Out of all the lessons that we can cover for our second blog I think the most important topic that we touched is Social Learning. Social learning is defined by as ” how people learn behavior by observing others behave.” I think that the ability for leaders to be able to learn something from other cultures and successfully apply it into their environment is how progress is made across the world. In my opinion, observational learning is the key way in which society has slowly reduced ethnocentric mindsets throughout the course of history. The more one interacts with people of other cultures or the more people study other cultures one can start seeing common denominators or adopted factors between another culture and your own.
I think social learning is part of pretty much every single being on this planet and is a primitive component to survival. If we use children as an example, parents tend to avoid swear words so their kids don’t repeat them or maybe they say please and thank you more around their children so that they will watch and learn. As an example, when I was about 12 or 13 I was in the kitchen with my 4 year old sister, the burner on the stove was on and I accidentally burnt my finger. Obviously my reaction was a cry of pain, but my sister observed the whole thing. Even though she didn’t speak much, she would not go near the stove since that incident. She learned from my negative response, to not touch the stove.
We find these same actions and reactions from other creatures in the planet. Lionesses teach their cubs how to hunt by observation, gorillas teach their infants to make nests out of leaves and where to find food, etc. With society today I think the tricky portion of cross-cultural social learning is that most countries don’t always want to adopt something from another country because it could be negatively portrayed. I think leaders sometimes struggle to follow a change because they don’t want to be the follower, they want to be the initial innovator.
For example, California has been struggling with droughts for many years, leaving behind dry rivers, reduced water reservoirs, and has seriously affected the state economically. It has been suggested that the state adopt what Israel has done to increase the water availability by building a de-salinization plant. Its a processing plant that turns ocean water in clean fresh water for consumption. People have opposed it with the excuse that it costs too much money, it would cost approximately 32 million American dollars to build. Comparatively, this is what has been spent by the hour to fund the war on terror, making it a total of 5.6 trillion since 2001.
I think that if leaders (but really everyone) were able to set aside their pride and accept that another country’s innovation can improve theirs and be capable of adopting the changes as well, society would be much more advanced than it is now. I think that a lot of global issues would have been eradicated or at east improved if leaders were able to confidently make changes in their country, regardless of who thought of it first.
trg5166 says
Adriana,
When reading you blog post I felt like we both had a lot of the same ideas. I was immediately drawn in by your very first sentence, “Out of all the lessons that we can cover for our second blog I think the most important topic that we touched is Social Learning.” Because I couldn’t agree more. In my post about the importance of social learning I too focused on children in discussing this topic. I love the part where you said “social learning is part of pretty much every single being on this planet and is a primitive component to survival.” It was such a strong statement and to be quite honest would have fit perfectly into my essay as I made the same point just using different words. We all start as children, blind to the many different aspects of the world around us and if it weren’t for social learning I couldn’t be certain that we would survive. In my extensive research on the topic I came across a passage from a book by psychologist Albert Bandura that said, “Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” (Bandura, Social Learning Theory, 1977)
Where I was most impressed with you work was how you connected the same theory and evidence that I had gathered and used it to, in a way, describe one of the sole issues with human nature – their pride. There is not one nation on this earth that has “it all figured out” yet many nations would claim that they are clearly superior over the rest. Maybe if we stopped separating ourselves from each other and start looking at each other as one people than maybe we could all learn and embrace all the good components from each group in order to better us as a whole.
For example, global climate change isn’t an issue that is going to affect nations differently. And like you said in your response there are climate issues that two nations suffer from yet only one has figured out a solution. I just watched a movie called ‘Geostorm’ and although it’s an extreme dramatization and total science fiction, the final few lines of the movie were extremely strong and I think sums up your argument. “One planet, one people. And as long as we remember that we share one future…we will survive” (Devlin and Guyot, Geostorm, 2017)
References:
Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory.
Devlin, D., & Guyot, P. (Screenwriters). (2017). Geostorm [Screenplay]. Retrieved from https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=geostorm
Brittany Samara Warner says
Hi Adriana,
Great post, you made some valid points that social learning is a primitive instinct. I agree with this statement because throughout history many mistakes had to be made in order for businesses to improve themselves. In many cases this is topic is based upon learning from your mistakes. I think most organizations can agree that many mistakes were made prior to being a successful company. Social learning is a great tool for many organizations who are first starting out because it can provide guidelines on methods that may or may not have worked for past organizations. I believe that social learning in an important factor in all areas of life as well primarily because it prevents others from making the same mistakes. Most parents utilized this method when raising children as well to avoid negative behaviors in the future overall, Social learning impacts all areas of life to help avoid unnecessary mistakes. I believe many organizations should understand the importance of this method so that they can improve their organizations status and to also expand their businesses.
efg5187 says
Hi Adriana
I enjoyed reading your blog on the importance of social learning. I especially liked your story about your reaction to burning your finger at 12. Your sister didnt experience the same but she had the social learning to what she saw and decided to avoid stoves. Do you think your sister is able to take her social learning and devise ways to create safely measures? I think your ability to cross examine similar areas in social learning by animals and how leaders are by instinct possibly learning and using their social learning to innovate such as a lion or gorilla building a nest or home. Your description of California water shortage and how adoption of other countries like Israel and their water process is interesting, with facts to prove their model is successful. Do you think more countries can follow in areas based on social learning that possibly are more social issues based in terms of a better world.
Jennifer Deangelo says
Hello Adriana,
I enjoyed your discussion of social learning, particularly the example of the de-salinization plants. Your comment about the good that could occur is people were more willing to adopt ideas that have been successfully implemented in other countries led me to wonder why some people are so willing to do so and why others struggle with it. In particular, I wonder if pride is really what is stopping some people from learning from other cultures or if some deeper, more complicated force is at work.
In my search for more information, I cam across a paper by Field (1997) that discusses some of the issues that cause employees to fail to learn within organizations. Field (1997) conducted several case studies at companies that had directed significant resources towards employee learning programs. (p. 3)
One impediment to learning was dictatorial or condescending management styles that failed to empower employees (p. 4). The managers who exhibited this behavior were insecure in the new environment in which their subordinates supposed to be empowered to participate in the decision-making process and feared the loss of control that can accompany learning in the workplace (Field, 1997, p. 5). This was also seen at the subordinate level with employees fearing that others would take their places if they learned their skills or employees who refuse to learn because the learning could result in greater responsibility (Field, 1997, p. 5). Another impediment that was identified through the study was the common occurrence of the application of blame when changes did not go well (Field, 1997, p. 6). In these case studies, employees had tried to put their learning to use by implementing new processes but were met with a hostile environment when any setback was encountered (Field, 1997, p. 6).
The above information could be used to divine the reason some people may be unwilling to embrace the technology found in other cultures, such as the de-salinization plants in Israel. Perhaps the problem is not so much the pride of the leaders, but a real fear to implement a process in their constituency area that could fail. They know they will be blamed for the failure rather than praised for the attempt if that happens and changing our culture to the point that hostility does not result from failed projects would be very difficult. In my opinion, it would require a shift from the independent to the interdependent mindset in the sense that the community would need to view the attempted change as a true group project that might benefit everyone rather than something the individual leader is trying to do. I am not sure how this change in mindset could be achieved at the national level.
Field, L. (1997). Impediments to empowerment and learning within organizations.The Learning Organization, 4(4), 149-158. Retrieved from: doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1108/09696479710170842