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Gainsharing programs have been implemented at an increasing rate in the last decade by American firms. This article examines several definitionsyand types of gainsharing, traces its history from Scanlon Plans in the 1930s to Improshare in the 1980s, and describes the results of thirteen surveys and twenty-nine case studies of gainsharing programs. In conclusion, an operant theory based on the matching law is suggested to provide a theoretical framework for future research on the effectiveness of gainsharing interventions.     

Operant leadership and employee citizenship: A question of trust?

The present study replicates and extends previous research examining the relationship between operant leader behavior and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Drawing on recent theory proffering trust as an important explanatory mechanism, we hypothesized that employee trust mediates the relationship between operant leader behaviors and OCB. Further, we argue that the valences associated with reward and punishments augment the effects of both contingent and non-contingently administered behaviors. Using data collected from 475 employees of a United States manufacturing firm, results indicate that trust fully mediates the relationship between operant leadership and OCB. Further, results confirmed that contingently based reward and punishment leader behaviors are more constructive in engendering trust and citizenship than non-contingent leader behaviors.     

The Effects of a Point-of-Purchase Display on Relative Sales: An In-Store Experimental Evaluation

An in-store experiment was performed to investigate the effects of a point-of-purchase display on unit sales of dishwashing liquid. The experimental conditions consisted of periodically placing two copies of the same display in convenience stores and supermarkets. The results were unanticipated; point-of-purchase displays did not change relative sales of the target brand. An antecedent intervention such as a point-of-purchase informational display is not sufficient to change consumer choice in the presence of utilitarian reinforcement in the form of a lower-priced competing product.     

Cumulatively Large Benefits of Incrementally Small Intervention Effects

Abstract

Metacontingencies are relations among practices within an organizational culture and their molar environmental consequences for the culture. They can be summarized by the ratio of all revenues from operations (or budgets received) to all expenses paid for operations. Rates of attendance/absenteeism have consequences in terms of effects on a culture's ratio of revenues received (budgets funded) to expense payments that appear as profits (losses) or budget surpluses (deficits) over some time interval. For a host of reasons OBM researchers place a premium on identifying and adopting practices that result in large immediate effects on behavior and performance in the short run. However, some practices created by OBM interventions can have small short-term effects and appreciably larger cumulative effects on revenue to expense and budget to budget expenditure ratios in the longer run. The importance of estimating cumulative benefits and/or costs of OBM interventions when intervention effects are small is demonstrated in this article using data from an operant based intervention that produced an immediate small increase in attendance.     

A meta-analytic review of leadership impact research: Experimental and quasi-experimental studies

In this study we set out to conduct a comprehensive quantitative research analysis of literature reporting results on the causal impact of leadership by focusing on examining what we refer to as ‘leadership interventions.’ We defined leadership interventions as those studies where the researcher overtly manipulated leadership as the independent variable through training, assignment, scenario or other means. Our focus included both examining experimental and quasi-experimental as well as lab and field studies conducted in public and private organizations. Our goal was to address a simple question: do leadership interventions have the intended impact and if so to what degree? We conducted a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished literature and uncovered 200 lab and field studies that met our criterion as leadership intervention studies. We report here the findings of a series of meta-analyzed effects comparing the relative impact of leadership interventions across intervention types, leadership theories, and several common dependent variables. Overall, leadership interventions produced a 66% probability of achieving a positive outcome versus a 50–50 random effect for treatment participants, but this effect varied significantly when assessing moderators such as type of leadership theory.     

Toward Improving Food Safety in the Domestic Environment: A Multi-Item Rasch Scale for the Measurement of the Safety Efficacy of Domestic Food-Handling Practices

