Positive Reinforcement in Business

Enlightened corporate America is shedding its once dictatorial image for one that is less autocratic and hierarchical: as a result, negative reinforcement, or "punishment," is being used less frequently as a tool for modifying employee performance. Instead, positive reinforcement has shown to be far more effective in increasing worker satisfaction and, thus, productivity.

A checklist of rewards and punishments of potential use in a job setting includes the following as rewards: praise and encouragement, approval, recognition, and comradeship. A list of negative reinforcers, or "punishments," includes criticism, withdrawal of privileges, undesirable assignment, probation, suspension, firing, and, naturally, withholding any of the rewards already listed.

Assessing this system of rewards and punishments, Andrew J. DuBrin gives a critic's description of reinforcement theory: "a system of manipulating defenseless people by dangling carrots in front of them (or sticks in back of them)" (DuBrin, 1980, pp. 185-186). The author indicates that when reinforcement theory is truly effective, good work itself becomes rewarding. If this assessment appears too unrealistic, a look at some examples of this principle in action will prove otherwise. Traditional organizational theory, relying more on the stick than the carrot, encouraged countermeasures, minimal performance, and open rebellion (202); even so, the old method still persists to some extent, and its history and rationale

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he organization's objectives (McGregor, 1985, p. 22). There is a practical reason why the organization should avoid negative reinforcement. In unionized work environments, the elaborate legalism of certain collective bargaining relationships provides one illustration of the use of countermeasures to render authority less effective. The public employment and trade sectors practically never use the hierarchical system and, as such, have many safeguards protecting the employee built into them. The following account from an agent of the Textile Workers Union of America demonstrates the ineffectiveness of an antithetical manager/employee relationship: An agent of the Textile Workers Union of America likes to tell the story of the occasion when a new manager appeared in the mill where he was working. The manager came into the weave room the day he arrived. He walked directly over to the agent and said, "Are you Belloc?" The agent acknowledged that he was. The manager said, "I am the new manager here. When I manage a mill, I run it. Do you understand?" The agent nodded, and then waved his hand. The workers, intently watching this encounter, shut down every loom in the room immediately. The agent turned to the manager and sa

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