LEARNING

PURPOSE OF THE CHAPTER

Tell me and I forget, teach
me and I remember, in-
volve me and I learn.
—Benjamin Franklin
Learning is a symbol of human progress and the primary tool for our sur-
vival. We cope with our daily life by learning to walk, run, exercise, breathe
deeply, control our emotions, use social media, drive a car, negotiate, adjust
with our bosses, spouses, and children, use analytics, develop products and
software, solve complex problems, and perform endless other things. The
purpose of this chapter is to understand this powerful phenomenon that
differentiates human beings from other living organisms.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Define what learning is.

2. Explain the importance and concept of learning.
3. Apply various theories of learning.
4. Explain the principles of learning, learning strategies, learning styles and how to use learning is an
organisation.
5. Design a learning programme for in an organisation.
6. Recognise contemporary issues in learning and their application in organisations.

KEY CONCEPTS
1. Learning occurs through multiple methods.
2. Learning drives performance and change.
3. Centrality of experiential and adult learning.
 IN THIS CHAPTER
Section I – What is learning? • Learning strategies
• Learning styles
• Definition
• Application of learning in organisations
• Importance of learning
• Designing learning programme in an
• Concept of learning
organisation
Section II – Theories of Learning Section IV – Contemporary Issues in Learning
• Behavioural theories
• Experiential learning
■ Classical conditioning
• Adult learning (Andragogy)
■ Operant conditioning
• Self-learning or self-learning/self-regulated
■ Reward, punishment, and reinforcement
learning
■ Some truths about punishment
• Learning about self or self-awarness in learning
■ Shaping behaviour
context
■ Reinforcers
• Transformative learning
• Cognitive theories
• Language and learning
■ Vicarious conditioning
• Learning from different domains
■ Cognitive maps
• Learning to learn
■ Latent learning
• Learning in mobile age
■ Modelling
• Knowledge management
• Social learning theory
• Learning organisations
■ Social learning process
• E-learning
■ Reciprocal determination model

Section III – Principles and Application of

Learning
• Principles of learning

Initiating Case – Tomkin Pharmaceutical

Tomkin Pharmaceutical Ltd., (name changed) was an Indian subsidiary of a dominant European
pharmaceutical company. The company had been operating in India since the 1960s, but had main-
tained a low profile though it had products in antibiotics, anti-retro virals, oncological drugs, cardiac
drugs, and a series of other patented and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Their basic business model
in India was to pick up those drugs, which had reached the end of their patent regime and produce
them as generics. The company had revenue of Rs 45 billion in 2011 and was among the top 10
pharmaceutical companies in India. However, the rapid increase in spending on healthcare, coupled
with increase in lifestyle diseases in India, necessitated a change in its product portfolio and business
model. Tomkin Pharmaceutical had to either change or give way to competition. One of the options
was to exit India; but the board ruled it out.
In an effort to gain a prominent status in India, the company hired Dr Rajender Singh, a well-
known name in the pharmaceutical industry, and handed over the reins to him. When Rajender did
a close study of the issue, he realised that R&D was not aligned to the new realities. The sales force
of the company was equally complacent and was happy to do whatever it could, rather than compete
with others. The reasons for complacency was because they believed that the company wanted to be
an ‘also-ran’ and was not investing on new drugs. The production system was also not ‘state-of-the-art’
4

and it often failed to meet the standards set by the Federal Drug Control. Talent was a major issue. The
workforce had high morale, but did not have competencies to fight the competition. The leadership
at all levels was efficient but did not go that extra bit required in the modern context. Compensation
was competitive, but no one was held accountable for the performance that matched the compensa-
tion. The average performer enjoyed the same career growth and compensation, and no one found
it worth running the extra mile.
When Rajender spoke of change, he met with scepticism at all levels. The staff had seen other high
profile CEOs who had attempted changes and they did not find Rajender any different. Sensing the need
to address the human resources issues as a precondition to addressing the competitiveness issue, Rajen-
der recruited a new head of HR, Ms Renu Nathan, and gave her considerable autonomy and support.
Working in close collaboration with the head of sales and operations, Renu laid out the new structure,
dividing the business into 15 entities. Seven of them were sales entities representing geographical territo-
ries, five were production entities, and three were R&D entities.
In the next step, 70 top leaders were taken for a vision workshop. They defined the vision as ‘every
entity of Tomkin Pharmaceutical shall be one of the three toppers in its area and shall be driven by
competitiveness, collaboration, customer orientation, and excellence in execution’. This was followed
by an organisation-wide effort to capture the imagination and attention of employees through talk
shows, posters, e-mails, and video shows. They followed this up with vision workshops to disseminate
the vision. Each entity took up the responsibility to do so and launched three to seven teams depend-
ing on their size. They conducted one-day workshops for groups of 15–20 people from all levels of
hierarchy. Films such as ‘12 Angry Men’ were screened to suggest that even one man’s initiative can
make a major difference.
There was some discussion on whether entity managers or training professionals should conduct
these workshops. The decision went in favour of entity managers, as they would be able to create a
much better environment of trust. Renu reasoned, “They need the change, they speak the change, and
they determine whether people have learned to change. This would create trust and address issues of
workplace social relationship and emotions, which also contribute to learning”.
These workshops had to be presented with clear goals that each entity and sub-entities would
achieve in the ensuing year. They ended with an oath to commitment. In order to ensure execution,
Renu quickly revised the performance management system and introduced the 360-degree method.
Performances of all managers were to be assessed based on performance and potential.
While performance assessment was based on results achieved, the potential was assessed on the
basis of living the vision; that is, contributing to the key aspects of the vision. Performance manage-
ment underwent a major change and was made a biannual affair instead of the annual feature. In addi-
tion, four quarterly feedback sessions were introduced. Renu also introduced a series of immediate
rewards, which were to be decided and given by entity heads on a quarterly basis. In addition, entity
heads were encouraged to give spot awards to those who showed exemplary performance.
Employees were divided into seven levels and a forced performance matrix was created. About
15% could be graded in excellent, 25% in good, 50% in adequate, and 10% in improve category. Mea-
surable goals were created that enabled classification of the people with transparency. Where a goal
was not measurable, for example, interpersonal relationship, different behaviours were defined that
enabled an assessor to categorise the level achieved. Every person who was in the ‘improve’ category
got two chances to enhance performance. If they failed, they had to quit the company. In order to
create sustainable change, processes, and criteria related to selection, onboarding, and training were
also revised.
Leaders were encouraged to set examples. The CEO frequently accompanied sales teams and intro-
duced drugs to large hospital groups and physicians’ conferences. This had an electrifying effect on
the entire organisation. Leaders in marketing and operations began to take risks and initiatives to
consistently surpass their goals.
 5

The review of 2015 indicated that all, but five entities of the company had achieved revenue targets
and margins. Out of the five lagging entities, two were shut down. The other three were put on warn-
ing for shutting down. The overall performance of the company in terms of revenue and margin was
among the top five in the country. The managers agreed that general lethargy had been shaken off,
and all of them felt re-energised and competitive. All entities had spun off small self-managed teams
to enhance performance. The HR survey on employee engagement showed significant improvement.
In the strategy conference of 2015, discussions were focused on becoming the national topper in
all the chosen areas.

Section I: What is Learning?

• Definition • Concept of learning
• Importance of learning

Definition
Learning is the measurable
and relatively permanent
change in behaviour through
experience.
The initiating case, Tomkin Pharmaceuticals, is a story of learning to
change, adapt, and compete in a business context. When we are born, we
are able to display biological behaviour such as breathing, yawning, or sud-
denly shifting our head in response to a loud noise. However, even biologi-
cal behaviour can be modified by learning; for example, learning to take a
deep breath while doing yoga, covering our mouth while yawning, or hold-
ing our head steady when there is a loud noise can be learned. Human
beings can learn to play chess, make agile movements with their body as in
dancing or yoga, write a book, or think critically. It is this learning that has
made human progression possible. Hence, it is only natural that learning
should be of prime interest to us.
The Webster’s dictionary defines learning as the activity or process of
gaining knowledge or skills by studying, practising, being taught, or expe-
riencing something.1 This is a layman’s understanding of the term. Chris
Argryis, professor of Harvard Business School, prefers to call learning as
‘detection and correction of error’, where the term ‘error’ means a devi-
ation from the intentions and what actually happens.2 This is perhaps a
pure management variant of the definition. A more formal definition is
that learning is the measurable and relatively permanent change in behav-
iour through experience. Here, the term ‘experience’ is used in its broadest
sense and includes study, teaching, reading, experiments, and so on.
The formal definition of learning has four key qualifiers, namely change
in behaviour, relative permanency, measurability, and experiences as the
route for learning.
• We start with ‘change in behaviour’. Learning should change the
behaviour that enhances the effectiveness of an individual, a group,
6

or an organisation. Sometimes, people change and learn undesirable

behaviours. This is also called learning.
• To call it learning, the change should be relatively permanent. This
excludes one-time behaviour, temporary changes such as changes in
eating or sleeping when travelling abroad, and involuntary responses
such as crying when in pain, shouting for help in case of danger or
even getting angry in response to some stimuli3 from the ambit of
learning.
• Though many consider that learning itself is not measurable, most
agree that the outcome of learning can be measured. Measurability
makes it possible to quantify the relative permanency of change.
• The fourth condition is that learning should be due to experience
in its broadest sense, which excludes change in behaviour due to
maturation, diseases, etc. The term ‘experience’ also indicates that
learning should have a stimulus and a response. The stimulus may be
through sight, sound, or touch. The stimulus can be created through
films, demonstrations, and lectures, or observing/doing something.
When response becomes relatively permanent, it becomes learning.
Literature on learning differentiates it from habituation. If you go to a
place infested with mosquitoes, initially, you might be disturbed by their
humming, but those who have been living there would go about their work
without reacting. This is because of habituation. Although habituation is
learning, it is considered primitive, and has not generated as much interest
in the study of learning.

Importance of Learning
Human progress is the result of learning. It enables us to perform the
following:
Eight competencies to adapt to
modern workplace
• Personal responsibility
• Act in principled and ethical
fashion
• Oral and written
communication
• Interpersonal and team skills
• Skills in critical thinking and
problem solving
• Respect for diversity
• Ability to change
• Ability and desire for lifelong
learning.
• Survive by taking appropriate action to avoid danger and to respond
to danger; for example, creating a new vision and embracing change
in our opening case.
• Refine our actions and responses so that they are more efficient and
effective; for example, the new performance management leading to
refined performance.
• Anticipate and respond appropriately to various situations that make
life smooth; for example, anticipate the changes in the branded drugs
market or computing technology and learn new things so that we do
not become redundant.
• Optimise by allocating resources to do things in a new and better way;
for example, allot more resources to training in the new software a
company has purchased so that a smooth shift is possible.
• Adapt to environmental changes effectively by learning new compe-
tencies. This can be considered the most importance learning. In
1994, Gardner consulted leaders in business, industry, and govern-
ment and compiled a list of eight competencies that a person should
learn, to adapt to the modern workplace.4
 7

• Create work conditions that best fit us and enable us to work most
effectively; for example, provide flexible working hours and work
from home options.
• Provide ourselves and the colleagues in the workplace satisfaction and
find meaning from our work; for example, learning to listen to the
staff and modify plans keeping their views in mind.
• Fulfil human aspiration, for example, learning to aspire to land on mars.
• Determine the course of our life and fulfil the purpose of our exis-
tence, for example, take a break in one’s career for reflection.
From the aforementioned features, it is evident that learning is the root of
human survival, progress, and happiness. Recognising the need for change
and adaption in the modern world, the 1996 National Science Foundation
report urged the faculty to find new ways of learning in communication,
teamwork, and lifelong learning.5 We live in the 21st century and it looks as
if we are just beginning to learn.

Concept of Learning
As learning touches every moment of our lives, there has been consider-
able effort to build concepts and theories to explain learning. There are
three schools of thoughts in learning, namely behaviourism, humanism, and
connectivism.
Behaviourists consider learning as passive, rather than active. Learning
is done by trial and error method. Being passive, the role of the instructor
3 Schools of thought in
learning are behaviourism,
facilitating learning, external reinforcement, and outcome are considered
humanism and connectivism important by the behaviourists; the process is considered less significant.6
Humanists consider that learning is active in nature and is an individual
act. They believe that the individual moves on a path to discover by drawing
from the outside world. Here, the learner is central and the speed of learn-
ing is adjusted by the learner. Frequent feedback helps the learner to adjust
the act of learning. All instructional activity is driven by the learner’s need
to learn. The instructor is a facilitator than driver of learning.
Connectivists perceive learning as a lifelong and continuous act that takes
place in the work group and communities. It is perceived as response to
new events in the environment. It is considered a collective, rather than an
individual, act. In other words, it is a way of connecting to the real world by
responding to stimuli. Learning is, therefore, active in nature.
These concepts are not mutually exclusive. They collectively explain learn-
ing. For instance, the behaviourist approach helps in learning when the
learner is not aware of the need to learn something; such as, learning habits
in the young age or learning about safety measures and compliances in an
organisation. The humanist view explains how we learn to discover and be
creative. The connectivist view explains how we progress as a social or work
group. It is particularly useful to explain self-directed teams, kaizen, and
learning in the digital era.
8
• Behavioural theories
• Cognitive theories
Behavioural Theories
Research has shown that,
• Every neutral stimulus
does not lead to classical
conditioning.
• If the unconditioned
stimuli accompanies the
conditioned stimuli only
intermittently and not every
time, then conditioning
usually does not take place.
Section II: Theories of Learning
• Social learning theory
Behavioural theories look at learning through conditioning. This is vital for
human survival. We know the theory of natural selection by Charles Darwin,
which states that species have characteristics that help them survive. Eating,
drinking, breathing, imitating successful behaviour of others, exploring one’s
environment, and procreation, including protecting young ones has survival
value, and we learn these through conditioning. For instance, shivering is a
way to adapt to the cold. Migration, use of appropriate clothing, and creating
heating systems are also methods to adapt to cold weather. These are learnt
through conditioning. Hence, we say that learning through conditioning leads
to selection by consequence. This underscores the importance of conditioning.
Under behavioural theories, we will look at classical conditioning and operant
conditioning in detail, as they are often applied in the organisational context.
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, is credited with finding out this oft discussed
psychological concept. He was studying the relationship between salivation
and digestion in dogs. In his experiment, he used to feed food powder or
meat to the dogs and assumed that salivation would start once the food is
placed on the tongue. During the experiment, he observed that dogs sali-
vated even before the food was placed on their tongues. In fact, they salivated
when they saw the spoon, the food powder, and even when they saw the labo-
ratory attendant entering the room with the food. His curiosity led him to
use a bell when the attendant feeding the dogs would enter for feeding them
to find out whether the bell, something completely unrelated to feeding,
would also result in salivation. After a while, the dogs began to salivate once
the bell was heard. In other words, the dogs began to associate the bell with
the meat and created the response of salivation exactly as they would respond
to meat. The conclusion from this experiment was that by presenting neutral
stimuli along with appropriate unconditioned stimuli, people will learn to
respond to the neutral stimuli. This phenomenon of learning is called classi-
cal conditioning. It has three key components as follows:
• An unconditioned stimulus (such as the meat).
• An unconditioned response (such as the salivation).
• A conditioned (or neutral) stimulus such as the bell.
To summarise, the theory states that when a conditioned (neutral) stimuli and
unconditioned stimuli are presented together and associated with the subject,
the neutral stimuli create responses exactly as the unconditional stimuli.

