Behavior Analysis Around the World


Book Description

Behaviour analysis has tradionally been one of the main areas and main approaches to psychology. It is based on laboratory research and in conceptualizations from distinguished figures of the discipline, such as Skinner, Pavlov, Mach, and even Watson and Thorndike. It has generated a science (the experimental analysis of behaviour), a philosophy (behaviourism), and numerous practical applications (applied behaviour analysis). For several decades it was even considered to be the dominant paradigm in psychology. This special issue contains scientific articles in the main areas of behaviour analysis, both as a laboratory science and as an applied discipline. It covers representative research and applications of behaviour analysis at the beginning of the 21st century. The authors come from countries including the United States, China, Mexico, Spain, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Colombia, Poland, Greece. This special issue is an indication of the international relevance of this area of psychology, and its current state.




Understanding Complexity in Organizations


Book Description

Organizations are complex entities that must adapt the practices of their employees and management to meet the demands of a dynamic environment. Organizations are behavioral systems that coordinate interactions among its members and environment. Changing practices in one area of an organization can generate a reaction throughout the entire system, thus affecting the behaviors of those working within other areas, the experience of customers, and important organizational results. Behavioral Systems Analysis (BSA) focuses on these complex contingencies from the macro system all the way down to individual behavior. This book contains articles by internationally recognized experts in Behavioral Systems Analysis who discuss the role of organizational practices in their study of performance improvement and cultural change from both practical and conceptual perspectives. Business and non-profit managers will find tools and case studies to help understand and diagnose their organization’s dynamics. Scholars will appreciate articles’ theory and real-world descriptions when considering their own research direction. Finally, all students of management theory, behavior analysis, and human resources will find this collection a thought-provoking tool for their understanding of behavioral systems and their application in organizations. This book was published as a special issue in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.




NBS Special Publication


Book Description




Applied Behavior Science in Organizations


Book Description

Applied Behavior Science in Organizations provides a compelling overview of the history of Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) and the opportunity it presents for designing and managing positive work environments that can in turn have a positive impact on society. The book brings together leading experts from industry and research settings to provide an overview of the historical approaches in Organizational Behavior Management. It begins with an introduction to recognized practices in OBM and the applications of fundamental principles of behavior analysis to a variety of performance problems in organizational settings. The book then highlights how organizational practices and consumers’ behavior combine in a complex confluence to meet an organization’s goals and satisfy consumer appetites, whilst often unintentionally affecting the wellbeing of organizational members. It argues that the science of behavior has a responsibility to contribute to the safety, health and wellbeing of organizational members, consumers of organizational products, and beyond. Finally, the book recognizes the essential role of organizations in initiating, shaping, and sustaining the development of more nurturing and reinforcing work environments, through discussion of the need for innovation while adapting and responding to growing social upheaval, technological advances, and environmental concerns, alongside crises in the global economy, health, education, and environment. Showcasing emerging work by internationally recognized scholars on the application of behavior science in organizations, the book will be an essential read for all students and professionals of Organizational Behavior Management, as well as those interested in using organizational applications to create new models of management.




Strategic Nonviolent Power


Book Description

History indicates that there are powerful routes to liberation from oppression that do not involve violence. Mohandas Gandhi called for a science of nonviolent action, one based on satyagraha, or the “insistence on truth.” As Gandhi understood, nonviolent resistance is not passive, nor is it weak; rather, such action is an exercise of power. Despite the success of Gandhi’s “Quit India” movement, the resources dedicated to the application of rigorous science to nonviolent struggle have been vanishingly small. By contrast, almost unimaginable levels of financial and human resources have been devoted to the science and technologies of killing, war, and collective violence. Mark Mattaini reviews the history and theory of nonviolent struggles against oppression and discusses recent research that indicates the substantial need for and advantage of nonviolent alternatives. He then offers a detailed exploration of principles of behavioral systems science that appear to underlie effective strategic civil resistance and “people power.” Strategic Nonviolent Power proposes that the route to what Gandhi described as the “undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries” of nonviolent resistance is the application of rigorous science. Although not a simple science, Mattaini’s application of ecological science grounded in the science of behaviour brings exceptional power to the struggle for justice and liberation. At a time when civil resistance is actively reshaping global political realities, the science of nonviolent struggle deserves the attention of the scientific, activist, strategic, military, spiritual, and diplomatic communities, as well as the informed public.




