Reinforcement Theory

reinforcement theory

Reinforcement theory says that people do things because they know other things will follow. There are three basic types of consequences: positive, negative, and none. In general, we think of positive consequences as rewards, anything that increases the particular behavior. Punishment is a negative consequence and anything that decreases the behavior.

Positive reinforcement attempts to increase the frequency of a behavior by rewarding that behavior. For example, if an employee identifies a new market opportunity that creates profit, an organization may give her a bonus. This will positively reinforce the desired behavior.

Negative reinforcement, on the other hand, attempts to increase the frequency of a behavior by removing something the individual doesn’t like. For example, an employee demonstrates a strong work ethic and wraps up a few projects faster than expected. This employee happens to have a long commute. The manager tells the employee to go ahead and work from home for a few days, considering how much progress she has made. This is an example of removing a negative stimulus as way of reinforcing a behavior.

Management Implications

Reinforcement can be affected by various factors, including the following:

• Satiation: the degree of need. If an employee is quite wealthy, for example, it may not be particularly reinforcing (or motivating) to offer a bonus.
• Immediacy: the time elapsed between the desired behavior and the reinforcement. The shorter the time between the two, the more likely it is that the employee will correlate the reinforcement with the behavior. If an employee does something great but isn’t rewarded until two months after, he or she may not connect the desired behavior with the outcome. The reinforcement loses meaning and power.
• Size: the magnitude of a reward or punishment can have a big effect on the degree of response. For example, a bigger bonus often has a bigger impact (to an extent; see the satiation factor, above).

Consequences can operate differently for different people and in different situations. What is considered a punishment by one person may, in fact, be a reward for another. Nonetheless, managers can successfully use reinforcement theory to motivate workers to practice certain behaviors and avoid others. Often, managers use both rewards and punishment to achieve the desired results.

Urban Outfitters

Retailers have long needed additional help during peak selling days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. To help meet these needs, Urban Outfitters recruited salaried workers for a six-hour shift at its new fulfillment facility to help out some of their colleagues and sold the idea to salaried employees as a team building activity. The workers were offered transportation and paid lunches and asked to wear comfortable shoes.

Although it was not mandatory, an Urban Outfitters spokesperson commented: “After successfully opening our new fulfillment center in June, we asked salaried employees at our home office to volunteer for shifts that would help support the new center through a busy month of October. Unsurprisingly, we received a tremendous response, including many of our senior management.”^[1]

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