Problem people, problematic environments

Anyone who has ever taken a class in organizational behavior, teamwork, leadership, etc. knows that frustration that comes when the instructor is asked a question and the answer is some variation of “it depends…”  There are very few truly reliable answers, answers that cut across contexts, in our field.

One of those truly reliable answers, comes from some of the early work of Kurt Lewin (1890-1947). In 1936 Lewin first proposed the theory that B=f(p*e); that is that for any given person, their behavior (B) is a function of the person (p) (or rather their personality) and the environment (e).

While it easy to look at this theory know and say, “of course, that is just common sense.” One needs to remember however that in the early 20^th century, psychologists (and indeed many others) were fully immersed in the “nature vs. nurture” debate. Freudian psychology, advances in psychological testing such as the IQ test, and longer held traditions such as Plato’s philosophy of the mind and religious beliefs about the soul fueled many people to believe that people behaved in certain ways because that was simply “who they were”, that certain behavioral patterns were inherent in an individual because of genetics, early childhood environment, predestination, etc.

In contrast to the “nature” side of the debate, those on the “nurture” side looked to the philosophy of Aristotle, Locke, and the learning theories developed by initially by Pavlov, Thorndike and others. They argued that human beings are highly pragmatic and shape their behavior in response to the environment. These arguments ultimately led to Pavlov’s theory of operant conditioning or behaviorism, that behavior is purely a function of punishment and reward.

Lewin’s “middle road”, that behavior is based upon both an individual’s personality and their environment, helps us to realize how complex human behavior actually is. Not only does a manager need to come up with potentially a different motivation/reward system for every individual (because people are motivated individually), one needs to realize that events will happen in the work environment which will impact the behavior of even the most focused, most dedicated worker. The problem is how does the manager interpret and react to those situations?  Our tendency (as I will talk more about in a later post) is to interpret these incidents by focusing on the “p” in Lewin’s equation – that a person’s behavior is due to their own motivation, personality, goals or values. However it is critical to remember that sometimes people are simply reacting to the environment around them, whether that be reward systems, deadlines, authority figures, or other aspects of their environments.

The solution then, when encountering a person engaged in problematic behavior, is to first understand whether this particular behavior stems primarily from the person or the environment. Only then can you take the appropriate actions to try to change the behavior.