The OBM section schedule for the Association for Behavior Analysis International conference in Chicago gives us yet another opportunity to put our best foot forward and show off our best research and practice among our peers in behavior analysis. A big part of our offering every year is our invited addresses which allow us both to honor our distinguished scholars and practitioners, such as Hank Pennypacker and Scott Geller in 2007, and feature our most exciting new inquiry in OBM, such as Jon Baily’s Invited Symposium on homeland security last year. This year we will feature the ongoing and substantial work being done in Behavioral Systems and OBM. Bill Redmon will be our OBM Invited Speaker and will describe his large-scale “whole-system” applications of OBM as a VP at Bechtel. Later in the conference, Maria Malott, Ingunn Sandaker, and Bill Abernathy will offer their OBM Invited Symposium on the need for more systems perspective in OBM. Further workshops, symposia, and papers will focus on behavioral systems throughout the conference featuring the likes of Cloyd Hyten, Tom Mawhinney, Lori Diener, Ramona Houmanfar, Heather McGee, Manny Rodriguez, and Michael Fabrizio. We are also privileged at ABA this year to have Kent Anger and Oliver Worth present their Invited Symposium targeting funding of OBM projects such as behavioral safety. Kent Anger is a Senior Scientist at Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology (CROET) at Oregon Health & Science University and will speak on strategies to compete for extramural funding. Oliver Worth is a Research Psychologist in the Health Effects Laboratory Division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and will follow up on Kent’s comments with his discussion of the changing research priorities to be funded within NIOSH and beyond that may challenge or benefit granting in behavioral safety. We believe that this slate of OBM Invited Events will draw broad interest across all of ABA conference attendees. We make every effort not to schedule competing OBM events during these sessions so make sure you make your way to the ballrooms for these exciting addresses. OBM Invited Speaker Meaningful Change at the Cultural Level: Behavioral Systems Revisited Biography OBM Invited Symposium Survival Contingencies for Organizational Behavior Management Where are we, OBM practitioners, in large-scale sustainable change in the corporate world? Even though several behavior analysts have been successful at large scale interventions, why as a group, haven’t we been noticed or haven’t had a significant impact in the business community? Why does the demand for OBM practitioners remain low in the market? Why hasn’t the accelerated growth in the treatment of autism driven the demand for OBM practitioners? We are too few and progressing too slowly to be noticed and to make a difference. Although, the OBM network membership has grown 2.6 times since 2000, it remains with about 250 members. The OBM submissions to the ABA annual convention have averaged 51 in the last 14 years, remaining comparatively lower to other areas. Specialized degree programs in OBM are a hand full at the most. These issues are not due to lack of marketing but rather to substance and systems design. Although we are very good at behavior change, altering the behavior of a relatively small number of individuals typically does not have an impact in the larger system where the target behaviors take place. Although we know about behavioral maintenance, designing systems that focus on the long-term adaptation of our interventions to the evolution of the greater systems has not been our primary interest. We need more than a tool kit of behavioral contingencies; we ought to understand and manage metacontingencies of the larger systems to distinguish ourselves. Furthermore, the application of behavioral systems can help OBM survive, grow and compete in the business world as an area of application of our discipline. The Vulnerability and Robustness of Systems Properties Although individual behaviour may have great impact on organizational performance, a system’s properties will be maintained over time, even though individuals may be replaced by new members of the system. The interdependencies both within and between systems call for analysis of both the functional relations and the structures that maintain behaviours described as distinct properties of a system. The process of selection within and between systems may be described in terms of vulnerability and robustness of systems properties. This calls for another level of analysis. Even though we may say that systems are “made up of” behaviour, the complex relations of contingencies maintaining in systems may not be captured within the framework of individual behaviour alone. Organizations may be viewed as complex adaptive systems. The correct unit of analysis may be an observed functional entity interacting with the ”bigger system” of which it is a part. The unit is defined both by its function and its structure, which calls for an analysis both with respect to its functional match with the complexity of the “bigger system” and to the character of the relations between the interacting agents. Measuring the impact of the structure in systems in terms as density, connectivity, and centrality may help us understand the vulnerability (extinction) as opposed to robustness (maintenance) of systems, independent of its changing members and taking the systems level into account. OBM Redux: The Need for a Systems Perspective The traditional OBM intervention model was derived from experimental research and early clinical applications. The experimenter-subject and later the therapist-patient interaction translated into the supervisor-subordinate interaction in organizational applications. The underlying assumption has been that improving this interaction is the ultimate goal of OBM. This model, if successfully applied, creates a paternalistic management group that overlooks and often underutilizes the individual employee’s creative capacity or ability to respond effectively to contingencies without close supervisor guidance. Putting aside this issue, most practitioners would agree that improving and sustaining critical employee behaviors is, or should be, the test of the effectiveness of an OBM intervention. For this objective, the dyadic ‘ABC’ model isn’t so much technically incorrect as it is woefully incomplete and insufficient. The presenter will describe a systems view of OBM that addresses a results focused process for selecting which behaviors to manage and when; a balanced measurement tool; an expanded view of improvement strategies that includes Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Industrial Engineering; an integration of OBM with conventional human resource functions including job definition, selection, training, evaluation, promotion, and compensation; and a transition strategy designed to replace traditional bureaucratic management with a free operant, open system workplace. Invited Symposium Biographies
