Process Safety Behavioral Systems: Behaviors Interlock in Complex Metacontingencies

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to identify behavioral components active in process safety. Three types of behavior classes are identified as contributors to process safety: task-specific behaviors, safety-directed behaviors, and behaviors associated with situational awareness. Behavioral systems analysis is used to provide a framework for identifying the cross-functional interlocking behavioral contingencies that can, even over a period of years, contribute to process safety incidents. Leadership behaviors are also identified that can create the context in the form of metacontingencies that maintain these interlocking contingencies.     

Leadership and Crew Resource Management in High-Reliability Organizations: A Competency Framework for Measuring Behaviors

High-reliability organizations (HROs) have emerged across a number of highly technical, and increasingly automated industries (e.g., aviation, medicine, nuclear power, and oil field services). HROs incorporate complex systems with a large number of employees working in dynamic, and potentially dangerous environments. Effectively managing contingencies in HROs, to simultaneously promote safe and efficient behaviors is a daunting task. Crew Resource Management (CRM) has emerged in HROs as a highly effective approach to training and sustaining essential skills within work teams operating across a large workforce. CRM provides a competency framework that enables adherence to standard work instructions while, at the same time, encourages adaptive variance in responding to effectively manage current environmental circumstances that depart from normal routines. This paper considers the development of CRM across several high-reliability industries, develops a behavior analytic account of CRM behaviors, and describes an approach to measuring behaviors within simulated and actual work environments.     

Goal Statements and Goal-Directed Behavior

Summary

Goal setting has consistently been shown to increase performance under specific conditions. These goal setting effects have previously been explored from both a cognitive perspective and in terms of traditional behavioral concepts. We highlight limitations of these approaches and propose a novel account based on Relational Frame Theory. This account focuses on both the content of goal statements and the contingencies that maintain goal-directed behavior. The content of goal statements is analyzed in terms of relational networks established for employees. We then detail how the current account explains the major effects noted in previous empirical studies. Two broad types of rule following contingencies that support goal-directed behavior, pliance and tracking, are then described. We then outline how these different types of contingencies results in the variety of goal-directed behavior observed in organizations. Throughout we relate this two-part approach to goal setting to specific recommendations for practice and future basic research.     

Complacency in Process Safety: A Behavior Analysis Toward Prevention Strategies

ABSTRACT

Complacency inhibits safe behaviors of workers and managers. This is of concern to industries where process safety is needed to reduce the chance of catastrophic events such as fires and explosions. A behavioral definition of complacency is offered as trending behavioral variation that eventually exceeds safety boundaries. Behavioral processes that contribute to these patterns of variability are discussed and analyzed, including habituation, extinction, unprogrammed reinforcement, the avoidance paradox, rule-governed behavior, and competing contingencies of production. Solution strategies are suggested that address this analysis of behavioral variance, including pinpointing behavioral variation related to safety, changing training design, strengthening positive reinforcement for process-related behaviors of workers and management, reducing sources of unprogrammed reinforcement for dangerous variation, strengthening rule-governed behavior, and changing contingencies for managers and executives whose decisions affect behavior and process safety at many levels in the company.     

Change agent's contribution to recipients' resistance to change: A two-sided story

In the change management literature, most studies on recipients' resistance to change include only the views of agents or of recipients, thereby ignoring that these parties may have different perceptions. In this quantitative study, we include the perceptions of both parties in studying the recipients' resistance and the impact of the agent's leadership behavior. In a sample of 117 agent-recipients groupings, covering 110 different change projects in 90 organizations, we found that agents perceive higher levels of recipients' resistance than do the recipients themselves. Additionally, we found that agents who create space to enable recipients to think and act differently (by employing creating behavior) report higher levels of recipients' resistance, whereas recipients perceive their resistance to be lowered when agents facilitate an emotional connection to the change (framing behavior). The depth of the change appeared to moderate the relationship between agent's leadership behavior and recipients' resistance, indicating that agents and recipients differ in which change leadership behaviors they perceive as increasing or decreasing resistance at different levels of change depth. These findings imply to reconsider the relationship between agent and recipients and we propose some promising avenues for future studies in resistance research.     

