You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

Written by: Marissa Kautz

      The saying “You learn something new every day” is absolutely true. From the age of four or five America’s youth is put into school, and the next 13 years, sometimes more, of their lives are devoted to just this. After college is when a lot of people think they stop learning, but they don’t have to be enrolled in school to retain new information. Knowledge is all around us, in the job, at home, etc., and you continue to learn even when you’re not even conscious of it.

     
       Learning is a pertinent mechanism to become successful in much of the business world. In some professions, such as accounting, there are new laws being passed often and many things to be aware of. New methods and concepts even require outside education each year to keep up. Employees have to sometimes go above and beyond their office hours to do all this extra learning, and it’s the employer’s job to help them learn all they need to know. To do this there are many different ways to teach.

      
      The first one is just learning by human nature. If something we do results in desired consequences, or positive reinforcements, you tend to continue with these behaviors. The opposite goes for negative consequences (Colquitt, Lepine, & Wesson, 2011). Managers can use compliments and positive attitudes or negative behaviors to shape the way that employers learn to act at work. It doesn’t even phase some people, they don’t even realize that they are being trained subconsciously so there is no conflict at all (Colquitt, Lepine, & Wesson, 2011).

      
      Two other methods that businesses use to lessen undesired behavior in the workplace are called punishments and extinction (Colquitt, Lepine, & Wesson, 2011). An employer could use punishments to correct bad behavior in an employee, as long as it completely follows along with business ethics. Alfie Kohn of the New York Times has a different opinion on punishments. According to him, rewards are much like punishments, “they are two sides of the same coin, and the coin doesn’t buy much.” (Kohn, 1993). Rewards and punishments can dampen the effect of teamwork if a promotion or something similar is up for grabs. On the other hand extinction is when there are no consequences as a result of a certain behavior. This is used when an employee is acting out mainly to get attention from managers or co-workers (Colquitt, Lepine, & Wesson, 2011).

     
       Another method that is becoming more and more popular with companies is gamification. This is the use of gaming software to help employees get more engaged in learning and practicing new concepts (Silverman, 2011). It’s an increasing trend because it brings a bit of fun to the work environment and also a bit of healthy competition between co-workers that can be turned into motivation to do well. Companies can either buy or create these simulations with real world situations. This is especially good for people that work from home so they can still be connected to the workplace as well (Silverman, 2011).  

      
       Similar to gamification, e- Learning is said to be bought by 86% of companies in 2013, which include webinars, video, mobile applications, and gaming/simulations (Pace, 20113). In this generation more and more things are being done with technology and this e-learning implements smart phones and other things that people already are familiar with in their everyday lives. This makes it easier for them to know the technologies they are working with.

        
       Overall, there are many different ways that people learn new information and how to act in the workplace environment. Positive and negative reinforcement are very simple concepts but can make all the difference when it comes to learning the norms of a new job and how to act. Punishments should be used very carefully, if at all, but could also be an effective form of learning what to do and what not to do. When dealing with an employee who is just trying to gain the attention of those he works with extinction would be a great learning method. If left alone the employee is sure to stop acting out in the workplace. Finally, two newer versions of learning are gamification and e-learning. These incorporate modern technology and even a little bit of fun into the job, and are sure to be a success. These aren’t the only methods but some very good ones that help keep our workforce educated.

References

Colquitt, J., Lepine, J., & Wesson, M. (2011). Organizational Behavior . New York City: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Kohn, A. (1993, October 17). For Best Results, Forget the Bonus . The New York Times.

Pace, A. (20113, Febuary 18). Learning Technology Trends in 2013. Retrieved from Academic OneFile: http://go.galegroup.com.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA318345748&v=2.1&u=lom_oaklandu&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

Silverman, R. E. (2011, October 10). Latest Game Theory: Mixing Work and Play. Retrieved from Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204294504576615371783795248.html