Self- Efficacy

                Self- efficacy theory is a way to explain motivation, what drives some people to put forth a lot of effort and others to simply sit back and not even try. According to Albert Bandura, who has introduced the theory of self-efficacy, "Self-efficacy is the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the sources of action required to manage prospective situations." (Bandura, 1986) That’s why individuals are less likely to attempt something with their full effort if their self-efficacy is lower for that task. Because people tend to only try things that they believe they will be successful.

                Self- efficacy is influenced by several factors, such as Mastery Experiences, Vicarious Experiences, Verbal Persuasion, and Emotional & Physiological States (Bandura, 1986). According to the James Maddux imaginal experiences is another factor to the self- efficacy (Maddux, 2005).

                As industry in the service sector, banks have to continually develop their staff performance and the success of the organization is highly based on the quality of the services which they are delivering to the customers. At branch level, Branch managers can increase the performance of the branch staff by applying the self-efficacy theory on staff members.

                When assign duties, branch manager should consider the previous achievements of each and every employee and appoint them according to the similar tasks which they have previously achieved will help employees to build their self-efficacy. Shearing the previous achievements of senior peer staff members can be used to develop the self-efficacy of the junior staff members. Positive encouragements, persuasions from leader towards the achievement of duties are very important to build a higher self-efficacy of staff members. Never the less, manager can develop his self-efficacy by his previous achievements and his peer managers’ achievements.

                These implementations might lead to gain a competitive advantage to achieve branch targets by increasing employees’ motivation and performances. As Albert Bandura (1997) pointed out “Self-belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self-disbelief assuredly spawns failure”.

References

Bandura, A., 1986. Social foundations of thought and action, New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs.

Bandura, A., 1986. The explanatory and predictive scope of self-efficacy theory.. Journal of social and clinical psychology, Volume 43, pp. 359-373.

Bandura, A., 1997. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control, s.l.: Macmillan.

Maddux, J., 2005. Self-efficacy: The power of believing you can, s.l.: s.n.