The Great Northern American Case Study
Patrice Pace
Professor: Dr. Debra Sherry
Business 520 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
November 25, 2012

Discuss why Joe’s employees need to understand the importance of how people form perceptions and make attributions
Great Northern American is a 35-year old company operated by President, Mr. Joe Salatino. The company is responsible for selling more than $20 million in office/promotional supplies to more than 60,000 businesses nationwide. The company is a sales, telemarketer based operation and focuses on a fun environment, large commissions and bonuses in order to keep the sales team focused, while being in a competitive market (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). The company prides itself on the bonuses and commission that they are allowed to provide as motivation to the top sellers in the company and uses different gimmicks within the company to keep employees motivated. Mr. Salatino believes that when employees establish relationships with their customers, they earn more income than those who do not create and/or maintain those types of relationships with customers. Along with top-performing incentives, Mr. Salatino attempts to be efficient in noting key factors for success (excellent communication skills, self-motivation, and self-starters) when hiring an individual for the telemarketing positions to continue the company’s success. Description and insight will be provided on how employees are responsible for knowing how important the perception that customers have of them can/will impact their performance and the company as a whole and the learning theory that most fits the company’s management and how it can be applied to their business model to motivate employees.
Perception is defined as “the process by which the individual selects, organizes, interprets, and responds to information” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, p. 104). Attribution “refers to the way in which individuals come to understand the causes of their own and others’ behaviors” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, p. 119). In order for a sales professional at Great Northern American to be successful, it is imperative that the employee play the role where they are able to convince the customer that they are an authority on the product and that the customer can trust that the product is one that will satisfy their needs. Once the customer grasps this perception and feels comfortable with the sales person, the customer is more than likely to be a repeat customer. An individual is responsible for forming their own perceptions when dealing with a business and making their own attributions. Different people can perceive the same situation differently, both in terms of what they selectively perceive and how they organize and interpret what is perceived, by the employee and their manager (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Management is in turn responsible for making sure that the attributions made concerning the causes of behavior are used to actually understand employee behavior instead of merely issuing punishment for failing performance. For example, a leader who attributes poor performance directly to his subordinates tends to behave more punitively than does a leader who attributes poor performance to circumstances beyond his subordinates’ control. A manager who believes that an employee failed to perform a task correctly because he lacked proper training might be understanding and give the employee better instructions or more training (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). In the case study, Mr. Salatino perceives a direct relationship between an employee’s communication skills with the customer and their sales. If we can understand how a customer perceives a sales person and how it is actually done can be the difference between one of Mr. Salatino’s employees either making the sale or losing the sale. Because a sales professional is almost solely dependent on how the customer perceives them, it is critical that they are able to control how they are presenting themselves as a company representative. This enables the customer to make an informed decision and feel comfortable that they made the right decision in trusting the sales representative and the product. Marketing studies have shown that customers that are satisfied with a company’s product they will generally give a positive referral which will in turn generate more business for the company (Karl, et al, 2010). The sales person is responsible for making certain that the customer feels that the product that is being sold to them is necessary and that the product is worth the money that they are spending on it.
Evaluate which learning theory would be the most appropriate for Joe to apply in this situation and explain why
Operant conditioning would be the learning behavior that would best suit Mr. Salatino for his employees in this working environment. Operant conditioning refers to a process by which individuals learn voluntary behavior. The behaviors are called operants because they operate, or have some influence, on the environment that the person is a member of. The learning occurs from the consequences of behaviors, and many employee work behaviors are operant behaviors (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). According to Hellriegel and Slocum, most everyday life behaviors (talking, walking, reading or working) are forms of operant behavior. Operant conditioning can even be applied in the workplace, it is theorized that human behavior is motivated by external stimuli (rewards and punishments) (Strickler, 2006, p.26). In the workplace the positive external stimuli could be commissions, incentives and the negative external stimuli could be demotion, no receipt of commissions and/or possible termination. According to Strickler, “the use of rewards and punishments to motivate people has become deeply entrenched in the psyche of American business” to the point that “Americans (and people all over the world) are strongly motivated by the opportunity to earn more money and to create personal Skinner's theory of operant conditioning seems to make sense —the best way to motivate the American work force is to offer financial incentives” (Strickler, 2006, p.27). Because of programs and the reinforcements associated with them, there seems to have been an influx within the last few decades of programs that are put in place for motivating employees, these include, but are not limited to, bonus programs, merit pay plans, balanced scorecard, annual performance reviews and 360° feedback (Strickler, 2006).