Four concepts thtat
help us understand
classical conditioning are
Generalisation, Discrimination,
Extinction and Spontaneous
recovery
    9
Classical conditioning received major impetus with the ‘Little Albert’
experiment by J. B. Watson. Albert was not afraid of laboratory rats and even
played with them. However, he was afraid of the sound created by hitting a
steel bar with a rod. Watson placed Albert, a little boy, on a table and placed
the rat in front of him and simultaneously created the sound he was afraid of
(by hitting the steel bar with a rod). After a while, Albert began to get scared
of the rats even if the sound was not made, and crawled away rapidly from the
table. In fact, Watson achieved this in seven attempts of presenting the sound
and the rat together.7 This produced substantial evidence of classical condi-
tioning and emotional development. The experiment was terminated because
the mother intervened to take little Albert away. It was also criticised on ethical
grounds. However, classical conditioning explains many things in life.
In his book, Science of Psychology, Raygor quotes the incident of his psy-
chologist friend having dinner and seeing television news by a prominent
news anchor simultaneously. Later, the mere sight of the anchor used to cre-
ate salivation in his friend.8 This result is an out-of-the-laboratory incident.
The basic principle in classical conditioning is learning using associa-
tion. Let us now consider a situation where manager ‘A’ who is knowledge-
able and friendly began a series of sessions to train employees on change
management. The newly employed manager, ‘B’, accompanied him for sev-
eral sessions and took over the training. Manager ‘B’ is likely to elicit similar
response as manager ‘A’ even though the friendliness of the new manager
is yet to be proved. Let us take another example where manager ‘C’, who is
knowledgeable but unfriendly, undertakes the training. Here, the response
is likely to be unfavourable. Now, suppose manager ‘C’ requests manager
‘A’ to be present during the training, the response is not likely to be as
unfavourable, even though manager ‘A’ did nothing related to training.
The mere presence of manager ‘A’ changes the opinion of the participants.
There are four phenomena associated with classical conditioning. These
are as follows:
Generalisation  A stimulus similar to the conditioning stimulus, elicits simi-
lar response. An MBA student may have done badly in quantitative tech-
nique examination and may develop a fear or negative feeling for other
courses such as a finance course because it has some quantitative aspects.
Generalisation is a common feature in an organisation. Manager ‘A’ gives
difficult tasks several times to an employee and the employee resists them.
Later, even when he/she gives easy tasks, the employee tends to resist. The
employee may also resist easy tasks from other similar managers and even
from the subordinates of the manager whom they consider similar to man-
ager ‘A’. This happens due to generalisation.
Discrimination  It is the opposite of generalisation. Applied in our earlier
example, the student would feel the fear during a quantitative examination, but
not during finance examination. Similarly, employees would resist tasks from
manager ‘A’, but not from others. This is because the student/employee is able
to discriminate between the stimuli.
Extinction  Suppose Pavlov had rung the bell repeatedly without present-
ing the food, the dog would have stopped salivating when it heard the bell.
10

Box 7.1
Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life

During chemotherapy, people get sick and develop aversion to food they had eaten just before the therapy. Berstein,
who was then working on the problem, advised patients to avoid nutritious food and food they love before the
therapy and stick to food they do not prefer. Post chemotherapy, they developed aversion for the food they did not
prefer and could continue to enjoy nutritious food and food they enjoy.

Systemic desensitisation is
a process used to remove
fear using the principle of
extinction.
In other words, by repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus with-
out the unconditioned stimulus, unlearning or extinction of the learned
response can be achieved. If manager ‘A’ repeatedly gives only easy tasks,
the employee’s resistance to a difficult task can come to extinction.

Spontaneous recovery Despite extinction, the resistance may sometimes

come up suddenly. This is because of spontaneous recovery. It is a part of
the extinction process. Applied in the aforementioned example, when
the employee behaves that way, one should not think that he/she is being
obstinate.
Classical conditioning has wide application in everyday life. Read
Box 7.1 ‘classical conditioning in everyday life’.9 Systemic desensitising is
one of the major applications of the extinction phenomenon of classical
conditioning. Mary Cover Jones applied this theory in children to remove
fear by associating what generated fear and the food which they enjoyed
to remove fear.10 It is widely used in advertisement where neutral stimuli
and conditioned stimuli are presented together; for instance, fear of body
odour and sweat are paired in anti-perspiring products advertisements. Fear
of rejection and dark skin colour are paired in advertisements related to
fairness creams. Raygor gives an interesting discourse of application of clas-
sical conditioning in his book, The Science of Psychology.11

Law of effect states that
responses followed by
desirable consequences occur
more often and vice versa
Operant Conditioning
You may have observed that learning discussed under classical condition-
ing is largely related to involuntary actions and emotions. For instance,
little Albert learning to fear the laboratory mice was an involuntary action.
Classical conditioning is inadequate to teach/learn voluntary actions such
as teaching a dog to sit or a child to do homework. Operant conditioning
explains this type of learning.
Although operant conditioning is usually linked to the work of B. F. Skin-
ner, its origin can be traced to the work of Thorndike who locked cats in a
box that could be opened by pressing a lever or by pulling a string. The cats
tried many random methods to escape until they discovered the lever. After
they discovered it, every time they were locked in, they were able to quickly
escape by using the lever. He called this the law of effect.12 Thorndike termed the
method as instrumental conditioning because the correct response of cats was

A reward is something that
increases the frequency of
the desired behaviour and a
punishment is something that
decreases the frequency of
undesired behaviour
The Distraught Mother
Laila wants to reduce or end the angry behaviour of Tom, her child. Every time the child apologised for getting angry,
he was rewarded with a kiss. However, the child’s anger did not seem to reduce; rather it seemed to increase. In
other words, the reward did not work. Therefore, she decided to spank him every time he got angry. This too failed.
The mother was distraught, and felt that Tom was incorrigible.
11
instrumental in getting them out of the box. Later, B. F. Skinner conducted a
series of experiments with rats. He locked the rats in a cage with a lever. Every
time the rat pressed a lever, they got some food. The rats quickly learnt to press
the lever and get food. He also observed that they began to press the lever more
often. He termed it operant conditioning. Today, this term is more popular than
the original term ‘instrumental conditioning’.13
Skinner proved the effect of operant conditioning by training pigeons
to play ping pong, and to remove defective capsules from the assembly line
in a drug company by using this method. He demonstrated its effectiveness
in several school training programmes as well. This concept is widely used
in organisations. Some examples include giving incentives for sales, bonus
points for use of credit cards, giving gifts when you shop in a specified out-
let, and granting air miles when you travel.
Reward, Punishment, and Reinforcement
A reward is a something pleasant given for desired behaviour, and a punish-
ment is something unpleasant given for undesired behaviour. We can call
the former positive reinforcement and the latter negative reinforcement.
The real intent of reward and punishment is to increase a desired behav-
iour and decrease an undesired one. In our opening case, the company
had introduced a series of rewards for appropriate behaviour and also pun-
ishment of termination for those who did not improve. Therefore, we can
say that a reward/punishment is a reinforcer. A reinforcer that increases the
desired behaviour is called a positive reinforcer and one that decreases the
undesired behaviour is called a negative reinforcer (see Box 7.2).
Some reinforcers may be effective and some ineffective. What if the rats
of Skinner did not consider food as something desirable? Then, would food
have been a reinforcer? Now, let us reconsider the case of the ‘distraught
mother’ given in the Box 7.2. Perhaps Tom liked the physical contact with
his mother. Both kiss and spank resulted in physical contact and so, getting
angry more often followed by apologising got him more physical contact
through kisses. Later, getting angry more often got him more physical con-
tact through spanks. Therefore, neither the reward nor the punishment
decided by the mother was a reinforcer.
What if Laila had told Tom that she would kiss him five times if he
did not get angry the whole day but would not kiss him at all if he got
angry? Tom would have made efforts to decrease his anger to get more
physical contact, which is the reinforcer he had been seeking. This means
that finding the effective reinforcer can be tricky. The key issue in making
Box 7.2
12     

Positive reinforcer increases
the desired response by
increasing the pleasant stimuli,
and a negative reinforcer
achieves the same by declining
the pleasant stimuli.
something a reinforcer is not what the giver thinks, but the perception of
the receiver about the reinforcer. This also suggests that we often fail to
make other people learn because we are not able to identify the appropriate
reinforcers.
How do we find out what is a good reinforcer? Biological rewards such
as food, shelter, and sexual gratification are considered effective generic
reinforcers (applicable in most cases; but not all). Money, which can pur-
chase what a person wants, is also considered a good generic reinforcer.
However, there are many reinforcers such as praise, challenging job, mean-
ingful work, independence, freedom, competitiveness, ethical behaviour of
the colleagues, attention of the seniors, and participation, which are less
generic. Understanding the need of the receiver is the key in knowing the
‘reinforcer’ and what would work to make a person learn.
From the aforementioned discussion, we know that a reinforcer/stimu-
lus can be attractive or unattractive; for example, in the initiating case of
Tomkin Pharmaceutical, incentives are attractive and termination causes
aversion. We also know that we can present/give a stimulus or remove it;
for example, give five kisses or deny a kiss as in the case of Laila and Tom.
From these examples, we can create a matrix to understand the application
of reinforcers (see Table 7.1).
Finally, it is important to understand that a punishment can be positive or
negative. Presenting something aversive such as working additional hours
for coming late for work is a positive punishment and removing some-
thing pleasant such as cutting pay for coming late is a negative punishment.
We should also be aware that a reinforcer should normally be substantive to
create an impact.

Some Truths about Punishment

Although the idea of punishment exists in operant conditioning, punish-
ing people is often not worth the effort. Look at how to make punishment
effective and some of the side effects of punishment (see Boxes 7.3 and 7.4).

Shaping Behaviour
Despite having all this knowledge, we come across problems. An employee
may not achieve 100 per cent goals, and Tom may not be able to spend a
whole day without getting angry. In this case, there is no scope for rein-
forcing the behaviour. We face this challenge every day. This situation is
addressed through shaping. In shaping, we convert a larger goal into smaller

Table 7.1  Use of reinforcers/stimulus

Situation Stimulus is presented Stimulus is removed

Stimulus is Behaviour increases; for example, an Behaviour decreases; for example, those with less than
attractive. employee who has 95% attendance is given a 95% attendance cannot attend the monthly tea party.
tea party every month.
Stimulus is Behaviour decreases; for example, an Behaviour increases; for example, an employee has to
unattractive/ employee who has less than 95% attendance take half day leave if she/he and comes late, but it is
causes aversion. gets a pay cut each month. condoned if he/she achieves 95% attendance in the
month.
 13

Box 7.3
Making Punishment Effective
While changing behaviour through punishment is well demonstrated in laboratory conditions, it is different in real
life. To be effective, a punishment should occur in the following instances:

• Immediately after the incident.

• Should be severe enough, but not too severe. However, it is very difficult to define the severity.
• Must be unpleasant enough.
• Must result every time the erratic action takes place.
• A punishment followed by positive reinforcement is not effective; for example, punishing a child and then
taking the child for an ice-cream.
• Should be done with the least attention, since attention itself can be a powerful positive reinforcement, and
people may seek punishment to satisfy the need for attention.

Box 7.4
Side Effects of Punishment
• Makes people anxious and emotional14, and reduces self-esteem.15
• Suppresses but does not eliminate behaviour.16
• Leads to escape and avoidance behaviour than elimination of it.17
• Leads to poor feedback.18
• Leads to aggressive behaviour.19

objectives and reinforce in proportionately lesser quantum. Therefore, Laila

can agree to one kiss if Tom did not get angry more than one or two times
a day, and then encourage him to achieve the goal of not getting angry the
entire day to receive five kisses. In his famous book, Leading Change, John
Kotter advocates generating ‘short wins’ as one of the eight steps for lead-
ing change.20 Kotter’s recommendation is based on the concept of shaping.
For successful shaping, the goal should be divided into smaller parts. For
instance, the goal of exercising for 20 minutes can be divided into exercis-
ing for 5, 10 and 15 minutes, and each of them should be reinforced. Often
people feel that this is tantamount to reinforcing poor performance. In
reality, acceptable performance never comes in one shot. Therefore, partial
reinforcement of small achievements is necessary, and is not detrimental to
change. Despite the immense power of shaping, very few organisations and
individuals are able to apply it effectively.
14     

Reinforcers
It is extremely important to have good knowledge about reinforcers, if we
want to ensure learning. Therefore, let us delve into it a little more.

Identifying a Reinforcer  Only the right reinforcer has an impact. So, it is

important to identify the right reinforcer. To do this, observe the behaviour
after applying the reinforcer. If the behaviour changes, it is a good rein-
forcer. For example, what does Tom do after he gets angry? Does he go to
his room and sulk? Then, perhaps ‘attention’ is the right reinforcer. You
praise an employee in public and then see if the performance improves
immediately. If yes, praising in pubic is a reinforcer, if not, it is not a rein-
forcer for that employee. Let us not assume that praising in public is a rein-
forcer for every employee. This is the way to identify the reinforcer.

