What is Learning?

• It is at the core of human understanding and adjustment.

• It can be defined as any permanent change in behaviour occurring as a result of

practice or experience.

• It plays a central role in the language we speak, our customs, our attitudes and
beliefs, our personal goals, our personality traits (both adaptive and maladaptive)
and even our perceptions.

• It is a complex behavioural process.

 Significance of Learning
• It involves acquisition of new behaviour, i.e. New ways of responding to situations of all kinds.

• Change in behaviour implies:

- Acquiring a new skill
- Improvements in the speed and accuracy of performance
- Increment in output and decrement in undesirable activities
- Modifications in behaviour (learning to unlearn)
- Coping with stressful situations at the workplace

• Learning and Performance are two different things which are often used interchangeably.
While efficiency in performance depends on learning, learning does not depend on
performance.
 How do we Learn?
(Underlying Theories of Learning)

- We learn in different ways. Some methods might be used in acquisition of

simple responses, some for complex responses.

- The theories of learning are divided into two categories- (S-R) Stimulus-
Response theories and (S-S) Stimulus- Stimulus theories
• Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

• B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

• “Cognitive Theory”

• Social Learning Theories

 Theory of Classical
Conditioning by Ivan
Pavlov
- Emphasizes on a Stimulus- Response
Association/ Relationship.

- It is a process through which a formerly

neutral stimulus, when paired with an
unconditioned stimulus, becomes a
conditioned stimulus that elicits a
conditioned response.

For example: Employees generally get anxious during performance evaluations. This is because a
feeling of anxiety and panic is associated with it , even if the employee has consistently
performed well.
 B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
Consequences determine behaviour that results in learning.

Behaviour will be repeated on the basis of reinforcement or lack of reinforcement .

This theory explicitly clarified the concepts of operant and reinforcement.

Operant: responses that operate on the environment affecting the likelihood of these
responses occurring again and again.

Reinforcement: is that event or stimulus that increases or maintains the strength of

the response.

For example a sales man putting in effort and achieving targets - leads to getting a
desired hike.
The hike strengthens the effort-performance relationship resulting into repetition of
such
behaviours.
Quadrants of Operant Conditioning
 Cognitive Theory by Edward Tolman

• Tolman is remembered for his exceptional contributions in the field of cognitive

psychology.

• This theory emphasizes on the relationship between cognitive environmental cues

and expectations.

• Learning of the association between the cues and expectations is termed as

stimulus-stimulus learning.

• He conducted experiments on animals and found that learning through purpose

and direction can help in reaching desired goals.
 Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and its
4 Principles
• This theory posits that people learn from one another through observation,
imitation, and modelling. People learn through observing others’ behaviours,
attitudes and outcomes of the behaviours.
• This theory is also known as observational learning.
 Principles of Learning
Reinforcement:
• Law of Effect states that responses followed by pleasant consequences are more
likely to be repeated, while responses followed by unpleasant consequences are
less likely to be repeated.
• Reinforcement refers to a stimulus which strengthens the probability of a
particular response being repeated.
• Positive Reinforcement increases the chances that a particular behavior would
be repeated because it results in a desirable consequence.
• Negative Reinforcement makes an individual repeat a behavior not because he
wants to but because he wants to avoid negative consequence.
• Punishment can be defined as an action that weakens a particular behavior and
reduces its frequency.
Schedules of Reinforcement
 What is OB Modification and Its Significance?
• Is the systematic application of operant conditioning theories to manage workplace
behaviour
• It is a problem solving model that makes use of the following steps:

• It emphasizes on: influence of the environment on employee behavior, antecedents

or conditions that precede a behavior, consequences of a particular behavior and
impact of the behavior on performance effectiveness
 Application of OB modification

• Employee Turnover and Satisfaction

• Employee Performance
• Sales Performance

• Customer Satisfaction
• Learning Climate

• Personal and Organizational Development

• Competitive Advantage