To reduce consumer health risks from foodborne diseases that result from improper domestic food handling, consumers need to know how to safely handle food. To realize improvements in public health, it is necessary to develop interventions that match the needs of individual consumers. Successful intervention strategies are therefore contingent on identifying not only the practices that are important for consumer protection, but also barriers that prevent consumers from responding to these interventions. A measure of food safety behavior is needed to assess the effectiveness of different intervention strategies across different groups of consumers. A nationally representative survey was conducted in the Netherlands to determine which practices are likely conducted by which consumers. Participants reported their behaviors with respect to 55 different food-handling practices. The Rasch modeling technique was used to determine a general measure for the likelihood of an average consumer performing each food-handling behavior. Simultaneously, an average performance measure was estimated for each consumer. These two measures can be combined to predict the likelihood that an individual consumer engages in a specific food-handling behavior. A single "food safety" dimension was shown to underlie all items. Some potentially safe practices (e.g., use of meat thermometers) were reported as very difficult, while other safe practices were conducted by respondents more frequently (e.g., washing of fresh fruit and vegetables). A cluster analysis was applied to the resulting data set, and five segments of consumers were identified. Different behaviors may have different effects on microbial growth in food, and thus have different consequences for human health. Once the microbial relevance of the different consumer behaviors has been confirmed by experiments and modeling, the scale developed in the research reported here can be used to develop risk communication targeted to the needs of different consumer groups, as well as to measure the efficacy of different interventions.     

Using evidence-based practices to enhance transfer of training: assessing the effectiveness of goal setting and behavioural observation scales

Using evidence-based practices we designed goal setting interventions, used in conjunction with behavioural observation scales (BOS), to facilitate transfer from a 2-day performance coaching programme. A total of 210 managers from public sector organisations took part in the study. Transfer was assessed using self-administered surveys and subordinate feedback (in the form of BOS). Transfer was high across all measures; however, our experimental design did not detect any positive effects for learning or behavioural outcome goals relative to being urged to Do Your Best (DYB). Results suggest that providing managers with BOS that outline the key skills covered in the training programme, having them set goals or urging them to do their best to use these skills back at work, and having workplace colleagues assess their performance at work using these BOS, may be sufficient to bring about transfer.     

Multi‐Exposure Pathway Model to Compare Escherichia coli O157 Risks and Interventions

The relative contributions of exposure pathways associated with cattle‐manure‐borne Escherichia coli O157:H7 on public health have yet to be fully characterized. A stochastic, quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) model was developed to describe a hypothetical cattle farm in order to compare the relative importance of five routes of exposure, including aquatic recreation downstream of the farm, consumption of contaminated ground beef processed with limited interventions, consumption of leafy greens, direct animal contact, and the recreational use of a cattle pasture. To accommodate diverse environmental and hydrological pathways, existing QMRAs were integrated with novel and simplistic climate and field‐level submodels. The model indicated that direct animal contact presents the greatest risk of illness per exposure event during the high pathogen shedding period. However, when accounting for the frequency of exposure, using a high‐risk exposure‐receptor profile, consumption of ground beef was associated with the greatest risk of illness. Additionally, the model was used to evaluate the efficacy of hypothetical interventions affecting one or more exposure routes; concurrent evaluation of multiple routes allowed for the assessment of the combined effect of preharvest interventions across exposure pathways—which may have been previously underestimated—as well as the assessment of the effect of additional downstream interventions. This analysis represents a step towards a full evaluation of the risks associated with multiple exposure pathways; future incorporation of variability associated with environmental parameters and human behaviors would allow for a comprehensive assessment of the relative contribution of exposure pathways at the population level.     

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Activities on the Consumer Purchasing Situation

To explore the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on the consumer purchasing situation, we arranged a scenario where participants (n = 451) purchased workout clothes. The results (r = 0.996, p = 0.000) show that (1) relative to other relevant marketing activities, CSR activity was not the most salient antecedent stimulus, (2) general CSR activities may have a lower impact on purchasing behavior than more specific CSR activities, (3) some CSR activities may have a negative impact on purchasing behavior, and (4) CSR activities may have a different impact on different segments. We propose that the impact of CSR can be understood as rule-governed behavior situated in the consumer’s situation. A functional understanding of the impact of CSR on the purchasing situation could help companies to develop more effective marketing campaigns and, in addition, maintain activities that benefit not only the company but also society as a whole.     