OBM Invited Tutorial Developing a Stream of Federal Extramural Funding for Behavioral Research Federal extramural funding is increasingly competitive. It requires a huge upfront investment to identify a fundable line of research. The keys to fundability are that the research addresses an important topic that will excite senior academic grant reviewers, employs innovation in the methods or approaches or populations or analysis, and envisions or at least suggests a clear long-term track of research. With a research program laid out, the key to a successful application is the development of “preliminary” research that demonstrates the applicant’s ability to conduct the proposed work and provides a strong indication that the specific experiments will be successful. While new investigators get something akin to bonus points, first time submissions are rarely funded and one needs to learn how to read the peer review of the application. The review is the basis for a successful second or third re-submission. The third is often the submission that is funded, and it is the last chance for an application as a fourth submission of the same title is not permitted. A somewhat easier route to funding is, sometimes, the Request for Applications (RFA) that is usually a one-time-only opportunity to respond with an application to address a specific topic of research. There, either you have preliminary research or you don’t, but the investigators or organizations with established research machines also don’t have the time to plow their investment dollars into preliminary data. The reviewer evaluation of whether a grant will successfully accomplish its goals depends on the writing, the preliminary data, and the track record of the Principal Investigator (PI). This is a challenge for the new investigator but an obvious requirement for grants that will probably bring in $200,000 to $250,000 per year for 3-5 years. Building up publications relevant to your line of research is an essential step to federal extramural funding. Once a grant is funded, then the hard work of doing the research and publishing 2-3 papers per year to demonstrate productivity becomes the focus. Because, in the end, the glow from new grant funding lasts less than a year because, “what did you do for me this year,” is the main question asked by academic institutions. Worse yet, you need to begin collecting preliminary research and writing for your second round of funding in the year before it is due, which is year 2 or 3 of the grant in many cases. Extramural funding is not a leisurely path in academic life. Where is Behavioral Safety among National Research Priorities? The notion that behavioral safety blames the worker for hazardous work conditions continues to persist in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This notion, coupled in part with opposition from major labor organizations, has prevented behavioral safety research from being included among its national research priorities. This unfortunate state of affairs has severely limited funding opportunities, it they existed at all, for behavior analysts who wish to study behavioral safety. Currently, NIOSH is in the midst of revising the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). Although behavioral safety initiatives are conspicuously absent among the strategic research goals, you will find, imbedded in the verbiage, implicit references to behavioral factors about which behavioral analysts will have something to say or do. This presentation will 1) provide an overview of the current NIOSH structure and the various programmatic research priorities, 2) compare and contrast various funding mechanisms including grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts, and 3) provide tools and strategies that will help behavior analysts maximize the alignment of their research objectives with NIOSH strategic goals. Invited Tutorial Biographies
|
||||||
Bill Redmon joined Bechtel in 2001 as Manager of Leadership and Development. In this role, he creates and manages processes and programs for finding, developing and managing talent. He also manages executive coaching and development programs and oversees the corporate learning and training department, including Bechtel’s internal university. Bill also manages Bechtel’s performance management programs which center on goal-based performance plans linked to short-term and long-term compensation plans. Prior to joining Bechtel, Bill consulted with numerous organizations in the private and public sectors to help refine their strategy and business plans and to develop supporting performance systems. Early in his career, Bill was a professor of industrial/organizational psychology and designed and taught graduate courses in behavioral systems analysis, organizational change, metrics, and strategic planning. He is the author of numerous published papers on performance management and organizational change and co-editor of a recent graduate training text entitled Handbook of Organizational Performance: Behavior Analysis and Management. He has served as a regular presenter in the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School series on Innovation and Creativity. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, a licensed psychologist, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 25). Bill graduated from Western Michigan University with Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis (Behavioral Psychology) in 1981. 
