1. MOTIVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY
Increasing productivity
Snehlata Jaswal

2. Productivity
Productivity has always been the goal of work behaviour
Modern organizations exhibit the importance of other
goals, such as –
1. Raising the morale of the employees
2. Satisfaction of other stake holders
3. Social influence: Corporate social responsibility
Nevertheless, productivity remains the most important
concern of all organizations – whether they are providing
services or manufacturing goods

3. Assessment of Productivity
Productivity may be assessed:
1. In comparison to an external standard of excellence
2. As an input/ output ratio (in terms of efficiency)
In Psychology, the school of behaviorism emphasized
increasing productivity as the goal of all organizations.
Behaviorism proposed that reinforcement contingencies
can change the work behavior of any person

4. Behaviorism: Main tenets
Main proponents: Watson and Skinner
Tabula rasa
Extreme emphasis on environment
Importance of ‘Engineering’ the environment
All behavior is learnt
Reinforcement is crucial for learning
Two types of conditioning:
‐ Classical conditioning
‐ Operant conditioning
Cognitive behaviorism – Observational learning

5. Behaviorism: Classical Conditioning
Main proponents: Pavlov and Watson
US UR
CS + US UR
CS CR
Experiments by Pavlov
Experiments by Watson
Real life examples
Emotional conditioning
Conditioning of autonomic responses

6. Behaviorism: Classical Conditioning
Phenomena in Classical Conditioning
1. Acquisition
‐ Temporal relations in conditioning: Forward (Simultaneous, Delayed, Trace),
and Backward
‐ Pairing schedule: Continuous vs. intermittent
2. Extinction
3. Generalization
4. Discrimination
5. External Inhibition
6. Spontaneous recovery
7. Higher order conditioning
8. Counter‐conditioning – Response substitution
9. Blocking
10. Overshadowing
11. Configuring
What is learnt in classical conditioning?
‐ Association between the CS and US? … Sign learning
‐ Association between the CS and CR? … Stimulus substitution

7. Behaviorism: Operant conditioning
• Main proponent: Skinner
• Assumption: Behavior is controlled by its consequences
• Reinforcement contingent response learning
• No specific stimulus
• Organism ‘operates’ on the environment to get the
reinforcer
• Classic experiment:
– Rat in a Skinner box presses a lever to get a pellet of food
• Examples:
‐ Most voluntary behaviors
‐ Working for rewards or due to fear of punishment
‐ Language

8. Classical conditioning

9. Operant conditioning

10. Behaviorism: Operant conditioning
Reinforcement in operant conditioning:
Anything that increases behavior is a reinforcer
Types of reinforcement:
Positive reinforcement – Increases approach behaviour
Negative reinforcement – Increases avoidant behaviour
Punishment – Decreases behaviour
Schedules of reinforcement: Continuous vs. partial
Partial schedules:
Fixed interval
Fixed ratio
Variable interval
Variable ratio
Chaining of schedules
Concurrent schedules
Premack principle

11. Effects of partial schedules of reinforcement

12. Hull’s theory
D drive
SH R habit strength.
S ER reaction potential = SH R × D
IR reactive inhibition
SIR conditioned inhibition
SĒR effective reaction potential = SH R × D – (IR + SIR)
K incentive motivation
V stimulus intensity
SĒR = SH R × D × K × V – (IR + SIR)

13. Spence’s incentive motivation
For Spence, K was also the energizer of learned behavior. Unlike Hull,
who multiplied K to the basic equation, Spence added K to the equation
as follows:
SĒR = (D + K) × SH R – IN
The major implication of Spence’s revision is that the learned response
may be given in a situation if the incentive is present, even if no drive is
present. Thus, organisms sometimes eat when they are not hungry,
drink when they are not thirsty, simply because they have developed
strong tendencies to perform these acts under certain circumstances. A
person continues to work to accumulate money even though he or she
has more than enough to satisfy his or her basic needs. On the other
hand, the organism would go on making a learned response, even if
there is no incentive for doing so, as long as the drive is present. In fact,
as long as D or K have a value above 0, an organism would make a
learned response if SHR > 0

14. Spence’s theory of extinction
The Frustration‐Competition Theory of Extinction:
In his equations Hull’s symbols for inhibition were IR and SIR and Spence’s
symbol is IN. This reflects a major theoretical difference between Hull
and Spence – concerning the nature of inhibition.
Hull explained reinforcement by saying that when reinforcement is
removed from the situation (K=0), IR and SIR become the dominant
influences and thus the animal stops emitting the learned response. For
Spence non‐reinforcement causes frustration that elicits responses that
are incompatible with the learned response and therefore compete with
it. Eventually behavior stimulated by frustration and anticipation of
frustration becomes dominant, and we say that the learned response
has extinguished. Thus Hull explains extinction on the basis of fatigue (a
bodily process), whereas Spence explains it on the basis of frustration (a
mental process). Experimental tests reveal that Spence’s explanation
fares better.

15. Cognitive behaviorism – Basic concepts
Main proponents: Tolman and Bandura
Akin to behaviorists in objectivity, empiricism, and environmentalism
But do not think of the learner as an ‘empty’ or ‘black’ box
Assume that our behaviour is controlled by our thoughts
Propose a difference between learning and performance
Reinforcement is important for performance, but not for learning
Important factors in learning are:
Expectancies
Behavior or actions
Confirming or disconfirming experiences
Observational learning is our usual mode of learning

16. Enhancement of Productivity
Productivity may be enhanced by the following methods:
• Explicit training of associations
• Use of reinforcement – positive and negative
• Use of punishment
• Use of partial schedules
• Use of Premack principle – make activity itself interesting
• Increasing drive
• Increasing stimulus intensity
• Decreasing negative drives
• Providing incentives
• Modeling for observational learning
• Changing expectancies
• Providing confirming and disconfirming experiences
• ……………

17. Thank you