Should Organizational Behavior Management Expand Its Content?

Abstract

The American Psychological Association (APA) has defined the years 2000 to 2010 as the “Decade of Behavior,” and has been promoting this designation in convention materials, newsletters, media briefs, and professional publications. But APA seems to be avoiding the leading discipline in analyzing and changing behaviors in industrial settings-organizational behavior management (OBM). Furthermore, with only a few exceptions, OBM does not receive the attention it deserves in university psychology departments, including graduate programs in industrial/organizational (I/O) Psychology. This paper entertains reasons for the low and decreasing academic attention to OBM, and offers some possible solutions. It is proposed that OBM is generally discussed in overly simplistic terms; and unlike I/O Psychology, OBM does not draw on the wealth of relevant concepts and principles in other areas, especially cognitive and social psychology. Specific examples are given for expanding the typical boundaries of the OBM curriculum in order to improve organization-based interventions and realize greater opportunities to demonstrate the unique qualities of a behavior analysis approach to real-world problem solving.     

On Making Mountains Out of Molehills

Abstract

Seven thoughtful and provocative commentaries were activated by one or both of two articles I authored or coauthored. One article (Geller, 2002) presented a case for broadening the content of organizational behavior management (OBM), while the other (Wiegand & Geller, 2004) discussed linkages between positive reinforcement, positive psychology, and achievement motivation. This rejoinder explains apparent misperceptions of the earlier papers, and adds to the case for expanding the language and scope of OBM, including a consideration of hypothetical constructs influenced reciprocally by environmental conditions and contingencies. A rationale for success seeking over failure avoiding is given with reference to Skinner's theorizing about freedom and dignity.     

The Historical Roots of Organizational Behavior Management in the Private Sector

Abstract

Applications of behavior analysis in the private sector became visible in the late 1960s and early 1970s. By the 1980s, the field of Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) was a well established discipline. This article chronicles the people, events and publications that contributed to the formation of the field, beginning with the precursors in the 1950s and ending in the early 1980s. The contributions of individuals who have been honored by the OBM Network are detailed and emphasized. Although some historical accounts attribute the development of OBM to influences from traditional management fields, the present account, through documentation of the formative events, argues that the field developed in relative isolation from such influences, emanating primarily from Skinner's development of programmed instruction and the advent of behavioral applications in other settings. While application of psychology to the work place predated behavioral involvement, the primary force for the development and growth of OBM came from within the field of behavior analysis.     

Organizational Behavior Management and Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Abstract

Six scholars in applied psychology wrote thoughtful and provocative reactions to a paper written by the author that presented a case for broadening the content and language of organizational behavior management (OBM) in order to enhance appreciation for OBM in organizational settings and among university faculty and students in mainstream psychology programs. This paper summarizes the follow-up commentaries and adds justification for key points made in the target article. Five topics are addressed: (1) critical distinctions between OBM and industrial/organizational psychology, (2) disadvantages of using negative over positive reinforcement to motivate behavior change, (3) the need to after OBM language in order to increase interest and application, (4) the use of unobservable person state vs. personality traits to explain behavior, and (5) the challenge of improving the education and training of students in OBM programs.     

The Several Meanings of “Positive”

Abstract

Wiegand and Geller propose that the salient role of positive reinforcement in behavior analysis should enable a melding of behavior analysis with developments and concepts that have appeared under the banner of “positive psychology.” However, as is true of many words, the term positive has more than one meaning, and the positive of positive reinforcement is not the same as the positive of “positive psychology.” The latter is parasitic upon the vernacular, as “nice” or “desirable,” whereas the former is analogous to the algebraic “add” as when an action produces the appearance (as contrasted with the removal) of some event. The distinct meanings become clear with recognition that addictive and criminal behavior often are maintained through positive reinforcement, and that negative reinforcement of behavior often is benign and beneficial to the persons involved. In addition, most of the phenomena identified with positive psychology that Wiegand and Geller propose to embrace entail more subtle and complex combinations of behavioral principles than these authors acknowledge. Wiegand and Geller also propose to accommodate vernacular assumptions in ways that separate their approach from its conceptual base; this risks impairing the effectiveness of their work whether or not its marketability would be improved.     

