Heather M. McGee

The Effects of Individual Monetary Incentives With and Without Feedback

Abstract This study examined the effects of an individual monetary incentive system with and without feedback to determine if feedback would supplement the effects of incentives. Participants were seven college students who performed a computerized task called SYNWORK. SYNWORK presented four sub-tasks concurrently: memory, arithmetic, visual monitoring and auditory monitoring. Participants earned points for correct responses. The dependent variable was the number of points earned. An ABAC design was used with A = individual monetary incentives without feedback, B = individual monetary incentives with feedback, and C = hourly pay with feedback. Sessions were 90 minutes, and there were 5 to 10 sessions per phase. The point scores of six of the seven participants increased when feedback was added to the incentive system but stabilized or continued to increase when feedback was removed. The feedback intervention was staggered in time across participants, and performance increased when feedback was added, hence the data suggest that feedback enhanced the effects of the incentives. One possible reason for the reversal failure is that feedback evoked higher levels of performance that were then maintained by the additional incentives. Because performance did not reverse, however, the results must be viewed cautiously.

An Integrated Approach for Conducting a Behavioral Systems Analysis.

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how to conduct a Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) to aid in the design of targeted performance improvement interventions. BSA is a continuous process of analyzing the right variables to the right extent to aid in planning and managing performance at the organization, process, and job levels. BSA helps to build alignment among activities within an organization to better provide value-adding products or services to the organizations consumers, which ultimately determines its survival. This paper provides an overview of the BSA approach, a Behavioral Systems Analysis Questionnaire (BSAQ) to guide the performance analyst, and an example of the BSAQ applied to an organization.

An Objective Comparison of Applied Behavior Analysis and Organizational Behavior Management Research

Abstract This paper presents an objective review, analysis, and comparison of empirical studies targeting the behavior of adults published in Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA)and Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM)between 1997 and 2001. The purpose of the comparisons was to identify similarities and differences with respect to research topics and methodologies that appeared in the studies reviewed. Based on these comparisons, suggestions were made regarding what organi zational behavior management (OBM) researchers and practitioners can learn from applied behavior analysis (ABA).

Behavioral Systems Analysis in Health and Human Services

This article provides a behavioral systems approach to improve operational performance in health and human service organizations. This article provides six performance truths that are relevant to any organization and a case study from a community mental health network of agencies. A comprehensive analysis, as described here, will help health and human service leaders identify the critical areas in which to focus improvement efforts to better achieve their organizational mission.

The Use and Validation of Preintervention Diagnostic Tools in Organizational Behavior Management

Functional analyses and assessments have become the accepted gold standards in many applied areas of behavior analysis, including Organizational Behavior Management (OBM), in recent years. Despite their acceptance, OBM data on such tools have been largely absent. There are several assessment alternatives in OBM (e.g., ABC, PIC/NIC, Behavior Engineering Model), but two assessment approaches most common in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management are Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) and the Performance Diagnostic Checklist (PDC). To date there have been no comprehensive reviews of BSA or the PDC from which one might draw ideas for application, research, and the advancement of the field. The goals of this paper are to (a) provide a review of the BSA and PDC literature within the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM), (b) discuss the implications of the results of the review, and (c) provide suggestions for future research utilizing BSA and the PDC.

Behavior-Based Safety in a Coal Mine: The Relationship Between Observations, Participation, and Injuries Over a 14-Year Period

ABSTRACT Safety is an important topic in the inherently dangerous mining industry. The creation of a behavior-based safety program and improved employee-management relationships reduced incident rates by 50%. The safety program focused on employee observations and oversight from steering committees. This case study suggests that participation rates of 30% could produce mine-wide safety improvement and considers possible explanations in the context of current literature and anecdotal reports.

Observer accuracy and behavior analysis: Data collection procedures on hand hygiene compliance in a neurovascular unit

BACKGROUND Although observational studies are popular, little has been done to study the integrity of human observers and the data collection process. Issues of data collection integrity threaten functional findings, leading to problematic interpretation and decreased replication. In our study the response effort associated with hand hygiene data collection in a hospital setting was manipulated using an altered data collection tool. METHODS A counterbalanced ABAB design was implemented across 2 semesters of a hand hygiene data collection practicum course. RESULTS When response effort increased, compliant audits decreased and when response effort decreased, compliant audits increased. These results were statistically significant, with an overall level change z that had a P value of .001 (first semester) and .007 (second semester). CONCLUSION These findings may warrant an increased awareness of data collection procedures where recording options include a less effortful response. The results of our study support basic research on response effort and choice behavior in an applied setting, bringing into question the integrity of data collection procedures and the integrity of the data collected. These results also suggest the need for standardizing reporting systems to ensure hand hygiene collection and reporting procedures are comparable across settings.

Assessing Observer Effects on the Fidelity of Implementation of Functional Analysis Procedures

Instructing and training others to implement functional analysis (FA) procedures can be a cumbersome and time-consuming task. Students and practitioners are required to learn all of the various components to establish conditions and analyze results while also learning to conduct the sessions. The current study assessed the fidelity of individuals implementing FA conditions after observing and rating the fidelity of videos models, using a multiple-baseline design across FA conditions. Video models of each condition were provided throughout; however, participants were only asked to provide fidelity ratings for one video. Results demonstrated the intervention was successful in increasing participant performance above baseline levels for 16 of 17 participants, with 7 participants requiring an additional intervention in which they were asked to observe their own performance. Further research should evaluate the degree to which this procedure may effectively prepare individuals working with non-confederate children and carry over to other responses and settings.

Organizational Behavior Management: Systems Analysis

Abstract In this chapter, we introduce Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA), which is an approach to performance improvement in organizations. BSA blends ABA with the General Systems Theory-an approach to understanding organizational systems by examining the relationships between parts of the system, as well as the relationships between the system and the external environment. We give a brief history of the field, introduce the three levels of BSA (organizational, process, and performer), and give examples of its most commonly used tools. We then illustrate, through examples from previous studies, the use of these tools at each of the three levels of analysis. We end this chapter with some suggestions for future research in the area of BSA.

Some Tools for Carrying Out a Proposed Process for Supervising Experience Hours for Aspiring Board Certified Behavior Analysts

While task clarification, goal setting, feedback, and behavioral skills training (BST) are well-supported methods for performance improvement, there is no standardized approach to supervising aspiring Board Certified Behavior Analysts® (BCBAs®) that specifies how such practices should be used within a comprehensive supervision system, namely for supervising those who are still accruing experience hours for the purpose of becoming board certified. This article outlines a systematic approach to BCBA supervision and provides a set of tools that supervisors can use to ensure that they are engaging in empirically based supervision practices.