Influences on Employee Behavior

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Influences on Employee Behavior
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A Major Purpose of Human Resource Development

• To change employee behavior through training and
  other incentives

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Model of Employee Behavior

• Forces that influence behavior
• External to the employee
• External environment (economic conditions, laws
  and regulations, etc.)
• Work environment (supervision, organization,
  coworkers, outcomes of performance)
• Within the employee
• Motivation, attitudes, knowledge/skills/abilities
  (KSAs)

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The External Environment
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Factors in the External Environment

• Economic conditions
• Technological changes
• Labor market conditions
• Laws and regulations
• Labor unions
• Source Heneman, Schwab, Fossum Dyer (1989)

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Factors in the Work Environment

• Outcomes
• Supervision and leadership
• Organization
• Coworkers

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Influences on Employee Behavior
Effect on Motivation  
Performance Expectations  
Job Design  
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Outcomes Can Influence Employee Behavior

• Personal outcomes
• Organizational outcomes
• Both expectancy theory and equity theory predict
  that employee perceptions of the outcomes they
  receive (or hope to receive) influences their
  performance of that behavior.

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Supervisor Characteristics

• Leadership
• Performance expectations (Pygmalion effect)
• Evaluation of efforts

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Organizational Influences

• Reward structure
• Organizational culture
• Job design

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Coworker Influence

• Norms
• Group dynamics
• Teamwork
• Control over outcomes

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Motivation

• Psychological processes that cause the arousal,
  direction, and persistence of voluntary actions
  that are goal-directed

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Motivation Characteristics

• Pertains to voluntary behavior
• Focuses on processes affecting behavior such as
• Energizing of effort
• Direction of effort
• Persistence of effort
• An individual phenomenon

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Energizing Effort

• The generation or mobilization of effort

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Direction of Effort

• Applying effort to one behavior over another

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Persistence

• Continuing (or ceasing) to perform a behavior

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Explanations of Work Motivation

• Need-based
• Cognitive-based
• Noncognitive-based

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Need-Based Theories

• Underlying needs, such as needs for survival,
  safety, power, etc., are what drives motivation

• Theories
• Maslows hierarchy of needs theory
• Alderfers existence, relatedness, and growth
  (ERG) theory
• Herzbergs two-factor theory

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Need Activation-Need Satisfaction Process
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Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

• Self-Actualization
• Needs
• Esteem Needs
• Belonging Love Needs
• Safety Needs
• Survival Needs

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Cognitive Theories

• Expectancy theory
• Goal-setting theory
• Social learning theory
• Equity theory

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Expectancy Theory

• Motivation is viewed as a conscious choice
• People put their efforts into actions they can
  perform to achieve desired outcomes
• Three key elements
• Expectancy expect effort to result in success
• Instrumentality performance results in reward
• Valence value individual puts on outcome

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Expectancy Theory
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In Other Words

• You believe you can do it
• You believe your performance is linked to the
  results
• You believe that the results are worth the effort
• You wont do it if you dont believe its worth
  the effort

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Goal Setting Theory

• Specific, difficult, and understood goals
  generally lead to higher performance
• Keys to success are the level of difficulty and
  the clearness of goals

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Social Learning Theory

• Self-efficacy judgment of what you think you
  can do with the skills you have
• Major prediction of the theory is that
  expectations determine
• Whether a behavior will be performed
• How much effort will be expended
• How long you will perform the behavior

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Self-Efficacy and Effort
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Equity Theory

• Major assumptions
• If you are treated fairly, you will keep working
  well
• If you think you are being treated unfairly, you
  will change your behavior in order to be treated
  fairly

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Equity Theory
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A Noncognitive Theory

• Reinforcement theory
• e.g., behavior modification

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Complexity of Behavior
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Behavior Modification

• Principles for controlling employee behavior
• Positive Reinforcement
• Negative Reinforcement
• Extinction decrease occurrences by eliminating
  reinforcement that causes the behavior
• Punishment introduce an adverse consequence
  immediately after behavior

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A Specific Example

• Sleeping in Class
• 1. Warning
• 2. Leave class and explain to the Assistant Dean
  why you were asked to leave
• Too often you are dropped from the class
• Question Is this positive or negative
  reinforcement, and why?

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Other Internal Factors That Influence Employee
Behavior

• Motivation
• Attitudes
• Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs)

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Wagner-Hollenbeck Model of Motivation and
Performance
By permission Wagner III and Hollenbeck, 1995
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Attitudes

• A persons general feelings of favor or disfavor
  towards something
• Feelings towards a person, place, thing, event,
  or idea
• Tend to be VERY stable and hard to change
• Attitudes are important in training e.g., does
  the trainee intend to use the training or ignore
  it?

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Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs)

• Abilities general capacities related to the
  performance of specific tasks
• Skills combines abilities and capacities,
  generally the result of training
• Knowledge understanding of the factors or
  principles related to a specific subject
• HRD programs mostly focus on changing skills and
  knowledge

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Blooms Taxonomy

• Bloom
• Cognitive
• Psychomotor
• Affective

• HRD
• Knowledge
• Skills/Abilities
• Attitudes

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Summary

• HRD generally seeks to change human behavior
  (some efforts to change attitudes)
• Behavior is influenced by both external and
  internal factors
• Worker motivation is the key
• We can work on knowledge, skills and abilities
• Attitudes are often where the problem lies