Research Skills: Social Learning Theory and Staff Conduct Report

This report applies Albert Bandura's social learning theory to analyze the impact of environmental and behavioral determinants on the staff of The Principal Hotel London. The case study examines the hotel's rebranding and its effect on employee conduct, exploring how staff adapt to changes within the hospitality industry. The report discusses the influence of social norms, observation, and the three key determinants of Bandura's model – personal, behavioral, and environmental – on the staff's acceptance of new policies and procedures. It highlights how the changing environment of the hotel industry, including rebranding, impacts staff learning and behavior, and how environmental and behavioral determinants interact. The analysis concludes by emphasizing the importance of observation in learning and the role of social learning in shaping employee behavior and the organization's ability to achieve its goals.

Research Skills

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Overview of case study..........................................................................................................3
Factors that impact the individual conduct of staff................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Social learning theory was first given by Albert Bandura in 1960s which describes the influence
of individual experiences, action of others and environmental factors on the behaviours and
learning of an individual. This theory thus depends on three main concepts that an individual can
learn though observation if the internal mental state and motivation plays a positive role in
learning (Belgiawan, 2017). Effective learning can take place through attention, retention,
reproduction and motivation so that by observing the behaviour of others and the outcomes these
behaviours can be learnt and adopted. In this report the Bandura model of social learning will be
applied on the case study of The Principal Hotel London so that the factors that impact on the
individual conduct of staff can be studied.
MAIN BODY
Overview of case study
The Principal Hotel London, also known as ‘Russell Hotel’ was bought by IHG hotels in
2018 which is an international hotel chain delivering services across reception, food &
beverages, facilities, sales, housekeeping etc. After 3 months of acquiring the hotel, the
management of IHG hotels informed the staff that the hotel would be rebranded as a Kimpton
hotel which is one of its hotel brands. The staffs of Principal hotel is frustrated as the hotel will
be closed for months so that the staff can be retained on new policies and procedures and
changing computer systems. However, the staff members later on agree to the rebranding as it is
being commonly done in the hospitality industry as it help in increasing company profits.
Factors that impact the individual conduct of staff
Learning is complex process which can be influenced by a variety of factors that determine
the behaviour of an individual and also affect the thinking ability of a person. Observation of the
actions that are conducted by people who surrounds an individual plays an important role in
determining how and what they learn which also affect their decisions (Collins, 2019).
According to Bandura individuals learn through observation of the actions of others which help
in learning new information and behaviour that can improve their lives. Social norms are the
standards that can be used to judge appropriateness of the actions of an individual if they are
good or bad. These standards are being used by various companies so that they can promote
sustainable behaviour trough making pro-environmental social norms. This can help in

protecting the environment and also spreading the behaviour among individuals as they observe
the behaviour of others. For example Onpower is an electricity company that use simple social
norm strategies to achieve small but consistent savings on home energy consumption among its
users. It achieve this by sending the customers their energy bills along with information about
how much energy they are consuming with respect to their neighbours. This help in improving
their habits so that the energy consumption can be reduced. Another example is of the east West
Market in Vancouver where the customers who do not bring their own carry bags are given the
carry bag that have shameful slogans written on them. This help the customers in reminding that
they have to carry their own bags so that they can be saved from embarrassment which also help
in decreasing the plastic usage (Hockenbury, Nolan 2018).
In the case study which is given the staff members of the Principal Hotel London accepts
the rebranding of hotel into IHG groups and then further after 3 months into the Kimpton style
hotels as they are well aware of other hotels which are adopting the same strategy to earn more
profits. Rebranding in hospitality industry is a common phenomenon and is the main reason
behind influencing the behaviour of staff members even when they will have to go through
retraining so that they can adopt the skills and talents that are required in Kimpton hotels to
follow its new policies and procedures. As the change in the hotel brand will help in attracting
more number of customers and also by the application of Kimpton policies maximum customer
satisfaction can also be achieved. As per the Bandura model which specifies three different
factors based on which learning takes place in an individual:
Source: Bandura’s model .2020

