Social Learning Theory and Perception

NAME

Strayer University Online

Business 520

Dr. Irene Zoppi

4 November 2012

Social Learning Theory and Perception

Case Study

Discuss how Joe could address the importance of understanding how people form perceptions and make attributions about others with his employees. Joe Salantino, as the President of the Great Northern American, has the charge of creating a successful sales force. A successful element in creating this successful sales force is the understanding of the perception of the sales team. According to Hellriegel & Slocum, perception “is the declaration of the way individuals sift, arrange, and interpret sensory information”. (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). It is Joe’s responsibility constantly assess the team develop a model and atmosphere that reflects his idea of type of people he envisions for his sales team. Also, this would include the development of a model for his sales team to use to screen customers and create a repeat customer base, which according to the case study, he believes is critical to become a top performer. Joe’s model should consider various internal and external factors that coincide with the vision that he believes makes up a successful sales force. The internal factors include learning, personality and motivation while the external ones consist of size, contrast, repetition, and intensity. These factors must be conveyed to the sales team in an effective manner so that they not only understand them, but take ownership of Joe’s vision for the sales team and hold other members of the team accountable.

As the leader of his organization, Joe must make sure that sales force has an accurate perception of the goals of the organization. This is vital, since the sales force should be a representation of the vision outlined by leadership. Joe must stress to the sales team that the perception the customer receives from them will be a determining factor of not only obtaining their business on their initial contact but can also determine if that customer will be a repeat customer. If Joe wants to be an effective leader, he should survey the customers to get a feel of how his salespersons are received and if it is positive find ways of replicating those behaviors and weed out those who are consistently not adhering to the vision which he has laid out for the organization.

There are several ways for which Mr. Salantino can create an ideal sales force that will likely buy into his corporate vision. One way would be to screen potential sales people for certain traits, characteristics and skills which he sees as necessary for optimal performers. These traits should cross several competencies to include ethics, diversity, across cultures, communication, teams and change. These can be assessed through customer surveys, periodic assessments by supervisors, periodic meetings where higher performers can share their experiences and skills with those who are not performing to Joe’s standards.

Evaluate which learning theory would be most appropriate for Joe to apply in this situation and explain why.

I believe that it would be in Joe Salantino’s best interest to apply social learning theory as a way to create the optimal sales force that will convey his organizational vision. The social learning theory, according to the text, refers to knowledge acquisition through the mental processing of information by observing and imitating others (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Mr. Salantino would benefit from being the model of his vision and assessing the results of customer assessments as well as internal assessments given by supervisors with his sales team so that they will have tangible evidence of their performance and the perception which they are giving to their customers and leadership. Open communication of their performance and how it is being measured will encourage the sales team to buy into the organizational vision outlined by Mr. Salantino. This aligns with symbolizing and forethought, two of the five principles of social learning theory. By having periodic meetings and informational sharing sessions, high performers can share ideas, tips and behaviors that make them high earners and those who are not performing as well will learn through vicarious learning which another principle of social learning theory. The other principles, which include self-control and self-effiacy must also be assessed by Joe and leadership to identify those who exude his vision and weed out those who he feels doesn’t have the skill or ability to adhere to his vision of the organization.

Discuss ways that Joe could apply the leaning theory you selected to improve epmployee’s performance.

Social learning theory consists of five key principles. These principles are vicarious learning which is defined as the individual observing the behavior of others and the consequences of that behavior. The second principle is self-control which is the individual determining their own goals and achieving them, a third principle is the process of creating a mental image to guide an individual’s behavior or what the book refers to as symbolizing. A fourth principle is forethough where the individual plans his or her actions based on the level or performance he or she desires and finally self-effiacy where the individual’s estimate of his or her own ability to perform a specific task in a particular situation.

To achieve these goals, Mr. Salantino can utilize several tools to apply the principles of socials learning theory. One of those tools would be periodic meetings where the sales team can share information and re-enforce the organizational goals and expectations. The members of the leadership can introduce scenarios which the members of the sales team share ideas and experiences which will foster communication and be influential in team building. The communication established in these meetings will serve as training opportunities and will foster other principles like vicarious learning, where members of the team can observe the behavior of others within the group and learn the positive and negative consequences of various behaviors demonstrated. Another tool that Mr. Salantino can use would be to survey his customers periodically to see how his sales force is being received by his customers and to share the feedback at the monthly meetings. These surveys should be all encompassing to include feedback from a sampling of the entire sales force from the best performers to the lowest and a sampling of those in between. The behaviors of the top tier performers should be championed and rewarded at random intervals to ensure to help re-enforce those behaviors which are favorable and will also identify those who are not performing up the goals identified in the organizational vision. (Grusec, 1992). This should foster the other principles of social learning theory which are symbolizing, forethought, self control and self-effiacy.

Determine how Joe could leverage an understanding of the value of self-effiacy to ensure he hires the most successful salespeople.

Self-effiacy is defined as the individual’s estimate of his or her own ability to perform a specific task in a particular situation. This is one of the principles that can be of most use to Mr. Salantino in the hiring process. By utilizing various questions in the interview and hiring process to assess an individual’s level of self-effiacy. He should start by inventorying the level of this principle already in his sales force, not only the higher performers but also of those lower performers to understand not only the skills and personality of the top performers which he will want to replicate but also those of the lower performers to identify the skills and personality traits that Mr. Salantino wants to avoid. Mr. Salantino can utilize various tools and questionnaires to assess not only the level of self-effiacy within the sales force but also the prospective salespeople. This is important because according to the text employees with high self-effiacy believe that they have the ability needed, they are capable of the effort required and no outside events will keep them from performing at a high level. (McLeod, 2011). Conversely, employees with low self-effiacy believe that no matter how hard they try, something will happen to prevent them from reaching the desired level of performance. (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011)

References

Grusec, Joan, E. (1992.) Social Learning Theory and Developmental Psychology: The Legacies of Robert Sears and Albert Bandura. Retrieved November, 2011. From http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/35grusec92.pdf

Hellriegel, Don & Slocum, John (2011) Organizational Behavior. Mason, Ohio: Cenage Learning.

McLeod, Saul (2011). Bandura: Social Learning Theory. Retrieved November, 2011. From http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html