Handbook

of Organizational Performance
Behavior Analysis
and Management

C. Merle Johnson, PhD

William K. Redmon, PhD
Thomas C. Mawhinney, PhD
Editors

The Haworth PressR

New York S London S Oxford
E 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
microfilm, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Handbook of organizational performance : behavior analysis and management / C. Merle John-

son, William K. Redmon, Thomas C. Mawhinney, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7890-1086-0 (hard : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-7890-1087-9 (soft : alk. paper)
1. Organizational behavior. 2. Personnel management. I. Johnson, C. Merle. II. Redmon,
William K. III. Mawhinney, Thomas C.

HD58.7.H364 2000
658.3—dc21 00-040768
 CONTENTS

About the Editors xi

Contributors xiii
Foreword xv
Aubrey C. Daniels
Acknowledgments xix
PART I: FOUNDATIONS
Chapter 1. Introduction to Organizational Performance:
Behavior Analysis and Management 3
C. Merle Johnson
Thomas C. Mawhinney
William K. Redmon
Recurring Themes in OBM Research Literature 7
Conclusion 18
Chapter 2. Principles of Learning: Respondent
and Operant Conditioning and Human Behavior 23
Alan Poling
Diane Braatz
Respondent Conditioning 24
Operant Conditioning 26
Verbal Behavior 40
Rule-Governed Behavior 41
Concluding Comments 44
Chapter 3. Developing Performance Appraisals:
Criteria for What and How Performance
Is Measured 51
Judith L. Komaki
Michelle Reynard Minnich
Problems with What to Appraise 52
The “How” Issues in Performance Appraisal 55
What Can Be Done to Improve Content and Method? 58
 New Criteria for Criteria 62
Identifying What Should Be Appraised 67
Chapter 4. Within-Group Research Designs:
Going Beyond Program Evaluation Questions 81
Judith L. Komaki
Sonia M. Goltz
Scientific Method: Matching Research Questions
and Designs 82
Drawing Inferences with Confidence 86
Within-Group Designs 92
Answering Program Evaluation Questions
Using Within-Group Designs 93
Assessing Trends Over Time Using Within-Group
Designs 109
Problems Using Within-Group Designs to Address
Comparison Questions 112
Assessing Impact of Multiple Treatments: Alternatives
to Asking Comparison Questions 119
Within-Group Designs in Perspective 123
Chapter 5. Schedules of Reinforcement in Organizational
Performance, 1971-1994: Application, Analysis,
and Synthesis 139
Donald A. Hantula
The Basic Importance of Schedules 140
Schedules of Reinforcement: The Basics 142
Schedules of Reinforcement: The Research 148
Application, Analysis, and Synthesis 155
Theoretical Issues and Future Directions 157
PART II: APPLICATIONS OF THE BEHAVIORAL
MODEL
Chapter 6. Training and Development in Organizations:
A Review of the Organizational Behavior Management
Literature 169
Richard Perlow
The Importance of Instruction 170
Training Research 170
 Comparison Research 173
Training and Motivation 176
Program Development 178
Critique and Future Research Directions 181
Conclusion 185
Chapter 7. Leadership: Behavior, Context,
and Consequences 191
Thomas C. Mawhinney
A Behavior Analytic Vantage Point on Leadership 193
Selection by Consequences As a Causal Mode 193
Contiguity- and Molar Correlation-Based Laws of Effect 199
Necessary Conditions for Leadership 205
Discussion and Conclusion 219
Chapter 8. The Management of Occupational Stress 225
Terry A. Beehr
Steve M. Jex
Papia Ghosh
Job Satisfaction 228
The Measurement of Job Stressors 230
Approaches to the Treatment of Occupational Stress 231
Treatments for Occupational Stress 233
Conclusions and Recommendations 248
Chapter 9. Pay for Performance 255
Phillip K. Duncan
Dee Tinley Smoot
Variety of Plans 255
Behavioral Approaches to Performance-Based Pay 257
Common Elements 268
Future Research 270
Chapter 10. The Safe Performance Approach
to Preventing Job-Related Illness and Injury 277
Beth Sulzer-Azaroff
Kathleen Blake McCann
Todd C. Harris
Current Approaches to Dealing with Safety 277
Reasons for Unsafe Performance 278
 The Safe Performance Model 279
Summary and Conclusion 297
Chapter 11. Actively Caring for Occupational Safety:
Extending the Performance Management Paradigm 303
E. Scott Geller
An Actively Caring Model 304
Empirical Support for the Actively Caring Model 309
Assessment of Actively Caring Factors 315
Actively Caring in Action 317
Chapter 12. A Behavioral Approach to Sales
Management 327
Mark J. Martinko
William W. Casey
Paul Fadil
Background 327
The Behavioral Sales Management Model (BSM):
An Overview 328
Final Thoughts 342

