Organizational Behavior Case: "A Tardiness Problem" 252
O.B. Mod., which is an abbreviation of "Organizational Behavior Modification" has been standardized into a five-step process. The five steps that will be used to analyze the remainder of this case are: A) Identification of Performance Behaviors; B) Measurement of the Behavior; C) Functional Analysis of the Behavior; D) Development of an Intervention Strategy; E) Evaluation to Ensure Performance Improvement.
1. A. Identification of Performance Behaviors
For maximum clarity, it is essential to realize that there are already two IPBs in place. The first IPB is from the point of view of the supervisor who is very concerned about the tardiness issue, so much so that he apparently has been studying the time sheet records. His reasons for the concern is stated as follows. "Tardiness reduces the amount of production time and delays for the start-up of the assembly line" (252).
The second IPB in operation is the manager, referred to as me. We are told that the manager "realizes that tardiness is a form of avoidance behavior -- it delays the start of a very boring job. Your work group is very cohesive and each of the members will follow what the group wants to do."
With these two IPBs, we see a mutuality of consent, where both parties agree that there is "tardiness." What is at issue is whether the tardiness is harmful or not.
The supervisor who has been keeping and analyzing the time sheets has already begun measuring the behavior. However, the time sheet data is "raw" and for it to be of value must be analyzed against a baseline of behavior. In this case, that analysis is partially presented. Since we don't know the size of the group, we can call its members N1, N2 and so on. If we assume that the group has five members, we can also assume that not all five members are late the same amount of
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