PARADOX OF

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
 PARADOX OF
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Engineering Organizations with
Behavioral Systems Analysis
by

Maria E. Malott, PhD

CONTEXT PRESS

Reno, NV
 Paradox of Organizational Change:
Engineering Organizations with Behavioral Systems Analysis
Paperback pp. 216
Distributed by New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Malott, Maria E.
[Paradoja de cambio organizacional. English]
Paradox of organizational change : engineering organizations with
behavioral systems analysis / by Maria E. Malott.— 1st American ed.
p. cm.
“Paradoja de Cambio Organizacional, was published in Spanish by Editorial
Trillas … 2001
ISBN-13: 978-1-878978-424 (pbk)
ISBN-10: 1-878978-42-X( pbk)
1. Organizational change. 2. Interbehavioral psychology. 3. Behavioral
assessment. 4. Behavior modification. 5. System analysis.
I. Title.
HD58.8.M2453 2003
658.4‘063-dc21
2003006930
© 2003 CONTEXT PRESS
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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
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Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Omar Mora Mora and Dr. Javier Pucheta Garcipiña of
the Art Institute of the Universidad Veracruzana.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The first edition of this book, Paradoja de Cambio Organizacional, was
published in Spanish by Editorial Trillas (Malott, 2001b). The Spanish
edition would not have started — or developed — without the consistent
support of my friend and colleague A. Daniel Gómez Fuentes. Daniel
directed the Research Master’s Program of Applied Psychology to
Education at the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico. The program,
founded in 1965, has won national recognition for combining research and
applications in behavior analysis.
The Spanish version was conceptualized in 1993 when Daniel offered
me the opportunity to participate in his master’s program as an on-going
guest instructor. The objective? To teach students and Veracruz’s business
leaders about organizational behavior management, using the reality-based
applications I was conducting in the United States and abroad. The original
idea was to combine this teaching effort with the development of a textbook
on organizational change.
Daniel, the faculty and students of the program — over a period of
almost 10 years — consistently offered me the most wonderful, welcoming
support and feedback via numerous drafts and versions of the Spanish
edition. More than 400 seminar participants in Mexico contributed with
their input and experience. Participants from all types of industries —
manufacturing, hotel management, service, construction, retail, insurance,
state government, education, and health — verified the cross-business
applicability of the principles and methods of organizational change
presented in this book.
In addition, Dr. Marco Wilfredo Salas Martinez and A. Daniel Gómez
Fuentes directed master’s theses on the application of components of this
book to enhance higher education systems. Elvia Molina Candiani (1997),
Mauricio Eliseo Aguirre Serena (1998) and Sergio Ezequiel Alvarado Ruiz
(2000) worked on improving the productivity of the university’s
administration. Marco Antonio Nava Bustos (2001), Alberto Francisco
Alarcón Urdapilleta (2001), Karla Lavarreda Martinez (2001) and Ruth
Serrano Solfs (2001) worked on changing administrative processes of the
Universidad Pedagógica Veracruzana. The work was also supported by
other faculty: Joaquin Rosas Garcés, José Arturo Pérez Medellín, Pilar
González Flores and Oralia Gómez Fuentes coordinated the logistics of my
many trips to Mexico with the support of administrative personnel; Enrique
Zepeta García, Alejandro Reyes, José Luis Colorado and Raúl Rosas López
provided technical support for all seminars; Dr. Javier Pucheta Garcipifia,
director of the Art Institute of the Universidad Veracruzana, and graphic
designer Omar Mora Mora designed the book’s original covers.
The faculty of the master’s program helped transcribe the first seminars
and conferences. They also edited initial versions of some chapters, with the
help of A. Daniel Gómez Fuentes, Dr. Marco Wilfredo Salas Martinez,
Joaquín Rosas Garcés, Jerónimo Reyes Hernández and Noemí Ramos. Full
drafts of the Spanish edition were reviewed by Dr. Guillermo Yáber and Dr.
Elizabeth Valarino from the Universidad Simón Bolivar in Caracas,
Venezuela; Coral García Asarola, from Universidad Católica del Uruguay
in Montevideo, Uruguay; Marco Antonio Nava Bustos, Alberto Francisco
Alarcón Urdapilleta, Karla Lavarreda Martínez, María Elena Martinez
Ponce, Martha Elsa Libreros Fernández, Rafael Cortéz Rodriguez, Dinorah
Arely Escudero Campos, and Laura Patricia Medrano Herrera from the
Universidad Veracruzana. Armando Maldonado, editor from Editorial
Trillas, was also most helpful with the final edition.
The actual work of each case illustrated in the book is based on a real
application of a systematic effort of organizational change. Each case has
taken, in reality, anywhere from eight months to five years. I fictionalized
and simplified the real cases to protect the confidentiality of my clients and
to make the reading user friendly. Without direct personal experience of
changing organizations, I would have not been able to learn how to
implement real change. I am in debt to my clients from all industries who
trusted in my ability to help their organizations. Many of them challenged
and enriched my perspective of change. I am especially thankful to Dick
Varnell, Dora Lezovich, Peter Heinz, and Doug Bylsky from retail; Jon
Eickhoff and Dr. Susan Eickhoff from manufacturing; José Iguina from
pharmaceutical; Franc Laux from automotive; Mari Lou Cazers from foods;
and Bertie Borrel from service.
 The current English edition has undergone considerable revisions and
improvements from the Spanish edition. I am most thankful to my mentors
who inspired and nurtured my professional growth: Dr. Richard W. Malott
and Dr. Dale M. Brethower, from Western Michigan University, and Dr.
Sigrid S. Glenn, from the University of North Texas. They reviewed
sections of this edition and spent countless hours helping me analyze
complex organizational change endeavors from the conceptual perspectives
of behavior analysis, systems analysis and cultural design.
I am fortunate to have had the collaboration of numerous colleagues
who volunteered their time and effort to review this English edition. My
most sincere appreciation goes to Lori H. Miller, a doctoral student of
Western Michigan University. Lori reviewed each chapter carefully, gave
excellent input, applied the model presented in this book in her doctoral
research, and provided consistent encouragement. Lori has taught me much
about what it is to be a mentor. Pam Skelton, from Airways Airlines, also
made significant contributions with her editing and provided the perspective
of an organizational change consultant by using the concepts presented in
the book across various industries. Dr. Ramona Houmanfar, from the
University of Nevada, Reno, was an extremely diligent editor and used a
draft of this edition in a systems analysis class with her graduate students:
Janice Doney, Scott Herbst, Heidi Landaburu, Kristen Maglieri, Charna
Mintz, Horacio Roman,Jennifer Thomas, and Kevin Williams, Ramona and
her students provided careful revisions and made sure the terminology used
was consistent with various behavior analysis domains such as
experimental, clinical and organizational behavior management. Dr. Mark
Dixon and Dr, Ruth Anne Rehfeldt, from Southern Illinois University, also
provided encouragement. Thomas Breznau, from the L. Lee Stryker Center;
Dora Lezovich, from Meijer, Inc. ; Allen Bullard, from Dollar General
Corporation; and Mark S. Repkin, from Certif-A-Gift offered careful and
insightful input from the business client’s perspective. And last, but not
least, Thea Rozetta Lapham — professional journalist and editor from
Lapham & Associates — who enhanced the quality of the writing in
considerable ways.
May this work awaken your curiosity and sense of inquiry, generating
the enthusiasm you need for managing organizational change.
 Chapter 1
The Paradox
 CHAPTER 1

THE PARADOX
Nothing stays firm forever; as the seasons turn, everything vanishes like
morning dew (Sonnet 60).
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 1

Paths Over the Sea

I was 21 years old when I met Dr. Leona Montoya in my first

professional job at a human resources institution. She would often chide the
management of public and private organizations for leading without
developmental strategies and consistently failing to implement long-term
change processes.
I have observed many of Dr. Montoya’s impressive interactions with a
variety of audiences. She was my role model of a professional woman:
cultivated, educated, critical, constructive, and productive. Dr. Montoya
received her doctorate from Sorbonne University in Paris, traveled around
the world and often published about organizational change.
On one occasion, she visited my institution. She was looking for
someone to give her a ride home when we met in an elevator. Without
hesitation, I offered my assistance.
Where do you live? she asked me.
When I responded, she said, That is in the opposite direction of my
home!
It doesn’t matter, it’s a pleasure to help you, I replied.
As I drove, I asked Dr. Montoya about her life, education, and
accomplishments. With each answer, my admiration for her grew more and
more. Inwardly, I sighed. My accomplishments were nothing in relation to
hers. Respectfully, I said:
 Dr. Montoya,you must feel so proud of your achievements.
What achievements? I have accomplished nothing, she answered.
Astonished, I replied, How could you say NOTHING? What about your
contributions, your writing,your travels,your…
She interrupted me. Those things do not matter. They are transient. My
contributions do not last. When I leave, what I have built will not continue.
After a brief silence, she kept going. My son is an architect, He builds
physical structures that last over time. But, me The structures I build fall
apart in a short time— nothing remains.
This was the only conversation I ever had with Dr. Montoya. To this
day, she has no idea that our dialogue remained deeply etched in my
thoughts. It is ironic that she believed her contributions were short-lived
because her apprehension became my professional challenge.

