Operant conditioning principles extrapolated to the theory of management

Abstract Following Nord (1969) , the present article contains a predictive model of individual behavior based on both operant conditioning and management literatures. The behavior of an organizational member is seen as a function of the reinforcement contingencies applied by various groups in his environment and of his cognitive assessment of such contingencies. Several characteristics of reinforcement contingencies are examined, e.g., positive vs negative reinforcement, schedules of reinforcement, and immediacy of reinforcement. The model provides a potentially useful schema for classifying environmental contingencies operating on a member of an organization and for predicting their varied effects on behavior.

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