Question

James is the new manager of operations at Springfield Motors. To his dismay, he finds the employees coming in late to work, taking long breaks, and behaving unprofessionally at their workstations. James decides to promote desirable work practices. He plans to introduce incentives for meeting the required targets but, at the same time, to withhold those incentives when employees are late, take long breaks, or behave unprofessionally. Identify the contingencies that James is planning to implement.

Answer 1

Answer: b. Positive reinforcement and punishment

Explanation:

Positive reinforcement is a way of encouraging certain behavior by adding something pleasant when the subject does something that it desirable or a stimulus. James giving the employees some incentives (something pleasant) when they meet required targets (something desirable) is therefore positive reinforcement.

Punishment on the other hand, refers to taking away something pleasant in response to the subject doing something that isn't very desirable. In this scenario, James would take away the incentives (pleasant) in response to the employees behaving unprofessionally (isn't very desirable).