The Use of Visual Prompts to Increase the Cleanliness of Restrooms on a College Campus

Prompting procedures have been used in community settings to change many public health related behaviors. The current study took place on a college campus and used a multiple baseline across settings design to evaluate the effectiveness of visual prompts to decrease urinal splatter on men's restroom floors. Results indicate that prompts were immediately effective, and effectiveness was maintained during follow-up four months later. Findings suggest research in community settings should investigate long-term maintenance of prompts to increase the generalization of behavior analytic interventions.     

A Behavioral Approach to Organizational Change: Reinforcing Those Responsible for Facilitating the Climate and Hence Promoting Diversity

Despite the passage of the U.S. Civil Rights Act in 1964, cries can still be heard for a more diverse workforce. Among the difficulties are retaining often sought-after women and minorities. In this 2-year demonstration, change agents—the provost, deans, and heads of departments/schools of a large public university—were helped to deliberately and directly change the milieu of their departments and schools so as to encourage faculty to remain. Uniquely suited to organizational change, the behavioral approach identifies constructive actions for change agents and, most importantly, provides proven strategies for motivating them. Fostering a supportive climate was defined in terms of change agents’ behaviors. The Building Behaviorally Based Climate Survey was developed and validated. Recognition and feedback were provided in what is typically a feedback desert. This reinforcement model can be used to create and sustain inviting atmospheres, hence enticing all faculty, including women and minority faculty, to stay, hence enabling a diverse workforce.     

Turning change resistance into readiness: How change agents’ communication shapes recipient reactions

As employees’ support for an organizational change is critical for its success, change agents require guidelines on how to initiate change recipients’ endorsement. Accordingly, there is a need for an evidence-based understanding of which communication behaviors drive positive versus negative change reactions, as well as about the psychological mechanisms that explain effective communication. To advance our knowledge about successful change communication, we tested how autonomy-supportive communication, autonomy-restrictive communication, and reflective listening are associated with change recipients’ reactions. Building on Self-Determination Theory, we also tested the mediating mechanism of the satisfaction of recipients’ psychological needs between change agents’ actions and change recipients’ reactions. In three studies, we explored how change agents can use their communication to enhance recipients’ change readiness, as manifested in increased energy-saving intentions. In Study 1, we separately examined the effect of each communication behavior on change readiness. We coded dyadic change conversations for autonomy-supportive (vs. autonomy-restrictive) communication and reflective listening. Results showed that autonomy-restrictive communication negatively impacted recipients’ change readiness. Study 2 used an online experiment to distinguish between the effect of change agents’ autonomy-supportive and -restrictive communication. We found an indirect effect of change agents’ communication behaviors on recipients’ change readiness via psychological need fulfillment. In Study 3, we investigated how change agents “in the field” responded to recipients’ expressed resistance. Findings indicated that change agents use more autonomy-restrictive than -supportive communication, suggesting that their communication typically undermines rather than facilitates recipients’ change readiness.     

公平偏好下双代理人激励契约设计研究

具有多个代理人的机制设计问题通常讨论代理人之间的竞争关系,并且假设代理人的行为不受情感因素的影响和代理人的偏好只追求自己收益最大化而不考虑他人的收益。然而在实践中存在大量多个代理人之间可能合作的现象,并且代理人行为受情感因素影响和采用公平偏好。本文考虑人的行为受情感因素影响下,探讨信息不对称下具有公平偏好的双代理人选择竞争或合作行为时的委托代理问题。给出了激励代理人竞争或合作的条件、提出了代理人选择合作后的分配方式以及分析了人的情感因素和公平偏好对信息租金的影响。在不同偏好下得到如下结论:(1)代理人选择竞争时均有更大的最优努力水平。(2)激励代理人竞争或合作的条件会随着公平偏好而发生改变。(3)竞争系数、单位产出带来的收入、自豪强度越大,信息租金减少量越大;嫉妒强度、同情强度越大,信息租金减少量越小。(4)外部环境不确定性增加将促进代理人合作。研究结论可以应用于解决实际社会生产生活中委托人需要激励代理人去竞争或合作的两类委托代理问题。     

