Timothy D. Ludwig

Assigned Versus Participative Goal Setting and Response Generalization : Managing Injury Control Among Professional Pizza Deliverers

Safety belt use, turn signal use, and intersection stopping were observed at 3 pizza delivery locations per drivers license plate numbers. After baseline observations, employees at 1 store participated in goal setting targeting complete stops. Employees at the other store were assigned a goal. Over 4 weeks, the groups percentages of complete intersection stopping were posted. Both intervention groups significantly increased their complete intersection stops during the intervention phase. The participative goal-setting group also showed significant increases in turn signal and safety belt use (nontargeted behaviors) concurrent with their increases in intersection stopping (targeted behaviors). Drivers decreased their turn signal and safety belt use concurrent with the assigned goal condition targeting complete stops.

Improving Anesthesia Nurse Compliance with Universal Precautions Using Group Goals and Public Feedback

Abstract Universal Precautions (UPs), procedures to reduce the likelihood of accidental exposure to blood-borne pathogens, were observed among seven Certified Nurse Anesthetists and one anesthesia technician during intravenous line procedures. After six weeks of baseline measures, nurses participated in training, goal setting, and feedback targeting hand sanitizing practices. Three weeks later immediate needle disposal was targeted. Hand sanitizing behaviors increased from a group baseline percentage of 24% to 65% during the intervention, and 52% during withdrawal. No significant increases in immediate needle disposal were found. Participants disposed of needles immediately 53% of the time during baseline, 58% during the intervention phase, and 45% during withdrawal. Nontargeted UP behaviors also increased as a result of the intervention: Recapping needles with onhand increased from 45% during baseline to 61% during the intervention phases; removing gloves from inside out increased from 61% to 93%; and wearing gloves when discarding waste increased from 31% to 52%. Auxiliary behaviors such as nurse and patient interactions remained consistently high throughout the study.

Managing Distribution Quality Through an Adapted Incentive Program with Tiered Goals and Feedback

Abstract The purpose of this study was to evaluate a program designed to improve the work quality of employees at a food distribution warehouse. Participants (n = 23) were responsible for selecting food items to be distributed to restaurants. Selector errors were targeted using an adapted incentive program featuring tiered goals and individualized normative feedback. A pre-existing incentive program, wherein selectors forfeited money for each error, was adapted to allow the selectors the opportunity to earn back their disincentive money upon attainment of weekly goals that were increasingly demanding. The initial goal for the first two weeks was set at 2.0 errors per 1000 cases and every two weeks thereafter the new goal was reduced by 0.1 errors per 1000 cases until the final goal of 1.5 errors per 1000 cases. Weekly graphic feedback included public posting of individual error rates. The mean errors per 1000 cases for the experimental group decreased 10% from 3.16 during baseline to 2.54 during the intervention. The largest decrease in errors was observed in the mid-level performers (with baseline error rates between 2 and 3.5 errors per 1000 cases). A cost-benefit analysis revealed potential savings of

Enhancing Incentive Programs with Proximal Goals and Immediate Feedback: Engineered Labor Standards and Technology Enhancements in Stocker Replenishment

9,799.50.

Reducing Warehouse Employee Errors Using Voice-Assisted Technology That Provided Immediate Feedback

Abstract Under baseline conditions warehouse stockers (n= 23) could earn incentives if their team performed above the team quota of 18 cases stocked per hour. They were also subject to disciplinary action if they failed to regularly meet individual stocking quotas. In spite of these contingencies the stockers failed to receive bonus payments most of the months preceding the intervention. The intervention package included a task analysis in the form of engineered labor standards. Empirically derived time standards were combined to provide engineered standards for all stocking tasks. A specific time duration goal for each task was presented prior to execution of each task. Percent of standard time used to complete each task was then presented immediately upon completion of each task via a handheld Electronic Performance Monitoring (EPM) device. Thus, task goals and performance feedback immediately preceded and followed performance of each stocking task. Immediately upon onset of the intervention, employee performance increased and eventually averaged 4.46 cases stocked per hour per person, an increase of 24% over the baseline phase. Performance was maintained for the 10-week duration of the study. Team members received the maximum bonus of 300 per month for 9 consecutive months under the intervention system. Performance levels in a comparison team at another warehouse were unchanged during the entire study. Results were discussed in terms of expanding the role of Organizational Behavior Management professionals and operational and ethical issues associated with EPM technologies.