基于制度逻辑的不同上下级关系对员工创新行为的差异化影响机制研究

作为组织中影响员工创新的重要人际关系，层级性上下级关系目前存在着基于西方文化的LMX （领导-成员交换）与基于中国文化的SSG （上司-下属关系）两种界定。为探求不同上下级关系对员工创新行为的影响机制是否有所不同，本研究从制度逻辑视角出发，基于社会交换理论和制度逻辑二维分析框架，构建了上下级关系透过心理授权作用于员工创新行为的路径，剖析了SSG和LMX对创新行为的差异化影响机制。来自72个团队的252名成员为样本的实证分析表明，SSG和LMX均能正向影响员工创新行为，心理授权在这种影响中均发挥着中介作用；尤为重要的是，相较于基于工作逻辑的LMX，基于家族逻辑的SSG对中国情境下的员工创新行为有更强的解释力度，这种差异是通过两者的不同交换逻辑对心理授权的不同影响而产生的。本研究为解构中国情境下的创新行为和上下级互动及其关系提供了全新的理论视角，丰富了本土化的创新管理研究。     

History and Contribution of Organizational Behavior Management to Services for Persons with Developmental Disabilities

ABSTRACT

This article traces the development of the field of organizational behavior management (OBM) from its origins in early behavior modification studies, the development of a technology for modifying staff behavior, to recent developments in the evolution of cultures. An ecological model of staff behavior is outlined using Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model of human development. The technology used to modify staff behavior is briefly reviewed. In the final section recommendations for managers and researchers are made. Managers should be aware that there is an effective technology for modifying a wide range of staff behaviors that can be implemented both in response to crises and during routine management. Future research on OBM should address three major concerns. First, OBM should broaden the scope of its enquiry beyond the immediate staff and consumer dyad to include analysis of and intervention upon the entire ecosystem within which the consumer's behavior occurs. Second, the issue of integrating theory with practice should be pursued more vigorously through fundamental research on supervisor behavior and through basing interventions on an analysis of the variables maintaining current supervisory behavior. Third, greater attention should be paid to developing training for middle managers as general ist users of the principles of OBM.     

Norms in Mixed Sex and Mixed Race Work Groups

Abstract

Norms determine regular patterns of behavior and influence members' identification with a group. They are also a proximate way to predict and understand behavior in diverse work groups but, surprisingly, have not been extensively examined in this context. After reviewing research on group norms and the psychology of prejudice, I suggest that reaping the benefits of the increased range of available task relevant resources in demographically diverse work groups may depend on the strength and content of the norms it adopts, but that diverse groups face distinct obstacles in developing strong norms that create satisfying interpersonal interaction and effective work performance. I consider the difficulties diverse work groups have in forming strong norms and then focus on how anti‐bias norms, which are directed toward preventing behaviors associated with prejudice and discrimination and address members' security concerns, and openness norms, which promote people's ability to individuate those whom they might otherwise stereotype as well as address nurturance concerns, may increase a work group's ability to optimize social interaction and performance amidst diversity. I suggest that reorienting psychological and organizational research on prejudice to focus on group norm strength and content may be a way of both understanding and solving the greater challenges of discrimination.     

Transformational/charismatic leadership's tranformation of the field: An historical essay

I use a framework by Reichers and Schneider (1990) to explore the evolution of leadership research across time. This analysis leads to development of the doom and gloom arguments about the field in the 1970s and early 1980s. Transformational and charismatic leadership is discussed as it takes off following the doom and gloom period. That takeoff is followed by revisiting the shift to transformational/charismatic leadership and considering why some of the leading and next-generation scholars set off in this new direction. I then link transformational/charismatic leadership with more traditional approaches and finish with conclusions concerning forces for change, assessing where the leadership field is currently, and providing a future assessment with some caveats. I conclude that a crucial contribution of transformational/charismatic leadership has been in terms of its rejuvenation of the leadership field, regardless of whatever content contributions it has made. This rejuvenation came about because of what most would consider a paradigm shift that has attracted numerous new scholars and moved the field as a whole out of its doldrums.     

