Thorndike Reinforcement theory was first developed by Edward Thorndike, who in 1911 developed the law of effect. Law of effect says that behavior followed by pleasant consequences will be repeated and unpleasant consequences will be stopped. Same as behaviors which are rewarded will be repeated and the behavior which are not rewarded are likely to be stopped. This law of effect was later translated into a theory of employee motivation known as reinforcement theory, which looks at the relationship between behavior and its consequences.
Factor which defines reinforcement theory is reinforcement, which could either be positive or negative. Positive reinforces uses the favorable consequences which reinforce the desired behavior. For example- if a student gets a chocolate for every right answer, he will be more excited in answering the question as in return, he is getting a reward. Whereas negative reinforcement is the reinforcement which strengthened the behavior or response by stopping or avoiding a negative outcome. For example- If the sales representative does particularly well in one region (behavior), she is rewarded by not being asked to work in more challenging regions where sales have been difficult to achieve (negative reinforcement). The sales representative will continue to work hard in the region she is currently assigned so that she is not forced to work in the less favorable one.
It is important to note that reinforcement and good and bad behavior is two different things. Often people connects the meaning of negative reinforcement with punishment but it is not right because punishment is given to stop a particular kind of behavior whereas negative reinforcement is given to repeat the same kind of behavior. Since positive and negative reinforcement doesn’t always work, so there is two more type of strategies, punishment and extinction.
It is used to reward desired behavior with the intent of increasing the likelihood that the pleasing behavior will be repeated. Examples- salary raises, bonus, promotions etc. Managers can use this type of reinforcement to increase the productivity level of the employee and improve employee morale.
It is used by the managers to show what will be the consequences of the undesirable behavior. Main objective of this is to get the employee avoid such unacceptable behavior.
It refers to adding something to decrease a behavior. Example for this is spanking a child for misbehaving. Reason for doing this is the child will start associating the negative behavior with this punishment and he will be scared of that punishment. So he will try not to repeat the same. So that he won’t get punishment.
When we remove something in order to decrease a behavior, it is called as Extinction.
Few important topics related Employee motivation
- Motivation Theories
- Methods of motivating employees
- The Needs Theory
- ERG Theory of Motivation
- Acquired Needs Theory
- The Equity theory of Motivation
- Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
- Thorndike's Reinforcement Theory
- Locke’s Goal Setting Theory
- Self Determination
- Cognitive Evaluation Theory
- Reward Systems & Employee Behavior