Learned helplessness phenomenon in work life

Learned Helplessness phenomenon was firstly observed in late 1960's on the experiments made on dogs and it has become a generalized phenomenon with the experiments made on human in 1970's. Learned helplessness is defined as the organism's passive state caused by repeated exposure to uncontrollable outcome (noncontingency between response and outcome) because of the expectation of future noncontingency although the outcomes become controllable. With continuous development and by integration with some other theories Learned Helplessness Theory has put forward explanations for the individuals' unsuccessfulness. With the contribution provided by this theory to social situations, this has been needed to be investigated not only on the individual basis but also in the organizational settings. For this reason, learned helplessness phenomenon has begun to be the interest of organizations and work life since the beginnings of 1980's. Especially on organizational basis Learned Helplessness has not widely known. With this study, this phenomenon was investigated with its reasons, consequences and preventions in work life. In terms of both individual and organizational basis, the factors that can be effective in the emergence of Learned Helplessness were stated. The negative situations of individuals who suffer from Learned Helplessness were tried to be discovered within the possible results of Learned Helplessness. Last of all, the ways of getting rid of Learned Helplessness was tried to be observed. At the end of the study, a model that is designed with causes and consequences is proposed and opened to discussion according to the analysis of survey results.