Contradiction 1: Dynamic vs. Constant

Although my conversation with Dr. Montoya was several years ago, her
words still remain true. I have toiled to find an answer to the question she
framed for me in our brief encounter: Can one create lasting changes in
evolving organizations?
The first contradiction in the paradox of organizational change is
dynamic vs. constant. In this book, we will see that although the
environment is continuously changing, the processes accounting for the
change remain constant.
Concept 1-1. Dynamic vs. Constant Contradiction — the
environment where change occurs is dynamic, as it evolves over
time. But the process of change is constant because the dynamic
relationship between behavior and environment is always present.
Concept 1-2. Change — the product of alteration, variation, or
modification 2.
Concept 1-3. Change Progress — a series of actions that result in
alteration, variation, or modification.
 The Greek philosopher Heraclitus 3 said, “We do not bathe twice in the
same river.” Organizations are constantly changing in one direction or
another. The traditional approach to change implies that the river is always
the same. Organizational change consultants usually produce “something,”
and when they achieve “that something” they get paid. They believe that the
product of change is the “thing,” the project, or the program they generated.
But they miss a fundamental point: The product of change cannot be
understood as something static or permanent. The moment that we manage
to produce the thing, the project, or the program, we have to review, adapt,
and alter it.
The poet Antonio Machado 4 illustrated the ephemeral nature of change
efforts in his poem “Cantares.” Following are some excerpts:
Journeyer, it is your tracks
that make the trail, nothing more;
Journeyer, there is no trail,
in going, it is brought forth.
Journeying, the path arises;
only when you tum and glance
do you see the path — once taken,
never to be taken twice.
Joumeyer, there is no way,
only wakes you leave behind.
…All passes and stays but
our thing is to walk
to walk making roads over the sea.
Typical organizational change efforts are created with the intention of
long term success, yet they are often transient like paths over the sea. Once
completed, the organization — like the sea — remains essentially the same.
For many years, I heard the same ideas, saw the same mistakes and felt
the frustration and discouragement generated by failure to succeed in
change. People grow tired of projects, programs, and initiatives because
they do not last despite the fact they start with much enthusiasm and
become the ongoing chat of the organization. Eventually, people stop taking
these change efforts seriously and the initiatives stop. All will soon be
forgotten. Then someone will identify the same unsatisfied need and launch
a similar initiative under a different name with a new package.
Is it worth it to invest so much energy if— in the end — there is little
impact? Why invest so much time in something that, by its very nature, will
not last? How can we create initiatives that adapt to constant changes and
endure? Can we create initiatives that build on the successes and lessons of
the past rather than always starting from scratch?

Contradiction 2: Complex vs. Simple

The second contradiction of the paradox is complex vs. simple. The

environment where change takes place is complex — affected by the
interactions of many parts and behaviors. Change efforts cannot ignore such
complexity if they are to be effective,I n spite of this inherent complexity,
we will see in this book that the process of change is simple. Its essential
component is the behavior of each individual and that behavior’s
consequences.
Concept 1-4. Complex vs, Simple Contradiction the environment
of change is complex because it occurs in the midst of multiple
and convoluted interactions, It is simple because there is only one
essential process that accounts for the evolution of organizations
— the functional relationship between the behavior and the
environment.
One day, I was talking with Michigan architect Norman creating a
unique style of Carver,know for creating a unique style of contemporary
architecture 5 that resembles the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. Norman
integrates elegant architectural plans with the natural environment. He has
designed and overseen the construction of more than 150 buildings.
Nonnan,you should be proud of your work.
What makes you think so?
Each home enhances its occupants’ quality of life. And your structures
are long lasting.
Hmm… I never thought about the lasting aspects of my work.
 I told him the results of my efforts are vulnerable to drift. They depend
on what people do. To my surprise, Norman said that he would have
preferred his work to be less durable.
When I asked him to clarify what he meant, Norman replied, on a few
occasions, after seeing structures I designed 30 years ago, I asked myself:
Did I build this?I would prefer to erase them out of my portfolio.
Norman’s constructions are part of a changing and complex world.
When he started designing and constructing buildings 30 years ago, his
work was affected by many variables and was constrained by the available
technology, building regulations, construction materials, his experiences,
and development.
Lifestyles and the domain of architecture are subject to ongoing changes
and increased complexity. Oftentimes, a building can be adapted to
accommodate new advances. Occasionally, however, the existing structure
is too limiting; remodeling is too expensive and may offer few possibilities
of success. In these circumstances, starting over again can be more cost-
effective than renovation.
Organizations are more easily influenced by environmental changes
than architectural projects, mainly because the success of an organization
depends on what people do and the effects of their work. Not only is each
instance of behavior unique, but it is affected by the dynamic interaction of
a multitude of variables, such as the actions of other individuals, customer
demands, and market changes.
Rigid organizational structures that do not adapt to evolving complexity
do not last. They are closed systems. Biology teaches us the need for
interaction with the environment. A cell dies if it does not respond to the
changing complexity in its surroundings. Likewise, as an organization
evolves, so must its internal structures.
Concept 1-5. Closed System —group of interrelated components
that do not interact or evolve with changes in the environment.
Closed systems eventually die.
The Shaker community in the United States was a closed system. In
1774, a portion of the Shakers, who came from England, immigrated to
New York. In the beginning, there were nine members. By 1880, the
Shakers had grown to 6,000 members with communities in Indiana, Ohio
and Kentucky 6.
The Shakers believed in celibacy. Their behavior was governed by the
Order of the Apostles whose principal idea was to separate the genders to
prevent biological reproduction. These practices included having doors and
stairs assigned by gender to avoid interactions between males and females.
In addition, the Shakers ignored the local social and legal systems. They
accepted homeless children and incorporated them into the work force.
Subsequently, they were accused of exploiting minors and failing to respect
legal regulations.
The Shakers did not develop effective strategies to maintain their
principles within the larger and complex society in which they lived. As a
result, by 1900, the community had been reduced to 1,000 members. Today
there are only a few members. The lesson? Closed systems die because they
do not adapt to environmental complexity.

Contradiction 3: Chaotic vs. Orderly

In this book, we will see that although organizations are seemingly

chaotic, unsystematic and unpredictable, the process of change is orderly
and predictable. This contradiction is a third component of the paradox:
Change is chaotic and orderly.
Concept 1-6. Chaotic vs. Orderly Contradiction — organizations
are seemingly unpredictable, but the process through which they
change can be systematic and predictable.
In a conversation with Nicholas Mukomberanwa 7, a Zimbabwean
sculptor, I asked, How can you foresee the shape you give to the rock? He
replied, I can’t predict the final form that results from my carving. It is like
pouring water on earth. Do you think that I can direct where the water
goes? It works the other way around. It is the configuration of the rock that
controls the shape of my sculptures, not my plan. The only predictable
course is my carving style. (Figure 1-1 shows a photograph of a
Mukomberanwa sculpture.)
 Organizational change usually means influencing, managing, and
monitoring a course of action. But there are many uncontrollable events in
an organization, making it seem chaotic. Many incidents occur without our
influence and too many things changing all the time makes us feel out of
control.
Mukomberanwa inspired in me a valuable insight: Although he did not
control the final form of the sculpture, his carving process was orderly and
predictable. His sculptures are the result of natural progression. Each
carving stroked determines the next. The formation the lakes, rivers, and of
mountains follows an analogous evolutionary process. Each drop of rain
affects the configuration the of the land, even when its contribution appears
insignificant at any given time.
Organizational change can be analogous to Mukomberanwa’s sculpting.
The form evolves from the process. The analysis of the process should be
one of the first steps and the rest can be built from there. Change efforts
must conform to the organization’s needs, allowing the result of each
component of change to shape the next.
Figure 1-1. Sculpture of Nicholas Mukomberanwa
 Change Process

Systems that consider and adjust for environmental dynamics,

complexity, and chaos — referred to as open systems — have a greater
chance of survival than those that are closed. For example, the likelihood of
an organization’s survival increases if it continuously adapts to fluctuations
in the market, consumer trends, and technological advances.
Concept 1-7. Open System — a group of interrelated components
that adapt to complexity, dynamics, and chaos in the environment.
A family is an example of an open system. Here, the dynamics change
with economic and social demands, such as family members’ jobs, the
addition of children, and age-related physical changes. Although adaptation
is fundamental, open systems do not last simply because they interact with
the environment. More is needed.
Open systems change with time: they evolve. But why worry about
controlling the evolution of systems? Wouldn’t it be easier to let a system
take its own course without intervention? Wouldn’t it be more convenient to
let it die due to its own failure to adapt? Why bother?
Letting organizations “go with the flow” is, of course, an alternative.
But it is like letting a vessel drift in the sea, with the wind and current
determining its direction. Letting processes drift is a poor option for
organizational-change leaders.
We tend to treat change as if the “thing” to be changed is a closed
system. We seem more comfortable if the department, process, or activity
we want to change exists in isolation: thereby allowing us to bypass the
complexity caused by interacting with other departments, processes, or
activities. We place walls where there were none — “my department, my
employees, my processes” — and create an illusion of simplicity and
permanent results.
But if we contain change within artificial walls, our systems will likely
die. “My department, my employees, my processes” are affected by internal
and external events. Change needs to be viewed as part of a process within
open systems. The result of change is dynamic, constantly evolving and
complex. Organizations are convoluted, but the basic principles of change
are not.

