Association for Behavior Analysis International

Applied Behavior Analysis is expanding and whether we like it or not it is our future. The field of organizational behavior management is a sub-field or category of Applied Behavior Analysis. We influence the behavior of others in the workplace. We do that now in our current position as practitioners and supervisors. The idea of using a more positive procedure over punishment is being pushed in the workplace and that is because we are seeing much better results. Although not many opportunities are ready available to us as organizational behavior managers, we have the skill set necessary to pinpoint behaviors and manage behaviors in almost any environment. Along with learning about the environment and what is triggering the behavior in the immediate environment it is also vital to learn about the "organization" or company. How the company runs their business, how they make their income and how assets are being developed. What is it the people want out of the company and what motivates them to work their. We will look deeper into motivating operations of an organization and environmental factors that influence our behaviors in the workplace.

For decades researchers in the field of behavior analysis have lamented why they [managers, educators, etc.] are "not using our good stuff" more often. During the past two years six strategies have been advanced to expand the use of behavior analysis. The present research incorporates five of the suggested strategies: it employs more resonant terminology; it incorporates "warm and fuzzy" behaviors; it offers an easily understood framework; it permits evidence-based management; and it is scalable. To date, research on the Cube One framework has only employed a molar analysis of summated enterprise-, customer- and employee-directed practices (behaviors). At the molar level, organizations enacting high levels of these behaviors were far more successful than those that enact a low level—results equally applicable to for-profit and nonprofit/government organizations. The present research, using data from 597 U.S. and 125 Brazilian employees examines 30 management practices at a granular level. Organizational performance was measured both using a rating and a behavior-based assessment. In the U.S. all practices were significantly associated with performance; the mean being .r = 305. Using a behavior-based criterion the mean correlations was r = .315. Ways to modify the present research paradigm to parallel traditional behavior analysis are described.

The use of personal cell-phone use in the work place has become an increasing problem with the increase of technology. The use of cell phones during work can increase employee's distractibility as well as decrease company profits. The goal of this study was to decrease cell-phone use during the night shift at a small locally owned clothing store. A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of an incentive and public display of data on phone use. The participants in this study included six females. All were within the ages of 18-23 and were typically developing. The employees were asked to sign a contract of participation before beginning. The contract included the all program contingencies. During the intervention, any behavior other than phone use was rewarded with 1 point on a 30 minute schedule. The participant with the most points per hour was given a $50 gift card at the end of the month. Phone use data was graphed weekly, and publicly displayed in the store break room. Results showed that public graphing of cell-phone usage and a monthly incentive decreased the use of cell phones.

For-profit entities rely heavily on employee performance and are continually looking for ways to better align employee performance to corporate goals. One way businesses attempt to do that is through reinforcement using tangible incentives. This can lead to millions of dollars spent per year on these incentives. A cost-effective solution for businesses could be to use stickers to reinforce their employees' behavior. Store credit cards have become a major revenue source for national retail stores, and these stores ask that clerks secure credit card sign-ups. Often store managers use threats of aversive control if clerks do not secure a minimum number of new credit card holders. The current study sought to determine if stickers have reinforcing properties in the workplace with an adult population. At a large retail store in a small town, employees were given stickers as a consequence of receiving store credit card sign-ups. This study used a time series design to assess the effectiveness of this procedure. The data suggest that stickers may be an effective way for retail businesses to increase credit card sign ups. Implications and future directions will be discussed.

Needs assessments can be used to help identify gaps or needs within organizations. This poster describes how the Constructional Questionnaire (Goldiamond, 1974) methodology was used to understand needs within an organization as well as identify current skills and potential reinforcers to be used in subsequent interventions. The questionnaire was utilized to identify goals for an organization and how the organization was currently operating in regards to the identified goals. Once these were determined, the goals were classified according to Rummler & Brache's (1995), three levels of performance: organization, process, and job. The first level that can be classified is the organizational level; this is the organization as a whole and what it can do. The second level is the process level; this is how works gets done in an organization. Finally, there is the job level, which involves individuals doing specific jobs. This paper provides a case study in how one may expand the Constructional Questionnaire and Goldiamond's constructional framework within a needs assessment.

The effects of education, self-monitoring with goal setting, and social comparison feedback on safety-related behaviors of bus drivers were examined. Participants were six bus drivers. We identified four safety related behaviors as target behaviors. We adopted an ABCD within-subject design. After baseline phase (A), an educational session was provided (B). In the next phase, self- monitoring with goal setting (C) was introduced then social comparison feedback (D) was introduced in the final phase. All three interventions were effective in promoting safety-related behaviors. However, self-monitoring with goal setting was more effective than the educational session, while the social comparison feedback was the most effective.

Simulations in human research allows for an increased degree of environmental control, thereby providing researchers with opportunities they may not encounter in the natural environment. The authors begin by extending an analysis of simulation in behavior scientific research conducted by Ward and Houmanfar (2011). This extension considers published research studies from high impact behavior science journals and provides a context for the current status of simulation research in the field. Next, the role of Virtual Reality Simulations (VRS) in behavior science is considered. VRS has emerged as a technology that provides a safe alternative to in-vivo training for High Reliability Organizations (HROs). Current research projects incorporating VRS in HROs are reviewed. Finally, future directions for simulation research are discussed in terms of advances in technology and potential applications for further research.

Several behavior analysts have taken alternate approaches to the study of human culture, and integration of these approaches may be possible. Thomas Gilbert (Gilbert, 1978) described a system to engineer performance in any group of people using six teleonomic levels or vantage points and a three-stage analytic engineering processes for each one, organizing performance accomplishments from the general to the specific. Sigrid Glenn (Glenn, 1988) developed a selection-based paradigm to study the development and control of interlocking behavior via metacontingencies. Gilbert defined performance as composed of both behavior and the valuable accomplishment that it produces, and metacontingencies select multi-organism patterns of interlocking behavior producing aggregate products; both paradigms broaden their scope of analysis from the three-term contingency. Since both Gilbert's definition of performance and Glenn's definition of metacontingencies are rooted in the Skinnerian definition of behavior and in behavior's relationship to different outcomes, they are not incompatible. Gilbert's performance matrix may be useful in identifying and organizing desired contingency and metacontingency relations in an engineered system. We illustrate how the combination of these approaches to cultural analysis can be used to engineer behavior that supports worthy performance.