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| Is Behavioral Systems Analysis OBM’s Recipe for Survival? |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 10:30 AM–11:50 AM |
| Liberty C |
| Area: OBM; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Ramona Houmanfar (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| Abstract: . |
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| Finding Vitality or a Strain towards Irrelevance? |
| DWIGHT HARSHBARGER (Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies) |
| Abstract: In 2002 the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM) presented a special issue, Marketing OBM: Expanded Context and Language. With the exception of Richard W. Malott, the writers’ recommendations were: Integrate OBM with Industrial-Organizational (IO) psychology, use mentalistic terms familiar to consumers, and turn to the use of personal perception and personality states to account for organizational behavior.
OBM needs an infusion of vitality. We will be served well by expanding concepts and technologies in directions that have already begun. Biglan’s approaches to community change, Maria E. Malott’s use of behavioral systems, Rummler’s multi-level analysis of organizational process and outcomes, Abernathy’s use of free operants grounded in a performance-based approach to organizational systems - all these bring new opportunities for bringing vital new practices and conceptual models into OBM.
Perhaps the acronym, OBM, itself is part of the problem. The implication that behavior in organizations is something to be managed, acted upon. Organizations are complex combinations of people, systems and resources. Cutting this complexity to fit a relatively narrow experimental model of OBM, or retrofitting OBM into IO or the mentalistic tradition of personality-social psychology is at worst a recipe for extinction, and at best a strain towards irrelevance. |
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| The Social and Ethical Goals of an Organizational Behavior System |
| WILLIAM B. ABERNATHY (Abernathy & Associates) |
| Abstract: Abraham Maslow described human goals as a hierarchy that included physiological needs, security, social, self-esteem and self-actualization. This list can serve as a foundation for developing values and goals for the design and management of an organizational behavior system. The behavior system should be judged in terms of these criteria: return on Investment, job security, cooperation, reduction in aversive control, and support of free operant behavior. |
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| Towards a Systems Analysis of Occupational Health and Safety |
| MARK P. ALAVOSIUS (Western Michigan University) |
| Abstract: Many reported BBS initiatives are designed to improve selected safety behaviors. The focus of most solutions is to manage worthy safety behaviors, control hazards, and reduce at risk behaviors. Often the goal is to improve the health and safety of an organization’s workforce and in so doing yield substantial returns on investment. BBS is perhaps OBM’s best-defined and most clearly understood technology; it is widely regarded within the business community as a proven technology. The specificity of BBS interventions designed to manage pockets within an organization limits both its impact and the development of more systemic applications.
Consideration of broader systems influencing occupational health and safety including industry, community, regulatory, risk finance, and marketplace factors will enhance the sophistication and power of our BBS solutions and promote advancement of behavior analyses of socially important issues. Occupational health and safety offers a unique platform for further conceptual and empirical development of OBM. Elaborating a systems perspective opens opportunities for conceptual and empirical development of our field by extending our reach into powerful and complex community contingencies that affect the health and safety of all working people. Such developments allow us to convey the broad reaching implications of behaviorism and open new venues for research and practice.
This presentation describes system factors influencing occupational health and safety. Analyses of these will invigorate development of more potent health and safety initiatives and expand the reach of our field to achieve large-scale and lasting benefits. |
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| Application of Behavioral Systems Analysis to Technology Commercialization |
| MARIA E. MALOTT (Malott & Associates) |
| Abstract: This presentation describes the application of behavioral systems analysis to an economic development enterprise that helps life science firms to develop through the processes of start up, incubation, acceleration and expansion. The enterprise success depends, in great part, on the acquisition of intellectual property and technology commercialization. Implications for increasing the demand of behavioral technology while protecting its integrity will be discussed. |
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