Behavior Management of Client Contacts in a Real Estate Brokerage

A Project intended to increase client-contacting behavior on the part of 16 real-estate sales persons was described. Both contacts with prospective (initials) and with established clients (followups) were targeted for change. During a 20-week baseline, agent self-reports were used as a basis for posting weekly charts of contact behavior together with measured sales and listing performances. A conjunctive token-reinforcement procedure involving both contact behaviors was introduced during a 15 week intervention phase. For all agents as a group, a sustained increase in both behaviors was noted during this phase. Additional analyses revealed, however, that for low baseline performers, the intervention effect was only short-lived. During a subsequent three-week prewithdrawal stage, the increased behavion from the previous phase reverted nearly to baseline levels, despite the continued intervention, in response to instructions that program withdrawal was imminent. Contact behaviors further declined to below baseline levels during the following 4-week withdrawal stage when both posting and token procedures were actually discontinued. A tenninal 6 week reversal phase was marked by a nearly full recovery for all agents of asymptotic intervention levels of contact behavior under a reversed conjunctive token reinforcement schedule. Evidence indicating a correlation between changes in contact behaviors and changes in sales was presented. Also, other company benefits presumably derived from the program were described. Finally, the outcomes of this study were discussed in terms of several important validity concerns.     

The Mapping of Contingencies in Mental Models Found in Organizations

From a cognitive perspective, mental models held by individuals are thought to guide interactions with objects or systems, including interpersonal interactions. Frameworks that categorize types of interactions in organizations suggest that they are guided by cultures and mental models that range from the egoistic to the cosmos-centric. From a behavioral perspective, what the cognitive approach calls mental models are sets of verbal rules. Therefore, we suggest that behavior analysis could be used to reconceptualize the mental model literature, generating new research questions and more rigorous experimentation. Cognitive constructs such as more expansive mental models may simply be a function of an individual’s or group’s increased attention to interlocking contingencies. Applying behavioral interventions such as acceptance and commitment therapy could be a way to examine the utility of a behavior analytic approach.     

Increasing Sales by Managing the Interlocking Contingencies Between Sales Representatives and Customers Using Behavioral Self-Monitoring

Interlocking contingencies that exist between a customer and sales representatives (SRs) may contribute to buying decisions. Verbal behaviors related to closing sales were identified by analyzing these contingencies statistically. Self-observation checklists were then implemented. On average, the six targeted verbal behaviors related to sales increased 12 percentage points over baseline, compared to a 2% point increase in the comparison group. These changes were associated with 126% more sales for the experimental group compared with 36% more sales for the comparison group. For each SR, this increase in sales translates into $1,094,444 more in annualized revenue.     

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.     

Notes from an Introspective Behaviorist

Abstract

Based on the three-contingency model of performance management, I make the following argument: (1) Often, we fail to behave as we should because the natural contingencies supporting appropriate behavior are ineffective; the natural contingencies involve outcomes for each individual response that are either too small, though of cumulative significance, or outcomes that are too improbable. The delay of the outcome is essentially irrelevant. The psychodynamic model of the cognitive motivational theorists provides a poor explanation for why we fail to behave as we should. (2) The performance-management contingencies in organizational behavior management (OBM) must usually involve deadline-induced aversive control, even when they are based on powerful reinforcers. Furthermore, such performance management succeeds only to the extent that the person's behavioral history, “Jewish mother,” has inculcated an appropriate value system. Wiegand and Geller's critique of the necessity of the use of aversive control fails to take into account the necessity of deadlines and the difference between instrumental and hedonic reinforcers; furthermore, it greatly over values the power of intrinsic reinforcement contingencies in OBM.     