Types of Reinforcers  There are five types of reinforcers, namely primary,

sensory, social, secondary, and generalised reinforcers.
• Primary reinforcers include food, water, and opportunity to have sexual
relationship. In other words, a primary reinforcer has a linkage to
what human nature demands. However, they are conditional; they
work only if a person is hungry or thirsty.
• Sensory reinforcers are related to our senses. Our senses always look for
information. Satisfying the senses becomes a reinforcer. For example,
freedom or opportunity to escape from captivity, holding something
and having physical contact, or gaining opportunity to explore the
environment belongs to this category.21
• Social reinforcers are reinforcers that meet our social needs; for exam-
ple, opportunity to participate in discussions or be a part of a team.22
• Secondary reinforcers are those which are paired with primary reinforc-
ers. They are learned reinforcers, and have little use without primary
reinforcers. For example, in Skinner’s experiment with rats explained
5 types of reinforces are earlier, if a tone rises along with the food falling into the cage when
Primary, Sensory, Social, the rat presses the lever, the tone will soon become a secondary rein-
Secondary, and Generalised forcer. However, it will work only if the rat is hungry and presses the
lever. Laila, for example, can give a candy along with the kisses, but
the candy would be a reinforcer for controlling the anger only if it is
accompanied by the kisses (the natural demand for attention).
• Generalised reinforcers include some learned reinforcers which are app-
licable in all conditions. For example, money is a generalised reinforcer
because we can get primary reinforcers such as food, water, prestige,
and other things, using money.

Premack Principle  Some activities occur more often than others. For exam-
ple, a manager may spend more time planning and less time executing. Now,
if we want the manager to learn spending more time on execution, we can
tell the person that he/she would be given 30 minutes to plan for every hour
he/she spends on execution. Similarly, to make a child learn to read more
than play games on computers, one has two basic choices. One is to reward
     15

the child for reading, and another is to punish it for playing computer games.
Yet another option is to permit it to play computer games for one hour if it
reads for one hour, or some such combination. In other words, in Premack
Principle, we pair the desired and undesired behaviour, and allow a person
to use the undesirable action as a reinforcer to achieve the desired learning.

Disequilibrium Principle  Every person has a range in which a reinforcer

works. Let us take the example of a person interested in money and social
service. Once he/she satisfies his/her need for money, it no more becomes
a reinforcer. Then opportunity to head the social responsibility project of
the company may be a better reinforcer than money.

Non-contingent Reinforcement  Non-contingent reinforcement is given

without any specific intent to cause learning.23 It is also called accidental
reinforcement. Suppose a lady comes home tired after work, and finds
that her spouse has cooked dinner. The lady might hug the husband, and
show more love. The love she shows is not contingent upon the dinner the
husband has cooked. It is just accidental or incidental that he did so. We
indulge in non-contingent reinforcement very often. We send congratula-
tory e-mails to our friends and peers, wish them on their birthdays and call
them for a send-off party. Do these actions act as reinforcers? Surely yes; but
they are not based on any conditionality.

Schedule of Reinforcement  Reinforcements can be made in different

ways as outlined in Table 7.2.

Table 7.2  Schedule of reinforcement

Types of reinforcement Meaning Example

Continuous reinforcement
Intermittent reinforcement
Fixed ratio reinforcement
Variable ratio reinforcement
Interval schedule
Fixed interval schedule
Variable interval schedule
Note: Usually ratio reinforcement is considered more effective than interval reinforcement.
Response is reinforced every time.
Response is reinforced not every time, but
after a few times.
Response is reinforced after a fixed
number of responses.
Response is reinforced after an unspecified A person gets a reward after a few attempts
or random number of responses.
Response is reinforced after a period
of time, rather than after a number of
attempts.
Response is reinforced after a fixed period
of time
Response is reinforced after different
intervals of time
A salesperson gets an incentive every time a
sale is made.
A person gets a reward after achieving
production target three to five times.
A person gets a reward every five times he/
she achieves production target.
in a slot machine; but the number of
attempts is random and not fixed.
Increment from time to time.
Promotion every three years.
Promotion in three to five years
16
Cognitive Learning Theories
Learning by reading,
observing, listening, and other
mental methods without any
stimulus or reinforcers is
called cognitive learning
The conditioning that occurs
when a person or animal
observes another being
conditioned is called vicarious
conditioning
Cognitive mapping is a mental
image of the environment an
animal/human being creates to
behave or act appropriately in
its/his environment.
Latent learning occurs in the
absence of obvious reinforcers
and only appears after some
reinforcement is introduced.
We have learnt about conditioning. However, if you look at small children,
you can see how quickly they tend to learn to imitate adults with no condi-
tioning involved. You might also have observed that children tend to play
with guns, especially after seeing films in which guns are used. This ten-
dency can be seen among adults too. We tend to imitate leaders, famous
actors, and our seniors and colleagues in the workplace. In fact, society
encourages this behaviour and that is why in interviews, you are often asked
about your role model.
Learning by reading, listening to others, and observing others are com-
mon ways to learn things. In these cases, there is no conditioning and no
reinforcers, yet the learning takes place. So, there is more to learning than
conditioning; indeed a lot more.
Cognitive learning is a term that broadly covers all types of learning
other than what takes place through conditioning. Let us look at a few types
of cognitive learning.
Vicarious Conditioning Have a look at the world-famous photo of ‘vulture
stalking the child’ (it is a photograph of an emaciated African child crawl-
ing with a vulture following it and can be viewed on the Internet site quoted
in the reference).24 You will perhaps instantly feel its emotional impact. You
also feel emotional when you see a film and cry/laugh along with the hero
or heroine depending on the emotions displayed by them. Violence or acts
of compassion affect us even though these may not have happened to us; we
may not have even witnessed it, but merely heard of it. Human beings learn
many things by simply seeing or hearing things. This is called vicarious learn-
ing or vicarious conditioning. It can be defined as conditioning that occurs when
a person or animal observes another being conditioned.
Learning through Cognitive Map Imagine you have been living in a new
city for a month. One day, on your way back home, you find the road blocked
by some agitating people. You automatically find another way to reach home.
As you live longer in that city, your ability to find shops, roads, and other
details of the environment improves. What is true for the city is also true if
you go and live in the Amazon rain forest. This learning happens through
cognitive mapping. It can be defined as a mental image of the environment an
animal/human being creates to behave or act appropriately in its/his environment.
Latent Learning You must have performed many tasks that you would have
never done before. How do we do that without conditioning or vicarious
learning? When we do any activity, whether in an organisation or elsewhere,
we make mental maps of what others do. These maps result in some learning
though there are no reinforcers. They remain latent in our brains. When a
reinforcer appears, the latent maps get triggered and we are able to do a new
job. The reinforcer may be a new task, additional compensation, opportunity,
promotion, job content, or job satisfaction. Latent learning can be defined as
unconscious creation of mental maps of our direct and indirect experiences, which create
 17

the potential to learn to do something new when triggered by a reinforcer. Evidence of

latent learning was first discovered by Toman and Honzik in 1930.25

Modelling Albert Bandura conducted a number of experiments in which

children watched adults being violent with Bobo dolls (air-filled dolls with a
heavy weight at the base such that when pushed or punched down, they return
to their original position). The adults punched, kicked, and showed violent lan-
guage. The children who watched tended to show similar violence to the Bobo
dolls. However, the children in the control group who did not watch the adults
being violent did not show the same behaviour. Modelling can be defined as
‘the ability to learn by imitating the behaviour of others’.26 The Bobo doll
experiment is a case in point. Children quickly pick up modelling behav-
iour from films.27 Adults too show modelling behaviour in many cases.

Social Learning Theory

We discussed learning from ‘behaviourism’ and ‘cognitive’ perspectives.
However, these perspectives do not fully explain how an employee learns
when someone demonstrates how to do a job or, by merely listening to a
trainer. Albert Bandura developed the concept of social learning by inte-
grating behavioural and cognitive concepts of learning.28 The key tenets of
this theory is given in Table 7.3.29

Modelling We discussed under cognitive learning theories has special

significance in social learning, and has wide applications in organisations.
Modelling can be of the following types:
• Actual: Physically sets an example; for instance, a leader in Tomkin
Pharmaceutical (initiating case) behaves in the desired way or sets an
example and the employees follow it.
Table 7.3 Key tenets of social learning theory
Tenet What it is Example
Multidimensionality Learning is a behavioural and Tomkin Pharmaceutical, the company mentioned in the
cognitive process that takes place initiating case, used performance-based incentives and trained
in a social context. leaders to set an example and entities to achieve learning to
change the performance of the company. Here, incentives
are the behavioural components, examples the cognitive
components, and entities are the social components.
Vicarious conditioning Learning may not be Key employees of Tomkin Pharmaceutical getting trained
accompanied by an observable in vision workshop actually demonstrate living the vision
change in behaviour; such not at that moment, but later by achieving goals.
behaviour may take place later.
Modelling Learning involves observation Children learning behaviour merely by observing an adult.
and following the observed
behaviour of others.
Reciprocal Learning is an active process Knowledge of doing things the new way leads to preference
determinism where cognition, environment to behave in the new way. The organisation gives incentives
and behaviour interact and for such behaviour. This, in turn, elicits more such
influence each other. behaviour and more acquisition of knowledge to do things.
18     

• Verbal: Explains the desired behaviour; for instance, a leader explains

how the change is to be done during the vision workshop in Tomkin
Pharmaceutical, and the employees follow it.
• Symbolic: Follows a symbolic, rather than the actual example. For
instance, the employees of Tomkin Pharmaceutical see the actor tak-
ing initiative in the film ‘12 Angry Men’. The employees use this as a
symbol and start taking initiative in the organisation.

Social Learning Process  The social learning process consists of attention,

retention, reproduction, and motivation. For instance, in the initiating
case, the employees take note that the CEO often leads the selling effort
in the field. They retain this memory and reproduce the initiative by taking
risks and initiatives to surpass the goals. The process becomes effective if
the action is profound enough to capture attention (in this case, the CEO’s
action is profound). The company’s policy on goal and rewards acts as rein-
forcers, which motivate repetition of the behaviour and makes it relatively
permanent.

Reciprocal Determination Model  This model postulates that social behav-

iour has three components (see Figure 7.1).
1. The person: The variables related to the person are his/her personality,
values and beliefs, attitude, expectations, intelligence, emotions, self-
efficacy, strategic knowledge, and so on. This is the reason why pro-
cesses and criteria related to selection, onboarding, and training were
revised by Tomkin Pharmaceutical. Engagement surveys helped to mea-
sure attitudes and assess expectations.
2. Behaviour: These are represented by the employee’s actions, choices,
and statements. A vision workshop helps to align the employees’ val-
ues and expectations, while goal setting and performance management
influences choices and actions. Inclusion of ‘potential’ in the perfor-
mance management system of Tomkin Pharmaceutical and rewarding
it ensures learning the behaviour.
3. Environment: These are represented by physical setting, resources, and
actions of other people. Tomkin Pharmaceutical expects to achieve this
by aligning people through the vision workshops, goal setting, perfor-
mance management, and definition of its values such as collaboration.

Person

Figure 7.1:  Schema of

reciprocal determination
model Behaviour Environment

Section III: Principles and Application of Learning
• Principles of learning
• Learning strategies
• Learning styles
Principles of Learning
Principles of Learning
• Prior Knowledge
• Clarity of Goals, Standards
and Reinforcement
• Process Adherence
• Organising
• Mastery of Components
• Practice and Feedback
• Diversity
• Learning Environment
19
• Applications of learning in organisations
• Designing a learning program in an
organisation
There are several authors who have created a list of principles of learning,
and it varies depending on the discipline they come from. A collation of key
principles supported by research is described here.
Prior Knowledge Prior knowledge creates cognitive maps. This
makes it easier to learn new things. However, if the prior map is incor-
rect, time would be required to make it extinct before the new map
is created.30 For example, if people have been exposed to IT earlier
and have been using programs, it is easier to learn a new one. If people
have undertaken change management, it is easier to undertake a new
change initiative.
Clarity of Goals and Standards and Reinforcement Learning is effective
if there are clear goals and standards. For instance, in the case of Tomkin
Pharmaceutical (initiating case), the goals and standards of performance
were clearly laid down. Where a goal was not quantifiable, behaviours
that indicate a specified standard such as ‘very good’, ‘good’, ‘adequate,’
and ‘improve’ were laid down. These helped in the learning process.
Feedback is a reinforcer and should be administered using the ratio or
interval scales.31
Process Adherence Earlier, we saw that attention, retention, reproduc-
tion, and motivation are the key steps in learning. For instance, in the
initiating case, organisation-wide efforts were made to capture the imagi-
nation of employees, followed by vision workshops. These were efforts
directed towards attention and retention. Reproduction was facilitated by
policy changes in performance management, and motivation was achieved
through a new policy on rewards.
Organising When knowledge is organised with context and connections
in terms of domain, sequence, or other parameters, learning is better facili-
tated because it is easy to find association among different components.
This makes it easier to create the cognitive map.32 For example, a trainer
20     

converts the entire learning into three progressive modules, and links each
module to others.

Mastery of Components  Where knowledge is complex, that is, synthe-

sis or amalgamation of different parts is involved, mastery of components
is a pre-condition to effective synthesis.33 For example, in critical analysis
report writing, proficiency in language, analytical thinking, ability to segre-
gate ideas, and generating options are essential parts. Therefore, ensuring
mastery in each of these is a pre-condition to ensuring mastery in critical
analysis report writing.

Practice and Feedback  Clear goals/expectations and timely feedback

ensure smooth and rapid learning because they act as excellent reinforc-
ers. Feedback may be derived in the form of a test, quiz, oral feedback by
the faculty, or a formal feedback as in an examination or in performance
management.34 For example, a student uses a self-administered test and gets
the score. Based on the score, s/he practises and tries the test again. This is a
popular method for coaching in GMAT, CAT, IIT (JEE), and so on. Quarterly
feedback mentioned in Tomkin Pharmaceutical is also a case in point.

Diversity  Of late, diversity has been a favourite topic in organisational cir-

cles. Diversity of learners enables to bring multiple cognitive maps together.
These are exchanged during discussions (formal or informal), and each
person is able to create more cognitive maps. Hence, learning becomes
more effective.35 Diversity is also useful in latent learning. For example,
Indian School of Business (ISB) creates diversity of students by carefully
selecting them from different walks of life. Organisations such as Microsoft
select people keeping diversity in mind. If there is a student with cerebral
palsy in the class, latent learning of empathy is likely to take place better
than a lecture or a workshop on empathy.

