Social learning is a big part of assimilating a new employee into an organization. In my own workplace, when a new person is hired, a process begins of training, but behind the scenes, the person is watching others to learn acceptable work practices. Bandura theorized that the steps of attention, retention, motivation, and reproduction were a part of social learning (PSU WC, L.5, p.2). The four steps can be followed through a new hire’s process and the consequences of poor existing behavior will be shown through the process.
When a new person comes in, we put them with fully trained employees in order to learn a specific job. This is what Bandura would consider as the attention step because the new hire is observing the trained worker’s behavior and task performance (PSU WC, L.5, p.2). If the trainer is lackadaisical about the job and does not place any emphasis upon the quality of the end product, the potential exists for the new hire to learn this behavior and replicate it. Bandura also added that the individual would add their own behavior patterns to any socially learned behavior (Kalkstein, Kleiman, Wakslak, Liberman & Trope, 2016). The bad news for the organization is that if the new hire already has a tendency to overlook quality or take short-cuts, then observing an existing employee doing similar things can intensify this behavior.
To follow the process further, after the new hire begins to pay attention to and remember the behavior of the trainer, then comes the motivation and reproduction pieces. The new person has progressed far enough in the process to have their mind made-up as to what is acceptable behavior. However, the person must have the intrinsic motivation to replicate the learned behavior (PSU WC, L.5, p.2). If the new employee is already one who leans toward taking short-cuts and has a propensity to slack, then they may not be very motivated to model behavior patterns of a quick and efficient worker. To apply this to the other example, if the new hire is being trained by the lackadaisical employee, then that would parallel the new hire’s existing behavioral norms and would probably provide motivation to carry-on the lackadaisical way of task completion.
Social learning can be a great way to assimilate new people into an organization when they are being taught by employees who have good work habits. It stands to reason that not all employees within an organization have behavior patterns that are desirable, so there is the chance that new employees may choose to learn and replicate the undesirable patterns. With Bandura’s reasoning, it seems that if a person is intrinsically motivated to have a positive impact and do well, then they are likely to. Social learning happens formally through a training process and informally through observation which is why when one employee starts taking longer breaks, then it isn’t long before others do, as well. As leaders, it is important to ensure that the behavior learned through social processes are desirable and it makes it even more important to correct undesirable behavior to keep it from spreading to others.
References:
Kalkstein, D. A., Kleiman, T., Wakslak, C. J., Liberman, N. & Trope, Y. (January 2016). Social learning across psychological distance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(1), p. 1-19. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/1753445712?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=13158
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (n.d.). OLEAD 410: Lesson 5: Learning and change in a global setting. PSU WC.
Donald R Cole says
Hi Kimberly,
I like your viewpoint on Bandura’s (Bandura, A., 1986) ideas on learned behaviors. I tend to agree although I worry about the correct way to model a successful individual when you’re tying to on-board a new hire. I think following Bandura’s mode of attention, retention, motivation and reproduction, on an individual level would be difficult. Your mentors or models would need to be thoroughly trained on the process.
The same could be said for Schein’s (1980) planned change theory which called for unfreezing and behavior, creating the necessary motivation to change and then refreezing it. I don’t see it as applicable at the new hire level as I think simple modeling would be.
Relating to your scenario about on-boarding a new person, it seems more likely a basic modeling program would produce the behaviors you’re looking for. Looking at it from my own personal viewpoint, our organization has already identified the team members who really drive organizational success. Aligning these employees with new hires is pretty easy and almost entirely without incident. And usually produces another motivated employee.
References
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought & action: A social cognitive theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Schein, E. H. (1980). Organizational psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ (New Jersey): Prentice Hall.