Association for Behavior Analysis International

The need for Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) applications in human service settings has become more and more apparent. The first paper in this symposium will present a quantitative literature review of research on OBM in human service settings, discussing trends, strengths, and opportunities, including the need to conduct more preintervention assessments before implementing OBM interventions. This second paper will highlight survey research that demonstrates the need for clinical behavior analysts to obtain training in OBM and compares clinicians' concerns with the current research trends highlighted in the first paper. The last paper will describe an OBM intervention in an early intervention center, where the effects of scorecards on typically high and typically low performers was evaluated.

Supervising behavior analysts working in human service settings that serve clinical populations; supervisors can be at a manager or director level

One approach that can be used to improve effectiveness and efficiency in human service settings (HSS) is organizational behavior management (OBM). However, OBM has not been widely adopted in HSS and more research is needed to improve organization-wide adoption and application. In addition, although several quantitative reviews of various aspects of OBM have been conducted, none to date has specifically looked at the role of OBM specific to HSS. Thus, the present review was conducted to look at the literature on OBM in HSS that was published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM), the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), and Behavior Analysis in Practice (BAP) from 1990–2016. Trends across client populations served, settings for conducting research, employee populations targeted, the use of pre-intervention assessments, the specific dependent variables measured, and the types of independent variables used will be described. Recommendations for future research will also be provided.

Applied behavior analysts working in human service settings (HSS) train and supervise staff, design systems, and do other tasks related to organizational behavior management (OBM). Consistent with these practices, the Fifth Edition Task List from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board has placed additional emphasis on the need for supervision and OBM training for all clinical behavior analysts. To better understand the role of OBM in HSS, we created a survey for clinical behavior analysts. Respondents were 164 individuals who worked in clinical or human service settings as behavior analysts and who supervised at least one other person. We also coded ten director-level and ten manager-level job descriptions for behavior analysts in HSS to see what kinds of OBM training employers ask for and what kind of OBM job duties employers advertise. Data obtained are discussed in terms of how they can illuminate the links between what clinical behavior analysts are trained to do, what companies advertise they want their clinicians to do, and what those clinicians actually do once they enter the workforce.

The present study evaluated the impact of scorecards on behavior technicians' performance in an early intervention center. Eight technicians participated in the study, each receiving a weekly scorecard. Baseline measures determined the performance level of participants, with four of the highest performers and four of the lowest performers being selected as the participants for this study. The scorecards included measures drawn from an employee survey which sought to identify essential job duties. From the survey results, four measures were selected that corresponded with pre-existing data collection methods. These included: timeliness, programs ran, data entry, and provision of feedback. Initially, there was a modest increase in performance for four of the technicians when scorecard delivery was introduced. Scorecard dimensions were further altered to assess the impact of the modifications on typically high and low performers. Implications and areas of future research will be discussed.