Learning Environment  A learner is usually perceived only from his/her

intellectual perspective. However, he/she is also a social being with emo-
tions.36 Hence, the learning environment is important (refer to reciprocal
determination model discussed earlier). For example, I teach a course on
HR using only cases. Class participation is evaluated based on the num-
ber and quality of contribution made by a student. There are recorders
who keep the score in each session. Hence, participation is intense and
very competitive. This actually threatens those who are shy to participate.
Therefore, after six sessions, I identify the shy ones and mail them that I
would give them opportunity to participate by proactively questioning them
or calling them to participate. They are requested to support this effort.
Experience shows that the shy ones pick up quickly, but also indicates that
without the feedback and supporting them by proactive questioning, their
learning would regress.
 21

Learning Strategies
Learning strategies is a well-discussed topic in organisational and academic
circles. Each discipline/area has its own variations. We have a strategy for
reading, learning medicine, adult learning, and so on. Let us now look at
some simple generic learning strategies.

General to the Specific Start the learning from general information. You
may start with dictionaries, encyclopedias, general talk, or a TV programme
on the subject by an expert and then go to text books, articles, and later to
research work. In this way, you create a broad cognitive map, and then fill
more details in that map.

Dividing or Creating Modules Divide the goals into objectives or smaller

units. For example, this chapter is divided into sections so that the task of
learning becomes manageable. Depending on your attention span, you can
divide the goals by the amount of content or the time you spend on learning
something to match your learning capacity and motivation.

Create Variety Rather than applying one mode of learning, apply multiple
methods such as reading, writing, practising, and taking notes. Never forget
to include thinking and reflecting as part of creating variety. Intersperse this
with recreation, exercise, and some hobbies.

Revise This is an important strategy to transfer the learning from short-

term to long-term memory. You can do it in various ways such as using
notes, using schemas, or listening to a talk or watching a video related to
the topic.

Engage This is perhaps the most important learning strategy. Major

methods to engage are highlighting, underlining, seeing videos, employing
simulations, practising, and using life experiences.

Learning Styles

Every person has a learning style. Noted researcher Kolb identified four
learning styles, namely diverging, assimilating, converging, and accommo-
dating. There are five key factors that influence the learning style, namely
personality, educational specialisation, career choice, current job role, and
adaptive competencies or the way a person adapts to his/her current job.37
Table 7.4 examines how people with different learning styles learn and what
impacts learning styles.
22

Table 7.4 Learning styles

Characteristic Diverging style Assimilating style Converging style Accommodating style
What helps to Concrete experiences Abstraction, Abstraction, Concrete experiences
learn and reflective conceptualisation and conceptualisation and active
observations reflective observation and active experimentation
experimentation
From what do Multiple view points Logic of the theory Problem-solving and Hands on experiences
they learn the rather than its putting ideas into (internships, ‘On-the-job
most practical value practice training’) and gut feeling
Effective learning Brainstorming, broad Providing a lot of Technical tasks Execution and people-
methods cultural interest, information and without much driven methods rather
gathering information, summarising interpersonal aspects than information and
interest in people to be addressed analysis
Formal learning Feedback and group Reading, lectures, Simulations, Group work
technique that work, imaginative tasks analytical modelling, laboratory
suits best and time to think assignments, and
through rather than practical applications
experiences
What Arts, history, political Economics, Physical sciences, Business management
specialisation science, English, and mathematics, engineering
influences psychology sociology, chemistry
development of
the style
What career Psychology, nursing, Career in sciences Technology, Management, public
path influences social work, public policy, related to biology, engineering, finance, educational
development of arts, theatre, design, information, research, computers, administration, business,
the style journalism law, theology environment science marketing, government,
human resources
What current job Jobs that require Information jobs Technical jobs Executive roles that
influences the personal relationship that require data that require require task focus and
style such as counselling, gathering, planning problem-solving decision-making
consulting, and research
administration
What skills are Skills such as helping Information gathering Decision skills such as Action skills such as
best suited to others and making sense and processing skills goal setting taking initiative and
adapt to the style out of actions of people leading

Application of Learning in Organisations

Learning commences from the day we are born. In fact, current research
suggests that we learn some emotional aspects even while in the mother’s
womb. Therefore, a discourse on application of learning can be limitless.
Here, we confine ourselves to some key applications of learning theories
and principles in organisational learning context.

Filling Skill/Knowledge Gap Even if you use a very effective method

for selection of employees, once they commence work, some skill defi-
ciency is likely to emerge. Hence, a learning programme is essential.
‘Shaping’, as mentioned in Section II, is one of the most effective ways of
 23

training for skill gap. Conditional reinforcers such as promotion and incen-
tives can be effectively used to achieve motivation for learning. On returning
from a training programme, the employee should be given an assignment
where he/she can practise what was learnt. Only then, he/she can convert
what was taught into true learning.

Optimisation Optimisation is an important organisational need. Learning

facilitates this technique. Modelling is perhaps one of the best ways to
achieve optimisation. Learners can be asked to follow high achievers as
models to achieve optimisation. If the action is complex; for example, writ-
ing a complex computer programme, then, shaping discussed in Section II,
would be a good method to adopt.

Attitude Creation Creating the right attitude towards the job, organisa-
tion, co-workers, change, new technology, giving suggestions, optimisa-
tion, and competitiveness is indispensable in today’s world. If supervisors
become role models, it is easy to create the right attitude. Reinforcement
is an equally effective method to create the required attitude. Sometimes,
it becomes necessary that an employee stops an undesirable habit. Making
such an employee work along with a likable employee with appropriate
work habits can often help in reducing the undesirable habit, when this is
applied along with other measures.

Value Alignment Organisations often find it difficult to align the values

of the employees and the organisation. Films/street plays/role plays and
value workshops are very useful to align the values. The principle involved
here is vicarious learning. One can also shape the values of the employees
to achieve alignment.

Learning to Change Acceptance of change is primarily driven by social learn-

ing. Latent learning plays an important role in learning to change. Hence,
people must be exposed to stories of change, expert talks, and visits to organ-
isations that have changed successfully, even if a change is not imminent in
the organisation. This creates latent learning. In addition, people tend to
make cognitive maps of how to go about a change. When the need for change
comes, this will go a long way to undertake the change quickly. This can be
made more effective if modelling by leaders, well-designed programmes that
introduce the change, and reinforcers such as incentives are co-opted. We
had a look at how these were applied effectively in Tomkin pharmaceutical.

Designing a Learning Program in an Organisation

In organisations, it is common to find that the employees lack the compe-
tencies to deliver the task for which they are employed. This may be because
the recruitment was not done properly, the competencies of the employees
and the job requirement were not mapped correctly or because of external
24     

or internal changes such as mergers and acquisition has necessitated having

new competencies. The last reason is a major challenge in most modern
organisations. When learning to attain the required competencies is not
done, productivity and performance falls. Often this leads to layoffs, which
affect the motivation and morale of not only the laid off employees but
also of those who are remaining in the organisation. All managers, whether
from HR function or otherwise, will be required to design learning pro-
grams to overcome the above challenges. While you should keep in mind
various theories and principles of learning, it is also important that a learn-
ing program is made systematically.
A learning program forms the basis for integrated learning process. It
should be cohesive and intentionally created to meet the deficiencies in com-
petencies. In organisational context, it must be invariably experiential and the
supervisors/managers should prepare and encourage an employee to under-
take the learning. A learning programs may be a structured course, a work-
shop, or a program for learning the job with the help of a mentor or coach.
Learning/Training Process  Learning is a process. The key steps in this
process are assessing needs, setting objectives, designing, implementation,
and evaluation of learning.
The design of a learning program should specify the following:
• The purpose of the learning programme.
• The target group and the prerequisites. For example, a person should have
Level 1 certification in safety before attending Level 2.
• Training specifications. A training specification lays down the details of
the training such as the number of students in a class, the qualifica-
tions of the instructor, duration and timings of the program, and such
other details.
• Outcomes to be achieved. This must be specific, and motivational tools
should be linked to the outcome. In some complex learning processes
such as learning to do research, it may be necessary to link motivation
to the process.
• How the learners will be motivated. Revisit the learning theories to spell
out how the learners can be motivated.
• The content for learning. This must be created carefully to meet the
experiential need of an adult learner, since most learners in an organ-
isation would be adults.
• Structure and sequence of learning including the time frame. Usually this is
done through a training plan or session plan.
• How the assessment will be done. This must be clear and specific with little
scope for ambiguity. If not, it might demotivate the learners especially
when the assessment/outcome is linked to promotion and retention
in a job.
• What resources will be required for the training?
 25

Section IV: Contemporary Issues in Learning

• Experiential learning • Language and learning
• Adult learning (Andragogy) • Learning from different domains
• Self-learning or self-directed learning/self- • Learning to learn
regulated learning • Learning in mobile age
• Learning about self or self-awareness in learn- • Knowledge management
ing context • Learning organisation
• Transformative learning • E-learning

Experiential Learning
The experiential learning (EL) movement began sometime in the middle
of the nineteenth century in the US. Use of laboratories for creating experi-
ence, applied studies, and clinical experiences were the forerunners of this
movement. The influential book Experience and Education by John Dewey
paved the way for formalisations of EL.38 Later, Kurt Lewin and others cre-
ated well-founded steps of experiential learning. Kolb popularised the four
steps of EL39 as follows (see Figure 7.2).
• Immersing in a concrete experience implies that a learner’s own expe-
rience is often insufficient or not relevant enough for the learning to
take place. Use of cases, simulation, role plays, films, activities (indoor/
outdoor), and on-the-job training help in creating the experience.
• The learner has to, then, reflect on the experience. This is a difficult task,
but can be done by asking five basic questions to oneself.40 These ques-
tions can be raised by a facilitator as well. The questions are as follows:
■ What did the learner notice in the experience?

■ Why did it (what the person noticed) happen?

■ Does it happen in life?

■ Why does/did it happen?

■ How can one use these inputs in real life?

Let us now apply these questions. You might have seen the popular film Sholay.
You or the facilitator can ask what the learner noticed in the film. Some might
have observed that the police officer’s hands were cut off by the dacoit and

Concrete
experience
4 2
Testing implications Observation and
of concept in new reflection
situation 3

Formation of
Figure 7.2 Lewin’s EL abstract concepts
and generalisation
model cited in Kolb (1984)
26

some others might have noticed the sacrifices made by Amitabh Bachchan for
his colleague. Let us take the first incident—the police officer’s hands being
cut off. If you now ask why it happened, you might get many answers, but
one of them is that he went after the dacoit alone. If you ask whether similar
things happen in real life, the answer would be affirmative. We often go after
our boss, subordinates, or colleagues in workplace, alone. If you ask why it
happened, one of the answers would be that the police officer was in a state of
high emotion, which resulted in his chasing the dacoit alone. We can now use
this input to learn that one should not react when in a high emotional state.
• Forming abstract concepts and generalisation is the next key step. If
the learner has an earlier repository of concepts, this step is easier to
handle. For example, if the incident being used is related to perfor-
mance management, then concepts related to equity, transparency,
and justice, which are the key tenets of performance management can
help a lot. If the learner does not have such knowledge, the learning
facilitator must elicit these ideas from the learner. The learner may
do this in layman’s language, but the facilitator can help the learner
with appropriate terminologies. In the example of Sholay quoted, the
abstract concepts that emerge could be patience, deliberation, infor-
mation collection, and systematic planning before making a decision.
• Testing the implications in a new situation can be done best in a new
context. For example, the next time you are in a high state of emotion,
you can practise patience or delay, collect information, and systemati-
cally plan before taking a decision. The decision may be to manage
the conflict in a collaborative way, rather than going after someone.
The interaction between the learner, learner’s behaviour, and the
environment (reciprocal determination discussed under social learn-
ing theory) actually decides whether this can/would be done. If the
work environment is open to experimentation, this can be easily done.

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

In a rapidly changing world with life-long learning needs, adult learning

is an important body of knowledge. Andragogy or adult learning was for-
mally conceptualised by Knowles.41 He called it the ‘art and science’ of adult
learning. It has five assumptions as follows (see Box 7.5 also):

Box 7.5
How to Teach an Adult: An Illustration
If you want to teach the sales module of an ERP to your sales executives, first explain the benefits of learning it, and how
it will solve a problem with some immediacy. Then, seek suggestions from participants on how the learning should be
planned and the evaluation should be done; for instance, participants may suggest a group project or an individual using it
in a sales context. Now, create modules that sales executives can learn as per their speed, style, and motivation without
depending too much on the facilitator. Many learners will find out alternative ways of doing a thing. Encourage this as the
purpose is learning to solve a problem using the ERP, rather than learning a specific content. Provide frequent feedback.