管理控制中管理者的行为特征分类及管理业绩的关系研究

以心理学、组织行为学、管理学为理论基础,以价值观、态度、动机为行为特征的划分变量,对企业管理控制中管理者不同群体的行为特征进行了实证研究。通过聚类分析将控制对象划分为集体主义倾向型、规则顺从型、自我价值实现型和环境认知型4类人群,研究显示每一类群体都呈现出差异化的人口统计特征。然后,进一步考察了这4类群体的管理业绩与"目标难度适度性"、"信息反馈及时性"及"业绩考核公平性"等控制环节的关系。     

Limitations of working memory capacity: The cognitive and social consequences

This paper aimed to explore, from the perspective of cognitive psychology, the natural limitations of human cognition that determine our capabilities to deal with information overflow. These limitations are related mainly to the working memory system. This system is conceived to be composed of the storage components, which are responsible for active maintenance, and executive control that supervises the storage units. People differ in their working memory capacities, and because virtually every complex cognitive activity requires the temporal availability of a certain amount of cognitive representations, these differences are predictive of many outcomes. In the area of ‘cold’ cognition, these outcomes include intelligence and verbal reasoning, multitasking, language comprehension and verbal fluency, whereas in the area of ‘hot’ cognition, they include mentalising, stereotyping and self-control. Natural limitations in working memory capacity may be overcome (to some extent) through the training of working memory skills or the application of processing strategies (e.g. task simplification, using external environment as in situated or distributed cognition, changing a code of mental representation).     

“I feel and think,therefore I am”: An Affect-Cognitive Theory of management decisions

I propose an Affect-Cognitive Theory to comprehensively understand how decisions occur in organizations. To this aim, I first review the assumptions of sensemaking and decision-making streams of research, especially the influence of bounded rationality, affective states and their relationships with cognition; then, I integrate them on the common basis of socially situated cognition. This new theory emphasizes the role of affective states in determining/being determined by cognition and its errors, pointing out decision makers’ affect as the result of multi-level adaptations to the physical and social environment. Management decisions are path dependent but not immutable; they, indeed, bank on the predominant feeling resulting from the modifying interactions and regulations of decision makers with their physical and social environment. Here, decision makers are proposed as “emotional cognizers” overcoming the thinking-feeling dichotomy that has often featured in the study of management decisions. This theory is beneficial for behavioral strategy, offering the needed assumptions to intertwine human cognition, emotions, and social behavior.     

Positive Psychology and the Distinction Between Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Abstract

The authors make a reasonable point, that behavior analysis should be concerned with effective behavior in its own right and not only as a replacement for ineffective behavior. But positive psychology is then described as “a science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions …” based largely on correlations among self-report inventories; a science which has the goal of identifying traits that function as the explanations of the behavior of interest. An effort is made to justify this move in a nonbehavioral direction by reference to the distinction between positive and negative reinforcement and an exhortation that OBM practitioners emphasize the former. But this rationale is seriously flawed by either a clearly erroneous or a drastically oversimplified understanding of this distinction. Furthermore, all of the more specific recommendations can be easily justified in terms of ordinary behavioral advantages without recourse to the achievement motivation literature or such concepts as self-efficacy.     

Response Generalization in Behavioral Safety

Abstract

This paper details concerns with the potential misuse of the term “response generalization” in the behavioral safety literature. Stokes and Baer's (1977) technologies of generalization and the basic literature on response induction are used to make the claim. Ludwig and Geller's (2000) Journal of Organizational Behavior Management special issue describing their work with pizza delivery drivers is used as an example. The potential problems of non-technical use of language in a technological behavioral science are briefly discussed. Finally, Baer, Wolf, and Risley's (1968, 1987) criteria of applied behavior analysis are re-visited in this context in hopes of calling researchers of organizational behavior management to more closely align their work with the tradition of applied behavior analysis.     

