Organizational Behavior Management

Description of the Strategy

Organizational behavior management (OBM), also known as performance management, involves the systematic application of behavior analysis techniques to improve the functionality of organizations and their members. The principal publication outlet for OBM has been the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM, Haworth Press), which was founded in 1977. The first editor of JOBM was Aubrey C. Daniels, with Larry Miller as managing editor. The professional organization that represents the field of OBM is the OBM Network. The OBM Network is a special-interest group of the Association for Behavior Analysis and was founded in 1982.

Skinner, in 1953, was among the first to suggest applications of behavior analysis to improve organizational productivity. Articles began to appear on the topic during the 1950s and 1960s, but the field was not formally established until the late 1970s. OBM techniques have produced effective results in a wide variety of settings, including large and small organizations, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, publicly and privately held organizations, and unionized and nonunionized work cultures. Studies have targeted a variety of organizational behaviors and results for [Page 408]improvement, including productivity, quality, customer satisfaction and service, safety, and health. The most commonly used OBM interventions include performance feedback, verbal praise, goal setting, monetary rewards, nonmonetary tangible rewards, training, antecedents (i.e., job aids, prompts), punishment, and systems redesign.

As most practitioners and researchers in OBM are trained in applied behavior analysis, OBM work is highly pragmatic, so practitioners and researchers tend to assume a problem-solving role. Organizational problems are typically addressed at one or more of three levels: the performer level, the process level, and/or the organizational level. The performer level is perhaps the most common of these in the research literature. Problems at this level involve performance problems of employees and employee groups. Performerlevel interventions involve changing worker behavior to achieve more valuable organizational results. Performer-level interventions are most clearly informed by the known effective techniques of applied behavior analysis. The process level involves how people go about doing the work within a series of interdependent tasks that culminate in creation of products or services important to the organization. Intervention at the process level involves improving efficiency with which tasks are completed, reducing complexity and redundancy in processes, and engineering effective management and workflow systems. Process-level interventions are most clearly informed by general systems theory and behavioral systems analysis. The organization level involves the mission and strategy of the organization and functioning of the total organization in relation to its immediate (i.e., the local community and industry competitors) and distal environments (i.e., the legal, economic, and cultural environment and global competition). Organizationallevel interventions are most clearly informed by general systems theory and organizational theory and strategy.

Research Basis

Results of empirical OBM research show that when antecedents clearly specify conditions under which preferred work behavior will be highly correlated with clearly specified consequences (e.g., feedback and tangible or social rewards), the typical effect is substantial improvement in the targeted behavior and in the organizationally relevant results. As stated above, particular techniques and applications in OBM vary widely. However, most OBM research activities have focused on changing behavior and results (the outcomes or products of behavior) at work. The most frequently utilized technique of behavior change in OBM has been delivery of performance feedback. Performance feedback should be specific, individualized, and delivered immediately before or after the target behavior. It can involve verbal reports of performance or graphic representations of performance over time. Feedback is most effective if delivered immediately and individually; however, research shows that delayed and group feedback are also effective in many cases. Feedback can be delivered by peers, by supervisors, or by the target individual through self-monitoring of performance. Feedback is most effective when delivered frequently (i.e., daily or many times each day), but it may also work when delivered on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on the performance targeted. More complex skills typically require more frequent and more specific feedback than do less complex skills. Comparisons of intermittent and frequent feedback suggest that employees prefer frequent feedback but that frequent feedback does not necessarily produce more durable behavior change.

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