Motivating Operations in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management: Review and Discussion of Relevant Articles

Every article published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management from 1982 through 2012 that contained the term motivating operation (or a related term) was examined. Seventy-six articles used a relevant term. Authors used the term in attempts to categorize and explain the behavioral effects of many aspects of interventions (e.g., rules, feedback, goal-setting), everyday occurrences in organizations (e.g., nicotine deprivation, top management support), and characteristics of behaving individuals (e.g., optimism, personality state), which on the one hand suggests that the motivating operation concept has been of value in organizational behavior management research as published in the journal. On the other hand, none of the articles demonstrated the successful use of a motivating operation as the term was initially defined, which suggests that the MO concept has been substantially expanded or widely misused by authors of the evaluated articles.     

Quantitatively Representing Nonlinear Disaster Recovery

This article provides a new technique for quantitatively characterizing the progress of recovery operations in the aftermath of a disaster event. The approach extends previous research on measuring dynamic, or adaptive, disaster resilience by developing a robust approach for characterizing nonlinear disaster recovery. In doing so, it enables a more accurate mathematical representation of different categories of recovery behavior and provides support for a much broader application of existing theory. Because the new approach inherits the ability to compare the relative behavior of multiple scenarios simultaneously, it also can serve as the basis for analytically comparing the expected performance of different plans for recovery operations. Practical application of the technique is demonstrated and discussed in the context of recovering electrical power after Hurricane Sandy struck the New York metropolitan area.     

A Preliminary Investigation of the Reinforcement Function of Signal Detections in Simulated Baggage Screening: Further Support for the Vigilance Reinforcement Hypothesis

The vigilance reinforcement hypothesis (VRH) asserts that errors in signal detection tasks are partially explained by operant reinforcement and extinction processes. VRH predictions were tested with a computerized baggage screening task. Our experiment evaluated the effects of signal schedule (extinction vs. variable interval 6 min) and visual field complexity (dial vs. baggage x-ray) on search behavior rates. There was a main effect for signal schedule [F (1, 20) = 14.0, p = .001, p_rep = 0.99], but no effects for field complexity or interaction. The VRH suggests that performance errors in visual screening work may be reduced through operant conditioning of search behaviors by intensive management of artificially planted signals.     

The Scientific and Methodological Basis of a Systematic Approach to Human Behavior Management

Behavior management has become an increasingly popular approach to the improvement of human work effectiveness. Philosophically, the origins of this movement can be traced almost directly to the Skinnerian distinction between operant and respondent behavior. The implications of this distinction have led to a reinforcerment based technology of behavior change with which behavior management is closely identified. In the present paper, it is argued that such an alignment places the behavior management approach in too narrow a perspective. In its most fundamental sense, this movement is both a scientific and methodological endeavor. As a science, behavior management has an empirical character marked by concerns for the objectivity and validity of its knowledge. Within this framework, the methodology it employs has many features in common both with procedures of "the experimental analysis of behavior" and with the tradition of "quasi-experimentation." The essential features of this common methodology are outlined. and their relation to several imponant types of validity issues is noted. In the final analysis, it is suggested that behavior management can be viewed more profitably as a general purpose "tool" for the evaluation of any potentially effective management practice than as a technological outgrowth of operant conditioning.     

Enhancing Self‐Protective Behavior: Efficacy Beliefs and Peer Feedback in Risk Communication

In times of a high‐impact safety incident citizens may have a variety of sources available to help them cope with the situation. This research focuses on the interplay of efficacy information in risk communication messages and peer feedback, such as responses on social network sites (SNSs) in the context of a high‐impact risk on the intention to engage in self‐protective behavior. The study pitted high and low efficacy information messages against supporting and opposing peer feedback (N = 242). Results show a significant interaction effect between efficacy information in a news article and peer feedback from SNS messages on both the intention to engage in self‐protective behavior and levels of involvement. Participants who received the article with more efficacy information and also received supportive peer feedback via SNS messages were more likely to express higher levels of involvement and greater intentions to engage in protective behavior. When confronted with a low efficacious news article, the effect of peer feedback on these two variables was significantly stronger. Finally, implications for theory and government risk communication are discussed.     

