The Code is Irrelevant: Organizational Behavior Management is not Applied Behavior Analysis

ABSTRACT

Suggestions that organizational behavior management (OBM) and its practitioners may benefit in some way by adopting the BACB® code of ethics, and by becoming board certified as behavior analysts are refuted. Instead it is shown that OBM is only tangentially related to the practice of applied behavior analysis, the BACB® code of ethics is irrelevant to OBM, there is no consumer protection or benefit offered, and OBM has its own evolving robust approach to ethics. There are no advantages to OBM or its practitioners for adopting the BACB® code of ethics, instead there is only decreased opportunities and increased liability for those involved in OBM, increased influence, ideological hegemony and professional disenfranchisement by the BACB® and increased profits for certain universities and continuing education unit providers.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethics
• externalities
• Organizational Behavior Management
• lessons learned
• Consumer protection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. As Bailey and Burch point out, their book is not an official publication of the BACB® and does not necessarily reflect its positions. The book is their interpretation of the code.

2. There are others, such as the convoluted treatment of punishment in the code (Graber & Graber, 2019), a behavioral issue highly relevant to typically developed adults and those in organizations.

3. Self-evident truths are often neither. Appealing to self-evident truth is logically fallacious. As Ostrom (2000) observes such appeals are often invoked in policy discussions when empirical evidence is unavailable and can be dangerous. To use some more familiar behavioral examples, some self-evident truths seem to be: beating people up is an effective way to change their behavior; extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation; job satisfaction causes productivity; thoughts and feelings cause behavior, or Descartes dictum “cogito ergo sum.”

4. New York State Education Law, Article 167, Applied Behavior Analysis “The practice of applied behavior analysis by a ‘licensed behavior analyst’ shall mean the design, implementation and evaluation of environmental modifications, using behavioral stimuli and consequences, to produce socially significant improvement in human behavior, including the use of direct observation, measurement, and functional analysis of the relationship between environment and behavior, pursuant to a diagnosis and prescription or order from a person who is licensed or otherwise authorized to provide such diagnosis and prescription or ordering services pursuant to a profession enumerated in this title, for the purpose of providing behavioral health treatment for persons with autism and autism spectrum disorders and related disorders.” [italics for emphasis] [http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/aba/article167.htm].

5. Indeed, the glossary section of the code defines “behavior analyst” in the following manner: “Behavior analyst refers to an individual who holds BCBA or BCaBA certification or an individual who has submitted a complete application for BCBA or BCaBA certification.”