Human Prompting Behavior - Essay Example

Human Prompting Behavior Human prompting behavior is vital in the practice of human resource management. Prompting refers to a process of assisting or encouraging a person to elicit a particular desired behavior. Prompted behaviors are usually triggered and induced without delay. Human behavior constitutes a range of actions and mannerisms portrayed by individuals in conjunction with themselves and their environment. The primary objective of prompting human behavior is to elicit some desired actions and eliminate mannerisms that are considered unwanted. Human behavior falls within a range of behavior, which can be common, unusual, acceptable, and unacceptable. Human behavior is exhibited throughout a person’s lifetime and is impacted with certain traits that people have. Factors that determine human behavior include heredity, social norms, culture, religion, and attitude. Except for heredity, the other factors can altered through effective prompt processes to ensure that people demonstrate the desired behaviors. Human resource training is a critical component of organizational prosperity. Sitzmann and Ely focused their research on the effects of prompting self-regulation on regulatory processes, learning, and attrition. The authors defined prompting self-regulation as asking trainees reflective questions with the aim of stimulating their self-regulatory engagement during the learning process (Sitzmann and Ely 132). Reflective questioning implies taking some information gathered previously and using it in answering the question at hand. Reflective practice enables trainees to pay critical attention to practical values and theories through reflexive examination of human actions. Polaha, Amanda and Rachael argue that reflective practice is the most common tool applied in practice-based professional learning contexts where trainees learn from professional experience (336). Sitzmann and Ely concluded that continuously prompting self-regulation had the greatest effect on learning and attrition (140). This is because trainees applied the principles of reflective practice in their learning processes, leading to increased learning. Prompting behavior, however, did not significantly increase the self-regulatory activity. The subsequent modules were characterized by moderate self-regulatory activity and attrition. Continuously prompted trainees tend to continue with the training even if their performance is low. Thus, prompted trainees continue to apply other strategies to enhance their performance in learning, which helps them to remain engaged in the training. Milton and Mullan recognizes that limited number of studies have focused on implementing and measuring the effectiveness of intervention strategies that have the objective of changing food safety behavior among consumers in domestic contexts (250). It is critical for researchers to conduct and publish studies based on consumer education and targeting prevention of food-borne illnesses in domestic settings. The authors argue that only ten studies examining psychological food safety interventions have been published in the developed world. In this study, Milton and Mullan examined the four components of the Theory of Planned Behavior; these are attitudes, subject norm, Perceived Behavioral Control, and intention (251). The findings from the study led to the conclusion that the Theory of Planned Behavior is effective in enhancing food safety behaviors of young adult consumers. The research study also recognized that self-report is a critical element in behavior measurements; this was due to positive correlation observed between self-reported and observed behavior. Behavior change interventions are required to have standardized definitions of applicable techniques. All behavior change endeavors are embedded in techniques that are used in prompt processes. Standardized definitions ease the process of replicating effective interventions and identifying proper techniques that can enhance the effectiveness of interventions. Abraham and Michie conducted a research study with the primary aim of developing and testing theory-linked taxonomy applicable behavior change techniques (379). Effective categorization of standard techniques facilitates theoretical development by clarifying the interventions or combinations of interventions associated with effective behavior change across behavioral domains. In this processes, the techniques of behavior change act as prompts for behavior change. Abraham and Michie argue that standard categorization facilitates the design of effective behavior change techniques and enhances the accuracy of replication of behavior intervention content (385). The effectiveness of change interventions is affected by audience characteristics, type of materials used, fidelity of implementation, and mode of delivery. Human prompting behavior is achievable when there is guaranteed specification of content. Individual job performance and job satisfaction have been the primary determinants of behavior of persons in organizations. Most organizations focus on ensuring that they direct the behavior of organizational publics to the direction of achieving their strategic objectives. The 21st century has witnessed widespread between dependable role performance and spontaneous behavior. Organ and Konovsky describe dependable role performance as in-role behavior and