The Role of Decision Analysis in Risk Analysis: A Retrospective

In commemorating the 40th anniversary of Risk Analysis, this article takes a retrospective look at some of the ways in which decision analysis (as a “sibling field”) has contributed to the development both of the journal, and of risk analysis as a field. I begin with some early foundational papers from the first decade of the journal's history. I then review a number of papers that have applied decision analysis to risk problems over the years, including applications of related methods such as influence diagrams, multicriteria decision analysis, and risk matrices. The article then reviews some recent trends, from roughly the last five years, and concludes with observations about the parallel evolution of risk analysis and decision analysis over the decades—especially with regard to the importance of representing multiple stakeholder perspectives, and the importance of behavioral realism in decision models. Overall, the extensive literature surveyed here supports the view that the incorporation of decision-analytic perspectives has improved the practice of risk analysis.     

基于ART及多风险规避的交通网络均衡模型

随着对交通系统不确定性认识的深入,以绝对理性为基础的“期望效用理论”在风险环境下的路径选择分析中显示出局限性,而“预期后悔理论”则为之提供了新的分析思路.将预期后悔理论应用到风险环境下的路径选择分析中,将出行者一致风险规避的假设扩展到多风险规避,建立了基于后悔理论及多风险规避出行特征的交通网络随机用户均衡变分不等式模型,并给出了求解算法.通过算例分析发现,后悔心理对出行者的路径选择并不总是显著的.在非风险环境及极端风险环境中,后悔心理对出行者的路径选择影响是微弱的,但是当环境处于极端风险与非风险之间时,后悔心理对出行者路径选择有着较为显著的影响.     

计算实验金融、技术规则与时间序列收益可预测性

从受到广泛关注的简单技术规则视角,运用新兴的计算实验金融方法研究股票市场收益的时间序列可预测性,证明投资者非理性心理和行为是造成时间序列收益可预测性的原因.基于Swarm仿真平台和Objective C语言构建仿真模型TA-ASM,并进行多组不同参数下的计算实验,通过对模拟数据的统计分析发现,简单技术规则能获得超额收益,表明其在一定程度上具有时间序列收益可预测,该结果意味着收益时间序列存在可被简单技术规则侦测的部分.为确定潜在的影响因素的作用,研究进一步定性定量地对可能的各个内外生因素进行分析,最后得出投资者的非理性心理和行为作为一种系统风险被市场收益吸收从而导致时间序列收益可预测性的结论,该结论支持了行为金融理论关于个体的非理性存在于市场收益过程的假说.     

A People-Based Approach to OBM

Abstract

This rejoinder discusses some common points raised in the commentaries of this special issue of JOBM, including (1) different definitions of positive and negative, (2) use of the terms reinforcement and establishing operation, and (3) concerns over the abandonment of behavior analysis for mentalistic research. In addition, a people-based approach to psychology is introduced and advocated as a leading-edge approach to understanding and improving organizational behavior.     

Giving Versus Giving In

Abstract

Altruism is central to organizational and social life, but its motivations are not well understood. We propose a new theoretical distinction that sorts these motivations into two basic types: “giving” indicates prosocial behaviors in which one willingly engages, while “giving in” indicates prosocial behavior in which one reluctantly engages, often in response to social pressure or obligation. Unlike those who give, those who give in prefer to avoid the situation that compels altruism altogether, even if doing so leaves the would-be beneficiary empty-handed. We review the existing literature on altruism in behavioral economics, psychology, and organizational behavior and suggest that the distinction between giving and giving in is not only central from a theoretical standpoint, but also has important methodological implications for researchers trying to study prosocial behavior and practitioners trying to encourage it.     

What explains cultural differences in leadership styles? On the agricultural origins of participative and directive leadership

Why do we observe either participative or directive leadership in organizations? I test an evolutionary-informed theory suggesting that organizational leadership is currently less participative (i.e., close supervision, rare delegation) among societies that used intensive forms of agriculture in the past. Intensification caused increased social complexity and skewed power distribution, promoting the emergence of directive leaders and eventually shaping followers' preferences for and perceptions of leadership. Combining evidence, secondary data, and methods developed in economics, anthropology, and applied psychology, I document a negative relationship between traditional agricultural intensity and followers' participative leadership prototypes. I then study the link between traditional agriculture and reliance on delegation to subordinates across firms. I discuss competing hypotheses, explore the interplay between traditional agriculture and organizational-level factors, and show that traditional agricultural intensity does not predict most other leadership prototypes and management practices. Implications for leadership theory–with a focus on evolutionary approaches–are finally discussed.