|

Week 4/Assignment 2 | [Type the document subtitle] | | Shaneil white | | Bess | 1/30/2013 | |

Great Western Supply, a division of Great North American Companies, offers a wide variety of promotional and marketing equipment. Operational for more than 35 years, GNAC serves numerous industries, including automotive facilities, bank and credit unions, day care, fire departments, funeral homes, hospitals, insurance and law firms, nonprofit agencies, post offices, and schools (NGA). The companys products include adhesive cubes and notes, apparels, auto accessories, plastic and paper bags, backpacks and totes, calendars, candy and food items, clocks, watches, coloring books, desk items, drink ware, flashlights and novelties, and sports items (NGA). It also offers household items, key tags, magnets, pencils and pens, stickers, static clings, decals, pins, stress relievers, and tools and measuring equipment. Additionally, Great Western provides arts and crafts and office supplies and computer-related products. The company is located in Farmers Ranch, Texas. One of the popular incentives that the company offers the employees is the blue light signal (NGA) . This is when the rotating blue light signals that a sale is on, and for the next hour the employees are able to take advantage of the great deals.
Many of the employees of the company earn anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 a year (NGA). This is remarkable. The employees earn commission from the sale calls they make during a giving day. The CEO also contributes daily to the profits of the company by making anywhere from 20 to 25 calls per day which receives 5 to 12 percent of the list price, depending on the merchandise (NGA). The key to success at this company is establishing a good relationship with the customer. This requires special skills that the employee has mastered. One tactic used is subscribing to the home town newspaper of the customer; therefore the employee is able to connect with the customer on a personal level (NGA).
Salatino is a remarkable leader of his company and sets the standards high for his employee. A leader is a person that exhibits the key attributes of leadership, idea, vision, values, influencing others, and making tough decisions (Hellriegel, Slocum. 2011). Although the company is a small business, the business ethics and standards is that of a large company. This company has mastered some key component, and other business tactics that may be detrimental to the organization. For example the perceptions of the customers, applying the social learning theory, and self-efficacy during the hiring process. All of the above techniques will help to make this already remarkable company better.
A person’s perception is the process by which the individual attributes characteristics of traits to other people (Hellriegel, Slocum. 2011). The perception of one person is different from the perception of another. When perceiving someone it is a good rule of thumb to mindful of different cue that is given for example; facial expressions, general appearance, skin color, posture, age, gender, voice quality, personality traits, behaviors and one that the book didn’t put was tone of voice (Hellriegel, Slocum. 2011). These things will allow the perceiver to indicate certain characteristics about the person. This is a vital eliminate in Great North American Companies, because the company require the employees to verbally communicate with the customer, in order to build a clients to improve the productivity of the company. The first impression a customer has can either help the company or harm the company’s future relationships with the company.
However it is important for the employee to protect themselves from Perceptual errors such as stereotyping. Stereotyping is when a person places certain characteristics of one person to the entire group (Hellriegel, Slocum. 2011). This will keep the customer from keeping an open mind. Another perceptual error is the halo effect this is when one positive or negative characteristic dominates the way that person is viewed. This can be a deal breaker when first meeting someone. Projection is the tendency for individuals to see their own traits in other people. The employees want to reframe from projecting his or her own motives, feelings, personality characteristics and attitudes onto others (Hellriegel, Slocum. 2011) . Although impression management is classified as a perceptual error it is an attempt to manipulate or control the impressions that others form about them. This is a tactic that sale personal use before they establish a good retours with the customer. This technique has its advantages and disadvantages. During the hiring process Salatino use specific criteria’s to ensure they will fit with the companies fast pace. Usually if the new hire isn’t a good fit with company then they will quite during the first week. Salation has to be able to recognize to needs of the customer to be successful in this process. This process can be sought by applying Maslow’s needs of hierarchy, which states that people have five basic needs. The needs include, Physiological, security, affiliation, esteem and self-actualization (Hellriegel, Slocum. 2011). If these hierarchy’s are applied, the company will be able to satisfy their customers as well as the employee.