Self-Learning or Self-Directed Learning/Self-Regulated
Learning
Self-learning is the process
of managing own thoughts,
behaviours and emotions to
learn something.
Phases of self-learning are
planning, learning, and
performing,
Qualities of a good self-learner
• Self-awareness
• Self-monitoring
• Self-confidence
• Intrinsic motivation
• Achievement orientation
Skills of a good self-learner
• Setting specific,
measurable, achievable,
realistic, and time-bound
goals.
• Observation skills such as
seeing and understanding,
seeing and translating, and
converting concepts into
schemas, charts, and graphs.
• Listening skills.
27
1. Self-concept: Adults are more self-directed and independent.
2. Experience: Adults are likely to possess a wealth of experience, which
makes it possible to use experiential learning methods.
3. Readiness: An adult is usually more ready to learn; but the learning is
directed towards his/her social roles and development.
4. Orientation: An adult has immediacy of application of knowledge.
Therefore, an adult wants what can be applied immediately, rather than
what can be applied in future.
5. Motivation: Adults would have more internal motivation to learn.
Principles of Andragogy
Although various authors have listed various principles, here, we stick to the
four key principles suggested by Knowles. These are as follows:
• Involvement in planning and evaluation of the learning.
• Reliance on experiential learning including mistakes as experiences.
• Immediacy and relevance to the job at hand.
• Problem centred than content-centred in approach.
The term ‘self-learning’ (or its other variants) is used in different contexts.
The first is independent learning context where the learner decides learn-
ing goals, content, time, and effort he/she wants to deploy, and evaluation
methods. The second is distance learning context where the learner’s self-
choice is limited to flexibility in time of learning, but not to curriculum,
content, and evaluation. However, with the use of information technology,
greater flexibility is possible in these areas. The third context refers to psy-
chological control where nothing is really in his/her control, except the way
he/she receives and processes the learning. For instance, a person can take
a reinforcer in a positive or negative way or exercise control over the behav-
iour related to the learning. This, of course, is a more abstract way of think-
ing about self-learning. In this chapter, we define self-learning as the process
that assists students in managing their thoughts, behaviours, and emotions in order
to successfully navigate their learning experiences.42 It has three phases as follows:
Planning Phase This involves analysing the tasks and setting learning
goals. This is a major challenge. Suppose we have a learning programme
for change management, it is imperative that the goals are clearly defined
by all individuals who are undertaking the learning. Within this structure, a
person can identify goals for himself/herself in terms of the depth of learn-
ing and duration in which the learning is to be achieved. The person may
even be able to decide for himself/herself the areas of change management
that he/she wants to learn.
Learning Phase In this phase, the person decides the learning strategies,
styles, and indicators to monitor effectiveness of the learning strategies and
28
• Collating inputs from
multiple sensory inputs.
• Transferring information to
long-term memory
• Elaboration (converting
working memory input into
images, deductions, and
generalisations).
• Problem-defining and
solving.
• Some pre-existing domain
knowledge.
Learning about Self or Self-Awareness in the Learning
Context
Transformative Learning
Transformative learning is the
key to change
self-motivation tools. For example, a person may realise that he/she has a
‘diverging style’ of learning and is comfortable in learning using discus-
sions. The person should also decide how to remain motivated to learn;
whether through extrinsic or intrinsic reinforcers, frequency of reinforce-
ment, and so on.
Performing Phase In this phase, the self-learner should evaluate his/her
performance as also manage the emotional response resulting from the learn-
ing. It is best to seek feedback from experts who will not only give significant
feedback, but will also usually highlight the strong points, which a person may
not be able to realise on his/her own.
Learning about self in the learning context is important for effective learn-
ing. One should be aware of one’s basic drives such as need for power,
achievement or affiliation, personality traits, emotional quotient, self-effi-
cacy, locus of control, goals in life, and career. This self-awareness is crucial
in defining what one should learn. A person should also develop self-aware-
ness of the learning styles, and then decide on the learning strategies.
There are many ways to learn about the self. Talking to people (friends,
relatives, and experts) to create self-awareness, 360-degree feedback con-
ducted in the organisation, psychometric tests, and critical evaluation of
one’s actions and emotions are some of the effective methods to gain self-
awareness. One can also maintain a ‘journal’ where a person records the
critical incidents (important events that create an impact) of their life,
which can be followed by reflecting on those incidents using the five ques-
tions we discussed under ‘experiential learning’.
Though transformational learning is usually discussed within the frame-
work of adult education literature rather than organisational behaviour,
it is beginning to have its own impact in organisations because learning
in organisations is essentially adult learning. An individual usually holds
a limited and often distorted view about various things. When that per-
son critically examines the view and opens himself/herself to alternatives,
changes take place in the way he/she sees the world. Then he/she is likely
to respond differently.43 In a nutshell, this is what transformative learning
is all about. Transformative learning is especially useful when there is rapid
change. Hence, it should be of great interest to business students. Let us
now look at the steps of transformative learning (see Table 7.5).
 29

Table 7.5 Steps involved in transformative learning

Steps in transformative learning Example

Experiencing a disorienting dilemma
Critical assessment of this internalised
assumption and feeling a sense of alienation
from it
Exploring options for new ways of acting
Undergoing self-examination
Relating discontent to similar experiences of
others— recognising that the problem is shared
Building competence and self-confidence in
new roles
Planning a course of action
Acquiring the knowledge and skills for
implementing a new course of action
Trying out new roles and assessing them
Reintegrating into society with the other or new
perspective
I, like most others in the society, have always believed in a life-time job.
Globalisation is good, but it has resulted in non-permanency of a job.
I analyse the opportunities created by globalisation and also how
my framework of a permanent job is changed. I feel my critical
assumption of a permanent job is more valid.
If I can learn new and relevant skills, I can continue to have a job and
perhaps have an even better one.
What are my strengths/weaknesses to face the new learning need?
I am not alone in this situation. How have others faced it?
I need global negotiation skills, more creative problem-solving skills,
and the ability to lead teams.
I am going to learn these by taking up courses, going to college or
through reading on it.
I enrol for a course in ‘Course era’ and I also save money to invest in a
leadership programme.
I volunteer to do the ground work and provide research support for
the global negotiation of my organisation.
I found that my work was very useful and people appreciated it. I can now
be a member of the global negotiation team. I can eventually lead one.

There is growing evidence that the brain undergoes structural changes

during learning through transformative method.44 Such evidences suggest
the following:
• Creating discomfort is necessary for discovery.
• Transformative learning should be rooted in the learner’s experi-
ences, needs, and interests.
• Emotive, sensory, and kinaesthetic experiences are important.
• Gender differences exist in learning.
• Learning facilitators need specialised knowledge to support transfor-
mative learning.45

Language and Learning

With advancement in cognitive and social learning theories, the role of

language in learning is receiving special emphasis. With forays into self-
learning, understanding this relationship has become indispensable. Lan-
guage is used to communicate goals and intent, muster support, challenge
premises, initiate reflective thinking, persuade people, and motivate. Even
in operant conditioning, let alone cognitive and social learning, language is
a powerful reinforcer; for example, ‘well done’ and ‘your work is amazing’
are two language constructs that we can use in reinforcing. The latter usu-
ally has greater impact. Hence, language matters in learning.
Each domain has its unique words and taxonomy and without having
a fair knowledge of it, self-learning is impossible. For example, if you do
not know terms such as effectiveness or optimisation in the organisational
30

context, learning about organisations becomes difficult. Language is also a

tool to narrate experiences and convert them into generalisations, which
are crucial in experiential learning. In self-learning, instructions, guide-
lines, and self-help are driven by language. It is the most used and effective
medium to evaluate learning and to transfer learning.
Though the purpose of this chapter is not an elaboration on language
and its application in learning, it is important to highlight its role, because
language deficiency could be an impediment to learning, and hence this
short discourse.

Learning from Different Domains

Whenever we learn something, our knowledge, attitude, and actions change.
Based on this, learning can be divided into three domains, namely cognitive,
affective, and psychomotor; each with several sub-domains. Understanding
these helps us to create learning objectives systematically. Let us now have a
look at these domains as given in Tables 7.6, 7.7, and 7.8.
Table 7.6 Cognitive domain-related to the brain (The terms are also called Blooms Taxonomy)46

Subdomains of What it means Example

cognitive domain
Knowledge Recalling data and A manager can recall a formula or a guideline
information
Comprehension Understanding the meaning Can explain the formula or guideline and clarify doubts
of the knowledge
Application Using the knowledge in a new Can execute or optimise a function using the formula, for
situation example, uses the linear program formula for optimisation
Analysis Differentiating facts and Can identify various factors that lead to productivity and define
impressions/opinions the impact of each and differentiate it, from mere rule of thumb
Synthesis Integrating various factors Can use inputs from supply chain, motivation, and production
and concepts, and create new planning to increase productivity in an assembly line.
options
Evaluation Judging the importance of the Can identify the relative impact of supply chain and production
various factors that affect an planning and is able to give an opinion of their impact on
issue productivity.

Table 7.7 Affective domain-related to emotions47

Subdomains of What it means Example

affective domain
Receiving Understands the A manager pays attention and identifies the feelings of the employees that
feelings and emotions has resulted in resistance to change.
Responding Responds The manager calls the people involved, for a frank discussion.
Valuing Finds the worth of the The manager can evaluate the worth of their feelings and how change
feeling can be created if those feelings are addressed.
Organising Prioritises the feelings. The manager is able to prioritise that out of the negative feelings about
the need to learn new things and feeling of fear about loss of jobs due to
the change, the latter is more important to the employees.
Characterisation Internalises the values The manager ensures that the insecurity about loss of jobs is addressed.
The manager addresses the negative feeling towards learning new things,
also because of internalisation of the values.
 31

Table 7.8 Psychomotor domain48

Subdomains of What it means Example

Psychomotor
Domain
Perception Ability to connect a sensory input A machine operator hears the unusual noise of a machine and
to a motor activity links it to the need to stop the machine.
Set Readiness to act The operator rushes and stops the machine.
Guided response Ability to imitate The operator is able to check the reason for the noise by
following a drill for the same, which he has learnt.
Mechanism Converts the learned actions into The operator is able to detect even small variation of sound and
habits stops and checks every time he hears an unusual noise.
Complex overt Can skilfully do the actions The operator can remove the parts and check for the origin of
response the noise with ease and dexterity.
Adaptation Can modify this skill to meet The operator can apply the knowledge for preventive
special events maintenance as also to handle other machines.
Origination Can create new movement The operator achieves mastery of the problem. He can remove
patterns any blocked part of the machine through a simpler and less
time-consuming method.

Learning to Learn

We live in a knowledge society and are confronted with frequent changes.

Learning to learn has 3
dimensions – Cognitive,
Metacognitive and affective
These changes demand that we should be life-long learners. This is possible
only if we learn to learn. The term metacognition is often considered a synonym of
the term ‘learning to learn’. Although they are linked, metacognition means
awareness and understanding of one’s thought process. It is not the same as
learning to learn, although it is a component of ‘learning to learn’.
Several research papers have been published on the subject of learning
to learn. The European Union and the Organisation for Economic Coop-
eration and Development (OECD) have spent considerable effort to define
and develop a measure for learning to learn.
Learning to learn is essentially the ability of a person to deploy the cognitive
and affective domain of learning. When a person becomes adept in doing so,
he/she will be able to learn new things easily. Hence, there is a new focus on
‘learning to learn’ at all levels of education, particularly at the graduate level.
To enable this, a framework for learning to learn has been developed. It
consists of three dimensions. Universities are beginning to focus on train-
ing their students on these dimensions, so that people will become life-long
learners. These dimensions are as follows:49
Cognitive Dimension This dimension consists of the abilities to identify a
proposition, use rules, test rules and propositions, and use mental tools such
as listen rather than argue, or express your feeling rather than defend it.

Metacognitive Dimension This dimension consists of the abilities related to

metacognitive monitoring or monitoring one’s thought process and existing
state of knowledge, metacognitive accuracy, and metacognitive confidence.
32

Affective Dimension This consists of ability to create the following: learn-

ing motivation, learning strategies and orientation towards change, aca-
demic self-concept and self-esteem, and the learning environment.

Learning in the Mobile Age

In the age of mobile technology, learning is undergoing a lot of change, as
mobile devices are used as learning tools. Digital technology makes it pos-
sible to present content in the form of text, videos, animations, and sound.
Different forms of content can be integrated to make learning real-time and
interactive. We must not confuse a smartphone with learning in the mobile
age though the smartphone may be a vital equipment to achieve the learn-
ing. Some of the key challenges of learning in a mobile age are as follows:

Mobility of the Learner One should realise that it is the learner, rather than
the equipment, which is mobile. The learner uses technology that is suitable
to fulfil his/her need for mobility. Computers, notepads, and e-books are
only the manifestation of this need for mobility. Imagine a situation when
there is digital connectivity at all places such as schools, colleges, railway sta-
tions, trains, airplanes, and so on. The learner may not be bothered to carry a
mobile device at all. Though this utopian situation may not be realised in the
near future, the example highlights the importance of mobility of the learner ver-
sus mobility of the equipment. A learner tends to use mobile phone, fixed phone,
own computer, rented computers/other’s computers, and other interactive
systems at will and at different places, from classrooms to food kiosks, and
beer bars, to shopping malls. Learning should be adapted to this reality.

Integration Learning is integrated and interwoven with other activities. It

cannot be separated easily from other activities as was the case in the tradi-
tional learning environment. Mobile age makes learning and non-learning
environment indistinguishable. Hence, content and delivery must adapt to
the new reality.50 For example, a short video may make a good learning tool
when we travel, an audio when we exercise, and text when we are in the
study room. When they are appropriately integrated, one can support learn-
ing better, in the mobile age.

Goals In the mobile age of learning, there is a tendency to skip goals.

While a person is in the process of achieving the goal of learning something,
he/she may ask an entirely new question or develop a new interest and decide
to pursue the new goal, while skipping the original goal altogether. This is easily
possible in the digital age. For instance, in the process of buying a book at ama-
zon.com, you might find that selling some of your books might help or selling
some old fashioned jewellery online can get you the money to buy books. The
new goal can be achieved without having to go to a new place, by using digital
medium. Therefore, the mobile age is known for creating new goals and skip-
ping the original one. One should adapt the learning modules and content to
facilitate the same.
     33

Distributed Control  Learning in the mobile age is highly distributed. Unlike

in the earlier days when the control was largely with the teacher, in the mobile
age, it is with the learner, network of learners, teachers, and technologies.

Context Creation  Context in the conventional learning is almost like a

shell that surrounds the learner. In the mobile age, it is dynamic. For exam-
ple, you can walk in a botanical garden and listen to the commentary based
on where you are standing through the help of a GPS-enabled device. An
interactive phone in an art gallery is perhaps another version of it, though
technologically less sophisticated.

Complimenting and Disrupting  While bringing laptops and multimedia

sets into the classroom often disrupts the carefully caricatured learning
ambience in the classroom, these devices also permit extending learning
beyond classrooms to homes, buses, or metros, and even to parks or the-
atres. This can actually compliment learning.51

Ethical Issues  There are wearable systems that can record our everyday
lives and enable us to recall what we did. These are excellent learning tools.
However, they also bring up ethical and privacy issues. For example, if you
fear that every word of yours will be recorded, would you be forthright always?
Nevertheless, this also creates the possibility of using these as mechanisms to
capture life events based on which we can enhance our experiential learning.52
The effectiveness of application of mobile technology in learning is still
being debated. The framework created by the National Research Council,
in 1999 can be a helpful tool to assess the effectiveness (see Table 7.9).53

Table 7.9  Assessing effectiveness of learning in the mobile age

Parameter for What it means How to adapt to the mobile age?

assessing effec-
tive learning
Learner centrism Builds on the knowledge
and skills of the learner and
is driven by the learner’s
own experiences.
Knowledge Content is based on
centrism validated knowledge.
Concepts and methods are
novel.
Assessment This should be matched
centrism with the learner’s ability. It
should be diagnostic and
provide guidance. It should
build on success.
Community Learners mutually support
centrism each other and show
sensitivity to less able
students.
Mobile trackers and recorders commensurate with privacy and ethical
issues can help in identifying experiences that are most suitable for
using in the learning. One would not have to spend time recalling
events and the learner can spend more time on reflection.
Mobile age tends to depend a lot on peer input. While this is an
effective method, some validation of such input is a must; more so
when the learners are young and not fully capable of assessing the
veracity of the peer input. Hence, the need to link to expert inputs.
Design of the assessment is challenging. We need to move from
descriptive to objective type of assessment, which is mobile-friendly.
Assessment should be flexible and be amenable to be taken at any time,
at any place. Since assessment can be taken any time, each subsequent
learning module should be based on the success achieved in the
previous assessment. This is easily feasible in the digital mode.
Issues of intellectual property could be a challenge to achieve this.
However, the new generation is more open to sharing knowledge freely.
34

Knowledge Management
The current era is known as the knowledge era. Therefore, ‘knowledge man-
agement’ is a popular topic that is discussed at different levels. Here, let us
have a brief look at the link between learning and knowledge management.
Knowledge is defined as understanding patterns and principles from a collec-
tion of contextually relevant data. Data is any piece of input without a context.
For example, Rs 1,000 is a piece of data. Five per cent, twenty per cent,
one year, and five years are also data. There is no link between these terms.
However, if you talk of these data in the context of business or banking, it
is information. For example, ‘at 20 per cent simple interest for five years,
Rs 1,000 will double’ becomes a piece of information. Therefore, data with
context is called information.
If we are now able to find a pattern in the context, it becomes knowledge. For
example, if we know that by investing Rupees 1000 in business you are likely to
get a non-guaranteed return of Rupees 1200 at the end of one year and that
you can get a guaranteed return of Rupees 1050 at the end of the same period
if we invest in a bank, then there is a pattern and this is called knowledge.
We can now compare these two pieces of knowledge and find that invest-
ing in business is beneficial and risky compared to investing in banks. Then,
knowledge becomes wisdom. Therefore, wisdom can be defined as the ability
to see a principle in the knowledge. In other words, wisdom is extracted from
knowledge. This is a simple illustration of data, information, knowledge,
and wisdom, but it gives an insight into how learning and knowledge man-
agement can be linked (see Figure 7.3).54
Learning is related to creating information, knowledge, and wisdom.
The cognitive domain will enable us to convert the data into knowledge
by understanding it. The affective domain also comes to play and helps us
to identify the impact of the knowledge. For example, we might be a little
unhappy if we lose money, but we might be very happy if we gain a lot. If
our affect indicates the latter, then, we may invest in business and not in the
bank. Taking risk often would eventually make us learn ‘risk-taking’. You can
now perceive the link between learning and knowledge management better.
There are two types of knowledge. The first one is tacit knowledge that
resides in a person. It is difficult to convert it into written or other forms.

Understanding
Wisdom
principles

Knowledge Understanding
patterns
Figure 7.3 Knowledge
Information Understanding
management model relationship
Adapted from: Introduction Context
to Knowledge Management
Data
by Uriarte, F. A., 2008.

Learning Organisations
Learning organisation can be
defined as an organisation
that facilitates the learning of
its members continuously to
transform itself.
E-Learning
35
The second is codified knowledge that can be included in books, articles,
videos, and so on. Converting tacit knowledge into codified knowledge is one
of the principal aims of knowledge management. By doing so, it is possible to
make the valuable tacit knowledge learnable by others. For example, a person
may have information about an incident. This is not knowledge. By asking
reflective questions, which we discussed earlier under the head ‘experimen-
tal learning’, we can convert the information into tacit knowledge. Only that
person has access to tacit knowledge. However, by encouraging the person to
answer those questions orally/in writing, we can convert the tacit knowledge
into codified knowledge. Once knowledge is codified, it can be managed.
Though the concept of the ‘learning organisation’ is usually discussed
under organisational science, a brief discussion is relevant here as the learn-
ing tools are indispensable to create a learning organisation.
The term ‘learning organisation’ was coined by Peter Senge.55 It can be
defined as an organisation that facilitates the learning of its members continuously to
transform itself. Such organisations have five important features such as sys-
tems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team
learning. Learning organisations are able to rapidly change by maintaining
and enhancing their level of innovation. They are better placed than other
organisations to respond to external environment, can link better with other
related systems, improve quality of output, and be more people-, (employee,
and customer) oriented. However, to do this, the members of the organisa-
tion should be adept in transformative learning. This requires proficiency in
learning to learn, knowledge management, self-learning, and mobile learn-
ing, all of which we have addressed in some detail earlier in this section.
In today’s world, e-learning is an important component. Most organisations
and individuals have taken up e-learning in some form or the others. It is
used to develop:
• Cognitive skills that involve knowledge and comprehension. An exam-
ple of this is learning some scientific concepts or applying a concept
to a situation. It can also be a procedural skill that involve following
some instructions. For example, if you look up the internet to learn
how to use or correct a formula in Excel, you will get step-by-step pro-
cedure on how to do it.
• Interpersonal skills such as active listening, presenting, and negotiating.
• Psychomotor skills such as using a tool, driving a car, repairing some-
thing, or learning to type without looking at the key board.
36     

Principles of E-learning
Use of Multimedia. Multimedia means use of more than one type of media.
When graphics or pictures are combined with text or sound, learning
becomes more effective. However, using both sound and text along with
pictures actually reduces the effectiveness of learning. Hence, we should
use either sound or text.
Graphic audio combination. A graphic with an audio rather than text is one
of the most effective ways to deliver e-learning. The use of this is more flex-
ible. For example, you can use this with ease while travelling.
Contiguity between text and pictures. It is important that we keep the text
and the picture side by side to enhance learning. If they are not contiguous,
a learner will find it difficult to correlate.
There should be coherence between the graphics and text. Sometimes, the
e-learning designers tend to spice up the text by including multiple clicks
and complex graphics. This creates confusion in the learner’s mind and
reduces the effectiveness of learning.
Use of first and second person language leads to greater learning than using
more formal language. This has greater relevance for e-learning because
the learning facilitator is not physically present. So, use of first and second
person creates more connect.
Types of E-learning
Individualised self-paced e-learning online. The advantage is that the learner
is in full control of the learning. However, this requires high learning
motivation.
Individualised self-paced e-learning offline. This helps a person to download
the content and learn at one’s own pace. The advantage of offline mode is
that you need not be connected to the internet to use the learning content.
Synchronous Group e-learning. If you sign for an online MBA program of
IIM Kozhikode, you will be having some online sessions. You will be con-
nected by video conferencing facilitates and you may be sitting in a city
anywhere in India along with some other students who have signed up for
the programme. In this case, the learning is synchronous because the entire
group is connected by the internet. It has many properties of a physical class
room. For example, you can see other students and the faculty online and
interact in real-time. Because of this, it is easy to motivate the learners just
like it is done in a class. Peer learning is also possible in this mode.
Asynchronous Group-e-learning. In this mode, the link between the mem-
bers of a group is not real time. For example, if your professor has a learn-
ing board in the Moodle and initiate a discussion, the member of the class
are not connected to each other simultaneously. However, they visit the
electronic board when it is convenient to them and add their ideas to the
discussion. This enables a student to learn at his/her own pace. However, it
is often seen that the effectiveness of this method of learning depends on
the motivation of the members of the group.
To sum up, let us recongnise that e-learning is an effective method of
learning and is a useful tool to overcome the barriers of distance, time, and
simultaneous availability of the learner and the facilitator.
 37

Summary

Learning is defined as a measurable and relatively permanent change in behaviour through experience.
Leaning is very essential in organisations because it helps us to refine our actions, anticipate challenges
and take proactive actions and optimise productivity. It is vital in adapting ourselves and the organisation
to change. There are three perspectives/approaches to study learning—behaviourism, humanism, and con-
nectivism. These approaches are helpful to understand learning that takes place at different stages of our
lives, and in different contexts.
Influential theories related to learning are behavioural, cognitive and social learning theories.
Behavioural theory explains classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning
theory states that a person can be taught to respond favourably to something merely by associating it with
something that he/she likes. For example, a person can be taught to respond favourably to a product by
creating an association between the product and a well-known person whom he/she likes. This is widely
used in advertisements. Operant conditioning suggests that when our behaviour is reinforced appropriately
through a reward, we tend to show that behaviour more often; equally when that behaviour is punished, we
tend to show the behaviour less frequently. The term ‘reinforcer’ is a common term used to refer to both
reward and punishment. Reinforcement is an important concept related to learning because a number of
concepts have emerged based on the term. For example, concepts such as what creates effective reinforce-
ment, what is the frequency in which we should provide the reinforcement, and how do we shape behaviour
slowly by using reinforcement, have emerged from this concept. A manager must learn the application of
these thoroughly as it has wide applications in managing employees of an organisation.
Cognitive learning theories explain how we learn by observing other people and model our actions
based on actions of others. Latent and cognitive mapping are two important concepts of cognitive learning,
which makes it possible for us to do new things without any training.
Social learning theories explain how we learn in a social context by linking our basic inputs such as val-
ues, personality, and intelligence with our behaviour and the environment.
Learning is a challenging task. Following some principles can make it effective. Having some prior
knowledge, clear goals, and processes; organising the learning systematically; achieving mastery of each
component before going to another component; practicing, giving feedback, and having diversity in the
learning group, and the environment of learning are important principles that help in learning. It is equally
important to create learning strategies. We should learn general things first, followed by the specific aspects,
divide the entire learning into manageable modules, use different methods to learn, revise, and ensure that
we are engaged/involved fully in the learning. There are four learning styles, namely diverging, assimilat-
ing, converging, and accommodating. We should identify our preferred style and adopt a learning strategy
that is most suitable to us. The chapter discusses how to apply the principles, strategies, and styles.
Experiential learning is one of the most important methods of learning because of its application in
adult learning and self-learning. It has four important steps, namely experience, reflection, abstracting, and
testing. A close study of the concept discussed in the chapter would enable us to apply experiential learning
in many contexts.
Since changes take place rapidly in the modern world, we have to learn all the time. Hence ‘learning to
learn’ is very important in today’s world. Learning to learn has three dimensions—cognitive, metacognitive,
and affective. It is important to learn to apply these dimensions. Transformative learning is of equal impor-
tance and enables individuals and organisations to create transformational changes.
Technology has made us more mobile and learning in the mobile age is a challenge we should learn
to conquer. Learning in the mobile age refers to the mobility of the learner rather than the mobility of
38

the equipment, though the latter too has its place in mobile learning. Smartphones and cloud computing,
which make it possible, also throw up challenges related to goals of learning, methods, and integration of
different methods to suit the mobility. Using text, videos, and applications in an integrated way, it is possible
to cater to the learning need of the mobile age. Organisations should leverage this integration.
In summary, one can say that learning is perhaps the most important need of human beings today. It
enables us to achieve rapid adaptation to the changing environment and ensures our success. This need
ushers in the need for lifelong learning using technology as an enabler. This chapter addresses these chal-
lenges holistically, though briefly.

VAK-1
Value Added Knowledge 1 – Cognition and
Metacognition: What is the Difference?

Why do some people outdo others in thinking, even though they may be of similar intelligence? Metacognition is
one of the latest concepts in the learning world that endeavours to answer this question. It refers to higher order
of thinking or active control of the cognition process. This is a natural outcome of our greater understanding of the
way people think.
Metacognition has three variables. First is the personal variable or the ability of a person to understand the way
s/he understands things. It could be that the person recognises that he/she is best in understanding things in the
morning, when alone in the library, or when in a group discussion. Second is the nature of the task. You may become
conscious that you can understand organisational behaviour easily, but it takes you far more effort to understand an
operational problem. The third one is strategy. For instance, if you know that you are best in understanding some-
thing using a visual medium, then, you can see video an event and then try to solve the problem. In other words,
you use a visual method to understand the problem, and then use other methods to solve it.
How does cognition and metacognition differ? Cognition tells you the goals of learning. Metacognition tells you
whether the goal has been achieved. If you read the value-added knowledge in this book, it is because your cogni-
tion tells you that such a goal is useful. However, after reading it, you may not have understood it. You may read it
again or discuss it with someone, after which you recognise that you have understood it. This is metacognition or the
realisation that the goal set by cognition is achieved. Therefore, in reality, cognition and metacognition work
together. However, without metacognition, learning would not be effective, and you will not be able to apply the
learning. Metacognition process can be learned to enhance your learning competencies. That is why metacognition
has received so much importance, of late.

VAK-2
Value Added Knowledge 2 – Virtual Reality-
Aided Learning (VRAL)
In a lecture, we primarily use the auditory method. If the teacher uses some graphs, pictures, or videos, we learn
things better because visual learning is added to auditory learning. Further, if the teacher makes us participate in
an activity, we learn even better because of learning through action. Virtual reality is a combination of these three
methods—auditory, visual, and action-driven learning—through action with the use of computers.
 39

However, the vistas of virtual reality-aided learning (VRAL) are far more than a simplistic addition of the three
methods. Using 3D equipment, it is now possible to project real-life situations, to a learner. For example, learning to
fly an aircraft using VRAL is perfectly possible sitting in a room. Here, the learner (pilot) sits in a nominated seat and
using special eyewear feels that he is flying an aircraft. S/he is able to feel the ground moving below him/her as on
an actual flight path by using 3D maps and turn and manoeuvre the aircraft, hear the exact sound, and feel the body
movements while sitting in the chair just as he/she would feel if he/she were in an aircraft.
VRAL can be created on almost anything. Mission V (http://missionv.ie/) is one such interesting system. By using
it school students can perceive shape and movement of atoms, see museums across the world, try out dangerous
experiments, and make geological explorations. A programme like Mission V can achieve social integration of stu-
dents also. Research by University College of Dublin School of Education and Life-long Learning reports that VRAL
enables students to come out of their shell, conquer fear of mathematics, and become self-assured of technology.
Due to the high degree of immersion and excitement, students show greater motivation for learning. Success in
VRAL system becomes an intellectual reward, which further motivates a learner. VRAL provides an experience that
real life cannot provide. It is believed that learners would get excited about creating new things using VRAL systems
and that this would enhance the creativity of the learner. It appears that VRAL is the next revolution that would take
place in the field of learning.