An integrative model of leadership behavior

Decades of questionnaire and interview studies have revealed various leadership behaviors observed in successful leaders. However, little is known about the actual behaviors that cause those observations. Given that lay observers are prone to cognitive biases, such as the halo effect, the validity of theories that are exclusively based on observed behaviors is questionable. We thus follow the call of leading scientists in the field and derive a parsimonious model of leadership behavior that is informed by established psychological theories. Building on the taxonomy of Yukl (2012), we propose three task-oriented behavior categories (enhancing understanding, strengthening motivation and facilitating implementation) and three relation-oriented behavior categories (fostering coordination, promoting cooperation and activating resources), each of which is further specified by a number of distinct behaviors. While the task-oriented behaviors are directed towards the accomplishment of shared objectives, the relation-oriented behaviors support this process by increasing the coordinated engagement of the team members. Our model contributes to the advancement of leadership behavior theory by (1) consolidating current taxonomies, (2) sharpening behavioral concepts of leadership behavior, (3) specifying precise relationships between those categories and (4) spurring new hypotheses that can be derived from existing findings in the field of psychology. To test our model as well as the hypotheses derived from this model, we advocate the development of new measurements that overcome the limitations associated with questionnaire and interview studies.     

“How May I Help You?” Improving Telephone Customer Service in a Medical Clinic Setting

The current study was carried out per management request to improve the overall quality of telephone customer service among appointment coordinators in a medical clinic. Exceptional telephone customer service included (a) using a standard greeting, (b) speaking in the appropriate tone of voice throughout the call, and (c) answering every call received by the unit. A preintervention analysis suggested that performance deficiencies resulted from weak antecedents, poor knowledge and skills, and weak performance contingencies. Task clarification, goal setting, feedback, and performance-contingent consequences were combined to improve these customer service behaviors for 20 full-time appointment coordinators at the clinic. The study used an ABÁ reversal design with weekly maintenance and 5-month follow-up observations. Introduction of the multicomponent intervention produced visible improvements in greeting (38% increase) and friendly voice tone (22% increase) behaviors; performance was maintained above baseline levels at 5 months postmaintenance. Abandon rates (the percentage of calls not answered by a live voice) remained fairly stable, on average. Findings support the use of a multicomponent intervention to increase telephone customer service behavior in medical clinic settings.     

The Effects of a Combined Task Clarification,Goal Setting,Feedback, and Performance Contingent Consequence Intervention Package on Telephone Customer Service in a Medical Clinic Environment

Abstract

Appointment coordinators at a mid-western medical clinic were to provide exceptional telephone customer service. This included using a standard greeting, speaking in an appropriate tone of voice during the conversation, and using a standard closing to end the call. An analysis suggested performance deficiencies resulted from weak antecedents, poor knowledge and skills, and weak performance contingencies. An intervention package consisting of task clarification, goal setting, feedback, and performance contingent consequences was designed to improve customer service behaviors of four participating appointment coordinators. An ABAB reversal design was used, and overall performances of all four participants increased during intervention phases. This study indicates that a multi-component intervention may be an effective strategy to increase telephone customer service behavior in medical clinic settings.     

Generation Y graduates and career transition: Perspectives by gender

The aim of this paper is to explore, by gender, UK Generation Y graduates’ views on their career transition after graduation from under-graduate business programmes. Following a literature review, the empirical work takes the form of an on-line questionnaire with business school graduates from a post-1992 Scottish University in five recent academic sessions. Gendered nuances are found in several aspects of the respondents’ views on their career transition, including statistically significant differences in: more women continuing their student job after graduation; women being more accepting of starting after graduation in a non-graduate level job; and more women than men encountering gender discrimination in the workplace. The identified nuances and differences appear to be setting the genders on diverging career tracks as early as the transition from university, in that they seem to signal more career progress, even advantage, among the men than the women.     

基于三方演化博弈的政产学研协同创新机制研究

政产学研协同创新是实施创新驱动，推动国家和区域经济发展的重要动力，然而企业牵头、高校参与的协同创新机制存在弊端。鉴于此，本文构建了政府引导、高校牵头、企业参与的协同创新三方演化博弈模型，分析了政产学研三方在协同创新过程中的策略选择，并用仿真分析研究了政产学研协同创新策略选择的影响因素。结果表明：政府、企业和高校受彼此参与意愿的影响程度不同；政府不同的激励机制对企业和高校的影响存在差异；企业对惩罚力度和收益分配更加敏感。