Rewarding People

The Skill of Responding Positively

David Dickson, Christine Saunders, Maurice Stringer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351971423
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

People's behaviour can be rewarding to others through what they say or do: it may be no more than an appreciative smile, a sympathetic touch or a word of praise, but the impact can be highly significant. This book, first published in 1993, explores these social rewards and their relevance to the practice of people in the interpersonal professions.

While much of its content is relevant to everyday life, the focus is on ways in which an understanding of the working of social rewards can benefit such groups as teachers, doctors, social workers, counsellors, nurses and managers in their interaction with their patients, clients and pupils. In exploring the nature and distribution of social rewards, the authors introduce the concept of interpersonal skill, and discuss a range of theoretical perspectives to account for the consequences of responding positively to others. The effects of promoting interpersonal attraction, the establishment and regulation of relationships, and the ethical issues involved in conferring power and facilitating influence are also discussed.

With its discussion of theory and research linked to explicit practical applications, Rewarding People will be of interest to students in the areas of communication, psychology and business studies.

Chapter 1

Introduction

In the play Huis Clos, Jean-Paul Sartre is responsible for the well-known statement that ‘Hell is other people’. The three characters, Garcin and the two females Estelle and Ines, find themselves in hell, death having brought an end to different life projects. For Garcin, being regarded as a man of bravery and honour had been important, yet, in a moment of crisis which required acting on a matter of principle, he had turned coward and fled. Having died before he could redeem himself, his abiding concern is that he will be forever regarded by those who knew him as a coward and there is nothing that can now be done about it. There is one glimmer of hope though, offered by Estelle. She might be influenced to look upon Garcin as a hero if, in turn, he redefined the circumstances of her murdering her two children in such a way as to absolve her of all blame. Unfortunately the success of this complicity in mutual bad faith is compromised by Ines, a lesbian. She died as a result of a suicide pact with her girl friend having previously been the cause of the death of her friend’s husband at his own hand. Were it not for Garcin, Inès could engineer an affair with Estelle. Were it not for Estelle the intense rivalry between Garcin and Inès would subside. They are trapped in an enduring internecine web of destructive interrelationships wherein each acts as the torturer of the other two –hell is indeed other people!

The play may strike a chord in many to the extent that we can reflect upon personal liaisons which, while less dramatically extreme than that sketched by Sartre, have been irredeemably frustrating and limiting experiences. Through our associations with those with whom we establish bonds, we can be exposed to a great deal of pain, anger, disappointment and anguish. But by the same token, the most precious moments of sublime joy and fulfilment also frequently stem from the social nature of our existence. We all readily recognise the benefits which are derivable. Freedman (1978) discovered that people, when asked what makes them most happy, offers most satisfaction and provides most meaning to their lives, placed close relationships ahead of other areas of importance such as work, leisure, money or even health. This book resonates with these sentiments, drawing upon possibilities for beneficial and constructive mutual influence residing in interpersonal contact. As such, and without wishing to address the deeper existentialist assumptions upon which that play is founded, it is premised upon a view of human relations which is diametrically opposed to the starkly gloomy and depressing depiction in Huis Clos.

This book accentuates the positivity of social fellowship in the mutuality of rewards through which that fellowship is perpetuated and which, in turn, it facilitates. The central objective, however ambitiously conceived, is to increase the reader’s appreciation of the significance of social rewards in dealing with others, to heighten his or her self-awareness as a rewarding agent and to draw more extensively on that potential, utilising it with greater efficiency in interpersonal transactions. While essentially we have in mind interactions between professionals and those for whom a service is provided, much of what is said is directly relevant to everyday relationships.

In this introductory chapter, we will reflect more fully upon the importance of social rewards in directing our relationships with others, influencing our attitudes and feelings towards them and shaping our behaviour. Since the book is fundamentally about interaction in professional settings, some initial thought is devoted to the interpersonal dimension of much of professional practice and the role of rewarding transactions in a range of professional contexts including education, social work, speech therapy, counselling, management, coaching and health care. Some of the different personal and social outcomes associated with the exchange of rewards are outlined before turning to look more closely at the process of interpersonal communication per se and the concept of communication skill. To this end a model of interpersonal transaction as skilled enterprise is elaborated which has important implications for the business of rewarding. For the moment, however, let’s give some thought to elaborating this idea of rewards which we make available and, in turn, receive from others with whom we engage.

WHAT IS SOCIAL REWARDINGNESS?

We can think of people being rewarding in various ways. In the complexly differentiated social and occupational worlds in which we live, many of the material things for which we strive are not directly accessible to us. In the main they are obtainable only through the intervention of another party. More money, represented by increases in pay, comes courtesy of employers who usually have to be prevailed upon to recognise employees’ contributions in some such tangible manner. Additional or alternative recompenses and incentives at the disposal of management have been alluded to by Komaki (1982), and include promotion, job assignments, and training opportunities as well as a variety of ‘perks’ such as a company car, more time off, insurance schemes, etc. Apart from the world of work, we may have our meals made for us, our pain relieved for us, and if we are lucky our clothes, jewellery, cars, etc. bought for us. In so doing, employers, spouses, doctors, parents, etc. may come to be positively valued (although hopefully not only for those reasons) through being instrumental in providing things or making possible events which we seek. Being able to occasion such desired states of affairs can also confer upon them a certain power over us. (See Chapter Eight.)