As per Bandura there are three factors that affect the learning process of an individual
and determine the way in which they will behave based on their learning i.e. through personal
determinants, behavioural determinants and environmental determinants. All these determinants
have an impact on the learning of an individual so that they can learn by observing the behaviour
of people who surrounds them. As people have their control on their thoughts, feelings and
actions these factors have different impact on different individuals. In this case study following
two factors has the impact on the staff members of company and also the individual code of
conduct:
 Environmental: As the staff members are working in a hospitality industry where the
hotels are continually rebranding their hotel brands so that they can attract more
customers and achieve more profits in market. The staff members have to adapt with the
changes that are taking place in the hotel so that they can behave in a specific manner and
help the company in achieving its objectives (Trew, 2016). The trend where the hotels are
rebranding it has affected the learning process of employees as they have to continue to
learn new and advanced techniques so that the hotel can successfully sustain in market.
The impact of this factor on the code of conduct of the staff is such that they accept the
change in the policies of company for the second time as this will help them in having
future growth opportunities in their careers. Thus it can be said that the employees learn
from their changing environment and accept changes that can help them in contributing
towards achieving company goals and objectives.
 Behavioural: These determine the learning of staff member of company as the employees
who think that rebranding is a career opportunity will accept the changes easily while the
others who are stressed due to the second time change in company policies will gradually
accept changes depending on the behaviour of other staff members. Also as the reception
manager reassured these employees they gradually accept change based on the behaviour
of all the other employees of company (Fernandez and Brannen, 2018). Thus this also
determines the impact which is created on their learning and how easily they can learn
the changes that will occur due to rebranding of the hotel.
Thus it can be said that both the factors impact each other i.e. environmental and behavioural
as due to the changing environment in the hospitality industry the behaviour of employees
change and they accept the rebranding in hotel. Both these factors also affect the individuals and

the staff members accept change based on the impact of these factors on them. The impact of
these factors on the organisation is that it will help it in achieving its rebranding goals as the
employees can learn about various new policies and strategies related to Kimpton hotel so that
the customers of company can be given efficient services and a sincerely personal style of guest
services. It will also help in applying green policy in the company which will make the business
more environment friendly and more sustainable (Bandura, 2017).
Thus it can be said that the surroundings of a person crates an impact on the learning abilities
of an individual so that they can learn new information that can be used in improving their lives.
The social learning thus create huge impact on the learning and behaviour of an individual which
allow them to become more work efficient and improve their standard of living. The
environmental and behavioural determinants will help the staff members in learning the new
computer systems for restaurants and bar. They will also learn about the way in which customer
service should be given so that they can gain positive feedback from customers. They will also
learn about the ways of implementing green policy that will help the hotel in becoming a
Kimpton hotel so that more number of customers can be attracted and also the work performance
of employees can b improved.
CONCLUSION
From this report it can be said that observation plays an important role in the learning
behaviour of individuals that change their behaviour so that they can learn about new things and
accept changes that take place. The Bandura model thus help in deterring various factors that can
impact on the behaviour of individuals so that their impact can be measured and the ability of
these factors in inducing change can be known. This can be applied in companies so that teh staff
members can observe their environment and learn on how they can adapt to the changes taking
place in company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Belgiawan, P.F., Schmöcker, J.D., Abou-Zeid, M., Walker, J., Fujii, S., 2017. Modelling social
norms: Case study of students’ car purchase intentions. Travel Behaviour and Society,
7, pp.12–25.
Collins, E. I.M., ThomasJ. M., Robinson, E., Aveyard, P., Jebb, S.A., Herman, C.P., Higgs, S.,
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
Hockenbury, S. E., Nolan, S. 2018. Psychology. 8th ed. Macmillan International Higher
Education
Trew, F., 2016. Online Support Offered to International Students by UK University Libraries–
What are we doing, and why are we doing it?. In University Libraries and Digital
Learning Environments (pp. 209-226). Routledge.
Fernandez, P. and Brannen, M., 2018. “Through the looking glass: envisioning new library
technologies” Media Production Part II: using multimedia to tell stories. Library Hi
Tech News.
Bandura, A. ed., 2017. Psychological modeling: Conflicting theories. Transaction Publishers.
Snyder, S. and Fisk, T., 2016. Applying Bandura's Model to Identifying Sources of Self-Efficacy
of Teaching Artists. Research in the Schools, 23(2).
Schunk, D.H. and Dibenedetto, M.K., 2016. Self-efficacy theory in education. Handbook of
motivation at school, 2, pp.34-54.
Vancouver, J.B. and Purl, J.D., 2017. A computational model of self-efficacy’s various effects
on performance: Moving the debate forward. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(4),
p.599.
Online
Bandura’s model .2020. [Online] Available through: <https://www.alamy.com/banduras-model-
of-social-cognitive-theory-image335640137.html >