The Need for Assessment of Maintaining Variables in OBM

Abstract

Conducting a functional assessment and/or analysis of the variable(s) maintaining problem behavior has become best practice in applied behavior analysis, yet neither scientists nor practitioners of OBM report engaging in such behavior in a formal manner. Before offering a model from which organizational functional assessment measures could be based and anecdotes from an actual organizational case in which such an approach was utilized, the authors describe three forms of functional assessment used in applied behavior analysis and explain three potential reasons why OBM has not yet adopted the use of such techniques.

Key Words:

• Maintaining variables
• functional assessment
• informant assessment
• descriptive assessment
• organizational behavior management
• performance analysis
• performance improvement