PART III: PROFESSIONAL AND THEORETICAL

ISSUES
Chapter 13. Marketing Behaviorally Based Solutions 347
Leslie Wilk Braksick
Julie M. Smith
Defining Core Products/Services 347
Advertising and Promotion 349
Sales and Market Research 353
Conclusion 365
Chapter 14. Organizational Behavior Management
and Organization Development: Potential Paths
to Reciprocation 367
James L. Eubanks
Definition and Comparison of OD with OBM 368
Does OD Work? 372
OBM and OD: Potential for Reciprocation 373
 Paths to Reconciliation 381
Summary and Conclusion 383

Chapter 15. Social Learning Analysis of Behavioral

Management 391
Robert Waldersee
Fred Luthans
Behavioral Theories 392
Cognitive Theories 393
Convergence and Divergence of the Behavioral
and Cognitive Models 395
Social Learning Theory 396
Basic Research on SLT 399
An SLT Model and Framework for Behavioral
Management 401
Applied SLT Research Relevant
to Behavioral Management 402
Conclusions and Implications 407

Chapter 16. Ethics and Behavior Analysis in Management 415

Howard C. Berthold Jr.
What Are Ethical Principles? 415
Why Would Organizational Behavior Management
Raise Ethical Concerns? 416
Conclusion: OBM and Ethics 431

Chapter 17. Organizational Culture and Behavioral

Systems Analysis 437
William K. Redmon
Matthew A. Mason
Overview 437
Theoretical Models of Organizational Culture 437
Organizational Cultures: A Behavioral View 439
Behavioral Systems Models 441
Examples of Cultural Change Via Systems Analysis 450
Maintenance of Effective Cultural Practices 453
Summary 453
Epilogue 457
C. Merle Johnson
Thomas C. Mawhinney
William K. Redmon

Index 461
 Chapter 1

Introduction to
Organizational Performance:
Behavior Analysis and Management
C. Merle Johnson
Thomas C. Mawhinney
William K. Redmon

Behaviorism is a philosophy of science that rests on the assumption that

a science of behavior is possible. Whether any one of the various psycholo-
gies that currently exist should be called the “scientific psychology” or the
“science of behavior” is the subject of an ongoing debate. “For better or
worse, the science of behavior [in the opinion of behaviorists] has come to
be called behavior analysis [emphasis in the original]” (Baum, 1994, p. 3).
The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior was founded in
1958 and its objective is publishing basic research in the behavior analytic
tradition. In 1968 the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis was founded
with the objective of publishing research that focuses on applications of
basic principles of behavior analysis to solve problems in ways that im-
prove human society. And in 1977, the Journal of Organizational Behav-
ior Management was founded, and its objective is extending the applica-
tion of the principles of behavior analysis to improve individual, group,
and organizational productivity and safety and the quality of work life
among all organizational members. The evolution of behavior analysis in
terms of its major contributors, organizations, and publications from 1870
to the mid-1980s is graphically depicted in Concepts and Principles of
Behavior Analysis (Michael, 1993, p. 21). In this rendition of the history of
behavior analysis, the community of researchers, scholars, and practition-
ers involved with publication of the Journal of Organizational Behavior
Management are depicted as members of the behavior analytic community.
Links between early behavior analysts (i.e., B. F. Skinner) and tradi-
tional management movements (e.g., the human relations school) are
3
4 HANDBOOK OF ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