水中Wastu技法结合颅骶疗法治疗下背痛的疗效观察

目的探索水中Wastu技法与颅骶疗法结合治疗下背痛的临床疗效和可行性。方法收集下背痛患者9例,给予水中Wastu技法与颅骶疗法,共治疗5次,治疗前、治疗后分别用视觉模拟评分(VAS)、站立多关节屈曲手指与脚尖距离变化,焦虑自评量表进行疗效评定,并进行统计学分析。结果治疗5次后,9例患者的各项评分都较治疗前有所改善,结果具有显著性相关关系。结论水中Wastu技法与颅骶疗法联合治疗下背痛安全舒适,疗效满意,患者依从性高,是可行的综合治疗方法。     

Behavioral Self-Monitoring of Safety and Productivity in the Workplace: A Methodological Primer and Quantitative Literature Review

Workplace applications of behavioral self-monitoring (BSM) methods have been studied periodically for over 35 years, yet the literature has never been systematically reviewed. Recent occupational safety interventions including BSM resulted in relatively large behavior changes. Moreover, BSM methods are functional for addressing a broad range of occupational health psychology topics. Studies (n = 24) where workers self-monitored productivity or safety behaviors were reviewed and scored along dimensions relevant to research and practice. For intervention conditions (n = 38), standardized effect sizes ranged from 0.2 to 14.5 (weighted average d = 2.8). The results encourage the use of BSM in workplace interventions, but the literature has insufficiently addressed the isolated and additive effects of BSM, worker involvement and individual differences, assessment applications, and theory testing and development.     

Longitudinal influences of managerial support on employee well-being

A three-wave longitudinal survey of managers working for a food retailer (n = 148) assessed both job characteristics and individual well-being during a period of organizational restructuring. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant changes in both job characteristics and well-being across the three surveys. In addition, longitudinal structural equation models were developed to model the relationships between job characteristics and two indices of strain (job satisfaction and mental health) over time, including the assessment of the relative fit of competing causal process models. After controlling for the temporal stability of all variables, both types of strain were predicted by a combination of prior strain, prior job characteristics and current job characteristics. More specifically, managerial support was found to influence job satisfaction both directly and through perceptions of role ambiguity and control. Mental health was consistently predicted by low current and prior work demands, and in addition was associated with high managerial support. These results suggest that interventions to enhance employee well-being might usefully focus on increasing managerial support. Recommendations for research intending to examine the direction of causal associations between job characteristics and strain are made.     

Linking Decision Theory and Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment: Tradeoffs Between Compliance and Efficacy for Waterborne Disease Interventions

Achieving health gains from the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals of universal coverage for water and sanitation will require interventions that can be widely adopted and maintained. Effectiveness—how an intervention performs based on actual use—as opposed to efficacy will therefore be central to evaluations of new and existing interventions. Incomplete compliance—when people do not always use the intervention and are therefore exposed to contamination—is thought to be responsible for the lower‐than‐expected risk reductions observed from water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions based on their efficacy at removing pathogens. We explicitly incorporated decision theory into a quantitative microbial risk assessment model. Specifically, we assume that the usability of household water treatment (HWT) devices (filters and chlorine) decreases as they become more efficacious due to issues such as taste or flow rates. Simulations were run to examine the tradeoff between device efficacy and usability. For most situations, HWT interventions that trade lower efficacy (i.e., remove less pathogens) for higher compliance (i.e., better usability) contribute substantial reductions in diarrheal disease risk compared to devices meeting current World Health Organization efficacy guidelines. Recommendations that take into account both the behavioral and microbiological properties of treatment devices are likely to be more effective at reducing the burden of diarrheal disease than current standards that only consider efficacy.     

Climate change knowledge influences attitude to mitigation via efficacy beliefs

Theories proposing climate change apathy is explained by inadequate knowledge do not account for why many informed and concerned Americans fail to act. While correlations between knowledge, efficacy for climate change, and attitude to mitigation have been observed, few studies have examined efficacy for climate change as a mediator. This study aimed to investigate the influence of specific climate change knowledge on attitude to mitigation via efficacy beliefs. A cross-sectional survey of 205 US adults recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk assessed participants’ climate change knowledge, efficacy for climate change, and attitude to mitigation. Indirect effects of self-efficacy for climate change were observed in three mediation models, suggesting efficacy for climate change explains some of the relationship between specific climate change knowledge and attitude to mitigation. The findings suggest risk communication can motivate pro-environmental attitudes with interventions that deliver information about climate change and develop efficacy for mitigation behavior.