Performance, Accuracy, Data Delivery, and Feedback Methods in Order Selection: A Comparison of Voice, Handheld, and Paper Technologies

Abstract A foodservice distributor in the southeastern United States implemented a voice assisted selecting tool to reduce selector errors by providing immediate feedback when errors occurred. An AB design with a nonequivalent comparison group was used to examine the effects of the voice technology on 132 selectors whose mispicks and shorts were collected over 6 weeks of baseline and 8 weeks of the intervention phase. Selector errors were reduced from 2.44 errors per 1,000 cases picked to 0.94 errors per 1,000 cases when voice technology was implemented. Further analysis indicated that the immediate feedback provided by voice had a greater impact on employees who were making the most errors during baseline.

Reducing Absenteeism and Rescheduling Among Grocery Store Employees With Point-Contingent Rewards

Abstract A field study was conducted in auto-parts after-market distribution centers where selectors used handheld computers to receive instructions and feedback about their product selection process. A wireless voice-interaction technology was then implemented in a multiple baseline fashion across three departments of a warehouse (N = 14) and was associated with a 17% increase in productivity over the previously implemented handheld scanning technology of the baseline condition and comparison departments that continued to use handheld scanner technology. Selection accuracy was nearly identical for voice (99.55%) and handheld (99.80%) technology. But, both were associated with substantially higher selection accuracy than a paper-based method (96.50%). Accuracy with voice instruction delivery, however, was most vulnerable whenever upstream events (i.e., processes that occur before the selection process such as receiving, replenishment, and inventory control) resulted in the wrong product being in the selection location. The implications and limitations that arise with these technologies are discussed as well as the expanded role of the Organizational Behavior Management professional.

Using Task Clarification, Goal Setting, and Feedback to Decrease Table Busing Times in a Franchise Pizza Restaurant

The purpose of this research was to evaluate a reward program designed to reduce absenteeism among staff (N = 38) at a grocery store. The intervention included public feedback and a credit reward system whereby participants got store dollars for attendance and authorized rescheduling of work assignments. Results showed that absenteeism decreased from a group mean of 8 shifts missed per week during baseline to 4.25 shifts missed per week during the intervention before increasing to 6.75 shifts missed per week during the reversal phase. The mean total rescheduling occurrences were reduced from a baseline average of 19.83 per week to 9.25 per week during the intervention and returned to 22.25 per week during the reversal. Employees were also less likely to leave early during the intervention period.

On the Necessity of Structure in an Arbitrary World

ABSTRACT The current study investigated the effects of task-clarification, and manager verbal and graphic feedback on employee busing times at a pizza restaurant. Using an ABC design, task-clarification was provided in a memo, which described the process, priority, and goal time of busing. The busing time decreased slightly, from an average of 315 seconds during baseline to an average of 284 seconds after the task clarification memo. The majority of this change was accounted for by servers decreasing the time it took them to arrive at the table to begin busing. Subsequent to the employee memo, group feedback was administered in the form of verbal feedback and a weekly graph of average server busing times. This feedback was associated with reductions in busing time to an average 152 seconds. Changes in the feedback phase were caused almost exclusively by reductions in the time it took to clean the table once the server was there. A reversal to near-baseline busing times was observed in a follow-up phase. Prebusing and cross-busing were not associated with shorter busing times.

Business Activity Monitoring: Real-Time Group Goals and Feedback Using an Overhead Scoreboard in a Distribution Center

Abstract The term response generalization has been poorly defined and has, over many years, been a source of controversy for applied researchers who must grapple with results that show changes in behaviors outside of the response class targeted by their intervention. The present discussion seeks to differentiate response generalization from such terms as response covariation and induction. Instead, response generalization is redefined in the context of response classes and concurrent schedules of reinforcement.