graphically depicted from about 1900 to the mid-1980s in Organizational

Behavior Modification and Beyond (Luthans and Kreitner, 1985, p. 37).
This rendition of the history of organizational behavior modification
(O.B. Mod.) differs from the history of behavior analysis in two important
ways. First, it explicitly admits to being influenced by the works of Lewin
and Tolman, in addition to Skinner, and most recently by the works of
Bandura, who is depicted as the most proximate source of influence on
O.B. Mod. Second, it recognizes the line of influences on O.B. Mod. from
the following movements, listed from temporally most distant to most
recent: scientific management, Hawthorne studies, human relations move-
ment, McGregor’s Theory X and Y, and organizational behavior. In addi-
tion, by recognizing the influences of Lewin and Tolman and what is
called “cognitive behaviorism,” O.B. Mod. is de facto linked with industri-
al/organizational (I/O) psychology. As might be expected, given these
somewhat differing renderings of historical foundations that underpin or-
ganizational behavior management (OBM), exactly what OBM is depends
in large measure on who is providing the characterization. At the same
time, there is considerably more common ground among various contribu-
tors to the field than grounds that might be in dispute. This historical
backdrop should help readers understand why OBM cannot be described
by reference to a single source even though behavior analysis as the
behaviorists’ science of behavior can be recognized as the fundamental
scientific discipline from which the discipline we call OBM has evolved.
Research concerning the efficacy of principles of behavior analysis
applied to improve performance in business, industry, and other organiza-
tional settings has been called organizational behavior management (Prue,
Frederiksen, and Bacon, 1978), organizational behavior modification (Lu-
thans and Kreitner, 1975, 1985), industrial behavior modification
(I.B. Mod.) (O’Brien, Dickinson, and Rosow, 1982), and performance
management (PM) (Daniels, 1989, 2000). Aldis (1961), in his ground-
breaking article, “Of Pigeons and Men,” may have been the first to suggest
that the principles of behavior analysis be systematically applied to man-
age behavior in organizations. The systematic analysis and management of
work-related behavior and its relationship with environmental antecedents
and consequences had already appeared in Frederick Taylor’s (1911)
scientific management and James Lincoln’s (1951) methods of incentive
management. They might, therefore, be considered precursors of organiza-
tional behavior management, although neither specifically reflects any
influence on their methods arising directly from scientific behavior analy-
ses of operant and respondent behavior.
 Introduction to Organizational Performance 5

Early work in performance management was characterized by simple

applications modeled from laboratory research results in the experimental
analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis to various organiza-
tional settings (Mawhinney, 1975). Others have noted that this approach to
applied organizational research is an amalgamation of the fields of organi-
zational behavior (OB) and behavior modification (B. Mod.). This prob-
ably accounts for the use of titles such as O. B. Mod. (Luthans and Kreit-
ner, 1975, 1985) as well as I. B. Mod. (O’Brien, Dickinson, and Rosow,
1982) as alternative ways of naming the field we now call organizational
behavior management (Frederiksen, 1982). The name that is most generic
and least reflective of its roots in behaviorism is performance management
(Daniels, 1989, 2000). From this vantage point, O. B. Mod. and I. B. Mod.
both exhibit relatively strong linkages with behavior analysis. These link-
ages appear in both their theoretical foundations and methods recom-
mended for validating effects of behavior based interventions aimed at
changing individual, group, and organizational performance.
As noted previously, in 1977 a major step occurred in the development
of OBM. That was the year Aubrey Daniels, author of the foreword of this
volume, founded the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management
(JOBM) while employed at Behavioral Systems, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia.
The journal developed over the next decade under the editorships of Bran-
don Hall and Lee Frederiksen. Recently it has continued to prosper under
the editorship of Tom Mawhinney and the publisher of this text, The
Haworth Press, Inc.
Meanwhile, members of the organizational behavior management com-
munity expanded their sphere of influence by creating their own maga-
zine, Performance Management. They also made inroads into the more
established journals by publishing featured articles in the Academy of
Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, The Behavior
Analyst, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of Applied
Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,
and Personnel Psychology.
The field has evolved over the past twenty-five years in ways that
currently make it more than the limited application of behavioral prin-
ciples in the private sector and public nonprofit settings. Some of this is
due to parallel developments in the experimental analysis of behavior,
applied behavior analysis, behavioral economics, and verbal behavior.
Other developments have occurred within the field of OBM per se.
As noted above, early work in this area was characterized by simple
applications of principles of the experimental analysis of behavior in vari-
ous organizational settings. More often than not, the host organizations
6 HANDBOOK OF ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