Paradox of Organizational Change

Organizational change is a paradox. The paradox consists of inherent

contradictions. One contradiction is that change is dynamic, yet the process
of change is constant — it remains the same. Another contradiction is that
change is complex, but the process of change is simple. (In this case,
“simple” means having few elements.) A third contradiction is that the
change appears chaotic and uncontrollable, while the process of change is
orderly and systematic. (See Table 1-1.)
Table 1-1. Paradox of Organizational Change
 Paradox (Contradiction)

Change Environment Change Process

CONSTANT (Not Changing or

DYNAMIC (Change over time)
varying)
COMPLEX (Having many parts)
SIMPLE (Having only one part)
CHAOTIC (unsystematic,
ORDERLY (Systematic,
unpredictable)
predictable)

Concept 1-8. Paradox of Change — change involves

contradictions between the environment where change occurs and
the process of change: dynamic vs. constant, complex vs. simple;
chaotic vs. orderly.
If organizations are dynamic, complex, and chaotic, can we affect the
destiny of organizations? The answer is definitively YES. But to influence
the course of organizations, we have to understand the paradox of
organizational change. Chapter 2 presents an introduction to the constant,
simple, and orderly aspects of the paradox.

Conclusions

Organizational change is paradoxical because it involves contradictions

between the nature of the environment where change takes place and the
process that causes the change.
The first contradiction is dynamic vs. constant. The environment where
change occurs is dynamic as it evolves over time; however, the process of
change is constant because the dynamic relationship between behavior and
environment does not vary. Many organizational change initiatives are like
paths over the sea: transient and short-lived, giving the impression that
change efforts are In vain.
The second contradiction is complex vs. simple. The environment of
change is complex and the process is simple. It is complex because it occurs
in the midst of multiple and convoluted interactions. It is simple because
there is only one essential process that accounts for the evolution of
organizations. Its essential component is the behavior of each individual
and that behavior’s consequences.
The third contradiction is chaotic vs. orderly. The environment appears
unsystematic and uncontrollable, yet the way that the environment change
is systematic and predictable. In summary, the paradox of organizational
change is the inclusion of seemingly contradictory change elements:
dynamic vs. constant, complex vs. simple, and chaotic vs. orderly.

Review

1. Based on your own experience, give an example of:

Closed System
Open System
2. What does paradox of change mean?
3. Explain each apparent contradiction of the paradox with an example
Dynamic vs. constant
Complex vs. simple
Chaotic vs. orderly

1 English poet and dramatist

2 Encarta, 2003
3 Heraclitus (540?-475? AC) was a Greek philosopher who believed
that the world was in constant change. He was born in Ephesus, today’s
Turkey. He was one of the founders of metaphysics. (See Khan, 1979.)
4 Antonio Machado Ruiz (1875-1939) was a Spanish poet and member
of the freedom movement know as “the generation of 1898.” His
“Complete Poems” were published in 1917. (See Machado, 1969.)
5 For an appreciation of Carver’s architectural style, see, 1981, 1987,
1993, 1995.
6 See Stein (1994), who wrote a general history of the Shaker
community, from its beginnings in the XVII century.
 7 Nicholas Mukomberanwa is know as one of the most skillful sculptors
of Zimbabwe. See Guthrie (1989) for a description of his work.
 Chapter 2
Basic Principles
 CHAPTER 2

BASIC PRINCIPLES
Water mayflow in a thousand channels, but it all retums to the sea.
Anonymous Chinese proverb

The Magic Cylinder

Sunshine, let me show you a magic cylinder, said the grandmother.

The grandmother was named Moon Goddess nearly 100 years ago,
following a pre-Inca tradition from the surroundings of Titicaca Lake —t he
highest lake in the world, located in South America between Peru and
Bolivia.
Sunshine was seven years old. She was a beautiful, Native-American
girl, with toast-colored skin, brown eyes, and straight black hair that
cascaded to her waist. She wore a coat typical of ancient Inca royalty. It
featured a geometric pattern of red and yellow tones, dyed with extracts
from leaves, bark, and mud.
Reaching to the bottom of her woven, flax-made basket, Moon Goddess
extracted a bronze cylinder. At one end was a small opening with a viewer
and at the other end a metal drum. Tiny, dazzling gemstones — mixed with
shimmering foliage — floated in oil between two pieces of glass nestled
inside the drum.
Moon Goddess showed Sunshine how to use the bronze cylinder. She
grasped it with her left hand, closed her left eye and looked through the
viewer with her right eye: aiming the cylinder toward the sun and rotating
the drum slowly.
Ah! Sunshine exclaimed with glee, when Moon Goddess passed the
cylinder to her and she discovered its magic for herself. Inside, the young
girl found a wealth of colors and symmetrical shapes. As she rotated the
drum, new combinations gradually appeared. Again, Sunshine exclaimed
ah! Moon Goddess watched silently, cherishing her granddaughter’s
curiosity and amazement.
Sunshine wondered about the endless designs she was seeing. How
many shapes are inside this magic cylinder? she asked. Moon Goddess
smiled tenderly. She knew the number of patterns was infinite, a concept
her granddaughter was learning with every turn of the cylinder.
Moon Goddess unveiled the magic behind the cylinder by saying, This
is a kaleidoscope. It’s magic has an explanation. She then told Sunshine
about Sir David Brewster, a Scottish scientist who accidentally invented the
kaleidoscope in 1816 while performing experiments with light.
Taking the cylinder from the girl’s hands, Moon Goddess explained that
the reflection of the floating objects inside the drum produced the
symmetrical colored shapes.
How? Sunshine asked.
Within the cylinder there were two mirrors, Moon Goddess said,
positioned at an angle size of the angle determines the number of symmetric
shapes. She then used her hands to illustrate the various degrees while
explaining that a 45-degree angle produces eight symmetrical reflections, a
70-degree angle produces six and a 90-degrees angle produces four. The
combined movement of the gems and leaves with the mirrors generates
infinite forms.
Moon Goddess concluded her unique lesson by saying that the magic of
the kaleidoscope was even more spectacular than it had first appeared. The
marvel came from the infinite combinations resulting from its unchanged
elements. Simplicity and complexity coexisted inside the kaleidoscope.

Basic Concepts

Like the kaleidoscope, change generates dynamic, complex, and

unpredictable combinations based on constant, simple, and orderly
processes. Through out this book, I will illustrate the constant, simple, and
orderly aspects of the paradox discussed in the last chapter. In this chapter, I
introduce the essentials which consist of the fundamental principle of
environmental selection, the basic units of analysis, and the method for
change.

Principle of Environmental Selection

To improve processes, organizations undergo countless attempts to

change what employees do. Although change initiatives generate much
enthusiasm and effort, people often end up doing the same thing that they
did before. We fry new strategies when finding that our previous attempts to
change fail. If instruction does not result in effective change, we might
invest in technology. If technology does not make a difference, we might
promote our best workers to management positions. And, when everything
else fails, we blame the employees.
Blaming employees is easier than recognizing that the system has
problems or that we— as managers — are partly responsible for the failure
to change. Accordingly, employees are accused of being dumb,
unmotivated, irresponsible, and uncaring. This is called organizational
victim blaming.
Concept 2-1. Organizational Victim Blaming— unjustly assuming
that those who suffer the consequences of a poor functioning
system are responsible for the system’s flaws.
Employees become enemies in the blaming game. There is no trust. We
treat people like opponents and, in return, they regard us as adversaries. The
open-door policy does not exist and fear of lawsuits makes it impossible to
give employees honest feedback.
I have yet to meet an employee who likes to fail or who does not care
about being competent. True, employees are not always able and willing;
they may lack the right skills, knowledge, or motivation to do the job well,
Unfortunately, we tend to conclude that their limitations are the problem
without studying the system in which they work, understanding their jobs,
or knowing what variables maintain their current behavior.
The underlying law or assumption in change is environmental selection.
The strategies in this book are based on the belief that the environment
affects what people do. This is the basic principle: The conditions that
precede and follow our behavior affect how we behave in the future. This
assumption helps us steer our efforts toward engineering processes that are
more productive than blame, paranoia, and fear.
Concept 2-2. Environmental Selection — the underlying principle
of change: the conditions that precede and follow the behavior of
individuals affect how they behave in the future.

Cultural Selection

Customer purchasing trends determine the product mix that retailers

carry. Customer specifications define the goods manufacturers produce and
customer demands control the service standards of their providers. In a way,
customers ultimately initiate the change practices organizations pursue.
Organizations that fail to adapt to the demands of their customers will not
last. There is no alternative. Businesses have to generate enough sales to
survive.
At a broader level, American anthropologist Marvin Harris1 attempted
to show the material basics of the survival of cultural practices. Through
studies of specific societies,h e showed that the economic basis of the
culture shape cultural practices as well as people’s beliefs and values. His
position is known as cultural materialism. For instance, he provided an
economic interpretation for the “sacred cow” tradition in India. Preserving
cattle is an economic necessity. Cows are draft animals, particularly well-
suited for farming, and scavengers of trash; dried cattle feces are also a
major source of fuel. Consequently, the Indian population is better off
economically by preserving cows than consuming them. Like
organizational practices, cultural practices are the product of cultural
selection. That is, practices are more likely to endure if they contribute to
the survival of the group (or the customer’s organization) through cost-
effective production of essential material goods or services.
Concept 2-3. Cultural Selection cultural practices that produce
material gains for a culture tend to survive.
 The implication of cultural selection in organizational practices is
widely recognized. We can check the newspapers for daily reassurance that
the fate of organizations depends on their ability to meet customer needs in
a cost-effective manner. Bankruptcy, mergers, reorganizations, layoffs,
acquisitions… all seem to be driven by the need to adapt for survival.

