Analysing social cognitive model

Introduction

Social cognitive theory is utilised ion psychology, education and communication for individual knowledge acquisition that would be beneficial for social interactions, experiences and media influence (Stagg, Eaton and Sjoblom, 2018). Through this study, it is possible to discuss the Bandura social cognitive theory, which is effective to identify the factors that have crucial impacts on the organisational activities and the employees. The case study analysis of the Grand UK holidays will be developed further, by applying the Bandura social cognitive theory, where the major factors such as personal, behavioural and environmental are considered. Hereby, the study provides a scope to analyse the factors including personal, behavioural and environmental in the context of the organisation Grand UK holidays in order to evaluate the behaviour of the staff and managers in providing the best quality services to the elderly people. The organisation targets the elderly people and arranging escorted tour packages for holiday destination. Hence, there are several factors that influence the employees and managers to arrange the escorted tour and provide the best quality hospitality services to the elderly people.

Case study analysis

Grand UK holidays is tour a company providing escorted tours to the elderly people. The company is efficient to offer cruises, train and busses for holiday destinations with effective tour packaging system as per the customer’s needs and preferences. The company decided to arrange training and developmental programs for the new staff to arrange the spring and summer tours. The training courses are arranged for care staff, drivers, administrators and tour managers to guide them and support continuously for serving the customers efficiently. Some of the existing staff members become frustrated for believing that the old policies are erect to run the tourism company, and there is no need for training and skill development programs. Some of the new staff is also frustrated as they are not happy to serve the elderly travellers, as they panicked with this idea that there might be some health crisis during the tour. However, some of the members on the organisation are interested to take active part in the training session in order to gain ideas and improve their skill for serving the customers innovatively.

It is quiet difficult for the tour guide to manage the elderly people, by acknowledging their actual needs and preferences. On the other hand, the escorted tour is a form of tourism in which the travellers are escorted in a group to the various destinations, rather than self-guided tour. Hence, it is a guided tours package, where the staff members must provide the best quality hospitality services and guidance to enjoy their holiday destinations. All the travellers are managed well under quality supervision and most of the travellers in this company are aged more than fifty years. Hence, it is essential to review the factor as per the Bandura social cognitive theory to evaluate the perception and perform ace of the staff members as the factors have crucial impacts on the employees and other organisational representatives to support the elderly people and cooperate with them for enjoying the holiday destinations safely. The organisation focuses on providing training and developmental programs to the employees in order to improve their knowledge and skill set so that they would be able to serve the elderly people with continuous guidance, restructuring the hospitality services and meeting personal needs and preferences (Almgren et al., 2017). The collaboration with hotels, the company aims at arranging accommodation and arrange terrace for providing the best place to the people to enjoy their holiday destinations.

Bandura cognitive model

As per the Bandura social cognitive model, learning occurs in a social context with a dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment, and behaviour, hence the major three factors are personal, behavioural and environmental. As per the model, learning occurs through observing others and modelling and the internal process and cognition of observed behaviour may lead to a learned behaviour (Owen and Putri, 2021). The behaviour is goal oriented and the goals are set by the learners to meet the objective in their life and achieve success. In this regard, punishment and reinforcement are the indirect effects on the learning process (Bandura and Hall, 2018). The behavioural factors include the goal process, motivation and self-efficacy, where the person is able to monitor own progress and there are motivational factors that influence the person to gain in depth knowledge and understanding to meet the goal (Heald, 2017). The personal factors such as sense of efficacy, attributes and process of self-regulations are also crucial to participate in the learning activities and interact with others for sharing knowledge and skill set (Malinauskas, 2017).

The environmental factors such as feedback, social interaction and norms also have crucial impacts on the learning and developmental activities in the organisation. Modelling the training courses, reinforcement and self-regulations are crucial for improving own knowledge and efficacy for participating and maximising performance. Bandura social cognitive theory is hereby beneficial for enhancing educational process and improving communication and social interaction through media presence (Pérez-López et al., 2019). In the recent years, the individuals try to adopt new ways to learn innovatively and access diverse information to maximise their performance (Lent et al., 2017). The learning models further influence them positively or negatively in the organisation. The learning process as per the Bandura social cognitive theory is attention, retention, reproduction and motivation.