were private for-profit businesses and industries. Systematic demonstra-

tions of contingency management and the effects of various schedules of
reinforcement in the workplace provide early examples of research in this
tradition (Yukl and Latham, 1975).
Several techniques shared by management and more traditional areas in
industrial/organizational psychology, such as feedback and goal setting,
emerged as core themes in the OBM literature (At Emery Air Freight,
1973). Elaboration on these themes occurred as more complex contingen-
cies evolved and the long-term efficacy of OBM procedures was demon-
strated (O’Hara, Johnson, and Beehr, 1985).
As the field matured, cross-pollination with other disciplines occurred.
This cross-pollination was evident when OBM began to incorporate ele-
ments of systems analysis, organization development, organizational cul-
ture, safety research, statistical process control, financial management, and
marketing. Marketing, as it relates to OBM, is a particularly interesting
area. This is due to the history of one of the first behaviorists, J. B. Watson
(Skinner, 1959). After leaving Johns Hopkins University in 1920, Watson
worked in an advertising agency in New York. He assured the success of
his second career on Madison Avenue by utilizing the newly discovered
Pavlovian classical conditioning procedures to increase sales of consumer
goods, such as Maxwell House coffee and Johnson’s Baby Powder, to
American consumers (Myers, 1998; Wood and Wood, 1999).
In a process analogous to the one responsible for the formation of
behavioral medicine (Schwartz and Weiss, 1978), OBM emerged as a field
of study distinguishable from other applied psychological sciences in the
1970s. In 1978, a variety of books and journals were annotated in the
Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (Prue, Frederiksen, and
Bacon, 1978). For better or worse, reviews of the field published in JOBM
in more recent times have focused exclusively on the contents of JOBM
(Balcazar et al., 1989; Nolan, Jarema, and Austin, 1999). But the sort of
narrowing of the field’s focus implied by reviews focused exclusively on
JOBM is to be expected.
The diversity of topics addressed from a behavior analytic vantage
point and published in JOBM has, if anything, increased through the years.
The idea that organizations are processing systems with feedback loops
from customers or clients back to managers in organizations first con-
ceptualized and graphically depicted in Brethower’s (1972) conception of
a total performance system (TPS) has been elaborated into an ecological
framework by Rummler and Brache (1995); and, de facto, both of these
systems approaches to OBM have been related to behavior analytic con-
ceptions of organizational culture (Mawhinney, 1992a; Redmon and Ma-
 Introduction to Organizational Performance 7

son, Chapter 17, this volume). After briefly reviewing what might be
called legacy concepts or themes, we shall provide brief sketches of
emerging concepts and themes in the OBM literature.

RECURRING THEMES
IN OBM RESEARCH LITERATURE

Some themes are so fundamentally ubiquitous that they appear repeat-

edly throughout this book, whether formally developed or not. Goal set-
ting and feedback are two such themes.

Goal Setting and Feedback

Goal setting and feedback are concepts and associated procedures so

often used in the context of organizational behavior management that a
discussion of their definitions probably seems passe. As a review and
critical discussion of these concepts by Duncan and Bruwelheide (1986)
clearly reveals, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Ford
(1980) characterized feedback as a “cumbersome and disorganized ag-
gregation of procedures and methods” (p. 183). This viewpoint was
echoed by Peterson (1982), who criticized feedback as “professional
slang.” The OBM conceptions of both goal setting and feedback have been
considerably sharpened since Ford and Peterson made their observations.
Organizing this literature in a matrix that relates dimensions of feedback
with behavioral functions (e.g., stimulus control and reinforcement) that
Duncan and Bruwelheide (1986) introduced more than a decade ago re-
mains useful to this day. We present their matrix after briefly reviewing
evolution of goal setting and feedback concepts as they are used in OBM.
In an article aptly titled “A Behavioral Analysis of Goal Setting,”
Fellner and Sulzer-Azaroff (1984) present a succinct analysis of goal
setting and feedback in Skinner’s (1969) tradition of rule-governed behav-
ior:

A goal is a stimulus that precedes behavior. When the antecedent

goal reliably accompanies a reinforced response it acquires “dis-
criminative control,” increasing the probability it will cue the indi-
vidual to repeat the behavior. Also, attainment of a goal can function
as a reinforcing stimulus. For example, if meeting the goal is paired
frequently with a positive consequence or removal of a negative
consequence, the goal can function as a conditioned reinforcing
stimulus. (pp. 34-35)