Test Your Understanding

1. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.
The greatest importance of learning comes from its ability to,
(a) Take precautionary actions.
(b) Anticipate things.
(c) Optimise allocations of resources.
(d) Adapt to environment change.
2. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.
You see a fair and likable lady and a bottle of fairness cream in an advertisement. The best possible ex-
planation for creating this advertisement is,
(a) This is application of classical conditioning.
(b) The lady is a reinforcer.
(c) This is done to ensure vicarious learning.
(d) This is an example of effective learning through modelling.
3. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.
Classical conditioning has three key components which are,
(a) An unconditioned stimulus, conditioned response, and unconditioned response.
(b) An unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and a conditioned stimulus.
(c) A conditioned stimulus, an unconditioned response, and a neutral response.
(d) A neutral stimulus, neutral response, and subliminal response
4. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.
Read ‘Distraught mother’ given in Box 7.1. Why do you think she could not reduce the anger of her
son?
(a) She was not strict enough.
(b) She failed to use classical conditioning.
(c) She used the wrong reinforcer.
(d) She did not use the reinforcer often enough.
40     

5. State whether the statement ‘the purpose of positive and negative reinforcers is the same’ is true or
false.
6. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
Ram comes to office late on most days, but exceeds his targets every month. In order to correct him, his
manager who has a soft corner for him told him that he would be given a cash incentive every month
for the next six months if he comes on time. Ram tried his best, but the best he achieved in a month was
reaching late four times. According to you, the manager,
(a) Should sack Ram as he is taking advantage of the manager.
(b) Is unaware of the principle of shaping.
(c) Used the wrong reinforcer.
(d) Should send him for counselling.
7. If you were living in a place for some time and suddenly find the way to your workplace route blocked,
you quickly figure out a way to reach there. This happens because of --------------. (Fill the blank)
8. A manager wants to ensure that the workers adapt a new method. Which of the following learning theo-
ries would be the least effective?
(a) Modelling.
(b) Positive reinforcing.
(c) Negative reinforcing.
(d) Classical conditioning.
9. Reciprocal determination in learning explains the linkage between person, -----, and the environment.
(Fill the blank)
10. There are four basic learning styles. These are ---------, ---------------, assimilating, and accommodating. (Fill
the blanks).
11. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.
Experiential learning involves the following key steps:
(a) Immersion in an experience, generalisation. and testing.
(b) Immersion in an experience, reflection, and testing.
(c) Immersion in an experience, reflection, and generalisation.
(d) Immersion in an experience, reflection, generalisation, and testing.
12. Self-learning is the process of managing own thoughts, behaviours, and ---------- to learn something. (Fill
in the blank)
13. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
An individual at times holds a limited and often distorted view about various things. When that person
critically examines the view and opens himself/herself to alternatives, change takes place in the view
he/she holds and then the person responds differently. This type of learning is called,
(a) Self-learning.
(b) Metacognitive learning.
(c) Transformative learning.
(d) Learning to learn.
14. The major domains of learning are ---------, ----------, and -------------(Fill the blanks).
15. Which of the following is the least appropriate description of mobile age learning?
(a) Goals create yet other goals, often sacrificing the original goal.
(b) Equipment mobility is more important than learner’s mobility.
(c) Learning and other activities are interwoven.
(d) Both (a) and (c) are the most inappropriate description.

Need some help with this? Go to Answers to Test Your Understanding given at the end of the book.
 41

Assimilation Questions

1. Learning is defined as the measurable and relatively permanent change in behaviour through experi-
ence. Explain the idea of experience in the definition.
2. Explain classical conditioning, with an example from the world of advertisement.
3. A tea plantation in the Nilgiri hills has just brought in an automatic machine for cutting tea leaves. The
workers are resisting its use. Suggest a method to change their attitude using operant conditioning.
4. How can you make punishment effective?
5. You are manager of a large retail store. What social reinforcers can you use to increase the sale of the
outlet?
6. Sujatha was a keen worker and always focused on achieving her targets, and also enthusiastically partici-
pated in the corporate social responsibility work of her company. She has built her house, bought a car,
and her children are settled abroad. She always relied on ‘high-performance incentives’ she received
to achieve these goals. Everyone admired her. However, of late, she does not seem to be focused on her
targets as much as she used to be. She still meets her targets; but she is no more the person who would
easily surpass her targets three to four times. How can we change her behaviour?
7. Ramani would take the initiative to do anything. Usually, it would always be something that others have
not attempted. She would attempt such tasks for the first time and was mostly successful. How could she
be learning to do new jobs so well?
8. What are the different types of modelling? Give examples.
9. Explain any three principles of learning, with examples.
10. Learning methods should suit the learning style. If you were a trainer and conducting a team training
programme for engineers, business graduates, a group of psychologists, and some chemistry research-
ers, what would be your preferred method? (Assume that the training is not combined and is indepen-
dent of each other.)
11. Explain the experiential learning model.
12. Mr Jagat Singh was tasked to train 15 middle-aged supervisors on using the new production information
system. He created detailed content, hand outs, time-plan, modules, and post-training test questions
and presented them to his HR manager. Assume you are the HR manager and critique the training plan.
13. How will you train your employees on learning to learn?
14. Learning enables adaptation to the environment. Explain how this was applied in the initiating case of
Tomkin Pharmaceutical.
15. Explain how mobile learning can be made more impactful.

Need some help with this? Go to Clues to Answer Assimilation Questions given at the end of the book.

Application Challenges

1. Jerry has a sweet tooth. He could never stop eating sweets. He became obese and the doctors warned
him of grave consequences if he did not reduce from 110 kg to at least 80 kg. Jerry began to exercise,
but it never lasted more than two days. Jerry’s friend created an exercise plan that would result in him
exercising regularly in the next three months. You can make assumptions and if you do, state them
clearly. The plan should indicate the learning theories against each major action that you propose.
42

2. Farmers are committing suicide in many states because of poor productivity and prices. At the same
time, some farmers are prospering. Create a project to train a few farmers near your business school to
adapt sustainable and profitable farming methods. The project should highlight various learning theo-
ries and principles you use in your training plan. This can be a group assignment.

Approach to Teaching/Learning

For Lecture-driven Teaching Those institutions which use lecture method can follow the
standard pattern of lecture and quizzes. Thereafter, they can go to the experiential learning mode by
attempting the application challenges.

For Case-driven Teaching Institutions that follow case method (participant-centred learning)
may use the case mentioned below. To enhance the experiential learning, they can attempt one or both the
application challenges.

Title of the case : ‘Leadership Development at Goldman Sachs’

Originator of the case : Harvard Business School
Case No: 9-406-002
Source/available through: Harvard Business School publishing
Brief description: The case is on training leaders. The case is appropriate to highlight modelling, vicarious
learning, operant conditioning, and need for life-long learning.

Approaches to the Study of Management

Even though the practice of management is ancient, management as a formal study is comparatively a recent
phenomenon. The late 19th and early 20th centuries have witnessed some important developments in the
field of management. For instance, renowned management theories such as the scientific management the-
ory and the general administrative theory were introduced during this period only. Since then, several other
approaches to management have also been developed by management writers and practitioners. For the
sake of easier and better understanding, these approaches have been classified into six categories as illus-
trated in Figure 2.1. They are: (i) classical approach, (ii) behavioural approach, (iii) quantitative approach,
(iv) systems approach, (v) contingency approach and (vi) information technology approach. We shall now
discuss these approaches.

Classical Approach
The classical approach to management mainly includes the scientific management, the administrative
management and the bureaucratic management theories. The primary focus of this approach is on the
constant improvement of organizational efficiency through enhanced employee productivity. The classical
approach, particularly, the scientific management theory, was generally perceived as a formal and imperson-
al approach to management. We shall now discuss the classical approach in detail.

Scientific management—The earliest attempt to study, understand and perform management in a scientific
and systematic manner was made by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856−1915). Taylor, who joined as a common
     43

Approaches to the
study of
management

Quantitative or Information
Behavioural Contingency or
Classical approach Systems approach operations research technology
approach situational approach
approach approach

Scientific General Bureaucratic

management administrative management Hawthorne studies Total quality
theory theory theory management (TQM)

Figure 7.4  Approaches to

the Study of Management

labourer in 1878, rose to be an engineer and manufacturing manager. During his career, he worked in several
companies such as the Midvale Steel Company, Simonds Rolling Machine and Bethlehem Steel Company. In his
book, Principles of Management, Taylor insists that there is “one right way” available for performing the job in the
most efficient manner. However, this right way to do the job should be determined only by experts who have a
scientific understanding of the job. In this regard, he called for ­redesigning of jobs and change in the attitude
of workers towards their job for achieving maximum ­efficiency. F ­ urther, Taylor also employed scientific analysis
and experiments to develop that “one right way” in task accomplishment.
The development of “one right way” for different jobs enabled Taylor to achieve nearly 200-per cent
increase in productivity on a continuous basis in his organization. Job design, work layout and task schedul-
ing are some aspects of production where his influence is still felt. He has been acknowledged as the father
of scientific management for replacing informal rule of thumb and intuition with scientific management
principles and techniques. The scientific management principles recommended by Taylor are:
• Replacement of the rule of thumb with true science in management—undertaking a scientific study of
tasks to determine the best methods for performing each element of a job.
• Replacement of self-training with scientific training—scientific selection, training, teaching and
­development of each worker in place of arbitrary selection, self-training and development.
• Hearty cooperation between the employer and employees—ensuring complete cooperation of workers
so that all work is carried out in conformity with the scientific principles developed.
• Equal distribution of work and responsibility—dividing the work and responsibility nearly equally
­between the management and workers instead of assigning all the work and a greater part of respon-
sibility to the workers. For instance, the management can do the work (such as planning the tasks) for
which it is better-suited and the workers can execute those tasks.
Factories that implemented Taylor’s principles achieved remarkable improvements in productivity, quality
and performance. However, Taylor was criticized on the grounds that his approach to management had
resulted in the exploitation of w
­ orkers, ­frictions with trade unions, killing of individual initiatives and over-
emphasis on work measurement.
Management thinkers like Henry L. Gantt, and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, have worked on the scien-
tific management theory to make it more sensible and acceptable. For instance, Gantt improved on the
incentive scheme of Taylor called the differential piece-rate system, by including bonus for workers and
their supervisors. As per Gantt’s scheme, the workers are entitled to bonus wages if they complete their daily
workload assignment successfully along with their supervisors. Frank and Lillian G ­ ilbreth worked on ways to
improve productivity and reduce fatigue. In this regard, they focused on the workers’ movements to identify
44     

and eliminate wasteful motion, thus reducing job-related fatigue. They were also involved in the designing
and development of proper tools and equipment for achieving optimum work performance.

General administrative theory—Henri Fayol (1841−1925), who suggested good management practices for
managers, is regarded as the father of modern operational management. He developed a holistic view of
management by looking at it from a total organizational perspective. This is in contrast to Taylor’s scientific
management theory, which is largely influenced by production problems and perspectives. In his book,
General and Industrial Management (1916), Fayol has explained what managers should do and what prin-
ciples they should follow. In this regard, he first classifies the activities of the organization into six broad
categories. These activities are: (i) technical (e.g., production), (ii) commercial (e.g., production and
selling), (iii) financial (e.g., mobilizing capital), (iv) security (e.g., protection of properties), (v) account-
ing (e.g., gathering and dissemination of financial information) and (vi) managerial (e.g., planning and
organizing). He then focussed on the “managerial” activity for further analysis.
Fayol believed that management is a unique activity applicable to all kinds of institutions and activities,
including business organizations, government and households. According to him, there are six primary man-
agerial functions. They are: forecasting, planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling.
To p­ erform these functions effectively, he suggested 14 principles of management. These p ­ rinciples are:
1. Division of labour: This refers to the splitting up of the productive process into different components or
parts. Division of labour leads to specialization as each worker performs the same tasks with increased
frequency. This specialization, in turn, helps them in achieving higher output with the same efforts.
2. Authority: It is the right to give orders. Authority is essential for managers to get the work done through
workers. However, the managers’ authority must be accompanied by the corresponding responsibility.
3. Discipline: It is the workers’ observance of rules and regulations of the organization and also their
agreements made with the management. In this regard, Fayol insisted on fair and clear agreements,
well-judged punishments and presence of good supervisors at all levels.
4. Unity of command: It refers to employees receiving instructions from only one supervisor while ­executing
their tasks. In the event of an employee receiving orders from multiple supervisors or m ­ anagerial
­authority, employee discipline and organizational stability may be affected.
5. Unity of direction: It refers to the presence of one head (leader) and one plan to guide all the
­organizational or group activities that have the same purpose and common goal. This should avoid any
possible confusion and inconsistency in the messages and instructions given to the employees.
6. Subordination of individual interest to general interest: It means that the interest of an individual
­employee should not take precedence over the overall organizational interest. If there is any conflict
between the interest of an individual employee and that of the organization, employees should sacrifice
their own interest for the sake of the well-being of the organization as a whole.
7. Remuneration: It refers to the fixation of remuneration in such a way that it satisfies not only the
employees but also their employers. While compensating the employees for their work, the business
conditions of the organization, value of employees and mode of payment should be given adequate
consideration.
8. Centralization: It is the degree to which employees are involved in decision making. Each ­organization
has a certain degree of centralization depending on its size and the skill levels of its managers. The ­degree
of centralization increases when the subordinates are less involved in decision making. In contrast, the
degree of decentralization increases when employees are more involved in such decisions.
9. Scalar chain: It refers to the line of authority that flows from the top management to the lowest ranks
in the organizational structure. In normal circumstances, all messages and orders must pass through
a scalar chain. Yet, when quick communication is required, a direct link (called gang plank) may be
established by sidestepping the scalar chain.
10. Order: It refers to the arrangement of people and material in the organization. Order may be classified
into human order and material order. A proper place for everyone and everyone in his/her place is the
     45

meaning of human order. A proper place for everything and everything in its place is the meaning of
material ­order.
11. Equity: It refers to the warmth, justice, kindness and friendliness in the relationship between the
­employee and employer. In this regard, managers must treat all employees equally and impartially to
inspire their confidence and faith.
12. Stability of tenure of employees: It refers to the time to be allowed to employees to become familiar
with their jobs and to be efficient in performing them. Organizational plans and policies must allow
sufficient time for employees to settle in their jobs.
13. Initiative: It refers to the capability of the employees to design, develop and act on the plans successfully.
Management must encourage employees to take initiatives within the limits of their authority to invent
new ideas, try new ­experiments and develop better techniques of job performance.
14. Esprit de corps: It refers to team spirit, harmony and unity among employees. Management must ­believe in
the principle, “Union is strength,” and develop a sense of belonging and oneness among the employees.
Fayol’s theory is widely viewed as a systematic theory of management. His techniques can be used for all
functional areas of management, even though he is marginally more concerned with the activities of top-lev-
el managers.