But the rewards that people bestow can be of a completely different nature. No doubt we can all think of individuals whose company we seek out, not because it is necessarily of any material benefit, but rather that it is enjoyable, stimulating, even enriching. What is important is the way in which they relate to us, their enlivening conversation and amusing anecdotes, the fact that they are ready to appreciate us and what we try to do, perhaps because they seem to recognise and engage with some facet of self that others have failed to identify or have even denied. Thus, as described by Argyle (1983, p. 65), ‘A person can be rewarding in a large variety of ways - by being warm and friendly, taking an interest in the other, admiring him, being submissive, showing sexual approval, helping with his problems, or by being interesting and cheerful.’

Moreover, it isn’t only what is said that matters. Rewards are revealed more broadly in the different forms which communication can take. They could be conveyed in a genuinely appreciative tone of voice, a caring touch, fascinated look, or delighted smile, depending on the context of the interchange. In addressing the topics of rewards and rewarding in this book, we will be concerned not so much with the effects of material incentives like money, but rather with what people say and how they behave to each other.

IMPORTANCE OF REWARDS IN SOCIAL LIVES

Social rewards are of the utmost importance in interpersonal transactions and their effects wide-ranging. They can help shape the friendships that we foster, the attitudes we form, the degree of liking felt towards others and indeed how we come to view and accept ourselves, our abilities and attributes. Moreover the things that we do, habits adopted, and activities pursued, are partly determined by the rewards and reinforcers that are brought about courtesy of others, when we behave in those ways. We are much more likely to do things that elicit positive outcomes from those who matter to us. These actions are reinforced in consequence while others that clearly displease or lead to some other negatively valued rebuke will probably be avoided in future.

Sensitivity to the reactions of others and the ability to regulate our behaviour in this manner so as to make it more likely that we are reacted to positively rather than negatively by those whom we encounter is considered to be fundamental to successful social life. This is reflected in the definitional basis which some have advocated for the concept of social skill. Libet and Lewinsohn (1973, p. 304) for instance, in one of the earliest attempts, defined social skill as, ‘the complex ability both to emit behaviours which are positively or negatively reinforced and not to emit behaviours that are punished or extinguished by others’. In other words, and while these terms will be explained fully in the next chapter, social skill hinges on being able to equip oneself so as to influence others to do things that we value positively or to stop doing things that we value negatively, and also to refrain from alternative actions that bring about either negative outcomes or no worthwhile outcomes at all. Michelson et al. (1983) also refer to the maximisation of social reinforcement from others in evaluating the key features of social skill, while Phillips (1985, p. 3) reflecting upon this line of thought, concluded that, ‘Social competence or skill pivots on positively reinforced exchanges with others and few or no punished or ignored exchanges’.

The notion of interpersonal skill will be returned to shortly and considered in greater depth. Its inclusion at this juncture, and the point to bear in mind, is the centrality of rewards to competent social functioning.

So far most of the talk has centred on how we go about extracting rewards from others with whom we have dealings. Given that the focus of the book is primarily upon professional interaction, it might be more appropriate to turn this thinking around lest we lose sight of the fact that, as professionals, we are also those ‘others’ with whom someone else (patient, client, pupil, etc.) interacts. We are the source of significant consequences for them. Depending upon how we react, decisions will be reached by them about the extent of further contact (assuming that there is freedom of choice), feelings and attitudes towards us formed, types of future conduct possibly shaped, and perhaps new insights into aspects of their own make-up gleaned. Being skilled with people, we believe, requires not only the wherewithal to extract social rewards in the course of transactions but to provide them as well. This latter proposition is fundamental to the underlying rationale for the book. When Faraone and Hurtig (1985) examined what those regarded as highly socially skilled actually did, compared with their low social skill counterparts, when they conversed with a stranger of the opposite sex, they found, among other things, that the highly skilled were more rewarding in the way in which they reduced uncertainty, and therefore possible unease in the situation, and in reacting positively to the other through what was said and topics introduced.

INTERACTION IN PROFESSIONAL CONTEXTS

The past decade has witnessed a burgeoning awareness of the indispensability of effective levels of interpersonal communication to acceptable standards of practice in many professional circles. Ellis and Whittington (1981) coined the term ‘the Interpersonal Professions’ to identify those occupations where the major proportion of the professional’s day is spent in face-to-face interaction with others and where the fundamental objectives of the service offered are achieved essentially by this means. Without making any attempt at a comprehensive listing, examples include managers, teachers, counsellors, lawyers, and doctors together with a whole range of other health workers and carers. Social work has a special significance in this respect according to Dickson and Mullan (1990). Likewise, Baldock and Prior (1981) stress that ‘doing’ social work is inextricably bound up with talking. It is not only that social workers arguably spent more of their time with clients engaged in this activity but that interacting in the context of the client interview is ‘the basic resource for social work practice’ (p. 20). Similar views are espoused by Davies (1985) in describing interpersonal communication as the basic tool at the disposal of the social worker.