Behavioral Selection

I am puzzled by our general acceptance of environmental causes to

explain organizations’ performance and our refusal to use environmental
causal explanations to account for employees’ behavior. We attribute an
organization’s poor performance to external circumstances, such as
increased competition, economic recessions, limited supplies, and weather
conditions. But we attribute an employee’s poor performance to inherent
characteristics, such as his or her willingness and attitude. Why is it that
when things go wrong we excuse organizations and blame employees?
Individuals are like organizations. Their environment influences their
actions. There is comprehensive and exhaustive research demonstrating
what is known as the law of effect. This law specifies that the relationship
between behavior and its consequences affects the future likelihood of that
behavior. Edward Thorndike2 originally formulated the law in the following
terms: Under constant conditions, the future probability of the behavior
increases when the behavior has been paired or followed by satisfaction;
the future probability decreases when the behavior is accompanied or
paired with aversive outcomes. (Thorndike, 1911, p. 243.)
Concept 2-4. Law — affirmation of an invariable order or
relationship that occurs under specific conditions.
Concept 2-5. Law of Effect — under constant conditions, the
future probability of the behavior increases when rewarding
consequences follow it. The future probability of the behavior
decreases when aversive consequences follow it.
Concept 2-6. Behavioral Selection — behavior that produces
rewarding consequences for the individual tends to reoccur.
 Although the law of effect was originally formulated in a monograph in
1898, it was not until the 1940s that it was accepted within the theoretical
body of behavioral psychology, based on the work of B. F. Skinner and his
followers3. For almost a century, the law of effect has been demonstrated in
numerous applications with human and animal behavior. The philosophical
foundation of the law of effect is essential for organizations to understand
why behaviors occur and how to effectively change behavior. Behavioral
and cultural selection are the basic mechanisms underlying organizational
change4.

Basic Units of Analysis5

Units of analysis are parts in which a system can be analyzed. We

cannot successfully change an organization unless we understand its
components: behavioral system, behavioral contingency, and
metacontingency.
Concept 2-7. Units of Analysis —parts in which a system can be
analyzed: behavioral system, behavioral contingency, and
metacontingency.

Behavioral System

A system is a group of interdependent elements that form an entity. A

behavioral system is one formed by individuals interacting toward a
common goal. Many different entities can be called a behavioral system; for
instance, a family, a department, an institution, or a country.
Concept 2-8. Behavioral System — a group of interrelated
elements that form an entity.
Consistent with environmental selection, much of what happens in
organizations depends on the world outside. The total performance system
(TPS) was developed by Dale Brethower as an analysis tool that helps to
illustrate how a behavioral system interacts with its environment.6
TPS has the following components:
1. An ultimate mission, reason for which the system exists
2. Product that results from the system (either behavioral or aggregate
product)
3. Receiving system or customers who receive the product
4. Receiving system feedback
5. Processing system that transforms the resources into products
6. Processing system feedback
7. Resources needed to generate the product
8. Competition for resources and customers

Figure 2-1 shows the total performance system diagram.

Figure 2-1. Total Performance System

Concept 2-9. Total Performance System — an analysis tool of an

organization which includes the mission, product, receiving
system, receiving system feedback,processing system, processing
system feedback, resources, and competition.
 The numbers in Figure 2-1 indicate priority of analysis. Start with the
mission and consider all of the other elements in context of that mission: the
product, the receiving system and feedback concerning the product.
Numbers 1—4 should be analyzed before proceeding with numbers 5 - 8.
Let’s use TPS to analyze an injection-molding factory that produces
plastic parts.

1. What is the ultimate mission of the system? Increase sales and,

ultimately, the market share of the clients’ products.
2. What is the product? Plastic parts.
3. Who is the receiving system? Organizations from various
manufacturing sectors that require plastic components to generate their
products, such as those in telecommunications, technology, and health
care
4. What is the feedback from the receiving system? Customer’s response
regarding the sales price, product quality and timeliness of delivery
5. What is the processing system? All activities and interactions of all
departments that transform resources into plastic parts. For example,
the production department receives the plastic, molds and trims it, and
prepares shipments; the quality-control department examines samples
of recently-molded products; the engineering department stops
production to verify mold details; the sales department brings
customers to observe production; the maintenance department stops
production to adjust the presses; and the training department
interviews workers at the plant to identify knowledge and skill
deficiencies.
6. What is the feedback from the processing system? Information or data
about the functioning of all the departments, such as cost, quality, and
timeliness.
7. What are the resources needed? All that is needed to produce plastic
parts: capital, presses, plastic, skilled workers, and molds.
8. Who is the competition? Other manufacturers of plastic parts that
compete for customers and a skilled labor force.

See Figure 2-2 for a graphic representation of TPS.

 Figure 2-2. Application of TPS to an Injection-Molding Manufacturing
Company

TPS provides the perspective of open systems that we discussed in the

previous chapter. The factory will stop existing if customers no longer
purchase the finished products. The receiving system determines the
evolution and survival of the factory.
Since 1983, when I took my first class with Dr. Dale Brethower at
Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan), I have used TPS as
an analysis tool. Because virtually everything around us is a system, TPS is
an indispensable tool for generating objective overviews and identifying
critical areas that need improving.

Behavioral Contingency

Since the underlying principle in behavior analysis is the environmental

selection of behavior, our behavioral units of analysis are not just behaviors
but relationships between behaviors and their environments7 — which
complicates organizational analysis.
The basic unit of analysis of behavior is called behavioral contingency.
The behavioral contingency describes the relationship between a behavior
and its consequences. Simply stated, the relationship affects the future
probability of that behavior. If aversive consequences follow a behavior, the
frequency of that behavior will decrease in the future. In contrast, if
rewarding consequences follow a behavior, the frequency of that behavior is
likely to increase in the future. Figure 2-3 shows a diagram of a behavioral
contingency.
Figure 2-3. Behavioral Contingency

Figure 2-3 specifies the behavior and the consequence that takes place
after that behavior occurs. The comparison between the before and after
conditions shows that the behavior has produced a favorable or an
unfavorable change. For instance, when the stove is hot, touching it
produces a burn. Before touching the stove, there is no burn; after touching
it there is a burn. The transition from “before” to “after” is a change that is
likely to reduce the future probability of touching a hot stove.
A similar lesson can be learned during a business meeting. If we give
our personal opinion and our boss showers us with compliments, we are
more likely to give our opinion again. Figure 2-4 illustrates both examples.
Figure 2-4. Examples of Behavioral Contingency
Metacontingency

Ignoring an organization’s complexity is a mistake. An organizational

process could easily involve hundreds or thousands of different behaviors.
In addition, people participate in various organizational processes
simultaneously. The contingencies that affect the behavior of individuals in
one process influence the behavior of other individuals.
Organizational systems cannot be understood by analyzing individual
behavioral contingencies because that would be impossible. It would take
years to understand all of the behavioral contingencies in a system. We
cannot change the organization by focusing solely on the behaviors of a few
individuals. This would be like trying to purify only one cubic mile of water
in the middle of the ocean.
The problem with relying on the analysis of behavioral contingencies is
that the unit is too detailed. We would not attempt to study the circulatory
system by analyzing the interaction of each cell with its surroundings in the
heart, blood, and blood vessels. Instead, we would start with a larger unit of
analysis, such as the performance of the heart. We can see if blood is
pumped from the heart through the arteries or if blood is returned to the
heart through the one-way valves of the veins. If the heart does not pump
adequately, we might look into the artery’s performance. Likewise, we use
large units of analysis when we begin analyzing organizations.
Sigrid Glenn (1988) introduced the concept of metacontingency — a
unit that facilitates handling behavioral complexity in organizations8. A
metacontingency has three components : interlocking behavioral
contingency, aggregate product, and receiving system demand.

Interlocking behavioral contingency

“An interlocking behavioral contingency involves the behavior of at

least two participants, where any components of the behavioral contingency
or the behavioral product of one participant interacts with elements of the
behavioral contingency or product of other participants.” (Glenn, 1988, p.
167). The metacontingency can be illustrated in an assembly line. The
behavior of one individual is to trim excess plastic from a part. A second
individual receives and then wraps the trimmed part. A wrapped part is
received by a third individual who boxes it. The actions of one individual
stimulate the actions of another. Figure 2-5 illustrates the concept of
interlocking behavioral contingency in an assembly line.

