Case: Volunteers can't be punished

Janett Jackson is head of a volunteer agency in a large city, in charge of a volunteer staff of over twenty-five people. Weekly, she holds a meeting with this group in order to keep them informed and teach them the specifics of any new laws or changes in state and federal policies and procedures that might affect their work, and she discusses priorities and assignments for the group. This meeting is also a time when members can share some of their problems and concerns about what they are personally doing and what the agency as a whole is doing. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 am sharp every Monday. Lately, the volunteers have been filtering in every five minutes or so until almost 10 am. Janette has felt she has to delay the start of the meetings until all the people arrive.

For the last few weeks, the meeting hasn't started until 10 am. In fact, at 9 am, nobody has shown up. Jenette cannot understand what has happened. She feels it is important to start the meeting at 9 am so that they can be over before the whole morning is gone. However, she feels that her hands are tied because, after all, the people are volunteers, and she can't push them or make them get to the meeting on time.

1)What advice would you give Janett? In terms of reinforcement theory, explain what is happening here and what Jenette needs to do to get the meeting started on time.

2)What learning theory (operant or social) could be applied to Janette's efforts to teach her volunteers the impact of new laws and changes in state and federal policies and procedures?

3)How could someone like Janette use modeling to train her staff to do a more effective job?