In case of companies, all workers are not same as each worker has different approach, attitude and motivation level while working in a company and that is the reason why companies need to have an environment in the company where positive attitude, as well as positive work, is repeated and negative attitude and work is eliminated. Reinforcement theory of motivation is one of the methods of motivation in which company uses reinforcement approach to motivate the employees, according to this theory of motivation employees tend to repeat the behavior which has positive consequences and avoid the behavior which has negative consequences. In order to understand more about this concept, one should look at the advantages and disadvantages of reinforcement theory of motivation –
Reinforcement Theory of Motivation Advantages
Reward for Positive Behavior
The first and foremost advantage of this theory is that it gives reward to those employees who exhibit positive behavior, hence for example if there are two employees while one employee is coming 5 minutes early for past many months and other employees is coming late for past many months than few words of appreciation and certificate by management to the employee who is coming early can be a great morale booster for that employee which in turn can indirectly improve the motivation level and productivity at work.
Punishment to Repeat Offenders
Another benefit of reinforcement theory of motivation is that it gives punishment to repeat offenders and thus change their negative behavior to positive behavior. Hence in the above example if the company announces that if an employee comes late for 3 consecutive days then it will results in deduction of one leave of the employee than many repeat offenders will stop their behavior and in case if employee does not improve his or her behavior that he or she will get punishment in the form of deduction of one leave.
Improve Workplace Environment
It helps in improving the workplace environment of the company because when all workers about positive as well as negative reinforcements than they will behave accordingly besides when some repeat offenders get punishment than it serves as an example for other offenders. In simple words reinforcement theory of motivation ensures that adage that one bad fish spoils the whole pond does not hold true in case of the company and workers get a friendly and conducive environment in the company so that workers can work efficiently as well as effectively.
Reinforcement Theory of Motivation Disadvantages
Ignores Workers Inner Feeling and Individual Problems
The biggest disadvantage of reinforcement theory of motivation is that it does not take into account the workers inner feelings and reasons for their positive or negative behavior rather it focuses only on the factors. Hence in the above example if some worker has a genuine reason for getting late for one or 2 months than punishing that worker on the basis of negative reinforcement will be an injustice to that worker.
Curbs Creativity of Employees
The positive, as well as negative reinforcement factors, are fixed and employees try to remain within these factors only and when that happens the scope of creativity at work is gone because workers will be concentrating more on achieving the positive consequences and avoiding negative consequences even if involves sacrificing their creativity and we all know that when creativity is curtailed it has negative effect on the overall performance of the company in the long run.
Forced Motivation
In case of kids if you tell them to study forcefully against their wish than they will study but that study will not be of much use as they will study half-heartedly as opposed to that study which is done due to self-motivation, in case of companies also similar thing happens as in case of reinforcement theory of motivation companies try to create factors which will lead to forceful motivation of workers rather than creating that environment where workers feel self-motivated to work efficiently and effectively for the better future of both companies as well as workers.
As one can see from the above that reinforcement theory of motivation has advantages as well as disadvantages and that is the reason why a company should be careful while interpreting the results and taking action against the workers of the company on the basis of results from this theory of motivation.