What Determines Behavior?
What is Behavior?
Before you can decide what determines behavior, you must define behavior.
The Meridian-Webster Online Dictionary defines “behavior” as:
1. a: the manner of conducting oneself
b: anything that an organism does involving action and response to stimulation
c: the response of an individual, group, or species to its environment
2: the way in which someone behaves; also: an instance of such behavior
3: the way in which something functions or operates
Another definition of behavior that I’ve sometimes heard managers apply is:
After an incident, any action or decision that an employee
does or makes that management considers to be wrong.
That’s the “blame vision” definition of behavior.
What or Who Determines Behavior?
Let’s look at a few examples and ask some questions…
EXAMPLE #1
An employee hurries to get a job done and makes a mistake.
Hurrying was a behaviour.
After the fact, hurrying looks wrong.
Why did the employee hurry?
- Because good employees get the work done fast. They get rewarded.
- Bad employees get yelled at for being too slow. They may get fired.
Who provides the rewards and punishment? Supervisors and management.
So, who determines the behavior in this example?
EXAMPLE #2
An employee takes a shortcut. They don’t use a procedure.
The procedure is long and doesn’t really work as it is written.
The procedure has existed for years, and people have not been using it for as long as any of the operators can remember.
Nobody ever audits procedure usage, and nobody ever taught the operators what using a procedure means. (For example, reading a step, doing a step, and then checking that step off.)
The operators don’t have a timely process for getting changes made to procedures.
A major accident happens, and the VP fires the two operators involved because they weren’t using the procedure.
Who determined the operator’s behavior?
EXAMPLE #3
An officer is performing close-out inspections of voids on a ship. He enters through an access hatch that has been unbolted.
While he is performing the inspection, a sailor decides it would be funny to play a joke on the officer by bolting the access shut.
Two hours later, he was discovered still bolted in the void compartment by another sailor who heard a banging noise and unbolted the access to find out what was causing the noise.
What determined the sailor’s behavior (the joke)?
What Do You Think?
For each of the examples, who/what do you think determined the behaviors?
a. The bad employee?
b. Society?
c. Supervision and management?
Write your answer in the comments box below. You can choose one or more of the answers above or develop your own answer.
Changing Behavior
The answer to who/what determines behavior strongly influences what you will do to change behavior. What ideas do you have?
Learn About Root Cause Analysis and Behavior
If you would like to learn more about root cause analysis and behavior, I would suggest attending a 5-Day TapRooT® Advanced Root Cause Analysis Team Leader Course. See the dates and locations of our upcoming 5-Day Courses HERE.
The employees chose to behave poorly and have the ability to change behaviors.
Management decides if it is acceptable and has the ability to influence behavior change.
Society influences employees and management on behavior and acceptability.
This quote from Riclover may apply to this post…
Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong,
then you never had anyone really responsible.”
Admiral Hyman Rickover