Social learning theory is a theory that attempts to explain socialization and its effect of the development of the self(Anderson, Taylor.2009) . There are many different theories that explain how people become socialized, including psychoanalytic theory, functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction theory. Social learning theory, like these others, looks at the individual learning process, the formation of self, and the influence of society in socializing individuals.
Social learning theory considers the formation of one’s identity to be a learned response to social stimuli. It emphasizes the societal context of socialization rather than the individual mind. This theory postulates that an individual’s identity is not the product of the unconscious (such as the belief of psychoanalytic theorists), but instead is the result of modeling oneself in response to the expectations of others (Anderson, Taylor.2009). Behaviors and attitudes develop in response to reinforcement and encouragement from the people around us. While social learning theorists acknowledge that childhood experience is important, they also believe that the identity people acquire is formed more by the behaviors and attitudes of others.
The social learning theory, a system of learning most commonly associated with behaviorist Albert Bandura, is most commonly applied in educational settings. You can also apply this theory, which argues that people learn from each other through observation and socialization, to your small business. Through the use of this theory, you may be able to more effectively guide employee behavior and promote the business-building behaviors that your workers must adapt to make your small business a successful one(Anderson, Taylor.2009). Step 1Model behavior for employees. The first step in teaching a behavior in the social learning theory is modeling that behavior. Instead of simply telling employees what they want them to do, leaders should physically model the behavior, acting out the process they hope those under them will follow. By seeing the behavior modeled, employees can develop a more defined understanding of what the behavior entails and experience more success in carrying out the behavior in question. Encourage the employees to imitate your behaviors. After modeling, leaders should verbally encourage behavior imitation. They can do this in two ways. First, they can directly tell the employee that they want him to do as he saw modeled. Secondly, they can reward employees who follow the modeled behavior in a public fashion, allowing other workers to see that this behavior is the one that they want all workers to adopt. Observe the employee as he carries out the behavior. Leaders should keep a continual eye on workers, making sure that they are following the procedures they modeled. If the employees are found not to be following these procedures, the leader should step in and correct the employee's behavior, encouraging him to adapt his behavior. Establish consequences for behavior deviation. When employees fail to follow the behaviors that the leaders are trying to endorse, there must be consequences for doing so. These consequences may involve simple verbal correction or be as severe as formal sanctions (Anderson, Taylor.2009)
Albert Bandura developed the theory of self-efficacy to address how an individual perceives his ability to perform a task within a specific context. Self-efficacy is similar to self-esteem, but differs from self-esteem in that it is specific to task performance (Anderson, Taylor.2009). An understanding of self-efficacy is valuable for small business professionals who depend on workplace performance and productivity, because self-efficacy levels influence thoughts, feelings and behaviors. During the process of hiring an employee Salatino should be knowledgeable about Self-efficacy because it refers to what how you perceive yourself, rather than how you truly are. self-efficacy affects productivity in many ways, for example an employee with low self-efficacy run the risk of performing tasks below her actual ability level because she believes she can only perform to that level, and she may not recognize her aptitude to do the work (Anderson, Taylor.2009) . On the other hand, self-efficacy that runs too high may give an individual an unrealistic picture of his ability to do a certain task. Creating an environment that promotes a healthy self-efficacy among workers increases their involvement with the work. According to Bandura, an effective way to build realistic, positive self-efficacy is by experiencing successes that build confidence in the ability to perform (Anderson, Taylor.2009) . Rewards and constructive feedback are ways you can encourage self-confidence in your employees. Allowing employees to work on tasks at which they excel as well as offering opportunities to try new task challenges encourages a balance of success and personal and professional growth. Self-efficacy is part of the larger social cognitive theory, which relates to how people learn in a social context (Anderson, Taylor.2009). Another way to increase self-efficacy in the workplace is to create learning opportunities that allow workers to model behavior. By watching others with experience performing a task, an individual learns the steps involved and is able to repeat those behaviors.

References Great Northern American.www.gnamerican.com/
Anderson, M.L. and Taylor,H.E.(2009). Sociology: The Essentials. Belmont, C: Thomson Wadsworth
Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J.W., Jr. (2011). Organizational behavior: 2011 custom edition (13th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning