Behavior Management in a Factory Setting

Wikoff, Martin B.; Anderson, D. Chris; Crowell, Charles R.

doi:10.1300/j075v04n01_04

Cited by 34 publications

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“…In particular, the analysis of the availability and effects of different networks of reinforcing contingencies on task performance has usually been placed within the framework of manufacturing and service organizations (e.g., Bowen, Chase, & Cummings, 1990;Collier, 1990;Connellan, 1978;Luthans, 1988;Luthans & Davis, 1990;Mirman, 1982;Quinn & Gagnon, 1986;Riddle, 1986;Schneider & Bowen, 1993;Wikoff, Anderson, & Crowell, 1982 Academy of Management Journal ventions in manufacturing and service organizations are: (1) the definition and possibility for accurate assessment of performance outcomes and (2) the nature of the task-performance and work processes involved in the delivery of performance outcomes (Collier, 1990;Luthans & Davis, 1990;Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985; Suzler-Azaroff et al, 1992;Wikoff et al, 1982; Williams & Zigli, 1987). Definition and assessment of performance outcomes.…”

Section: Behavioral Systems Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Behavioral Systems Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Summarized broadly, key organizational characteristics that cause differences in the effectiveness of various types of behavioral int ventions in manufacturing and service organizations are: (1) the definition and possibility for accurate assessment of performance outcomes and (2) the nature of the task-performance and work processes involved in the delivery of performance outcomes (Collier, 1990;Luthans & Davis, 1990;Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985;Suzler-Azaroff et al, 1992;Wikoff et al, 1982;Williams & Zigli, 1987). Definition and assessment of performance outcomes.…”

Section: Manufacturing Versus Service Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The complex evaluation problems in service organizations are mostly related to the (1) conceptual definition of service as a performance outcome and (2) operationalization of those definitions by practicing managers. In manufacturing organizations, the emphasis is on the production or assembly of tangible goods (Wikoff et al, 1982), but in service organizations, the emphasis is on service as the performance outcome (Parasuraman et al, 1985). The major difference between the two performance outcomes is that goods can be easily described and directly measured, whereas service usually contains a set of intangible and implicit attributes that are hard to define in operational terms (Sasser, Olsen, & Wyckoff, 1978).…”

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A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Organizational Behavior Modification on Task Performance, 1975-95.

Stajković

Luthans

1997

Academy of Management Journal

321

216

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Results of a primary meta-analysis indicated a significant main effect o the organizational behavior modification (O.B. Mod.) approach on task performance (d. = .51; a 17 percent increase) and a significant treat ment-by-study interaction. To account for within-group heterogeneit of effect sizes, we conducted a two-level theory-driven moderator analysis by partitioning the sample of studies first into manufacturing and service groups and then into seven classes of reinforcement inter ventions. Results indicated a stronger average effect of O.B. Mod. in manufacturing organizations, moderation by the type of contingent interventions, and "pairwise" differences among average effect sizes in both organizational types. The practical implications of these findings for solving the challenge of improving performance without adding cos are discussed.Although the operant theoretical foundation for the application of b havioral analysis or behavior modification was established in the 1 (Rogers & Skinner, 1956;Skinner, 1953), it has only been within the las years that the basic reinforcement paradigm has been introduced to the s of organizational behavior and applied to human resource managem (HRM) (Adam & Scott, 1971;Luthans & White, 1971;Nord, 1969). Am several application models proposed within this conceptual framework (e Brethower, 1972;Gilbert, 1978;Komaki, 1986;Miller, 1978;Scott & Podsakoff, 1985), the organizational behavior modification (O.B. Mod.) model, first presented by Luthans (1973) and fully developed by Luthans and Kreitner (1975Kreitner ( , 1985, has received considerable attention from both organizational behavior researchers (e.g., Andrasik, Heimberg, & McNamara, 1981; Frederiksen, 1982aFrederiksen, , 1982bFrederiksen & Johnson, 1981;O'Hara, Johnson, & Beehr, 1985) and HRM practitioners (cf. Andrasik, McNamara, & Edlund, 1981;Frederiksen & Lovett, 1980). Based on the conceptual premises of classical behaviorism (Pavlov, 1927;Watson, 1913), reinforcement theory (Ferster & Skinner, 1957;Skinner, 1938Skinner, , 1966Skinner, , 1969, and the principles and techniques of applied behavioral analysis or behavior modification (Bandura, 1969;Ferster & Perrott, 1968;Kazdin, 1975;Wenrich, 1970), the O.B. Mod. model represents a behavioral approach to the management of human resources in organizational 1122 Published by Academy of Management. Used by permission. Stajkovic and Luthans 1123 settings. Specifically, the model provides a five-step application framew for identifying, measuring, analyzing, contingently intervening in evaluating employees' task-related behaviors aimed at performance provement (Luthans & Kreitner, 1975. Figure 1 Development of the O.B. Mod. model has generated a number of studies that have tested its effectiveness in a wide range of manufacturing, service, and not-for-profit organizations and in Western and other cultures (e.g., Welsh, Luthans, & Sommer, 1993b). The application of the O.B. Mod. approach has been shown to positively affect manufacturing productivity (e.g., Welsh ...

