Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social-Cognitive View by Albert Bandura
Review by: Edwin A. Locke
The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan., 1987), pp. 169-171
Published by: Academy of Management
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eager " A reanalysis of the North American stud- Staw (Ed.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 1,
ies could resolve this issue. If North American pp. 341-423). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
leaders were reclassified into the four PM types, Kipnis, D. (1967) The powerholders. Chicago: University of
and if those falling in the PM category were found Chicago Press.
to be moderate, not high on P and M, the find- Kipnis, D. (1984) Technology, power and control. In S. B.
ings would show that it is erroneous to equate Bacharach & E. J. Lawler (Eds.), Research in the sociology
of organizations (Vol.3, pp. 125-156). Greenwich, CT: JAI
PM with High-High leadership. Press.
Overall Evaluation Larson, L. L., Hunt, J. G., & Osborn, R. N. (1976) The great
hi-hi leader behavior myth: A lesson from Occam's razor.
This book is not without its faults, although Academy of Management Journal, 19, 628-641.
these are minor relative to the weight of the evi-
McClelland, D. C. (1985) Human motivation. Chicago: Scott,
dence presented. Early in the book (p. 49) the Foresman.
author states that the use of conventional statis-
Stogdill, R. M. (1959) Individual behavior and group achieve-
tics such as regression analysis, when applied ment: A theory. New York: Oxford.
to cross-sectional data, reflect a causal assump-
Stogdill, R. M. (1963) Manual for the leader behavior descrip-
tion not justified by the research design. To the tion questionnaire-Form XII. Columbus: Ohio State Uni-
knowledge of this reviewer, there are no prob- versity, Bureau of Business Research.
lems with the application of regression analysis
to cross-sectional data for the purpose of estab- This review essay was made possible by research grant 494-
lishing associations. 83-0059 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
A second criticism concerns the author's style. Council of Canada.
There are so many studies discussed throughout
the book that it becomes very difficult to follow
the continuity that binds them together. Further, Social Foundations of Thought and Ac-
in reporting these studies it is not always clear tion: A Social-Cognitive View, by Albert
exactly how they were conducted. Frequently Bandura. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-
the author reports studies conducted by others
Hall, 1986, 617 pp., cloth.
without giving the full detail concerning the
population studied or the methods of analysis. Reviewed by Edwin A. Locke, University of
This book presents the results of an ambitious Maryland, College Park, MD.
and important long-term research project. The
findings are a major contribution to the lead- Let me begin this review in reverse by saying
ership literature. It should be interesting to stu- that this is a brilliant and important book that
dents of leadership and particularly useful for should be required reading for all doctoral stu-
instruction at the doctoral level. dents in organizational behavior, human re-
source management and industrial-organiza-
tional psychology (as well as related fields). I
References also recommend it to organizational researchers
Bales, R. F. (1958) Task roles and social roles in problem-
and consultants. It is a classic that will be cited
solving groups. In E. E. Maccoby, T. M. Newcomb, & E. L. for decades to come. Now let me explain why I
Hartley (Eds.), Readings in social psychology (pp. 437-447). think so.
New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. First, the book is stunning in the range and
Fleishman, E. A. (1953) The measurement of leadership in breadth of the topics it covers. Consider: cogni-
industry. Journal of Applied Psychology, 37, 153-158. tive and language development, reward and
House, R. J., & Baetz, M. L. (1979) Leadership: Some empiri- punishment, phobias and depression, learning,
cal generalizations and new research directions. In B. M. motivation, psychotherapy, crime, stress and
169
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coping, moral development, innovation and the ability to maintain self-control under stress.
diffusion of innovation, emotions, advertising, Bandura elaborates the factors which contribute
and yes, even sex. Most books that cover such a to self-efficacy, including enactive mastery and
range of topics are written by dilettantes who offer modeling. (The latter connection helps to inte-
a few trite phrases about each topic but treat grate the social and cognitive aspects of the
none of them in any depth. Not so, this book. theory.)
There are important and profound insights into Self-efficacy is shown to be tied to performance
each of these topics; all are backed by research effectiveness in a wide range of situations includ-
findings. ing: dealing with feared situations (phobias), cop-
Second, the book presents an updated and ing with stress, sports performance, breaking
greatly expanded exposition of Bandura's ear- habits like smoking, recovery from heart attacks,
lier book, Social Learning Theory, published in and motivation to set and attain high goals. He
1977. Two key concepts in his first book corre- even discusses the notion of collective efficacy, a
spond to two aspects of a model he now calls topic which has important implications for orga-
Social-Cognitive Theory. These are modeling and nizations and groups within organizations.
cognitive self-regulation. Of considerable interest to OB and I/O psychol-
Factors that determine the effectiveness of mod- ogy researchers, not to mention organizational
eling or observational learning are discussed in consultants, are several chapters on the subject
detail. These include: attentional factors (e.g., of motivation. There is a detailed discussion of
salience and affective valence of the modeled intrinsic motivation, especially Deci's theory.
