Question

beverly is a manager at a software company. her team has been working hard on a new product launch, and she is confident that it will be a success. however, she notices that one of her team members, alice, has been less motivated than usual lately. alice has been missing deadlines and making careless mistakes. beverly wants to use operant theory to motivate alice to improve her performance.

what is the best thing to do?

a.) she should offer alice a paid day off if she meets her next deadline.
b.) she should give alice less challenging work to do.
c.) she should criticize alice in front of the team for her recent mistakes.
d.) she should ignore alices behavior and hope that she improves on her own.

Explanation:

Analyze the scenario and goal

The scenario describes Alice, a software team member, who is missing deadlines and making careless mistakes. Her manager, Beverly, wants to use Operant Conditioning principles to motivate Alice to improve her performance. The goal is to identify which action best aligns with operant conditioning to increase a desired behavior (meeting deadlines and improving performance).

Evaluate the options using operant theory

Using the Operant Conditioning and Positive Reinforcement knowledge points:

• Option a: Offering a paid day off (a desirable stimulus) contingent on meeting her next deadline (the desired behavior) is an application of Positive Reinforcement. This strengthens the desired behavior by presenting a rewarding consequence.
• Option b: Giving Alice less challenging work does not directly reinforce performance improvement and may decrease engagement.
• Option c: Criticizing Alice in front of the team is public punishment, which can damage morale and does not constructively reinforce positive behaviors.
• Option d: Ignoring the behavior (extinction) is ineffective when active intervention is needed to correct performance issues.

Select the best action

Using the Positive Reinforcement knowledge point

• Offering a reward (paid day off) for a specific positive behavior (meeting a deadline) directly applies positive reinforcement to increase the frequency of that desired behavior.
• Therefore, option (a) is the most effective application of operant theory.

Answer:

• a.) She should offer Alice a paid day off if she meets her next deadline. (Correct answer)
• b.) She should give Alice less challenging work to do.
• c.) She should criticize Alice in front of the team for her recent mistakes.
• d.) She should ignore Alice's behavior and hope that she improves on her own.