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Objective [1]

Specify the two basic functions of feedback and three sources of feedback. Feedback, in the form of objective information about performance, both instructs and motivates. Individuals receive feedback from others, the task, and from themselves.

Objective [2]

Define upward feedback and 360-degree feedback, and summarize the general tips for giving good feedback. Lowerlevel employees provide upward feedback (usually anonymous) to their managers. A focal person receives 360-degree feedback from subordinates, the manager, peers, and selected others such as customers or suppliers. Good feedback is tied to performance goals and clear expectations, linked with specific behavior and/or results, reserved for key result areas, given as soon as possible, provided for improvement as well as for final results, focused on performance rather than on personalities, and based on accurate and credible information.

Objective [3]

Briefly explain the four different organizational reward norms. Maximizing individual gain is the object of the profit maximization reward norm. The equity norm calls for distributing rewards proportionate to contributions (those who contribute the most should earn the most). Everyone is rewarded equally when the equality reward norm is in force. The need reward norm involves distributing rewards based on employees’ needs.

Objective [4]

Summarize the research lessons about pay for performance, and explain why rewards often fail to motivate employees. Research on pay for performance has yielded mixed results, with no clear pattern of effectiveness. Reward systems can fail to motivate employees for these reasons: overemphasis on money, no appreciation effect, benefits become entitlements, wrong behavior is rewarded, rewards are delayed too long, use of one-size-fits-all rewards, one-shot rewards with temporary effect, and demotivating practices such as layoffs.

Objective [5]

State Thorndike’s “law of effect,” and explain Skinner’s distinction between respondent and operant behavior. According to Edward L Thorndike’s law of effect, behavior with favorable consequences tends to be repeated, while behavior with unfavorable consequences tends to disappear. B F Skinner called unlearned stimulus–response reflexes respondent behavior. He applied the term operant behavior to all behavior learned through experience with environmental consequences.

Objective [6]

Demonstrate your knowledge of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction, and explain behavior shaping. Positive and negative reinforcement are consequence management strategies that strengthen behavior, whereas punishment and extinction weaken behavior. These strategies need to be defined objectively in terms of their actual impact on behavior frequency, not subjectively on the basis of intended impact. Behavior shaping occurs when closer and closer approximations of a target behavior are reinforced. In effect, the standard for reinforcement is made more difficult as the individual learns. The process begins with continuous reinforcement, which gives way to intermittent reinforcement when the target behavior becomes strong and habitual.








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