The import of the interpersonal dimension in other sectors of professional practice has been readily acknowledged. Those who have attempted, in reflecting upon its nature, to analyse how skilled practitioners characteristically relate, frequently identify responding positively to those with whom they engage so as to reward and reinforce appropriately. Following earlier work by the likes of Flanders and Simon (1969), Turney et al. (1983) included reinforcement in their anthology of basic teaching skills. They describe how teachers can increase pupils’ attention and motivation, improve classroom behaviour and promote achievement by various verbal and nonverbal means including praise and encouragement, touch, gestures, adjusting physical proximity, and making available the opportunity to take part in other activities such as playing class games with peers.

Shifting the focus from teaching to interviewing and counselling, Ivey and Authier (1978), in their quest to develop a taxonomy of microskills embodied in these activities, specified attending and listening as being of fundamental importance: ‘The most basic unit of microcounselling is attending behaviour, the careful listening to the client. The beginning counsellor who is able to attend to and hear the client is equipped to start counselling sessions. Without the ability to attend, the helping interview - regardless of theoretical orientation - becomes an empty sham’ (p. 64). Based on the premise that people will only talk about what others are prepared to listen to, they outline how clients can be encouraged to disclose issues of concern through the use of attending behaviour and the reinforcing effects in this endeavour of selective listening on the part of the counsellor.

In operational terms, attending relies upon acceptable patterns of eye contact, a relaxed yet involved posture, and the maintenance of the thematic coherence of the conversation by refraining from introducing intrusive changes in topic. The use of minimal encourages to talk including expressions like ‘I See’, ‘Right’, ‘OK’, and vocalisations such as ‘mm-hmm’, along with consonant nonverbal indices (e.g. head-nods, congruent facial expressions, gestures, etc.) are also implicated. At more advanced levels, selective attention to factual or affective areas for exploration, for instance, can be effected through the use of listening skills. Listed among these are reflection of feeling which involves isolating the core affective message being communicated by the client and mirroring it back in the form of a statement; paraphrasing which is similar in many ways but taps the cognitive domain of discourse; and summarisation which ‘involves attending to the client, accurately sensing the feelings and content being expressed, and meaningfully integrating the various responses to the client’ (Ivey and Authier, 1978, p. 87).

Reinforcement has also been identified as playing a prominent role in the practice of Speech Therapy. In a significant piece of research, Saunders and Caves (1986) undertook to unearth the key communication skills utilised by members of this profession in conducting therapy with both child and adult clients. Therapists were videotaped during consultations and this material was then subjected to peer analysis. From isolated positive and negative instances, the object was to reach consensus on a set of behavioural categories of effective practice. ‘Using positive reinforcement’ was one of the categories to so emerge from interactions with children as well as adults. Verbal and nonverbal sub-types were specified.

Social rewards including praise make a potentially beneficial contribution to other and diverse areas of professional activity such as management and coaching. In the former setting there is some evidence that when properly programmed, improvements in absenteeism, motivation, job satisfaction and productivity can result (Davey, 1981; Rapp et al., 1983). Sports coaches who employ these techniques have been found to be popular, especially with younger competitors; to enhance levels of skill; and to improve results among those with whom they work (Martin and Hrycaiko, 1983; Smith and Smoll, 1990).

Finally, in the field of health care, recognition has been made by DiMatteo and DiNicola (1982) and Raven (1988), among others, of health-worker social rewards in the form of attention, praise, approval, compliments, etc. as one (but only one) approach to increasing, for example, patient satisfaction and tackling the abiding problem of improving compliance with prescribed drug regimens or recommended courses of action. The scale of this problem was illustrated by Ley (1988). Having collated a broad spectrum of the research findings he concluded that on average between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of patients would appear to be non-compliant, representing an estimated drain on health expenditure, in US figures, of a staggering 400 million to 800 million dollars! By taking steps to monitor patient behaviour and reinforce compliance when it does take place, health workers can go some way to rectifying this situation. This may be particularly impactful in cases of adherence to difficult or stressful courses of action when, ‘the here-and-now reward value of maintaining contact with a respected helper can tip the balance in favour of good intentions when the client is tempted to avoid the here-and-now costs and suffering’ (Janis, 1983, p. 148). Both Janis (1983) and Raven (1988) emphasise that influencing change along these lines presupposes the prior establishment of a relationship of trust, acceptance and respect. It is only in this context that praise and approval are likely to be va...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures and tables
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Contrasting theoretical perspectives on interpersonal rewards and rewarding
• 3 Verbal facets of social reward
• 4 Nonverbal facets of social reward
• 5 Positive dimensions of interpersonal interaction: warmth and empathy
• 6 Interpersonal attraction and reward
• 7 Locus of control and attributional processes
• 8 Power, social influence and reward
• 9 Rewarding relationships
• 10 Overview and concluding comments
• References
• Name index
• Subject index