Grand UK Holidays Training: A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective

This essay examines Grand UK Holidays' training program through the lens of social cognitive theory, focusing on the interplay of environmental, personal, and behavioral factors. It discusses how the company's training sessions aim to improve customer experience and adherence to health and safety policies by influencing employee behavior. The essay highlights the impact of observational learning, personal beliefs, and social norms on employee attitudes and performance. It also addresses conflicts arising from differing perspectives between existing and new staff. The analysis concludes that understanding and applying social cognitive theory can help Grand UK Holidays optimize its training programs to foster a positive work environment, enhance employee skills, and ultimately improve the quality of services provided to elderly travelers.

Essay

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
This report is based on Grand UK holidays which is the tour firm. They provides holiday
packages to the old age people. Company have organised training sessions for their existing and
new employees. This report will discuss about social cognitive theory factors by examining its
various factors which includes environmental, personal and behavioural.
MAIN BODY
Social cognitive theory, is the framework which is given by Albert Bandura which focus
on human functioning and expressions which is reflected within the interaction of
environmental, behavioural and cognitive elements. This theory talks about social origins of the
feelings and actions, also concentrate on the cognitive procedures and the capability of human
for the purpose of self regulation. As per Albert, he says that along with the action of people, the
situations of the action of the people are also been observed. Behaviour of people gets affected
from the situation. In different situation people posses different behaviour. On the basis of
social norms, the appropriateness of the actions are judged. In order to promote sustainable
behaviour, it is important to focus on pro environmental social norms (Belgiawan and et.al.,
2017). Behaviour, personal and environment factors affects human personality.
The training which is provided by Grand UK holidays to their staff so that they can give
best customer experience. In the training session, employees are trained to to provide better
holiday experiences to the customers and also taught them about health and safety policies. As
per the social cognitive theory when an individual observes other person's performance then he
or she gets influenced with that. Here employees of UK holidays are provided training of
customer handling to their staff and they have to observe their trainer carefully. Trainee has to
observe the behaviour of their trainer in order to learn the skills which is taught and also gain
some knowledge (Persson and et al., 2014). According to this theory, an individual imitate the
attitudes and reactions of others. In the training session it is observed that there was clashes took
place. Existing employees feels that new staff is not listening to them and they are not following
rules which is laid by them while new staff feels that why they will listen to the instruction
which is provided by their fellow trainees. It is the personal factors which can influence the
situation.
1

Personal factors consists of the features which are there in the personality. Personality is
vital and plays important role in the behaviour of the person, their beliefs, personality
characteristics etc. this behaviour will not remain constant as it can be influenced by the
situation or the condition. In the situation different people act differently. As in this case study
also it is observed that because of the personal factors, some employees feels that training is
good and it will helpful for them in delivering their job role whereas some staff feels that
training is of no use. It is the wastage of time and also money of the organisation.
The environment factor in this theory consist of social elements which are friends,
family etc and physical elements which are availability, climate etc. in the training session it is
observed that there were positive environment (Erhardt, Martin-Rios & Heckscher, 2016). There
were staff which is influenced by their friends and gets excited because they are getting
opportunity to travel more. Staff also impressed from this concept that company is putting
efforts and due to this all age group is getting opportunity to travel the world. It will also help
company in getting more sales. As there are very few companies which offer travel packages
specifically to old age people. As old people has to be taken care. So that is why very few
organisations, organise trip for older people.
The happy participation of the staff shows that they are comfortable with the
environment of the training session. Some staff feels that there was positive environment in the
training session while some feels that they were unnecessary invited for the training and there is
no need for their invitation because they are the existing staff and also know how to deal with
the passengers (McDermott and Keating, 2012). By seeing the environment which is provided to
the old age people at the tour they get exited with the services given by the company. They are
also happy by seeing the level of security they are provided by the staff to the women. It is
important that in the travelling women should get proper security. Company understands this
thing, so that is why they are focusing on providing security and safety to their passengers.
Behavioural factors are the factors which involves person's behaviour which is
influenced by environmental and cognitive factors. Training is organised by the company to
change the behaviour of the staff and bring motivation in them. Along with the new staff there
were some existing staff which is also sent for the training session so that they can learn new
skills and to update their knowledge. It is seen that existing staff gets frustrated when they are
called for the training because they believe that they know everything than why they are called
2

for this session. While other staff is in worry that their grasping power is low as compared to the
younger staff (Hockenbury, Nolan, 2018). This is the behaviour of staff regarding training
session. Staff has given training at the training session only that they have to mould their
behaviour. They have to be patiently handle every passenger. Never shout on any of the
passengers. As the passengers are old and requires special attention. Travellers also got happy
when they noticed that the staff of grand UK holidays are very friendly and taking care of
everyone very nicely.
Social norms also influence the behaviour of an individual. Social norms helps to bring
positive behaviour. Social norms brings good behaviour in an individual. Therefore social norms
have to be combined with some strategies in order to bring good behaviour (Collins and et.al.,
2019). Albert theory shows the shift from the behavioural viewpoint to the social cognitive
approach in order to understand the behaviour. Environment plays vital role in influencing the
behaviour of an individual. Albert says that people changes their behaviour with the change in
the environment. So positive environment will bring positive behaviour and negative
environment will promote negative behaviour. Cognitive or the personal factors are the mental
processes which takes place in an individual. It is popularly said that personal factors plays vital
role in dealing with situations. There are people who gets emotional within the situation on the
other hand there is different individual who will easily deal with the situation without getting
emotional or irritated.
CONCLUSION
Through this report it can be concluded that social cognitive theory shows that how the
human personality affects with the behaviour, personal and environment factors. In grand UK
holidays, there were staff which is happy with the training and there were also some staff which
were unhappy. This is because of their personal factors. Some workers feels that training is
essential and it will improve their personality and way of working while some feels that it is
unnecessary and should not be given to the existing staff. Environment also affects the
behaviour of employees. Some people said that external environment cannot affect the
personality or behaviour but it is not true because it highly affects.
3

REFERENCE
Books and Journals
Belgiawan, P.F. and et.al., 2017.
Modelling social norms: Case study of students’ car purchase intentions. Travel
Behaviour and Society, 7, pp.12–25.
Collins, E. I.M. and et.al., 2019. Two observational studies examining the effect of a social
norm and a health message on the purchase of vegetables in student canteen
settings. Appetite. 132. pp.122–130.
Erhardt, Martin-Rios & Heckscher, 2016. Am I doing the right thing? Unpacking
workplace rituals as mechanisms for strong organizational culture. International
Journal of Hospitality Management. 59. pp.31–41.
Hockenbury, S. E., Nolan, S., 2018. Psychology. 8th ed. New York: Worth
Publishers (p. 420 only – see materials in Week 5 on the VLE)
McDermott. A.M. and Keating, A. M, 2012. Making Service Improvement Happen:
The Importance of Social Context. The Journal of applied behavioral science. 48
(1). pp. 62–92.
Persson, R. and et al., 2014. The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy and Help
Evasion. Health Education & Behavior. 41(1). pp.7–11.
4

5

6

7