Operant Conditioning In The Workplace

Operant conditioning (also, “instrumental conditioning”) is a learning process in which behaviour is sensitive to, or controlled by its consequences. With human’s , operant conditioning is a good intervention to use in the classroom, or in learning new behaviours of any kind such as quitting smoking, drinking less, dieting, or exercising more. When we present humans with a motivating factor followed by immediate feedback the behaviour is more likely to be repeated and followed.

It is a good strategy for learning because when students receive motivation and feedback they are more able to retain information due to affect in their stimuli. Operant Conditioning can be useful when applied to the workplace in several ways, from addressing how employees

Time Interval, 2. Shaping and Chaining, 3. Primary and secondary Reinforcement, 4. Schedules of Reinforcement, and 5. Phenomena of Extinction, Generalization and Discrimination. The time interval between the response and the stimulus should be short rather than long. Shorter the interval between the response and its consequence (the stimulus event), the more efficient is operant learning.

Shaping is based on the principle that a little learning can lead to final mastery. In shaping, each small step that the organism makes to reach the goal is reinforced, rather than only the final response. This is done by the method of successive approximations. At first, actions that are faintly similar to the target behaviour are reinforced. The organism learns to show responses that closely approximate the target behaviour. When a baby child emits the sound 'Mmmuuhh', the parents immediately pour out affection on the child. Initially, the family attends enthusiastically to any sound that the child makes. Likewise in Workplace a verbal praise or pay increases, will elicit a desired response, which is optimal

Operant Conditioning is one of the most practical learning theories which can be used during different phases of life to learn or unlearn a specific or a series of behaviour.Operant conditioning has been successfully applied in many settings: clinical, for individual behaviour modification, teaching, for classroom management, instructional development, for programmed instruction, and management, for organizational behaviour modification.

Hence, According to me, I strongly feel that Operant Conditioning is the most unique, scientific and logical way of handling most of our day to day processes of learning and hindrances that we face in our daily lives. From the very beginning of the toddler, to the learning in schools and to the workplace settings we can apply the principles of this