Quick Wins


Book Description

With a combined 30+ years of experience in behavior, leadership, and organizational improvement, authors Paul Gavoni and Manuel Rodriguez have created an efficient yet comprehensive guide for launching and accelerating school transformation. The first book of its kind in education, Quick Wins! Accelerating School Transformation through Science, Engagement, and Leadership is not a flavor of the month program. It is an approach rooted in science. Specifically, the science of human behavior in the workplace, also known as Organizational Behavior Management (OBM). By reading Quick Wins!, school leaders or any stakeholder will learn techniques for immediately engaging people in major turnarounds. These simple proven strategies will rapidly strengthen trust in leadership, drastically improve morale, and advance student achievement.




Research in Organizational Behavior


Book Description

This twenty-sixth volume of Research in Organizational Behavior presents a set of well-crafted and thoughtful essays on a series of research topics. They range from efforts to redirect the study of leadership, to analyses of interpersonal relationships, to considerations of cross-cultural issues in organizing work, to discussions of institutional and environmental forces on organizational outcomes. Each of these essays includes a thorough review of the relevant literature, and more importantly, pushes that literature forward with new conceptual analysis and theory. In short, these essays continue the spirit of "rigorous eclecticism" that has exemplified the annual publication of ROB. As a collection, this year's set of essays provides a healthy advance for the field of organizational behavior. They are examples of serious scholarship that extend and challenge our current thinking about organizations and the behavior of its participants. Many of these chapters will take their place among the best presented by the Research in Organizational Behavior series. • Revisiting the Meaning of Leadership • When and How Team Leaders Matter • Normal Act of Irrational Trust: Motivated Attributions and the Trust Development Process • Gender Stereotypes and Negotiation Performance: An Examination of Theory and Research • Third-Party Reactions to Employee (Mis)treatment: A Justice Perspective • Subgroup Dynamics in Internationally Distributed Teams: Ethnocentrism or Cross-National Learning? • Protestant Relational Ideology: The Cognitive Underpinnings and Organizational Implications of an American Anomaly • Isomorphism In Reverse: Institutional Theory as an Explanation For Recent Increases in Intraindustry Heterogeneity and Managerial Discretion • The Red Queen: History-Dependent Competition Among Organizations




Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis


Book Description

This very practical, how-to text provides the beginning researcher with the basics of applied behavior analysis research methods. In 10 logical steps, this text covers all of the elements of single-subject research design and it provides practical information for designing, implementing, and evaluating studies. Using a pocketbook format, the authors provide novice researcher with a "steps-for-success" approach that is brief, to-the-point, and clearly delineated.




Imagination and Healing


Book Description

The volume explores in depth the vast healing potential of a fundamental human gift. In addition to providing a historical perspective of the importance accorded to imagination in the disease and healing processes, the book furnishes theoretical, empirical, and clinical evidence of the efficacy of imagery in the healing of a wide variety of health problems including stress, pain, cancer, depression, phobias, skin disorders, and sexual dysfunctions.




Sources of Behavioral Variance in Process Safety


Book Description

Process safety management seeks to establish a multi-level system to assess, document, maintain, and inspect equipment and work practices integral in controlling highly toxic and/or reactive materials. In a highly engineered environment, any variance can set off a chain of events that increases the probability of a process safety incident as violent as an explosion. Human behavior is often the biggest source of this variance, but it can also be the biggest asset for process safety management. Process industries are looking to understand sources of behavioral variance and build better processes based on sound behavioral science. Because of this clear link between behavior and process safety performance, the behavior science community has been challenged to research the behavioral root causes leading to variation that threaten process safety; create and evaluate behavioral interventions to mitigate this variation; and identify the system factors that would influence the behaviors necessary to promote process safety. This book seeks to translate behavior analysis into practical systems that can help reduce human suffering from catastrophic process safety events. All of the chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.