Figure 2-5. Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies9

Concept 2-10. Interlocking Behavioral Contingency — involves

the behavior of at least two participants, where any component of
the behavioral contingency or product of one participant interacts
with elements of the behavioral contingency or product of other
participants.
The dynamics of organizations are not as linear as the preceding
assembly-line example. Instead, they involve convoluted interlocking
behavioral contingencies. For instance, the consequence of the behavior of
one participant could serve as antecedent for the behavior of another; the
behavior of one person could serve as consequence for another; the
behavioral product of one person could serve as consequence for another10.
Figure 2-6 shows examples of various types of interactions between
contingencies and behavioral products of two participants in interlocking
behavioral contingencies.
Figure 2-6. Example of Interactions Between Behavioral Contingencies

Aggregate product

Throughout this book, I define behavioral product as the evidence left

behind after the behavior occurs and aggregate product as the overall result
that compounds multiple behavioral products. For instance, a deposit slip is
the behavioral product of a financial clerk’s deposit transaction; a bank’s
transaction activity report is the aggregate product of all the individuals
working in the bank. Because an aggregate product is generated by many
individuals (for instance, a finished airplane), variations in the behavior of
one individual alone typically do not have a considerable impact on the
overall performance of the system.
 Concept 2-11. Behavioral Product — results after the behavior
occurred.
Concept 2-12. Aggregate Product — compounded result of
multiple behavioral products.
It is impossible, impractical and unnecessary to study all behavior that
occurs in organizations. To narrow down the set of interrelated behavior
that makes a difference for an organization, we focus on interrelationships
that generate relevant aggregate products for the survival of the
organization11 . If an aggregate product does not meet required standards,
then we should study metacontingencies involving aggregate subproducts.
For instance, we might examine the cost Of running a restaurant as the
aggregate product. If costs are not up to standard, we might analyze the
metacontingencies that produce aggregate subproducts indispensable for
sales — food preparation, service, purchasing, and billing. If billing
generates too many financial reconciliation problems, we might look at
smaller metacontingencies, such as bill generation, bill processing, and
tipping.

Receiving system demand

A set of interlocking behavioral contingencies will continue to exist

only if its aggregate product has demand from the receiving system. The
receiving system demand determines survival of an organizational practice.
Here lies the principle of cultural selection. For instance, a factory
manufactures merchandise purchased by its customers. Without customer
demand, the organization will die. The receiving system demand maintains
a multitude of interlocking behavioral contingencies in all the
organizational processes, such as production, shipping, and purchasing.
Likewise, internal organizational processes survive only if there is receiving
system demand. For instance, specific financial reporting will only be
maintained if other departments ask for it. Figure 2-7 illustrates the
components of a metacontingency.
Figure 2-7. Components of a Metacontingency
 In summary, a metacontingency involves a conglomerate of interlocking
behavioral contingencies containing the behavior of multiple individuals,
which generates an aggregate product that has a demand.
Concept 2-13. Metacontingency — a conglomerate of
interlocking behavioral contingencies containing the behavior of
multiple individuals, which generates a product that has a
demand.
Incidentally, Gilbert (1996)12 defined performance as behavior and its
product. For instance, the performance of a financial clerk consists of the
clerk’s actions (e.g., receiving money, entering data, and computing) and
the product or evidence left after those actions (e.g., transactions
processed). As in the metacontingency, performance should involve a
product valued by its customers. In Chapter 7, we will see that the term
“performance” is useful when referring to multiple behaviors of an
individual and that individual’s outcome.
Concept 2-14. Performance — behavior and its product.
In a behavioral system, individual behavioral contingencies are
imbedded in interlocking behavioral contingencies of two or more
individuals. Interlocking behavioral contingencies are parts of the
organization’s processing system. A processing system also includes the
interaction of individuals with resources, such as information, data,
equipment, technology, facilities, raw materials, and supplies. Figure 2-8
illustrates the relationship between behavioral contingencies, interlocking
behavioral contingencies, metacontingencies, and the total performance
system. Analyzing organizations without understanding such relationships
can lead us to focus on irrelevant aspects of the organization: a classic
example of the blind leading the blind.
Figure 2-8. Relationship Between the Processing System, Metacontingency,
Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies, and Behavioral Contingency

Method of Organizational Change

This book represents an attempt to depict an effective method to re-

engineer organizations. The method is systematic and orderly. It is the
outcome of nearly 20 years of efforts to comprehend and manage change in
education, retail, service, manufacturing, government, and health industries.
The method incorporates the basic concepts presented in this chapter of
environmental selection and the basic units of analysis (behavioral system,
behavioral contingency, and metacontingency). The method is illustrated in
the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model shown in Figure 2-9.
 The Behavioral Systems Engineering Model presented in Figure 2-9 is a
summary of the information provided in this book. Each section of the
model will be addressed in a separate chapter, with the exception of the
behavior section which takes two chapters. The Behavioral Systems
Engineering Model involves two components: analyzing behavioral systems
with metacontingencies, and engineering and sustaining change with
behavioral contingencies.
The analysis of behavioral systems evolves from most to least complex,
until key behavioral contingencies are identified. The process involves the
following:

Analysis of the macrosystem in which the organization operates

Assessment of the organization as a total performance system
Transformation of the administrative structure in a functional
organization where the output of some departments serves as the input
for others
Identification of the tasks involved in the core processes of the
organization

Engineering and sustaining change are based on the design and

implementation of behavioral contingencies. This involves the following:

Identification of behavior-environment relations affecting desirable

and undesirable behaviors
Arrangement of contingencies to stimulate desirable front-line
participants behavior change
Arrangement of contingencies to affect behavior at all levels of
management needed to maintain change
Development of data control systems
Constant adjustment of contingencies to ongoing organization
dynamics

Those who work in the field of organizational change tend to have two
different emphases: some who engage in systems analysis and others who
engage in behavior analysis. Traditionally, system analysts criticize
behavior analysts for investing too many resources in irrelevant behavior
changes. Behavior analysts criticize the system analysts for producing
superficial changes. Both are partly right. The Behavioral Systems
Engineering Model attempts to bring these two perspectives together.
Systems analysis and behavior analysis are both necessary and
complementary. Systems analysis allows us to travel through the
complexity of organizations and identify target behaviors worth improving
for long-term survival; behavior analysis allows us to implement changes
that improve how people and the organization perform.
Figure 2-9. Behavioral Systems Engineering Model
 Conclusions

Like a kaleidoscope, change generates infinitely complex and transient

combinations of stable elements based on simple and orderly processes: the
principle of environmental selection, basic units of analysis (behavioral
system, behavioral contingency, and metacontingency), and a method of
change.
Environmental selection implies that the causes of organizational
practices are in the environment. When the consequence is rewarding for
the organism, the behavior that precedes it will more likely recur —
selection by consequences. Likewise, when the output of organizational
practices contributes to the materialistic survival of the organization, the
practices that generated them will more likely carry on cultural selection.
Behavioral systems involve the interactions of individuals within an
entity that generates a product. They include the mission, products,
receiving system, feedback from the receiving system, processing system,
feedback from the processing system, resources, and competitors.
Behavioral systems can be analyzed in smaller units of analysis — the
behavioral contingency and the metacontingency.
The Behavioral Systems Engineering Model presented in this book has
two sections: analyzing behavioral systems with metacontingencies and
engineering and sustaining change with behavioral contingencies. Systems
analysis includes the study of metacontingencies in the following levels:
macrosystem, organization, processes, and tasks. Engineering and
sustaining change consist of designing and implementing interlocking
behavioral contingencies for employees working in processes and the
performance managers across multiple subprocesses and management
levels. It also includes development of control systems and constant
adjustment of the change intervention to the organization’s dynamics.

Review

Define the following basic concepts:

Environmental selection
 Total performance system (TPS)
Behavioral contingency
Metacontingency

What is the difference between cultural selection and behavioral

selection?
List the components of the organizational change model.

1 See “Cultural Materialism ” by Marvin Harris (1979). His books on

cultural materialism include; “The Nature of Cultural Things” (1964);
“Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches” (1974); “Cannibals and Kings; The
Origins of Cultures” (1977); “Why Nothing Works ” (1981); and “The
Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig” (1986). For a compatible, compelling
argument about cultural selection, see Diamond, 1997.
2 Edward L Thorndike developed the law of effect for the first time in
1898 as part of his doctoral dissertation, titled “Animal Intelligence: An
Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals”. In 1911, he
published it as part of his book “Animal intelligence: Experimental
Studies.”.
3 Keller & Shoenfeld, 1950 (reprinted in 1995).
4 To take the environmental approach one step further, Charles Darwin
— in his book “Origin of the Species” (published in 1859 and reprinted in
1979) — proposed environmental determinism in the development of
biological structures, He argued that evolution of a species consists of
gradual and continuous change in biological populations across many
generations. Darwin suggested that changes are the result of natural
selection. Natural selection is the differential preservation across
generations of inherited traits that best fit the environment in which
organisms live. Those that survive and pass their traits to the next
generation tend to embody favorable natural variations.
5 Malott (2001, May) presented a similar analysis to the one in this
section.
 6 Brethower, 1972, 1982, 1993a, 1993b, 1995, 1999, 2000; Brethower
& Smalley, 1998.
7 Skinner (1953, 1957, J 974) defined operant behavior as the actions of
the organism change as a function of the effects of its behavior in its
environment. (Also see Lattal & Perone, 1998.) A multitude of operant
behavior features have been studied experimentally. For instance, studies of
stimulus discrimination, stimulus generalization, response generalization,
schedules of reinforcement, and stimulus equivalences (See the Journal of
Experimental Analysis of Behavior and the Journal of Applied Behavior
Analysis.)
8 Glenn, in press, 1986, 1988, 1991; Glenn & Madden, 1995; Glenn &
Field, 1994.
9 The diagram in Figure 2-5 is based on Glenn & Malott, 2001, May;
Malott & Glenn, 2001, May.
10 In Chapter 6, we will see that the consequence of the behavior of one
individual could serve as antecedent for another behavior of the same
individual. However, relationships between environmental events of
behaviors of a single individual are not interlocking contingencies because,
by definition, interlocking refers to interactions between environmental
events and behavior of at least two individuals.
11 Gilbert (1996) presented a similar perspective — we should focus on
the behavior of a system only when the system is failing to achieve its
product.
12 Thomas Gilbert made significant contributions in the area of
engineering performance. see, Dean, 1999-a, 1999-b; Gilbert, 1996, 1999;
T, B. Gilbert & M. B. Gilbert, 1999.
 Chapter 3
Macrosystem & Mission
 CHAPTER 3

