Principles
of Reinforcement:
Testing functional relationships!
Drawing upon well-documented principles of reinforcement, behavior management is a powerful science for motivating and teaching corporate employees. The principles of reinforcement have been proven hundreds times to be the most effective method for producing positive behavioral and organizational change.
In behavior management, as in any applied science, definition of terms is crucial. Behavior management studies the principles underlying work behavior, that is, the functional relationships between work behavior and its antecedents and consequences. Antecedents are those events immediately preceding behavior; consequences are those events immediately following behavior.
By definition, a “reinforcer” (often referred to in the compensation business as an incentive, reward or variable pay) is a consequence that increases the rate of the behavior for which it is awarded. If the rate of targeted behavior does not increase, the consequence is not a reinforcer. If the target behavior fails to increase in frequency, the team initiative fails.
For example, if a 5% year-end cash bonus based on the company’s financial performance fails to increase the rate of team workflow, the bonus is not, by definition, a reinforcer. So when discussing and applying principles of reinforcement in work environments, we limit ourselves to functional relationships:
Principle
#1:
A consequence that increases the frequency of a behavior is a reinforcer.
Principle
#2:
A consequence that decreases the frequency of a behavior is a punisher.
Principle
#3:
A consequence that is neither a reinforcer nor a punisher (a neutral consequence) has no effect on the rate of the behavior or extinguishes the behavior.
If an incentive is weak or delayed, its impact may be diminished or may become ineffective altogether. All of us responsible for offering rewards, incentives or variable pay in the workplace must be acutely aware that the frequency of behavior tells us if the plan is reinforcing to employees … it is a very effective, natural feedback loop that we must build into incentive plans.