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Section: Behavioral Systems Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Behavioral Systems Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Manufacturing Versus Service Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Organizational Behavior Modification on Task Performance, 1975-95.

Stajković

Luthans

1997

Academy of Management Journal

321

216

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“…Employers often provide their workers with RPI to motivate improved performance (e.g., Wikoff et al 1982;Nordstrom et al 1990). For example, the women's apparel retailer AnnTaylor uses a daily feedback system that provides its sales staff with relative rank information based various performance metrics such as average sales per hour, units sold, Economic theory focuses mainly on the effects of RPI when worker pay is tied directly to relative performance, which is known as relative performance evaluation (RPE).…”

Section: Relative Performance Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promotion, Relative Performance Information, and the Peter Principle

Chan

2015

SSRN Journal

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PROMOTION, RELATIVE PERFORMANCE INFORMATION, AND THE PETER PRINCIPLE Eric Wai Yeung Chan, PhDUniversity of Pittsburgh, 2015 My dissertation consists of two main parts. In the first part, I present my experimental study in which I examine the effects of providing workers with relative performance information (RPI) on employers' promotion decisions and the impact of those decisions on worker performance. In my experimental setting, the job after promotion requires higher-level abilities than the current job. I find that workers increase their effort to improve their current job performance after a promotion opportunity is announced because they expect this to increase their chances of promotion even though the new task requires higher-level abilities. Moreover, because employers anticipate that workers who have RPI will react negatively if they see that the best current job performer is not promoted, employers promote the best current job performer rather than the worker best suited for the next job more often when workers have RPI than when they do not. Finally, consistent with the Peter Principle, I find that the promoted worker's performance after promotion is lower when workers have RPI than when they do not because the v promoted worker lacks the ability to perform the new job well. My results suggest that providing workers with RPI can have a downside that offsets the benefits documented in previous studies.In the second part of my dissertation, I discuss how three common firm practices could potentially help firms mitigate the sorting problem I identified in my experimental study.Specifically, I discuss how the communication of the promotion criteria, group incentive plans, and subjective performance evaluation could help employers improve the sorting of workers through promotions. However, while each approach has advantages, each also has drawbacks. It appears that there is no promotion-based incentive system that provides optimal effort incentives to workers while simultaneously achieving the best match between workers and their jobs. This conflict between the incentive and sorting roles of promotion is difficult to resolve and firms must ultimately trade-off between them. INTRODUCTIONPromotions are integral to most organizations and serve two important and distinct roles (Milgrom and Roberts 1992, p.364). The first is to motivate and reward workers (incentive role) and the second is to sort workers into jobs that best match their abilities (sorting role). However, the incentive and sorting roles may conflict when the nature of the tasks changes between hierarchical job levels such that workers' performance in the current job is not fully informative about their performance in the next job. In such cases, the best performer at one level of the hierarchy is often not the best candidate for the next higher-level job.The situation described above occurs quite often, such as when salespersons are promoted to sales managers, engineers are promoted to project managers, and teachers are promoted ...

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Improving Leadership Communication Competencies and Skills Through Training

Rupp

2019

The Wiley Handbook of Global Workplace Learning

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Behavior Management in a Factory Setting

Cited by 34 publications

References 0 publications

A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Organizational Behavior Modification on Task Performance, 1975-95.

A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Organizational Behavior Modification on Task Performance, 1975-95.

Promotion, Relative Performance Information, and the Peter Principle

Improving Leadership Communication Competencies and Skills Through Training

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