The Scientific and Methodological Basis of a Systematic Approach to Human Behavior Management

Abstract

Behavior management has become an increasingly popular approach to the improvement of human work effectiveness. Philosophically, the origins of this movement can be traced almost directly to the Skinnerian distinction between operant and respondent behavior. The implications of this distinction have led to a reinforcerment based technology of behavior change with which behavior management is closely identified. In the present paper, it is argued that such an alignment places the behavior management approach in too narrow a perspective. In its most fundamental sense, this movement is both a scientific and methodological endeavor. As a science, behavior management has an empirical character marked by concerns for the objectivity and validity of its knowledge. Within this framework, the methodology it employs has many features in common both with procedures of "the experimental analysis of behavior" and with the tradition of "quasi-experimentation." The essential features of this common methodology are outlined. and their relation to several imponant types of validity issues is noted. In the final analysis, it is suggested that behavior management can be viewed more profitably as a general purpose "tool" for the evaluation of any potentially effective management practice than as a technological outgrowth of operant conditioning.