MACROSYSTEM AND MISSION

If you don’t know where you are going,you will probably end up
somewhere else.
Laurence J. Peter (1919-1988)1

John Wise

It was the 10th anniversary of the University of Saint Fernand. In the

spotlight was John Wise, its founder. The university community took this
opportunity to commend him for his contributions to education and for
making Saint Fernand such an important town in the country.
John Wise was born in the San Joaquin village of Saint Fernand during
a time when shortages of drinking water and electricity occurred on a
regular basis. Only five of his 16 brothers survived childhood. John was
determined and resourceful. He got his first job at the age of eight,
harvesting coffee beans at the Coyoacal Hacienda.
His mother, Ann, came to the hacienda one day with the news: They are
going to open the school! The school will bring us out of ignorance, will
help us improve, will open our road to the future!
Working together, the mother and son picked coffee beans and saved
enough money to buy schoolbooks. Throughout the next several years, John
excelled at his studies. Then one day the dream came true: Ann bought a
new dress and traveled to the capital to witness her son graduate with
honors.
Who knew that John would later establish — and lead — the University
of Saint Fernand?
John objected to establishments of higher learning that focused on
sophisticated and theoretical discussions while the country’s reality
worsened. He challenged the educational system, saying that it had lost
sight of its mission.
How could the university ignore the fact that 130 out of 1000 infants in
Saint Fernand died at birth? Or that 23 percent of the population was
malnourished? In spite of an abundance of resources, large numbers of
people were dying of curable diseases. Twenty-five percent of the
population was illiterate and 34 percent of the children dropped out of
school. Thirty-one percent of the adult population was unemployed.
The mission of the university isn’t to get more research grants, isn’t to
enroll students, isn’t to develop more programs, isn’t to hire distinguished
professors… The mission of the university is to improve the well-being of its
community.
It was with his community’s well-being in mind that John organized
students, workers, and area professionals into teams designed to foster a
reform of the educational system. As a result, Saint Fernand University
began offering technical careers designed to have a positive impact on the
quality of life and the administration of natural resources.
The university taught by doing2. Students learned by developing and
maintaining basic community projects. For instance, they implemented an
exceptional agricultural plan; reforested the region; bred livestock; built
homes; rescued ancient crafts (baskets, ceramics, and painting); fought
illiteracy; fostered primary and secondary education; and carried out
preventive health-care programs.
Over the next 10 years, the University changed the lives of more than
10,000 peasants. Additionally, the alumni became increasingly valued in the
job market, helping Saint Fernand attract students from elsewhere to come
and study where people learned by helping the community3.

Macrosystem

The University of Saint Fernand emerged and evolved within the larger
system that contained it — the educational system. Organizations can be
conceived as metacontingencies that belong to larger metacontingencies —
their macrosystems. Before imbedding ourselves in the details of the
organization, we ought to step outside and first look at the macrosystem.
Concept 3-1. Macrosystem — the system that contains the
organization we are analyzing.
Saint Fernand University is a component of the educational system,
which contains smaller metacontingencies— special education, primary (K
through 5th grades), middle (6th through 8th grades), technical, and higher
education. The aggregate product of the education macrosystem consists of
the production of skilled and educated individuals who can service the
community — the receiving system. The community is formed by multiple
metacontingencies as well, such as the students, families, other disciplines,
industries retail), (manufacturing, service, and government, and
infrastructure (e.g., transportation, housing, and utilities). The demands
from the community — the receiving system — shapes the evolution of the
educational macrosystem.
Therefore, a component of the educational macrosystem is the
University of Saint Fernand, that is, the organization we are primarily
interested in. The aggregate product of the University consists of BA and
MA graduates who are in demand by specific systems in the community.
Figure 3-1 shows the relationship between the educational system and the
University of Saint Fernand metacontingencies.
Figure 3-1. Relationship Between the Macrosystem and Organization
Metacontingencies
 If we ignore details of the macrosystem, we will not understand current
demands nor anticipate future ones, For instance, Saint Fernand’s education
programs resulted from the appreciation of the regions resources,
opportunity for industrial development, infrastructure conditions, and
information about the well-being of the community.
Furthermore, without the understanding of the macrosystem, it is not
possible to know how the organization fits in with related systems. For
example, the university had to consider the quality and level of education
provided in primary, middle, and technical education. Knowing the
demands and the performance the macrosystem’s components is
indispensable to set direction for the organization,s long-term survival.

Mission

If we want to influence the destiny of an organization and ensure

adaptation and long-term survival, we need to start with a clear perspective
of an organization’s mission. The mission needs to be operationalized in the
context of the macrosystem that contains the organization.
 Concept 3-2. Mission — the ultimate goal of the organization.
Natural systems do not have inherent missions; they just exist and
evolve. Why do we need to create missions to lead organizations? Because
without intervention, the evolution of organizations is unpredictable: they
might become more or less complex, they might or might not adapt.
Without direction, we cannot ensure that organizations will adjust or
survive in the macrosystem where they operate.4
The mission is a tool to help everyone — especially leaders — guide the
evolution of organizations. Proactive leaders build mission-driven systems
to facilitate adaptation and survival of the system at large5.
Concept 3-3. Mission-Driven Organizations — define the ultimate
mission of the organization in its macrosystem and design
contingencies that facilitate the achievement of the intermediate
and ultimate objectives.

Organizational Myopia

Unfortunately, organizations often lose sight of the dynamics of their

macrosystem and their mission. To change an organization without
understanding its — macrosystem to produce and ultimate mission is
organizational myopia (Malott, 2001a) without realizing the purpose.
Concept 3-4. Organizational Myopia to lose sight of the dynamics
of the macrosystem and mission.
A form of organizational myopia is to confuse the product of the
organization with its mission. This is the case when we believe that the
mission of universities is to generate bachelor’s and master’s degrees, the
mission of manufacturing businesses is to produce specific goods, and the
mission of retail businesses is to sell specific consumer goods. These are the
organizations’ products and should not be confused with their missions.
The mission is the ultimate reason for the existence of the organization
in the system that contains it. The mission of an organization tends to be
more stable than its products. The products might change from time to time
in order to accomplish the mission more effectively. For instance, in order
to more effectively meet community needs, a university might create
certificate programs with fewer requirements than bachelor’s or master’s
degrees. Likewise, manufacturing companies might alter product lines and
retail businesses might replace brick-and-mortar establishment with virtual
stores on the Internet.
Losing sight of the macrosystem and mission may cause the
organization to fail. The risks are generating incompatible strategies and
falling into the activity trap (as I will describe next) — the side effects of
which are costly and dysfunctional.

Incompatible Strategies

Imagine having your tire blow out in the middle of a four-lane highway.
That’s exactly what happened to me one day, as I drove to the airport in
Detroit. I parked on the shoulder of the highway and dialed the Detroit-area
emergency road service number from my cellular phone. A man answered.
Name?
Sir,l am in an emergency situation. I need help.
Name?
Maria Malott.
Phone number? He insisted in an irritated tone.
After I told him my phone number, I explained what happened.
The man then informed me that they were all busy and there was no one
to help, nor did he know when anyone would be available, When I insisted
for help, he hung up: just like that!
Obviously, this man did not have a clue that his organization’s mission
was to save lives and prevent automobile accidents. Like the emergency
road company, many organizations develop strategies that hurt customers or
the community, These strategies are often incompatible with ultimate
objectives.

Activity Trap
 In his book, The Activity Trap, George Odiorme (1974) said people tend
to fall into the activity trap when they loose sight of the mission, They
invest energy in tactics without concern for the ultimate result.
Concept 3-5. Activity Trap —focus on the activity, losing sight of
the mission.
Author Stephen Covey (1990) illustrates the activity trap in this
anecdote. group goes on an excursion. After a few days in the jungle, the
leader climbs to the top of a tree and shouts Stop! We have taken the wrong
path. The group responds, don’t distract us, we’re advancing at a good
pace.
I experienced another example of the activity trap during a trip to
Morocco, when 10 different guards checked my passport. They did it before
I entered the departure gate at the Barajas airport in Madrid, while waiting
at the gate, before boarding the airplane, when leaving the airplane in Casa
Blanca, standing in line for customs, after leaving customs, before and after
passing my suitcase through automatic security system, while waiting to
retrieve my suitcase, after manually inspecting my suitcase and before
departing from the airport.
Even with all this checking, the guards reviewed the passport
inconsistently. Each guard would flip through the pages until arbitrarily
stopping at one, as if he had suddenly found something. Then he would
return the passport to me. If I had asked them what they were looking for, I
would probably have gotten different answers. To avoid offending an armed
guard in a country unfamiliar to me, I abstained from questioning and
observed their behavior. I concluded that inspection system had fallen into
the activity trap. The guards acted like they were reviewing the passport,
but it was not clear that they knew what they were looking for.
Micro management is an expression related to falling into the activity
trap. Micro means small. Micro management refers to the inability to
delegate and the allocation of too much time checking on others rather than
holding people accountable. We micro manage when we insist on checking
every last detail ofan activity that is the responsibility of someone else.
Concept 3-6. Micro Management— excessively checking on
others’ activities rather than delegating responsibilities and
 holding others accountable, losing sight of the main objective.
When we micro manage, we over-direct and inadvertently block
progress toward the mission. When supervising each minute detail, we do
not have time for the more important aspects of the organization: we do not
have time to figure out how the activity contributes to the organization’s
mission.