Bureaucratic management theory—Max Weber (1864−1920) i­ntroduced a new organizational form in

which hierarchy of authority and a system of rules are considered to be vital. This is called bureaucracy.
According to Weber, bureaucracy is the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge. Weber envisioned
that bureaucracy will discourage decisions based on favouritism and family connections, and encourage
decisions based on knowledge, experience and expertise. Clearly, rational–legal authority of managers is
critical to decision making in bureaucratic organizations. Bureaucracy also strives at making effective use of
authority to achieve organizational goals. The common characteristics of a bureaucratic organization are
hiring based on qualification, merit-based promotions, chain of command, division of labour, neutrality in
the application of rules and regulations, reports and records in written form, and separation of ownership
from management.
Ideally, bureaucratic organizations can reduce the importance of charisma, improve the control of
­superiors over subordinates, allow subordinates to challenge the decision of superiors by referring to exist-
ing rules, facilitate consistency in administration and ensure organization’s long-term stability. However, this
style of management can be effective only in those organizations where the superiors have more knowledge
and technical competence than their subordinates.
The classical approaches to management enable us to understand the management of people, pro-
cess and physical assets in a systematic manner. However, it failed to study and consider the differences in
the behaviour of people and the changes in organizational environment. Similarly, it over-emphasized the
­technical aspects of a job without adequately considering the persons who actually perform such a job. All
this necessitated the development of other approaches to management.

Behavioural Approach
In contrast to the classical approach which focuses on the technical aspects of management, the behavioural
approach emphasizes on improving the management through the psychological makeup of the organiza-
tional members. This approach insists on the importance of understanding the human resources (people)
and their thinking patterns. This approach is also known as the human resource approach. This approach
looks to solve the labour−management conflicts likely to arise out of classical approaches to management.
The focus areas of the behavioural approach are conflict prevention, team work, motivation, leadership and
communication. The three important studies that contributed greatly to the development of behavioural
approaches are: (i) Hawthorne studies, (ii) theory X and theory Y and (iii) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the-
ory. We shall discuss the Hawthorne studies in this chapter. The remaining two studies are discussed later in
Chapter 16: Motivation and Morale.
46     

Hawthorne studies—The engineers of the Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago conducted
a scientific experiment to examine the impact of lighting on employee productivity. In this regard, an
­experimental group and a control group were formed to compare and contrast employee performances to
­understand the influence of illumination on productivity. The lighting levels remained normal for the con-
trol group throughout the experiment. However, it was changed at regular intervals for the experimental
group in the expectation that productivity would change in tune with the lighting levels. Contrary to the
expectations, productivity was actually increasing for both the groups in all lighting conditions. Surprisingly,
the productivity of the experimental group was showing an increasing trend even under poor lighting con-
ditions. Meanwhile, the control group also reported higher productivity even without any changes in light-
ing conditions. The results puzzled the engineers and compelled them to look for reasons beyond lighting
for the changes in the productivity levels of employees.
At this stage, Elton Mayo (1880−1949), a Harvard Business School professor, and his team became a part
of the study group. Under Mayo’s supervision, a second experiment was carried out to determine the influ-
ence of a few other external environmental factors such as wages, rest timings and refreshments on employ-
ee productivity. As a part of this experiment, six female employees were brought together to form a group
with no prior information to them about the proposed study. They were given increased wages, convenient
rest timings, flexible workdays and workweeks. As a result, the group’s productivity increased significantly.
Later, these benefits were gradually withdrawn in the expectation that the productivity rate will decline but
this was not happening at all. The researchers failed to establish any direct relationship between external
factors and productivity. Therefore, they concluded that group atmosphere, group relations, group attitude
and collective group decisions have a better influence on group behaviour than pay, perquisites and work
setting, such as rest timings and length of workdays and weeks.
The results of the Hawthorne studies drastically improved the importance of “people” in an organiza-
tion. This pioneering study compelled organizations to take a closer look at the social factors that influ-
enced employee behaviour and organizational productivity and performance. This study also helped the
management understand the role and relevance of trade unions as the representatives of the employees.

Systems Approach
In this approach, management views the organization as a complex and unified system composed of ­several
interrelated and independent subsystems. Typically, the production department, marketing department,
­finance department, etc. are the subsystems of an organization. All these subsystems are unified in a planned
way to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. As per this approach, changes in any one subsystem
can cause different degrees of changes in other subsystems. For instance, price reduction strategy of the
marketing manager may require cost reduction by the production department and low-cost borrowing by
the finance department. It is thus not possible for the managers of departments to make decisions without
understanding their impact on the other departments and also on the organization as a whole. Understand-
ably, the system-based approach usually calls for frequent c­ ommunication not only among the members of
the same department but also with the representatives of other departments.
The systems approach also allows management to view the whole organization as a subsystem of the larger
external environment. For instance, a cement company may see itself as a part of the cement industry. Again,
the cement industry can be viewed as a subsystem of the national economy. Thus, each element of a business
can be a subsystem (of a larger element) as well as a system (for the smaller elements that make it up).
As a system, organizations can be classified into two categories: the open system and the closed system.
When an organization interacts with its external environment and gets influenced by such interactions, it
is called an open system. Business organizations mostly operate on an open system basis. For instance, they
­receive inputs from the external environment, transform them through a conversion process and send
them as output to the external environment. Figure 2.2 shows the working of the systems a­ pproach.
In the systems approach, inputs from the external environment may include people, capital, physical
resources, technical and managerial skills. The transformation of input into output is done through the
     47

managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. Finally, the output to the
environment can be in the form of product, services, profit and satisfaction to various stakeholders.
In contrast, when organizations keep little or no interaction with their external environment, it is called
a closed system. No organization can remain closed to the external influences or interactions, except for
certain institutions like prisons and monasteries.

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor, in his book The Human Side of Enterprises, published in 1960, explains two different kinds
of theories or assumptions about human behaviour. They are theory X and theory Y. Theory X holds a
negative (traditional) view of the workers while theory Y holds a much refined and positive view of workers.
The scientific management school of thought inspired McGregor to develop theory X. This theory sug-
gests that productivity could be increased through division of jobs into smaller units of work (tasks) and by
assigning each worker a small range of well-defined tasks. The elements of these theories are:

Theory X—The general assumptions of this theory of workers are:

1. Workers have an inherent dislike towards their job and they will avoid their job if it is possible for them.
2. Workers have little or no ambition in their work life and are not concerned about their career growth.
3. They tend to resist changes and also avoid responsibilities.
4. They are basically self-centred and do not care about organizational goals and objectives. In other
words, their goals are contrary to the organizational goals.
5. They prefer to be led by others rather than lead others.
6. Workers in general are not intelligent and are mostly gullible.
7. Workers are generally poor decision makers.
8. They need to be monitored and controlled closely to make them work e­ ffectively.
The fundamental assumption of this theory is that people work only for money and personal safety and
security. Theory X requires organizations to do the following to manage and motivate the workers and to
increase productivity:
1. Minimizing the number of situations in which workers are required to make decisions by themselves.
2. Providing predominantly extrinsic financial rewards to workers.
3. Monitoring the activities of the workers through tight or very close s­ upervisions.
4. Imposing tight discipline and enforcing strict performance correction measures to encourage
performance.
5. Conducting extensive training programmes to workers on how they should do their work.
In contrast to theory X, the assumptions of theory Y are positive about workers. McGregor developed theory
Y after becoming aware of the flaws in theory X. We shall now discuss the assumptions of theory Y.
Theory Y—The important assumptions of this theory about workers are:
1. Workers enjoy their work if it can be as natural as playing or resting. Work may be a source of satisfaction
for workers. They can perform jobs well without any threat of punishment.
2. Workers are self-directed and self-controlled in fulfilling the objectives to which they are committed.
Workers not only accept responsibilities but also seek it under proper condition.
3. They are committed to their objectives if the rewards for performance fulfil higher order needs such as
self-fulfilment needs.
4. Workers have the potential and inclination to grow within their present roles and, if possible, beyond it.
5. Workers have the capacity to find solutions to organizational problems using relatively higher degrees
of creativity, ingenuity and imagination.
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6. The goals of workers can be the same as those of the organization. The organizational (group) goals
and individual goals are supplementary and not mutually-exclusive.
7. The intellectual potentials of human beings are only partially utilized under the conditions of modern
industrial life.
Based on the assumption of theory Y, organizations should evolve a system that motivates and maintains the
employees well. Such a system should ensure that:
1. Responsibilities are delegated to the workers, wherever possible.
2. Workers are adequately empowered to make decisions on their own.
3. Job enlargement techniques are used to ensure that jobs include whole and meaningful processes.
4. Workers are helped to align their personal goals with those of the organization well through constant
guidance and training.
According to McGregor, employees can be intrinsically motivated to perform well in their jobs only when
their organization makes those employees less dependent on the managerial system and control. Hence,
McGregor recommends that organizations adopt managerial techniques such as workers’ participation in
management, decentralization and delegation of authorities, job enlargement and team work to improve
employee motivation. He also believes that there is little possibility for improving the relationship between
management and workers in organizations that are guided by the philosophy of theory X.
McGregor’s theory X and theory Y are only assumptions about workers. These theories should not be
misunderstood as prescriptions or suggestions for managers. Theory X and theory Y are not to be seen as
representing two opposing views (good and bad). They only represent two different views of people. Table
16.2 shows a comparison of theory X and theory Y.

Evaluation of McGregor’s theory X and theory Y—McGregor’s theory X and theory Y is rated as one of the
best-known behavioural studies. McGregor’s work is seen as a pioneer study that paved the way for intro-
duction of several modern management concepts like job enrichment, self-managing teams, etc. However,

Table 7.10  Comparison of Theory X and Theory Y

Characteristics Theory X Theory Y

Management style Predominantly autocratic Predominantly democratic
General outlook of workers Pessimistic Optimistic
Skill levels of workers Low High
Mutual trust between the Low High
management and workers
Attitude towards responsibility Avoidance Acceptance
Workers’ likeness for the job Low High
Degree of delegation and Low High
decentralization
Types of work to be entrusted Repetitive work with narrow Works with the scope for
specialization applying creativity and
promotion
Rewards Predominantly lower need fulfilment Predominantly higher need fulfilment
(carrot and stick approach)
Job involvement Low High
Resistance to change High Low
     49

it has a few limitations. For instance, theory X and theory Y are not “all weather” or “cure all” approaches
since different tasks, problems and situations call for different ­managerial approaches. Certainly, different
approaches are effective for different situations Even though McGregor was initially a strong supporter of
theory Y, he subsequently softened his support after he personally experienced some of the frustrations
related to the implementation of strong theory Y management assumptions.

Theory Z
Theory Z was developed by William Ouchi in 1981. This theory is seen by people as an extension of
­McGregor’s theory X and theory Y. But this theory has its roots in the Japanese management style and cul-
ture. Some view theory Z as a hybrid model which includes the best business practices and features of Amer-
ican as well as J­apanese organizations. In other words, theory Z has many Japanese elements but reflects
American culture. Basically, theory Z attempts to provide a theoretical perspective pertaining to the “culture
of the whole organization.” This theory, based on a few assumptions, is initiated and practiced in Japanese
industries. The assumptions are:
1. Life time employment for workers—This theory tends to view job security as an important source of
job satisfaction and motivation. The purpose of providing life time employment is to develop a sense of
loyalty and commitment among the workers and also to fulfil the organizational goals efficiently.
2. Slow evaluation and promotion—Theory Z suggests that the performance of workers should be evalu-
ated in a slow and steady manner on a long-term basis. Further, the promotion available to the workers
should be few and far between in the work life of people. For instance, management must ensure that
there is adequate gap between one promotion and another. Theory Z’s slow promotion is different
from the practices in western countries, where the performance of workers are usually evaluated after a
relatively short period of time and ­promotions are also awarded within short spans of time.
3. Consensual decision making—Theory Z insists on the principles of collective decision making. ­According
to this theory, management should not attempt to impose its decisions on the employees. Instead the
management and groups of employees must collectively discuss and decide on the issues that affect the
organization in general and employees in particular. Group of employees who are involved in decision
making are differently called as quality circles, teams, etc.
4. Non-specialized career path—According to Ouchi, employees who continuously perform new tasks are
normally more important, productive, and satisfied with their work than those who remain in one job.
Theory Z supports the moderately specialized career path for employees. This is a midway between the
highly specialized career path of traditional American organizations and the highly non-specialized ca-
reer path of traditional Japanese organizations. In any case, each employee in the organization should
have a clearly defined career path with suitable rewards and promotional opportunities laid out in
advance.
5. Individual responsibility—This theory suggests that employees should work together (collectively)
towards the achievement of well-defined goals but the final responsibility should rest only with the
individuals. This theory thus proposes a collective decision-making and team approach to goal accom-
plishment with emphasis on individual responsibility at the employees’ level.
6. Holistic concern for the workers—This theory suggests that the organization must adopt a “holistic”
approach in its dealings with employees by acknowledging that employees exist with ordinary demands
of all workers in the society. In other words, employees have needs beyond the work setting that include
but are not limited to, for instance, educational, personal and family needs.
7. Implicit informal control with explicit formalized measures—This theory recommends implicit,
­informal control but with explicit formalized measures. This is a midway approach between the explicit,
formalized control measures of American organizations and the implicit, informal control measures of
Japanese organizations.
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Evaluation of theory Z—Theory Z of Ouchi aims at creating a strong esprit de corps (a sense of unity and of
common interests and responsibilities) among the employees. Such unity is expected to lead to the forma-
tion of highly cohesive groups within the organization. This theory thus believes in converting the whole
organization into one highly cohesive group. It insists on the development of “clan organization” or “or-
ganic association.” Clan organizations (similar to kin network but not meaning blood relations) are highly
useful in complex and highly uncertain situations, where any measures of external control are not effective.
However, the strength of this theory becomes its weakness too. For instance, this theory assumes the
presence of a “homogenous internal organizational culture” and decision making by consensus. This as-
sumption is actually in conflict with the concept of cultural diversity and respect for divergent views, opin-
ions and values.