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

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-monitoring
• safety
• productivity
• workplace
• literature review

Notes

1. When BSM is implemented with other intervention components, the procedure may predict the differential availability of behavioral consequences (the criterion for discriminative stimuli). However, when implemented alone, BSM antecedents are more likely to function as motivating operations that alter the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of consequences.

2. The term “reactivity” suggests transient, unintended, or unauthentic effects due to the novelty of procedures or experimenter demands. We generally prefer the term “motivational effects” when describing behavior change associated with BSM interventions, while reserving the word reactivity to describe transient or unintended behavior change that threatens the internal validity of an experiment.