events); observer attributes (e.g., perceptual set); Bandura exposes some serious shortcomings in
retention processes (e.g., coding and cognitive Deci's theory (see also on this, Locke & Henne,
reorganization); related observer attributes (e.g., 1986), both conceptually and with respect to the
cognitive skills); production processes, including research, and gives many suggestions as to how
feedback; and motivational processes (e.g., in- some of the issues can be clarified. Bandura's
centives and observer values). A fascinating chapter on incentive motivation discusses the
chapter on the diffusion of innovation distin- importance of anticipatory consequences, social
guishes between the acquisition of knowledge of exchange and self-reinforcement. Another chap-
innovations and the actual adoption of change; ter talks about vicarious motivation based on
also the factors which affect each are discussed. observing other people who are rewarded or pun-
This chapter has many implications for organi- ished. Again this has many organizational impli-
zations. cations. In a chapter on cognitive self-regulation,
Several chapters on cognitive self-regulation Bandura discusses the relationship between self-
discuss factors such as forethought (predictive efficacy and goal setting. The self-efficacy con-
knowledge); self-observation; the use of internal cept has enabled researchers to resolve the
standards to judge onself; self-attributions; the apparent contradiction between goal theory and
self-concept; self-reward; and self-efficacy. expectancy theory regarding the relationship of
Self-efficacy, a key concept in Bandura's recent expectancy of success to performance (Locke,
work, is referred to both throughout the book and Motowidlo, & Bobko, 1986).
in a separate chapter. He distinguishes self- Other motivational theories discussed include
efficacy sharply from outcome expectancy in VIE Adams' equity theory, attribution theory (which
theory and even from effort-performance expec- is tied to self-efficacy and coping), and VIEtheory.
tancy, which has a narrower meaning than Ban- Performance incentives are discussed in many
dura's concept. The latter includes judgments of chapters throughout the book. The author identi-
one's ability to carry out specific actions includ- fies numerous cognitive elements involved in the
ing estimates of skills, adaptability, creativity, and operation of incentives.
170
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An outstanding feature of this book is that it only worth the effort but is must reading for peo-
takes on the theory of behaviorism on issue after ple in the fields mentioned earlier. It is a genu-
issue and shows it in every case to be seriously ine tour de force. Al Bandura has had a distin-
wanting. For example, Bandura demonstrates guished career in psychology and is probably
over and over again that reinforcement does not the most often cited researcher in the field after
influence performance automatically. In fact, he Skinner. This book demonstrates that his reputa-
argues that it is illogical to claim that an effect, tion is well-deserved.
reinforcement, could precede its cause, the prior
response, unless past reinforcement led to expec- References
tations of future ones. Bandura also shows that
reinforcement does not work without awareness Bandura, A. (1977) Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall.
on the part of the subject and that it presupposes
self-efficacy (the belief that one can make the Gist, M. E. (in press) Self-efficacy: A review of theory and
research with implications for organizational behavior, and
required responses or carry out the required
human resource management. Academy of Management
response sequences). In different chapters, Ban- Review.
dura shows how behaviorist theory cannot ac-
Locke, E. A., & Henne, D. (1986) Work motivation theories.
count for the phenomena of modeling or vicari- In C. Cooper & I. Robertson (Eds.), International review of
ous reinforcement (the effects of watching another industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 1-35). Chi-
person be rewarded). Modeling effects are, in chester, England: Wiley.
actuality, mediated (as noted above) by numer- Locke, E. A., Motowidlo, S. J., & Bobko, P. (in press) Using self-
ous and complex cognitive mechanisms. Simi- efficacy theory to resolve the conflict between goal theory
larly, he shows that behaviorist theory cannot and expectancy theory. Journal of Social and Clinical Psy-
account for self-reinforcement. In contrast, social- chology.
cognitive theory is able to account for all the
above phenomena. I think it is reasonable to say
that no serious student will be able to read this Behavioral Principles in the Practice of
book carefully and ever again take behaviorism Management, by W. E. Scott, Jr. and
seriously. P. M. Podsakoff. New York: John Wiley
While the book is not written explicitly for and Sons, 1985, 222 pp., paper.
organizational researchers, it has potential appli-
cations to training, selection, acculturation, moti- Reviewed by Steven Kerr, University of South-
vation and incentives, performance appraisal, ern California.
group dynamics, and by implication even macro
issues such strategic management. (The implica- This is an easy book to recommend. The topic
tions of just the self-efficacy concept for OB and is important, the authors highly credentialed, and
HRM are delineated in detail by Gist, in press.) the content accurate and competently handled.
I would like to conclude with some caveats for The book is firmly grounded in the appropriate
anyone who decides to read this book. It is quite research literatures, which is itself no small task
long-over 500 pages. The amount of research when you realize that management, organiza-
cited is staggering-60 pages worth of references. tion theory and behavior, and social and I/O
The organization of the book is often hard to psychology have contributed to knowledge in
follow. Because of the complexity of the issues this area. References range wide and, when
discussed, many concepts are mentioned in sev- necessary, deep, though the book is intended as
eral different chapters (in different contexts). Thus a primer and the authors therefore refrain from
the book is not one which can be read quickly or spending too much time on any one topic or trail
at one sitting. But I believe that the book is not of research.
171
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