Enduring Change in Behaviour - Dissertation Example

Enduring Change in Behaviour Task 1 “Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge through experience which leads to an enduring change in behaviour.” (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2010) From behaviorist’s point of view, learning involves specific process of response to stimuli (Sadock et al., 2007; Hill, 1963). This means that a certain reward or punishment triggers specific response and therefore creates certain change in behaviour. For instance, children most of the time learn about the world from their experiences. Activities that resulted to bad experiences are often learned to be unpleasant and neglected while those resulting to positive experiences are most likely to be reinforced. This is the reason why it is advised to appreciate whatever good things that a child has made in order to reinforce good behavior out from them. Parents therefore are advised to learn more about their children especially in their growing up days. On the other hand, unfavorable consequences of certain actions are also learned which resulted to doing things that will end up positive results. Children only learn a little about the world and most of their learning can be acquired from their daily experiences with adults. Parents are continuously feeding their children with the right or even wrong information. However, children can also acquire their knowledge from media or even other people aside from their parents or closer relatives at home. Children learn about their immediate surrounding out from their experiences. Whatever they feel, hear, smell or see on a day to day basis is considered part of their experience. In the same way, adults have the same mechanism as they continue to survive and make the most out of their lives in this world. Adults have to learn different things everyday but most of the time; their learning does not require more about theoretical aspects. They appreciate the most essential and practical part which is experience. In this manner, adults behave in a way that what makes sense to them are only those things they learned importantly out from their experience. Most of them based their choices in life on their learned things out from their experiences. In IQ tests and even in other behavioral tests, it is found that experiences have significant impact on the corresponding results. For instance, a person who is exposed to a certain environment for quite a long time may have been influenced by what he perceives in his surrounding. Thus, when this person changes his environment, a new set of perspective may eventually change his previously perceived things in life. Thus, a person living in other country for quite a long time and returns to his mother land may possess different behavior. As mostly noticed, personality may change and this is feed by the acquired behavior at a particular experience at certain time. This is the reason why personality changes over time and the way an individual behaves. The acquired learning or knowledge from a certain experiences has something to do with the necessary changes of someone else’s personality and eventually behavior or perspective in life. This is the reason that in most firms, especially in hiring supervisory and managerial positions, experience is very important deciding point. Experience is equated to substantial knowledge and understanding of the specific job function. Based on this assumption, an individual who has more experience is considered to have more meaningful behavior about his or her job. For instance, managers are expected to lead and anticipated to act as someone to be on top of his or her subordinates. Those subordinates are mostly not expected to behave in the same way as managers do. It is true that the mind cannot be seen or observed but its actual function can be critically considered through observing specific behavior or actions of a person. It is hard to identify the mind and the actual thought. Usually, it can only be understood in detail once behavior or specific actions of a person are observed. In the same way, whatever is learned cannot be exactly determined without understanding the required process. Learning is a never ending process and this means that knowledge is obtained out from it. Knowledge through experience is implied. Obtaining knowledge is tantamount to achieving the right experience. Many say that experience is the best teacher. This is exactly true because through experience, an individual is exposed to different ideas, situations or something that is enough to teach, correct, or rebuke. For instance, the knowledge of a person starts from the level of that of the preschooler. This eventually increases as this person reaches grade schools and so on. Acquiring masteral or doctoral degree requires substantial experience. A practicing pediatrician for instance needs to have all the basics and necessary knowledge about child diseases or sicknesses prior to have the chance to prescribe medicines. This is acquired most of the time through their experience. Some medicines may not work out well for other patients and this means that not all medicines may be good for all. This means that such physician must be able to distinguish the right medicine for the right person and situation. Fortunately, this sometimes may be outside the bound of what has been learned from the academe but through experience. In the same way, a practicing lawyer needs to have substantial experience in understanding the law and constitution. The best lawyer may not be those who have the best theoretical knowledge but those with rich experience especially in winning the case. In comparison, the detail may be observed on how a certain lawyer with substantial experience of winning and playing its role by acquiring the right behavior for success. This in particular is not part of the theoretical aspects but it is only acquired through experience. Thus, a novice lawyer and experienced one may substantially differ in their behavior which can be clearly observed how they compose strategies in order to win their case. Task 2 Why would managers want to change employees’ attitude? Comment on the approach you might take as a manager. Give reasons. Prior to dealing the main point of this question, it is important to define what attitude is all about. From psychological point of view, it is a product of cognitive, affective and behavioural processes which eventually will result to cognitive, affective and behavioural manifestation (Hewstone and Stroebe, 2001; Renkema, 2004). Everyone has learned preconceived notion about everything. This remarkably is used by each individual in order to respond to person, behavior, belief or thing in either on a favorable or unfavorable manner. This is how attitude is significantly