spontaneous behavior as cooperative gestures, company reputation enhancement behaviors and actions protective of the system (157). Researchers, Organ and Konovsky, assert that organizations’ patterned activities extend formal role prescriptions in the extent of intrinsic cooperativeness of the organization (157). This extension is contingent upon the extent to which organizations can prompt the behavior of their human resources towards increasing their effort beyond their primary roles. Organizations have the potential for influencing the extent of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among participants (Organ and Konovsky 159). Organizations can rely on personnel selection if OCB were mainly a function of affect that is largely a dispositional value. Organizational governance is vital in determining OCB in situations where OCB is skewed towards a function of people’s subjective appraisal fairness. Human prompting behaviors applicable in these contexts include ensuring distributive justice such as pay and providing effective arrangements that guarantee procedural and distributive justice. Additionally, organizations can prompt the behaviors of their members by modifying current policies and increasing efforts to communicate the rationale of organizational policies. Human prompting behavior is a gradual process that occurs in stages. Fuchs et al contend that children begin learning mathematics by first adding two-digit horizontal problems before moving skills to adding two-digit vertical problems (293). Children then improve these skills to adding three-digit problems and finally learn the skills of adding the cost of two items to come up with the money people spend in buying goods and services. This implies that prompting human behavior must begin from simple actions before moving to complex activities Fuchs et al add that it is possible to transfer skills learnt in one context and apply them to new situations (300). In human resource management, it critical for managers to allow employees learn step by step as they get used to their job functions. Additionally, prompting can easily occur if exceptional employees are paired with their lower-performing counterparts in order to facilitate adaptability, skill acquisition and role modeling. Human prompting behavior is mostly applied in instances characterized by identified deficiency. When there is an identified danger associated with a particular behavior, people begin persuading the affected persons to change their behavior and adopt desired behaviors. Research carried out by Stark et al. revealed that children with Cystic fibrosis (CF) experienced declining weight status. Cystic fibrosis is a hereditary transmitted disorder, which affects the organ systems of the body, leading to reduced life expectancy (Stark et al 275). According to the authors, the declining in weight accounts for the significantly increased attempts by parents encouraging children with cystic fibrosis to eat. These parents realized the ramifications associated with pancreatic insufficiency and malabsorption of fats and vitamins. Thus, they prompt their children to adopt good eating habits with an objective of minimizing the adversities associated with such malefactions. Additionally, the authors argue that children without cystic fibrosis did not show significant rates of behaviors incompatible with eating. Parents of children cystic fibrosis frequently commanded their children to eat in addition to coaxing, physical prompting, and reinforcement of eating habits (Stark et al. 289). This is because parents feel a lot of pressure to prompt their children adopt good eating habits. When properly prompted, children with cystic fibrosis seem not to resist, but they respond appropriately. Prompting actually works effectively when there is reinforcement meant to encourage the parties being prompted to take action. Human resource management should seek ways of effective prompting human behavior. The most frequently used strategies for human behavior prompting include praise, reprimands, and redirectives. Users of these strategies have to put several aspects into consideration, including physical proximity, consistency and rate of delivery. Hiralall and Martens carried out a research to identify the effects of scripted instructional sequences on teacher and student behavior. The researchers trained four teachers to implement a sequence of strategies, which included demanded eye contact, praise, redirectives, and signaling (94). The overall objective of this study was to identify the necessity of training for human resources, and how this training enhances the efficiency, trait maintenance, and consistency of human behavior in daily actions. Finding from the study revealed that the trained teachers adopted the sequence of strategies, which became part of their daily routine. This implies that training for human resources significantly changes their behavior. Training itself is instrumental in changing the behaviors of people in the organization because it is the most effective behavior prompting strategy. However, organizational executives should be aware that the effects of training could be somehow short-lived. The trained staff can show immediate recovery of the desired behavior in the presence of behavior prompting agents. For example, Hiralall and Martens argue that Peggy and Diana gradually decreased frequency of using