. The best way to explain the self-control is when individuals set their goals and learn which behavior helps them achieve it. Learning through self-control creates an atmosphere for minimum supervision, because employees take ownership for their behavior. Joe rewards behavior that leads to better performance. He uses the best leaders for employees to mimic and learn how to make the most money possible. Lastly, Joe makes sure his employees are trained and competent with the necessary skills to succeed in their job.
4. Determine how Joe could leverage and understanding of value of self-efficacy to ensure he hires the most successful salespeople.
The social learning theory has many aspects, one of them being self-efficacy. Joe uses his hiring, training, and retention of employees based on their self-efficacy abilities. These employees have proven that they are able to perform a specific task in any given situation to the best of their ability. The employees perform on the highest level and they have the ability along with the need. They are able to perform with the effort necessary. No one will stop them from achieving their goals, because they are the ones who are benefiting from performing. Joe hires sales people who are strong, determined, and personable in order to have the best and most successful interaction with the customers. He utilizes the mentality that the more money the company makes the more money the sales people make. The more money the sales people make, the more successful the company is. Self-efficacy is a directive, or a map, that influences employees the best way to reach their goals. Joe does not hire or employ individuals who have a low self-efficacy. The activities and goals of individuals are determined from self-efficacy. This can also play a role in the effort that is utilized on the job. Individuals who work with this mentality, they stay persistent and focus on the task at hand regardless of the complexity. These individuals are not likely to give up and will find alternatives in the event they run into road block on their way. Joe has hired the best and most qualified employees to perform at the highest level possible. This is why his company has had the success they have had.

References:
Lawler, Edward E. III and Lyman W. Porter. (2008) The Effects of Performance on Job Satisfaction. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society. Volume 7, Issue 1 Pp. 20-28, October 1967.
Abbott, Lynda. (2007) Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from http://teachnet.edb.utexas.edu/~lynda_abbott/Social.html

Learning Theory and Behavioral Psychology. (2011) Retrieved from http://allpsych.com/psychology101/conditioning.html

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