defined from a social psychology perspective (Feldman, 2003). Employee’s attitude is one of the most important considerations in order to achieve performance that is in line with obtaining corporate goals. Managers should be able to respond adequately to employees’ attitudes because this is the only way they can try to formulate important ideas on how to effectively achieve their corporate goals. In the first place, employees are one of the best assets that a company has. This means that the company must be able to maximize this resource. The human resource should be given considerable attention because it is through it that the implementation of corporate activities is taken into detailed account. Without the human resource, a firm will not be able to successfully implement its vision and eventually achieved its specific goals. In most cases, there is a strong emphasis placed on motivating personnel. Motivation is necessary because it is through it that employees are able to perform their functions effectively which will be able to meet company’s expectations. However, prior to doing this, it is necessary to learn about the attitudes of each employee. For instance, there are some employees who have specific needs in life and this eventually gives strong influence on their attitudes. Employees who have strong need for survival and relying strongly on what they receive from the company is somewhat having a positive mental attitude to perform well on their respective tasks. This is due to the fact that they need to have a job. Thus, they have to value most of their time while working with the company which they acquire their valued jobs. Japanese are known to have positive attitude towards work. They devote most of their time for work. In fact, they can spend overtime without being paid. This is how devoted they are when it comes to giving their time for work. As a manager, it is important to consider that one of the most important qualities of an employee is a positive mental attitude towards his or her work and assigned tasks no matter how small they might be. As a manager it is important to create a positive working environment for the employees in order to influence their working attitudes and align them to the company’s vision, mission, goals and culture. It is easy to impart the vision from an employee to another with a clearly defined working attitude. Creating a positive working environment is not going to be an easy task for the management. In the first place, the manager must have clear and concise definition of a positive mental attitude towards work and this must start from the higher rank of the corporate ladder. In short, the management must posses and have clearly defined positive working attitude. This is to ensure effective transformation of a positive attitude from top to bottom of the organisational scheme. Considering that in the corporate world everything starts from the upper part of the organisational structure, then it is important that the influence should start from it. Managers therefore are expected to be the leader and highly innovative when it comes to effective transformation of attitude. Employees are strongly influenced by what they observed or perceived. Thus, it is also important not just to rely on effective transformation through a leadership approach, but it is required to know the specific response of each employee. This means that a manager must be careful with his approach in dealing with how to know the specific response of employees in the process of transforming their attitudes in line with the company’s corporate vision. In this way, it is ensured that there is going to be a mutual understanding of specific response between the employees and the management. This is to ensure further that the right response is achieved so as to create a clear picture of the vision that the company wants to achieve. Achieving the company’s vision is not just a matter of creating it over night. It requires time and the right process. In fact, the good way to start doing it is through the human resource. Thus, it is one of the most important and crucial steps to transform the right attitude. In fact, the very point is to come up with leaders that are highly transformed possessing the right attitude for their designated jobs. This has to flow down the bottom part of the organisational structure and eventually creating a unified approach all through out for the entire organisation. This approach requires the right vision and appropriate strategic actions in order to achieve its effective and efficient implementation. Employees are not just the focus in this approach but the entire organisation in general particularly the higher level of management. It is important that the entire influence should have solid foundation within the core values of the management so as to effectively pass it on down to the lower portion of the organisation. Task 3 Choose FOUR barriers to communication that you have studied on this module. Suggest, as a manager, how you might overcome such barriers. In this section, the four barriers to communication are discussed which include aspects such as physical, cultural, perceptional and motivational (Guffey et al., 2009; Debasish and Das, 2009). Physical barriers to communication include time, environment, comfort, needs, physical medium and others. These barriers are important to learn especially on how to eliminate them because they hinder productivity and eventually on the successful achievement of corporate goals. Physical barriers are noted to be an integral part of an individual. This means that in dealing with this barrier it is important to consider personal approach. For instance, it is important that a manager must be able to learn various needs of the employees. This is to ensure that their needs are addressed through corporate policies and standard operating procedures. Furthermore, there are some employees with specific physical or at some point mental disabilities that need to be addressed the right way. Managers need to consider understanding the physical barriers by encouraging the right response. It is an important mechanism that there is going to be an open line communication between the employees and management that closely considers physical barriers. It is through this that such barriers will be eliminated and therefore the right communication process is ensured. Managers therefore need to consider different factors that could stand as physical barriers to effective communication. There are different approaches that need to be considered in this case. However, it depends entirely on the specific need of the individual and the firm for its effective implementation. Furthermore, it needs to be entirely designed on the specific vision of the firm. Other barriers to communication