Joe Salatino, President of Great Northern American Case Study
Angelique Prickett
Strayer University
Bus/520
August 6, 2012
Debra Beazley

Joe Salatino, President of Great Northern American
Joe Salatino is the president of Great Northern American, which is a company that sells office, arts-and-crafts, and computer supplies (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Many of the salespeople make over $60,000 a year and the top sellers earn over $100,000 (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). The salespeople earn commission off what they sell, and the percentage depends on the price of the item (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). One of the top salespeople at the company can make 20 to 25 calls an hour (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). This kind job of could be hard on a person if he or she is not very customer oriented. Joe should use the social learning theory to help his employees understand the importance of how people form perceptions and make attributions. Joe could use several methods apply this theory to help improve the employee’s performance. Joe could also gather a clearer understanding of self efficiency, and this would help him hire people who will be successful. Incorporating social learning theory into his company and helping his employees have a better understanding of how people work will help Joe’s company become even more successful.
Discuss why Joe’s employees need to understand the importance of how people form perceptions and make attributions.
Knowing how people form perceptions and make attributions is important because it will enhance the number of customers who shop with the company. Joe should inform his employees that the success of the company depends on the customer’s perception of the company and its employees. Customers will form perceptions and make attributions based on the actions of the employees. Duggan (2012), “Perception describes the way people filter, organize and interpret sensory information” (para. 1). Perception is how a person sees and interprets a situation. Joe should also tell his employees a customer’s perception of how a company is run is determined by how the customer perceives the employees. If the customer calls on the phone, the employee should sound very energetic and happy. This will make the customer perceive that the employee is having a good day and is happy to help that customer with whatever is needed. If the customer is shopping in the salesroom, employees should be perceived as liking their jobs and being happy with what they do. When the customers perceive the employees like their jobs, the customer will spend more money, and tell his or her friends that Great Northern American has energetic employees that are happy to help the customers with what is needed.
Duggan (2012), “Attribution explains how people act, determining how people react to the actions of others as well” (para. 1). Joe should tell his employees that customers will make attributions based on the way they and others were treated while shopping with the company. If one employee sees another employee who is having trouble with a customer, that employee should step in and help the one having the problem. This will let the customer know that employees are willing to do what it takes to please their customers. It is important to for Joe’s employees to know how people perceive and make attributions because the company depends on the customers. If the customer perceives and attributes the company as having unhappy and unhelpful employees, he or she will not want to buy anything from that company. Joe’s employees need to understand that the perception and attributes of each customer could make or break a company. If the employee is not willing to be happy and helpful, the customer will attribute unhappiness and unhelpfulness to the whole company. It is important that customer perceive and attribute positive reactions from each employee.
Evaluate which learning theory (either operant conditioning, social learning theory, or the learning theory you researched in Week 3) would be most appropriate for Joe to apply in this situation and explain why.
In this situation, Joe should apply the social learning theory because the employees can learn by watching what is going on around them. McLeod (2011), “In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) states behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning” (para. 1). Learning by being part of a society is the social part of social learning theory and making decisions using the thought process is the learning part of social learning theory (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). The social learning theory uses symbolizing, forethought, vicarious learning, self-control, and self-efficacy as steps to success. Symbolizing is using a mental picture to help guide one’s behavior (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Joe should let his slower producing employees work with the top producing employees so they can get a mental picture of how things should be done. This will help the slower producing employees strive to work harder and produce more sales. Forethought bases the actions of a person on what he or she desires most (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). If the slower producing employees desire to be top producers, they are going to pay attention to what the top producers are doing and copy the top producers. People desire to make the most money they can and the slower produces desire to make more they just need to be shown how. Vicarious learning is watching how others act and seeing what happens because they acted that way (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). The slower producing employees can watch the top producing employees and see what is working and what it not. The slow producing employee could be doing his or her work the wrong way, and the top producing employee can help correct the slow producing employee’s mistakes. This could help the company in the long run. Self-control is learning new actions to achieve one’s goals (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). A slow producing employee could set his or her goal to be a top producer, and they could get there through observing and working with a top producing employee. People strive to be at the top within his or her workplace, so setting goals and reaching them is a big accomplishment for people. Self-efficacy is estimating one’s ability to do a certain task in a certain situation (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). The top producing employee could teach the slow producing employee how to perform certain tasks faster, teach the slow producing employee some shortcuts, and this will help the slow producing employee do a better, faster more efficient job. Applying the social learning theory will help all employees perform better and encourage them to help each other. Social learning theory would be effective for everyone involved, even Joe.
Discuss ways that Joe could apply the learning theory you selected to improve employees’ performance.
Joe could apply the social learning theory in ways that would benefit all employees at Great Northern American. When new employees join the company, Joe could have them walk around and observe the top producing employees for the first week. This will let the new employees see how fast paced the work is, and will help the new employees decide if they want to stay and be a part of the company. If the new employees decide to stay, each one could be assigned to a top producing employee, and get the training they need through the best employees. This will show the new employee what is expected of them and how to perform the job in the proper manner. Joe could let the new employee work under the supervision of a top producing employee. This way the new employee would be doing the work, and if any mistakes were mad the top producing employee could catch the mistake or answer questions. Joe could let the employee work on his or her own, but let him or her know what will happen if he or she keeps making mistakes.
Applying the social learning theory with employees who already work for the company would also help slow producing employees become top producing employees. The top producing employees know certain strategies they could teach the slow producing employees to help them become faster and more efficient. Getting all employees working at the same pace and efficiency will be beneficial to the company and the customers. Incorporating the social learning theory will let slow producing employees learn how to be faster, and this will help the company because more customers will be helped. Joe should apply the social learning theory on new employees as well as existing employees.
Determine how Joe could leverage an understanding of the value of self-efficacy to ensure he hires the most successful salespeople.
“Self-efficacy is the individual’s estimate of his or her own ability to perform a specific task in a particular situation” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011 p.151). Joe needs to trust himself and believe that he can find the most successful salespeople. Self-efficacy is what one believes about him or herself, it is not the actuality of who that person really is. One can believe they are a superhero, but when it comes to it he or she really is not, he or she just believed it. Joe should examine the qualities of his top producing employees and look for those qualities in the people he is interviewing. He should also look within himself and see what qualities he has and look for those as well. All Joe needs to do is believe, and he can do anything. It is important for him to believe he can hire the most successful salespeople because believing in oneself is the key to success.
Conclusion
Joe is the president of Great Northern American, which is a company that measures success by how much money the employees are paid (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Joe employees should know how people form perceptions and make attributions. Knowing this can help employees get more customers. Joe should use the social learning theory in this situation because it will help his slow producing employees learn from his top producing employees. Joe could use the social learning theory to make sure new employees want to work for the company, and that they get the best training. Joe should use self-efficacy and believe he can do anything he puts his mind to. Joe should incorporate the social learning theory into his company so he and his employees will have a successful future.

References Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, Jr, J. W. (2011). Organizational behavior (13th ed.). : Cengage Learning. Duggan, T. (2012). Organizational behavior perceptions &attributes. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/organizational-behavior-perceptions-attributes-10835.html McLeod, S. A. (2011). Albert Bandura | Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html