What Behavior Analysis Offers Managers continued

by Terry McSween & Jerry Pounds
Quality Safety Edge
Behavioral Safety at Quality Safety Edge

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Monitoring Performance

Research in the field of behavior analysis shows very clearly that the biggest difference between effective leaders and mediocre leaders is that the latter stay better informed about performance within their operations (Komaki, 1998). Effective leaders simply spend more time monitoring performance of their areas of responsibility. This monitoring includes tracking both the work process and the results. It includes both reviewing reports and discussing work performance with subordinates. In particular, behavioral research indicates that effective leaders spend more time talking directly with subordinates about what they are doing, and listening before responding with direction or feedback.

The Power of Consequences

Behavior analysis teaches managers how to improve performance -- and be well-liked in the process! Analyzing consequences within a system can help us understand why employees do the things they do – i.e., behave the way they do -- while changing consequences is the only effective way to change behavior. Too often, a manager’s primary strategies for behavior change are simply reminding, nagging, and otherwise cajoling their employees – all strategies that at first seem to work but in fact produce little lasting change. The concepts of behavior analysis can help leaders understand 1) the role their responses have as social consequences that either support or discourage improved performance and 2) the consequences provided by the systems in which workers work. Lasting change often requires a careful examination and alignment of each of these.

Removing Barriers

Organizations often have barriers that inhibit or prevent exemplary performance. They may be physical barriers or they may be systems or processes that discourage better performance. Behavior analysis therefore also views behavior as a function of the environment. The important implication in this concept is that managers also need to consider ways to change the job in ways that make it easier or more convenient to perform better. A few years ago one of our behavioral safety clients related a story that illustrates this point. One of the jobs required employees to stand, then bend over slightly while twisting their shoulders in order to reach down into a component box to connect several wires. Several safety observers identified this task as an area of concern because of the awkward body position required to complete the task. The safety committee requested help from engineering to redesign the job and help address this problem. The redesigned job placed the component box in a jig that both tilted the box forward and enabled employees to adjust its height. This modification further allowed employees to perform the task while seated, there greatly reducing the physical stress placed on their backs and shoulders. The new position not only improved the ergonomics of the job, but employees were able to finish the task more quickly and reported not being as tired at the end of the day.

In other organizations, the management systems, or even the leadership practices, become a barrier to exemplary performance. The biggest factor contributing to turnover, for example, is a poor relationship between employees and their manager (reference?). Clearly, managers who rely on threats, criticism, and intimidation create environments that foster mediocre performance also often characterized by high turnover. If the compensation is high enough employees may put up with such management practices, but they will do only what they have to do without the discretionary effort that would characterize a more positive workplace. In such organizations, the leadership practices have become a significant barrier to achieving a high performance organization. Behavior analysis can even help both managers and employees understand how to create better relationships and a more positive workplace.

Over the past few years some of the greatest strides in performance improvement have been as a result of involving employees in data based initiatives like Six Sigma and empowering them to apply problem solving tools to their workplace. Their involvement in these problem solving teams has led to changes in the influence that organizational systems and processes have on their work behavior. Additionally, there have been many dynamic changes in the influence each person has on the behavior of others.

The next giant leap in organizational performance will require managers and employees alike to understand the empirical principles that are behind the effects of their behavior on themselves and others. Quantification and statistical analysis have been applied to every critical variable in the performance environment with the exception of human behavior. When improvement efforts include a systematic approach to identifying, monitoring, and encouraging productive employee behaviors, and eliminating barriers to those behaviors, we will see an unimagined surge in human performance.

References

Daniels, A. C. (1999) Bringing Out the Best in People. New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Komaki, Judith L. (1998) Leadership from an Operant Perspective. New York, Routledge.