Discuss ways that Joe could apply the learning theory you selected to improve employees’ performance
If Mr. Salatino reinforces operant conditioning for his employees, he is allowing the employees find a balance of appropriate communication and behavior based on feedback that they received from being involved in a similar situation while in the workplace. An important part of operant conditioning is what happens as a consequence of their behavior (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). In this case, if an employee’s behavior, poor communication and no desire to perform, may result in low commissions and possible termination. In the case study, it states that most newly hired employees make the decision to leave the company within a month of being hired if they feel that they are not a fit. According to Strickler, using operant conditioning management is using a strategy based on employee behavior of offering rewards and punishments to motivate workers to behave in a prescribed manner. Most practical American managers continue to believe that by pushing the right motivational buttons they can motivate workers into doing more of what management wants (Strickler, 2006). There are some that are skeptical of this practice, because the feel that it may create internal problems within the company that are deemed unnecessary mainly competition between employees and a possible diminished employee morale. As with any situation there are pros and cons to using operant condition versus another learning theory; overall operant conditioning has been proven to have a good record within most companies. Because the company is already proactive in participating in incentive programs with their employees in the form of high commissions, the company is motivating employees to perform on a higher level than they would if there were no incentives provided. Mr. Salatino could also implement suggestion programs where employees give feedback on how they deal with being in a telemarketing based environment, the feedback received could be used as a training tool for new hires and give insight on how to deal with the customers and establish the repertoire that the company’s top sellers are known for making. The company can also, in addition to the commissions program, offer a rewards program for top performers to increase employee morale and give them a sense of appreciation from their employer.
Determine how Joe could leverage an understand of the value of self-efficacy to ensue he hires the most successful salespeople
If Mr. Salatino understands the value of self-efficacy within his employees to ensure he hires the most successful salespeople, he will be able to have more effective employees. Self-efficacy is an “individual’s estimate of his/her own ability to perform a specific task in a particular situation” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, pp 151-152). Self-efficacy is compatible with expectancy theory since self-efficacy focuses on training methods and companion leader communication to attain goals. (Mayfield & Mayfield, 2012). Most employees will need to have some type of training and/or positive reinforcement from their employer, because the greater the employee’s perceived ability to perform tasks, the greater their self-efficacy is. If an employee provides an employee with tools to perform their job and they feel they have the ability to perform the job without outside events preventing them from performing at a high level.
Because Mr. Salatino attempts to be proactive in selecting employees who have the desire to be high performers, self-motivated and recognize their own strengths and limitations; he understands that the self-confidence an employee or potential employee has may dictate how high their performance will be. Self-efficacy impacts an employee’s learning in three ways: influencing activities and goals that employees choose for themselves, influencing the effort put into a task and affects the persistence with which an employee stays dedicated to the task at hand (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). If management is aware of how self-efficacy affects an employee’s performance they need to be certain to dedicate time to expounding on the areas that an employee can possibly become lax and cause a decline in work performance. In closing, if Mr. Salatino uses the resources that he has, his employees, and uses positive reinforcement with them; he will be able to expound off of their talents and have employees who are motivated and perform their jobs at the highest levels. Management will need to be certain to have guidelines in place for the incentives that employees receive, to be certain to keep abreast of those who are performing, as well as, those who are not performing to company guidelines so that reinforcements, both positive and negative, are put in place.

References
Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J. (2011). Organization behavior. Cengage Learning.
Karl, K.; Harland, L.K.; Peluchette, J.V. & Rodie, A.R. (2010). Perceptions of Service Quality: What’s fun got to do with it? Health Marketing Quarterly, (27)2. 155-172. Retrieved from Business Source Complete.
Karl, K. & Peluchette, J. (2006). How does workplace fun impact employee perceptions of customer service quality? Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 13(2). 2-13. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database.
Mayfield, J. & Mayfield, M. (2012). The relationship between leader motivating language and self-efficacy. Journal of Business Communication. 49(4) 357-376. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database
Strickler, J. (2006). What really motivates people? Journal for Quality and Participation, 29(1). 26-28. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.