reprimands, praise statements and modeling in the absence of scripts; however, once provided with scripts, they demonstrated immediate recovery and maintained the use of these sequences till the end of the follow-up (111). Some form of reinforcement is usually necessary to enhance and maintain prompted behavior. This explains the reasons for regularly and consistent training of personnel in most modern organizations. Human beings have preferences to learn from moral informants; these preferences are partly driven by increased sensitivity to positive character traits. Research carried out by Doebel and Koenig investigated the possibility of a speaker’s moral actions having differential effects on children’s behavior (462). People whose behaviors are regarded desirable have more potential for prompting human behavior than those whose behavior is undesirable. In the experiment by Doebel and Koenig, “children were equally likely to learn from nicer of the two informants regardless of whether that informant behaved neutrally in contrast to an immoral informant or morally to an neutral informant” (466); this implies that it is critical to carefully select representatives who are going to assume the responsibility of prompting human behavior. These people must be morally upright and must act positively to the parties they are trying their behavior. This way, observers can easily concentrate on them and adopt desirable behavior for their own good. Doebel and Koenig further assert that children may find individuals who behave immorally to their peer viscerally aversive; this prompts arousal processes that facilitate the encoding of information for future use (466). The study revealed that children are more physiologically aroused by negative information and they store this information for future use. Prompting human behavior is easier when learning moral informants than from a neutral informant (Doebel and Koenig 467). The testimony of immoral informants is usually rejected in favor of a neutral informant. Liberman et al. believe that human behavior prompting requires consistency and indefinite trials to initiate and sustain it (633). Persistence and continuous trails act as both reminders and reinforcement agents. Ivan Pavlov’s conditioning experiments revealed that pairing a neutral stimulus with a behavior eliciting agent can transform a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus. According to Liberman et al, there are several skills that a trainer for schizophrenic patients should posses; these social skills include cueing patients’ significant others to reinforce the patient’s gradually improving skills, equipping patients with several instances where the acquired skills will be applied, concealing the contingencies and expectations operating during training, and ability to use stimuli in the training setting that are likely to be found in the setting characterized by generalization (642). These skills are essential in enhancing the quality of training services. Human prompting process is critical in ensuring conformance to the guidelines of organizations and the society in general. The societal institutions should focus on prompting human behavior to ensure people demonstrate the desired behavior. Human resource managers should apply the effective strategies for prompting human behavior and apply them properly in order to achieve the desired behavior. It is through this that people will elicit the desired behaviors for both individual and collective prosperity. Works Cited Abraham, Charles., and Sussan Michie. "A Taxonomy Of Behavior Change Techniques Used In Interventions." Health Psychology 27.3 (2008): 379-387. Doebel, Sabine., and Melissa .A. Koenig. "Childrens Use Of Moral Behavior In Selective Trust: Discrimination Versus Learning." Developmental Psychology 49.3 (2013): 462-469. Fuchs, L., Fuchs, D., Prentice, K., Burch, M., Hamlett, C., Owen, R., ... Jancek, D. (n.d.). Explicitly Teaching For Transfer: Effects On Third-grade Students Mathematical Problem Solving. Journal of Educational Psychology, 293-304. Hiralall, Andrea, and Brian.K. Martens. "Teaching Classroom Management Skills To Preschool Staff: The Effects Of Scripted Instructional Sequences On Teacher And Student Behavior." School Psychology Quarterly 13.2 (1998): 94-115. Liberman, Robert P., et al. "Training Skills In The Psychiatrically Disabled: Learning Coping And Competence." Schizophrenia Bulletin 12.4 (1986): 631-647. Milton, Alyssa C., and Barbara A. Mullan. "An Application Of The Theory Of Planned Behavior—A Randomized Controlled Food Safety Pilot Intervention For Young Adults." Health Psychology 31.2 (2012): 250-259. Organ, Dennis W., and Mary Konovsky. "Cognitive Versus Affective Determinants Of Organizational Citizenship Behavior." Journal Of Applied Psychology 74.1 (1989): 157-164 Polaha, Jodi, Volkmer, Amanda, and Valleley Rachael. "A Call-In Service To Address Parent Concerns About Child Behavior In Rural Primary Care." Families, Systems And Health, 25.3 (2007): 333-343 Sitzmann, Traci, and Katherine Ely. "Sometimes You Need A Reminder: The Effects Of Prompting Self-Regulation On Regulatory Processes, Learning, And Attrition." Journal Of Applied Psychology 95.1 (2010): 132-144. Stark, Lori et al. "Child Behavior And Parent Management Strategies At Mealtimes In Families With A School-Age Child With Cystic Fibrosis." Health Psychology 24.3 (2005): 274-280. Read More