Nucor case study

Essay by salman1981 August 2008

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How is the reinforcement theory used at Nucor? Nucor has used the reinforcement theory in order to motivate its employees .

First let me explain a little what the reinforcement theory is this theory is dependent upon the rewards offered for tasks. It is based on the fact that the degree of achievement is directly related to the reward which is given. The reinforcement theory relies on positive reinforcement and recognizing the impact of different schedules of reinforcement on behavior.

Nucor realizes that rewarding a behavior with recognition immediately following that behavior is likely to encourage its repetition. The recognition can take many forms, whether it is a pay raise, an award, or simply a pat on the back. They also know that Rewarding desirable behavior is important to a business to keep the motivation of the employees high that is why they do not use a control and command model with their employees, instead they trust their people and share the corporate wealth.

We can analyze Nucor by Robbins (2001), reinforcement theory ignores the inner state of the individual and concentrates solely on what happens to a person when he or she takes some action. Significant research indicates people will exert more effort on tasks that are reinforced than on tasks that are not this statement is definitely proven by Nucor as pay day is always a time to celebrate for the employees in 2005 they distributed $220 million and this made the employees work even more hard for them. Thus as Robison pointed they exert more efforts in their takes. Nucor realizes this shares its profit with its employees so that they can get the maximum from them. Reinforcement theory will work well for Nucor's employees because they thrive on individual recognition and with little time...