Formulation of the Mission

The mission is a tool for establishing an organization’s direction.

Unfortunately, typical efforts to formulate the mission are often a waste of
time. After much investment,t he mission tums out to be nothing more than
a theoretical politically-correct and statement. It becomes a public relations
document used to avoid conflict with the public, customers, and employees.
Mission statements can become so convoluted that we must constantly
re-read them to remember what is written; and when the mission is too
complex or ambiguous, it does not lead to action. Martin Luther King,
Gandhi and Mother Theresa did not have to double-check their mission
statements to stay on track. Though it is possible that in hard times they
might have been tempted to give up, their mission kept them going.
To avoid organizational myopia, it is useful to define the mission in the
context of the system that contains the organization — the macrosystem.
Figure 3-2 shows the basic questions in the analysis of the macrosystem.
Figure 3-2. Total Performance Systems of the Macrosystem
 Let’s use the example of the University of Saint Fernand to formulate its
mission based on the analysis of the macrosystem. First, we need to answer
the basic questions of the macrosystem that encompasses the University:
What macrosystem are we analyzing? The educational system that
includes special education, K through 5th grade, 6th to 8th grade, technical,
and higher education.
What does it produce? Skilled and educated human resources.
What macrosystem receives the product? The community (e.g., students,
families) disciplines, industries, government, and infrastructure.
What is the feedback from the receiving macroystem? Information
concerning whether or not the alumni satisfy the needs of the receiving
systems.
What is the feedback from the processing system? Information about the
functioning of the education industry; for instance, cost and duration of
education.
We should not confuse the total performance system analysis of the
macrosystem with that of the organization. Figure 3-3 illustrates the
differences between them.
Figure 3-3. Relationship Between the Total Performance System of the
Macrosystem and the Organization
 Based on the total performance system (TPS) of the education industry,
we could state the mission of the University of Saint Fernand using the
Guide for Formulating the Mission shown in Figure 3-4. According to the
guide, the mission of the organization should be based on the macrosystem
that contains it. The mission is to satisfy the needs of the system that
receives the products of the macrosystem.
Figure 3-4. Guide for Formulating the Mission
 Concept 3 -7. Guide for Formulating the Mission — the mission
of the organization is stated in terms of the product, receiving
system, and feedback from the receiving and processing systems
of the macrosystem.
Figure 3-5 illustrates the application of the guide for formulating the
mission to the University of Saint Fernand.
Figure 3-5. Mission of the Education System
 Figure 3-6 and Figure 3-8 show more applications of the guide to the
mission formulations of a hospital and a clothing manufacturing company
in Saint Fernand.
Figure 3-6. The Mission Statement of an Organization Belonging to the
Health Macrosystem
 Figure 3-7 shows a graphic representation of the relationship between
the macrosystem and the Hospital of Saint Fernando
Figure 3-7. Relationship Between the Macrosystem and the Hospital of
Saint Fernand
Figure 3-8. Example of the Mission Statement of an Organization
Belonging to the Manufacturing Macrosystem
 Figure 3-9 represents the relationship between the macrosystem and the
textile manufacturing of Saint Fernand.
Figure 3-9. Relationship Between the Macrosystem and the Textile Industry
of Saint Fernand
 The mission ought to be simple and clear enough to facilitate action.
Mission without action does not lead to change. But action without mission
will lead to ineffectiveness, loss of resources, and frustration.

Conclusions

As presented in Chapter 1, change is paradoxical. On one hand,

organizations are dynamic, complex, and chaotic; on the other hand, the
process of change is stable, simple, and orderly — as described in Chapter 2
when introducing the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model. In this
Chapter, the first component of the Model was described: the analysis of an
organization ought to start by analyzing the macrosystem — or the
metacontingency — that contains it. The macrosystem shapes the
configuration of organizations. As implied in the fundamental principle of
environmental selection, it imposes demands to which the organization has
to adapt in order to survive.
The mission is the ultimate objective of the organization. It is the
formulation of the activity directed to a specific purpose. It takes a
conscious effort to create a mission. Organizations do not evolve
consistently in order to reach a specific purpose; they do not have an
inherent objective because they evolve based on the dynamics of existing
contingencies. Therefore, an organization can adapt to its immediate
environment and, at the same time, contribute to its long-term destruction or
that of the macrosystem that contains it.
Unfortunately, many organizations suffer from myopia. Without a clear
vision of their macrosystem it is hard to understand the mission. Without
mission, organizations develop incompatible strategies and fall into the
activity trap. To avoid organizational myopia, a guide was used to help
formulate the mission based on the macrosystem containing the
organization in question. Figure 3-10 shows the first systematic step of
organizational change.
Figure 3-10. Level 1 of the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model

Review

Define the following concepts:

Mission
Macrosystem
Mission-driven organizations

Organizational myopia
 Describe two side effects of organizational myopia?
Formulate the mission of an organization using the guide in Figure 3-11:
Figure 3-11. Application of the Guide for Formulating the Mission

1 Dr. Laurence J. Peter, Canadian writer, was a professor of education at

the University of Southern California and the University of British
Columbia. He co-authored the “Peter Principle”, which says that “in the
hierarchical administrative structure, people tend to be promoted to their
level of incompetence” (Peter Hull, 1976). He wrote several additional
works, among them “Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Times” (Peter,
1993).
 2 Even though the fictional story of John Wise and Saint Fernand
illustrates a model of an applied university, I do not believe that this the
only valid model of higher education. Other models could be of value, such
as those based on philosophical and theoretical orientations. See Johnson &
Bell (1995) for an alternative model.
3 In his book “Killing the Spirit, “Smith (1990) writes about the
degeneration of the American University because of the emphasis in
research instead of teaching.
4 Establishing humanitarian missions is a goal worth pursuing when
designing behavioral systems. B. F. Skinner (1953) said we should be
concerned about a culture that does not convince its young that survival is a
great value, because that culture will have less chance of survival. Creators
of utopian communities and those who dream of ideal societies have
identified the underlying principle as the well-being of humanity. Consult
writers of cultural utopias, such as Bacon (1956), “New Atlantis”; Bellamy
(1967); “Looking Backward, 2000-1887”; Campanella (1981), “The City of
the sun: A Political Dialogue”; More (1999), “Utopia”; Plato (2000), “The
Republic”; Skinner (1976), “Walden Two”; Wells (1933), Shape of Things
to Come”.
5 For further elaboration of goal-directed systems see M, E, Malott,
1992, 1998; R. W. Malott & M. E. Garcia, 1987; Malott, Malott & Trojan,
2000.
 Chapter 4
Organization
 CHAPTER 4

ORGANIZATION
Too many bricklayers make a lopsided house.
Anonymous Chinese proverb

The Inheritance

Lia was exhausted. Looking up at the clock on the wall, she said, Oh
no! It’s 2:15 a.m.!
She was the owner of Impact — an advertising company specializing in
print promotions. Six hours after everyone else had gone home, Lia was
still working at the conference table: no breaks, no food, and piles of
documents stacked everywhere.
The office’s four lateral windows were open. As a storm approached,
thunder reverberated in the halls and a suffocating humidity invaded the
room.
She remembered the day her father asked her to step inside his office at
Impact — and closed the door. As Lia studied her father’s face, she saw the
weariness there. Still, he looked at her with the same candor and respect he
always had. Taking a deep breath, he came right to the point: I have spent
35 years at Impact and I am tired. It’s time for me to retire.
That was three years ago. The once-thriving company was now on the
verge of ruin. The tension was palpable, frustration was high and
productivity was low. Highland, Impact‘s oldest and most important
customer, was threatening to take its business elsewhere because of poor
service.
Impact was on the brink of financial collapse. The company’s top
employees had already left and the rest of the staff was frightened. If Impact
did not secure a loan — fast — layoffs would be inevitable.
 Lia sat at the table and cried. What had she done to her father’s dream?
What had she done with the family inheritance? She couldn’t stop thinking
What a failure! I have betrayed my father’s trust.
Suddenly, in the midst of her musing, heavy rain began to pour and a
strong wind swooped through the office window: lifting documents off the
table and scattering them around the room.
As she frantically tried to rescue the papers, Lia sobbed Oh! no, the
documents are getting wet! Then she stopped and realized her own
stupidity. What am I doing? She ceased picking up the papers and closed
the windows.
The tempest continued outside, yet it became calm inside.
Collapsing into a nearby chair, Lia reviewed the incident. She observed
herself picking up the papers while the windows remained open. Impact
worked the same way. We are desperately running from one place to
another instead of stopping to “close the windows” and find effective
solutions to our problems.
Encouraged by the revelation, Lia said to herself, I was wrong! If there
is no time, I should find the time — time to improve rather than to regret, to
analyze rather than to cry. She gathered her belongings, turned off the
lights and went home. As she drifted off to sleep, Lia said, Tomorrow will
be a new day for me AND for Impact!

