Name: Wong Pavón Kevin Jayr

Date: 18/12/20

Homework #3
From the past to the present
Why does hearing Christmas carols evoke pleasant memories of childhood?
Classical conditioning theory would say it’s because the songs are associated with a
festive holiday spirit and make us remember all the fun and excitement. Classical
conditioning can also explain why a scheduled visit by the “top brass” brings flurried
activities of cleaning, straightening, and rearranging at a local outlet of a major retail
company. However, classical conditioning is a passive theory. Something happens, and
we react in a specific way. As such, it can explain simple reflexive behavior. But most
behavior by people at work is voluntary rather than reflexive; that is, employees choose
to arrive at work on time, ask their boss for help with some problem, or “goof off” when
no one is watching. A better explanation for behavior is operant conditioning.
Operant conditioning says that people behave the way they do so they can get something
they want or avoid something they don’t want. It’s voluntary or learned behavior, not
reflexive or unlearned behavior. Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner first identified the
process of operant conditioning. He argued that creating pleasing consequences to follow
specific forms of behavior would increase the frequency of that behavior. Skinner
demonstrated that people will most likely engage in desired behaviors if they’re positively
reinforced for doing so; that rewards are most effective if they immediately follow the
desired response (behavior); and that behavior that is not rewarded or is punished is less
likely to be repeated. For example, a professor places a mark by a student’s name each
time the student makes a contribution to class discussions. Operant conditioning would
argue that this practice is motivating because it conditions a student to expect a reward
(earning class credit) each time she demonstrates a specific behavior (speaking up in
class). Operant conditioning can be seen in work settings as well. And smart managers
quickly recognize that they can use operant conditioning to shape employees’ behaviors
to get work done in the most effective and efficient manner posible
Think About:
How do classical conditioning and operant conditioning differ?
I think that classical conditioning is the behavior that individuals have naturally and
instinctively, that is, it is an inevitable response to any situation that occurs in our
environment, for example at lunchtime at work, we automatically leave what we are doing
to go to eat, is something we do with intuition. Operant conditioning is a desired behavior
or through the use of a reward that can generate positive or negative consequences, for
example giving a dog a treat when it does a certain trick.
 How could managers use operant conditioning?
Managers could use operant conditioning to their benefit, that is, they could create a
reward system such as bonuses towards the worker or reward the employee of the month,
all this in order to take full advantage of the physical or mental capacities of the workers
and in this way to have better productivity in the company which would lead in a certain
way to manipulate the behavior of the employees, that is, a desired behavior or a response
would be sought through the use of rewards or punishments such as fines for being late
or not fulfilling certain tasks.
What’s the connection between operant conditioning and shaping behavior?
The connection could be that our organizational behavior changes in a certain way, this
helps the company to solve problems in a faster way. For example, when I was working,
my boss tried to shape my behavior, for this he always told me that I should have a less
negative attitude when doing things, this really helped a lot for me to change my attitude
and thanks to this, I was able to contribute ideas to my boss, these ideas were taken into
account by him and he used them and from time to time he rewarded me. I think that
companies can use modeling to their benefit and in turn train employees with a positive
attitude that helps improve interpersonal relationships.
What ethical concerns might arise in “shaping” someone’s behavior?
I believe that the worker would feel that he is trying to change his ideals and the values
that he has, he would feel offended in a certain way, but you have to make him understand
that everything is for the good of the company and himself. Of course, it all depends on
how the worker takes it, many times people accept modeling while other people do not,
the best way to introduce modeling is little by little, that is, to start with small things and
then try to change aspects a little larger, in this way the worker will not feel harmed. It is
important that there is frequent communication so that the modeling can be successful
and it should be noted that most of the time this helps the worker to be more responsible
in his activities.