include cultural aspects such as ethnic, religious and social differences. These factors are strong barriers considering that a certain organisation has to establish and implement its culture. In line with this, it is not guaranteed that all employees will be able to adhere to this corporate culture because of specific cultural background. Employees have ethnic, religious and social differences and it is not easy to integrate them and align them to an organisation’s culture. Thus, managers must be able to identify these specific employee’s cultural backgrounds in order to create corporate culture that is open to diverse cultural background. It is a crucial task of managers to implement cultural orientation. In the first place, this is to ensure that the corporate vision will be passed on from the management down to the employees. Effective communication is necessary for this task but it is a primary consideration to eliminate cultural background of individuals that may hinder in the process. Another important approach to eliminate cultural diversity among employees is to recognize them and create respect for every body. This is evident in the management of multinational companies where there is a strong emphasis placed on respect of one’s cultural background, but a unified organisational culture is strongly implemented. This is to further ensure that the right corporate process and its entire operation are strongly implemented within the bound of cultural aspect. Another important barrier to effective communication is perceptional which contains viewing things from what is said from someone’s mindset. It is hard to eliminate beliefs or things that are strongly stored within an individual’s mindset because it at certain level it is integrated with lifestyle. Therefore, one of the most effective ways to understand this is through conducting personality tests and other related psychological examinations that are in line with gauging the capacity of the employees to evaluate their own mindset. It is important to do this because employees need also to evaluate what is up in their minds so as to give them chance to align it with the company’s stated vision and strategic moves. It is in line with this that an employee has to substantially consider taking evaluative measures and understanding them so as to fully know where does the company wants them to head on. Another important action is to conduct learning and growth strategies and programs. This allows an individual to evaluate his or her specific level. Prior to conducting performance evaluative measures, an individual is allowed to evaluate its performance and even its level so as to fully understand what the company expects of him or her. It is not easy to conduct this knowing that an individual has to be given the freedom to discern his or her own mindset and evaluate it according to company’s corporate direction. Thus, managers must be able to identify the right process at the right time. Another important barrier to effective communication is motivational aspect which correspondingly relates to mental inertia. One of the considerations in selecting the right employee is to conduct mental alertness and aptitude tests. This is to ensure the capacity of an employee to understand instructions, get the right information and decide things even in the midst of time pressure. Mental alertness is necessary because this ensures that the right information through effective communication is ensured. Thus, managers must be able to hire mentally alert employees. This only ensures that the best way to lay off employees is not to hire them if they do not qualify to the specific company’s standard for mental inertia. Thus, managers must ensure that the right standard is set and clearly implemented the right way. Task 4: Application Letter Date Name Address To the Manager: Sir/Madame: Greetings! From a reliable source, I found that your company is in need of assistant manager. I know that it is hard for companies to choose the right person for the job. Today, we know that every company has to be a cut above the other. This means that starting from the human resource; a company needs to create a better foundation for its operation in order to ensure its competitive advantage. Thus, it is required that the right person has to be hired for the right position. This brings forward to creating a company that is in line with high standard of human resource to successfully implement the corporate vision and specifically achieve corporate objectives. In line with this, I would like to present myself to apply as assistant manager in your company. I know that you are looking for someone with sufficient experience for the job. It is my pleasure to present myself for the job. Please find herewith attached curriculum vitae for your perusal. In line with this, I am looking for your consideration of my application. I am willing to be assessed and interviewed at your most favorable time. I appreciate your time for this and look forward to your positive response. Thank you for your time! Sincerely, Name of Applicant Appendix: Curriculum Vitae Name: Address: Age: Contact Number: Professional objective: To be able to impart my expertise as part of creating a company that is in line with high standard of human resource to successfully implement the corporate vision and specifically achieve corporate objectives. Educational Background: Diploma in Business Management: (Year graduated) Name of School or University Address Training and Experiences: Advertising Manager Name of the advertising company Years Specific function: Travel Agent Name of the travel agency Years Specific function: Skills: Please include your skills that will help the company decide you are indeed the right person for the job. Character References: Name 1 Address Contact Number Name 2 Address Contact Number Name 3 Address Contact Number References Debasish, S. S., and Das, B. (2009) Business Communication. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Feldman, R. S. (2003) Essentials of Understanding Psychology. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Guffey, M. E., Rogin, P., and Rhodes, K. (2009) Business Communication: Process and Product. Ontario: Cengage Learning. Hewstone, M., and Stroebe, W. (2001) Introduction to social psychology: a European perspective. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Hill, W. F. (1963) Learning: a survey of psychological interpretations. Great Britain: Taylor & Francis. Renkema, J. (2004) Intrduction to discourse studies. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Sadock, B. J., Kaplan, H. I., and Sadock, V. A. (2007) Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatery: behavioral science/clinical psychiatry. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Read More