Theories of Learning

Learning is importance in our organizational settings. The learning theories can broadly be divided into two categories , behavioural theories and cognitive theories . Behavioural theories can be divided into two sub sections , classical conditioning and operant conditioning .

Operant Conditioning

In operant conditioning learning is viewed as a function of a person's response to a stimulus and his or her assessment of the degree of the satisfaction derived form the response. Further , it says that if the response to a stimulus brings positive consequences , the individual will repeat the same response towards that stimulus.He or she will be avoid his or her response and attempts a new response if the consequence is negative.

Positive Reinforcement

According to this concept , people repeat their behaviour , if the consequence of behaviour is positive in nature. If you are a supervisor or a manager in factory or any other organization , you might have forced the workers to do overtime when you had to meet a deadline. Sometimes , you would not allow workers to obtain leave without your prior approval . Can you explain why you would have behaved in this manner ? You may have behaved in this manner you knew in advance that you would be granted an additional bonus for meeting the deadline . There is a tendency to repeat the same behaviour in similar situation because of the positive consequence of your response to this stimulus . In other words , positive consequence of response increase the likelihood of repeating that behaviour in similar settings.


Negative Reinforcement

You may be unable to explain your behaviour in meeting a deadline based on positive reinforcement , even though , you might have been responding in the same manner repeatedly . Sometimes it may be due to an awareness of a negative consequence of your response . Here lies the essence of another important concept in operant conditioning , namely negative reinforcement .

The concept of negative reinforcement indicates that the removal of the negative consequence increase the likelihood that an individual will repeat the behaviour . Remember our earlier example ; 'meeting a deadline ' in this situation , suppose you knew that the management would stop your salary increment , promotion or would even punish you in other forms , if you did not meet the deadline . This knowledge would have created a great deal of anxiety in you . You can remove this anxiety by making every possible attempt to meet the deadline .