Maria E. Malott earned a Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis from Western Michigan University in 1987. Since 1993 to the present, she has served as Executive Director and Secretary Treasurer of the Association of Behavior Analysis International (ABA International), as well as Secretary Treasurer of the Society for the Advancement for Behavior Analysis. She is a fellow of ABA International and received the 2003 Award for International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis and the 2004 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Organizational Behavior Management. She is an adjunct faculty member at five universities and has collaborated with 33 universities around the world. She has authored and coauthored numerous articles and two books, including Paradox of Organizational Change (2003) and presented nearly 200 papers and workshops in 17 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Past experiences include her role as Vice President of Manufacturing for a plastic production company in the Midwest and managing her consulting company dedicated to process improvement and organizational management for nearly two decades in a variety of industries, including service, manufacturing, retail, education, and government. She has done organizational management work in public administration, the private sector, and for educational systems. 
Ingunn Sandaker is professor and director of the research programme “Learning in Complex Systems” at Akershus University College, Norway. She received her Ph.D. in 1997 at the University of Oslo with a grant from The Foundation for Research in Business and Society (SNF) at The Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH). The thesis was a study of the systemic approach to major changes in two large companies; one pharmaceutical company and one petroleum company. During The Norwegian Olympic Committee’s preparations for the games in Sydney and Nagano, she was head of evaluation of a programme aiming at extending female participation in management and coaching. Serving as a consultant on top level management programmes in Norwegian energy companies, her interest has been focused on management performance within a systems framework. Trying to combine the approaches from micro-level behaviour analysis with the perspective of learning in complex systems, she is managing a post-graduate masters program in behaviour analysis.
Bill Abernathy taught psychology at Ohio University and received his doctorate in I/O Psychology from Ohio State University. He then joined Edward J. Feeney and Associates as a consultant where he worked in performance improvement with Victoria Stations Restaurants, Sovran Bank, and the Franklin Mint. In 1981 Bill founded Abernathy & Associates, which specialized in assisting client organizations with performance measurement and feedback, performance pay, and performance improvement. Over its twenty-five year history, Abernathy & Associates consulted with over 160 organizations of all types and sizes. In 2005 Bill sold his company to Aubrey Daniels International where he is the Vice President of Performance Systems. Bill also joined the psychology faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University where he will coordinate a new masters degree in I/O Psychology with an emphasis on performance systems. He is the author of two books - The Sin of Wages and Managing Without Supervising.
Dr. W. Kent Anger is an experimental psychologist who worked at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati and joined the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology (CROET) at Oregon Health & Science University in 1989 where he is a Senior Scientist and Associate Director and has been continuously funded by federal grants for the last 16 years. He is responsible for CROET’s outreach program while maintaining an active, funded research program. Dr. Anger specializes in identifying nervous system effects of chemical exposure and computer-based training to prevent accidents and hazards leading to disease or dysfunction in the workplace. He has authored over 75 publications and served in an advisory role for the World Health Organization, National Research Council, and National Institutes of Health, among other organizations. Present grant support from NIOSH and NIEHS is focused on effectiveness of computer-based training in managers and blue collar workers and assessing effects of pesticide exposures on the nervous system in agricultural workers. 
Dr. Oliver Wirth is a Research Psychologist in the Health Effects Laboratory Division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). He received his B.A. in psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, an M.A. in clinical psychology from the University of Dayton, and a Ph.D. in psychology from West Virginia University. Dr. Wirth is currently Assistant Coordinator for the NIOSH intramural research program pertaining to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. In this capacity, he has been participating in an initiative to revise the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), which will help guide NIOSH-sponsored research into the next decade. Some of his time is spent in the laboratory working with a multidisciplinary team of investigators to develop animal models for the study of injuries or illnesses caused by repeated exposures to repetitive work, vibration, and respiratory toxicants such as welding fumes. Dr. Wirth recently obtained NIOSH funding to support several research projects pertaining to behavioral safety – a topic area that he is attempting to promote within the Institute.