Evaluation of the factors affecting the organisation

The personal factors as per the Bandura cognitive model are such as self-beliefs, aspirations and outcome expectations that regulate the behaviour of the individuals (Pérez-López et al., 2019). In the organisation Grand UK holidays, some of the staff is interested to attend the training and developmental activities arranged by the company, where they found it beneficial to improve their knowledge and skill set. On the other hand, most of the old staff at the company are not interested with the training and developmental programs, as they thought that the old policies and organisational practices are effective to serve the customers efficiently. They have self-belief to perform better and self-efficacy and confidence further boost their performance to arrange escorted tour packages for the clients. On the other hand, some of the new staff members are also not motivated with the training courses, as they find it difficult to serve the elderly people, for health issues, extra care and existing security issues for the elderly people. Hence, their expectations are not met and they feel demotivated at the organisation. Moreover, some of the new staff members are encouraged to attend the training cruses and improve their skill set and knowledge to perform better in order to meet their responsibility and participate actively to arrange hospitality services to serve the elderly people.

On the other hand, major environmental factors are social norms, access in community and influence of others that have crucial impacts on the learning and developmental activities. The attitude and beliefs of the people are also considered for arranging learning courses for the staff members in the company (Lent et al., 2017). There is good access to community through media innovation, where the staff members can utilise social media platform and organisational website to communicate with the social communities and promote their services for the elderly people. It is also possible to interact with the social communities and acknowledge their personal needs and preferences. The staff members are experienced to utilise the social media platform and there is also email services and customers service portal, through which they try to communicate with the customers and retain them for long run. The environmental factors are hereby influencing the organisational staff to attend the training and developmental program and maximise their efficiency to perform better through learning and adopting new skill and knowledge. The behavioural factors such as skill set, self-efficacy and practices are also effective to motivate the learners to gain in depth knowledge and understanding and improve their ability to serve the best quality hospitality services to the target audiences of Grand UK holidays. Hence, self-efficacy and continuous motivation are beneficial for influencing the people to participate well and serve the best escorted tour packages to the elderly people efficiently.

Conclusion

Through the discussions, it has been explored that, the personal and behavioural factors towards self-efficacy and expectations influence the people to participate actively in the organisation and adopt new changes to meet personal goal and achieve future success by fulfilling the company objective. The people try to utilise the social media platform, organisational website, telephone and email services to interact with the customers and develop good bonding in order to serve them the best quality tour packages. The staff members are motivated through different training and developmental programs, where the managers at Grand UK holidays try to share organisational vision, target customer base and provide organisational resources to encourage their creativity in designing escorted tour package for the elderly people. Hence, Bandura social cognitive theory is effective where self-efficacy and expectations further motivate the people to develop good understanding and skill set to serve the clients innovatively by media communication and social interactions.

Reference List

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Heald, S., 2017. Climate silence, moral disengagement, and self-efficacy: How Albert Bandura's theories inform our climate-change predicament. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 59(6), pp.4-15.

Lent, R.W., Ireland, G.W., Penn, L.T., Morris, T.R. and Sappington, R., 2017. Sources of self-efficacy and outcome expectations for career exploration and decision-making: A test of the social cognitive model of career self-management. Journal of vocational behavior, 99, pp.107-117.

Malinauskas, R.K., 2017. Enhancing of Self-Efficacy in Teacher Education Students. European Journal of Contemporary Education, 6(4), pp.732-738.

Owen, D. and Putri, K.K., 2021. The Evaluation of Universitas Pelita Harapan Music Therapy Student’s Self-Confidence in Practicing Clinical Improvisation Based on Bandura’s Theory of Self-Efficacy. Jurnal Seni Musik, 11(1), pp.36-43.

Pérez-López, M.C., González-López, M.J. and Rodríguez-Ariza, L., 2019. Applying the social cognitive model of career self-management to the entrepreneurial career decision: The role of exploratory and coping adaptive behaviours. Journal of vocational behavior, 112, pp.255-269.

Stagg, S.D., Eaton, E. and Sjoblom, A.M., 2018. Self‐efficacy in undergraduate students with dyslexia: a mixed methods investigation. British Journal of Special Education, 45(1), pp.26-42.

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