Total Performance System

The next morning, Lia searched through handout materials from an

organizational behavior management seminar she had attended. Included in
the information was just what she needed: The Total Performance System
(TPS) diagram (Brethower, 1972; O’Brien, Dickinson, & Rosow, 1982).
This is a simple tool (introduced in Chapter 2) that provides a general
overview of the organization and helps focus on the most critical areas for
improvement. See Figure 4-1.
Figure 4-1. Total Performance System
 Before determining where to begin Impact’s change process, Lia
analyzed each of the following TPS components:

Mission
Products
Receiving system
Receiving system feedback
Processing system
Processing system feedback
Resources
Competition

Measures

In order to analyze an organization objectively, the TPS components

should have measures that indicate performance in each area. First, Lia
determined the measures, specifying the type, unit, and standard of each.
The type is the nature of the measure (e.g., volume, quality, and cost). The
unit is the expression of the measure; in other words, how it is quantified
(e.g., number of hours or percentage of production). The standard describes
the performance expectation based on past performance, the performance of
competition, or specific values (e.g., 40 hours per week and 30 percent of
the total production).
Concept 4-1. Basic Elements of Measurement — type of measure
(nature of the measure), unit of measurement (expression of the
measure), standard(quantitative performance expectation).
Organizations generally work with five types of measures: volume,
quality, timeliness, duration, and cost. All system measures should have a
standard or a goal with which to evaluate actual performance. The
following examples are types of measures, units, and standards.

Volume

Volume involves quantity or rate. In Impact‘s case, quantity meant total

number of graphic designs. Rate consists of quantity per unit of time:
number of graphic designs produced in one week. In measuring graphic
designs, number is the unit of measurement while the standard is the
performance goal. For instance, Lia could expect 150 graphic designs per
week based on past performance.
Concept 4-2. Volume — quantity or rate.

Quality

Quality refers to the precision or essential properties of the product. At

Impact, the measure of quality was complex. Lia defined quality as the
percentage of customer guidelines incorporated into the graphic design
(unit). The designers did not understand the measure of quality; they
believed that the more original the design, the better. But Lia established
limits on how original the designs could be based on the parameters the
customers established the designs had to incorporate all customer
specifications (standard), If the design does not incorporate guidelines
established by the customers, the customers will not be satisfied with the
product.
Concept 4-3. Quality essential properties or precision.

Timeliness

Timeliness reflects the number of units (e.g., days, hours, minutes) past
a customer’s deadline. Lia’s goal was for 95 percent of Impact’s work to
reach the customer on time (standard).
Concept 4-4. Timeliness — ability to meet deadlines.

Duration

Duration is the amount of time that it takes to finish a product — such

as the number of hours (unit). For instance, a small graphic design project
should not exceed more than 10 hours (standard).
Concept 4-5. Duration quantity of time invested.

Cost

Cost refers to the dollars or effort invested in generating a product. If a

designer invests 10 hours in a project, and he or she earns $50 per hour, the
production cost is $500. Lia’s goal was that actual costs averaged 95
percent of the projected cost estimated to determine the selling price
(standard) of the products.
Concept 4-6. Cost— value defined in terms of money or effort
invested.
Lia used the various types of measures described above when studying
each of Impact’s TPS components, as we will see next.

Components
What Is the Mission?

Lia always thought Impact existed to produce graphic designs. But now
she was questioning that assumption : Why produce graphic designs? What
is the mission of Impact?
Creating radio campaigns was Impact’s primary focus 20 years ago.
Customers comprised a variety of clients from the entertainment industry,
including the musical group Santana. The company’s name, Impact, was
chosen because its products — the radio campaigns — impacted the market
share of its customers. This became the company’s competitive edge over
the other four advertising agencies in town.
Impact was part of the advertising industry: that was the macrosystem in
which it operated. Lia understood that the mission, of the advertising
industry was to increase sales and marketing in the business sector. This
realization made it easier for her to understand that Impact‘s mission was
much more than producing graphic designs. Impact‘s mission was to
increase the market share of its customers. Lia needed to understand the
advertising industry in which Impact operated and how its services
distinguished it from other advertising companies in meeting market
demands.
How would she know if Impact was achieving its mission? Lia realized
she must measure the sales and market share of each customer’s product.
She would use dollars as the unit of measure. Lia knew the standard of this
measure would vary with the product, company, or condition of the market;
therefore, she did not define a precise dollar amount for the standard.

What Are the Products?

The products are what the organization produces for its customers; in
other words, its aggregate results. Impact generates two types of product:
graphic designs for print ads and marketing plans for customers.
Lia noticed the volume of Impact‘s graphic designs and marketing plans
varied considerably, from one month to another. But she did not know if the
variability was due to the complexity of the jobs or inefficient production.
She decided to measure volume (type) in terms of rate: number of designs
and marketing plans produced per week (unit). She classified the products
as complex or simple, depending on their level of difficulty, and by type of
industry: manufacturing, retail, or service.
After gathering the initial data and evaluating the implications, she
would establish standards. Because she had not collected data in the past,
she had no idea what to expect.
Lia understood the difference between Impact‘s mission and its
products. Over the last 20 years, Impact‘s products had changed — from
radio campaigns to graphic designs and marketing plans; however, its
mission remained the same — to increase sales and market share of
customer’s products and services.

What Is the Receiving System?

Lia analyzed Impact‘s receiving system by the size of its customer

organizations: small, medium, and large companies. Small companies sold
less than $5 million, medium-size companies sold between $5 million and
$1 billion, and large companies had a gross income of over $1 billion per
year.
The unit of measurement was the percentage of annual sales by
company size. Impact had two large customers, one in the retail industry
and one in manufacturing. The two customers generated 95 percent of
Impact‘s sales. The remaining five percent came from small businesses.
Impact had no medium-size customer base.
Concept 4-7. Receiving System customers who receive an
organization’s products and services.
As we saw in chapter 2, the receiving system demand is what ultimately
maintains the set of interlocking behavioral contingencies that form an
organization. Analysis of the receiving system involves specifying
strategies to reach the market of potential customers, The most successful
approach in reaching Impact‘s target market were sales appointments with
small companies and full-scale presentations to large companies.
 Concept 4-8. Market Strategy method of taking an organization’s
products and services to the potential market.
Lia concluded that Impact had to diversify its market because too much
of the company’s income depended on its two, large customers. This type of
financial dependency was a threat to Impact‘s long-term survival.
Therefore, Lia defined the company’s new standards as follows: 30 percent
in sales to large companies and 70 percent in sales to medium-sized
companies. She opted not to continue targeting small companies because
they often couldn’t afford the price of Impact‘s products and services.

What Is the Receiving System Feedback?

The receiving system feedback consists of information or data that

reflect the customer’s evaluation of the products and services. Lia used two
feedback measures: quality and timeliness. She defined quality as the
percentage of customer guidelines incorporated into the graphic designs,
and timeliness as the percentage of orders received on time by the
customers.
Concept 4-9. Receiving System Feedback — data or customer
information that reflects the evaluation of the organization’s
products and services.
Impact‘s unit of measure was the percentage of customers satisfied with
the products. All of its customers (based on surveys) rated the quality of the
company’s products and services very highly.
Although quality was not a problem, timeliness of delivery was. The
unit of measure was the percentage of projects shipped after the deadline.
To her shock, Lia found that 73 percent of the company’s projects were in
the “delayed” category. Prior to collecting the revealing data, she — and her
staff — had the impression that Impact was very timely. So Lia established
a new standard: at least 95 percent of the work should be delivered on time.

What Is the Process?

 The process consists of all the tasks that transform the resources into
products and services. The process involves all the interlocking behavioral
contingencies that ultimately generate the aggregate products — graphic
design and marketing plans for the customers. Impact had several
subprocesses, each one representing a smaller metacontingency. The most
essential were capturing customers’ concepts, designing the prototype and
producing the ads. In addition, Other support processes were needed:
generating new business, managing existing customer accounts and
monitoring finances.
Concept 4-10. Process systematic tasks that transform an
organization ‘s resources into products and services.
The organizational structure is part of the processing system. It consists
of the administrative-reporting relationship between departments within
organizations: graphically represented with an organizational chart.
Although the organizational structure should facilitate the optimal function
of the organization, it often gets in the way. This was the case at Impact,
where there were 19 departments and only 75 employees. Lia had copied
the organizational chart of a typical advertising company. Figure 4-2 shows
the company’s original organizational chart.
Concept 4-11. Organizational Structure — administrative-
reporting between departments within organizations.
Concept 4-12. Organizational Chart — graphic representation of
the organizational structure.
Figure 4-2. Impact’s Summary of the Organizational Structure
 Seven departments reported to the president: New Business, Account
Services, Creativity, Marketing, Public Relations, Production, and Finances.
Each department was independent of the others; therefore, there were no
clear processes to ensure an efficient and productive relationship between
departments.
The departments of client organizations were non-integrated as well.
Representatives from the various companies interacted with staff from
Impact‘s Account Services, Creative, Advertising and Finance departments.
They would all then, in and out of turn, provide Impact‘s Production
department with direction. As a result, production often received conflicting
messages from various sources. The company ended up investing four times
the resources quoted in the original price. And by implementing multiple,
ambiguous, and contradictory directions the Production department became
inefficient and Impact had to set higher fees than those of its competitors.
Impact’s organizational structure, as stated earlier and shown in the
original organizational chart, did not facilitate the integrated work between
its departments: instead, it got in the way of an efficient organization. By
restructuring the company, Lia created a plan whereby the output of some
departments served as the input to others — and where the interaction
between departments was clearly identified. (See Figure 4-3.)

Figure 4-3. Impact’s Department-Function Organizational Chart1

 In the new organizational chart it was easier to appreciate the smaller
metacontingencies contained within the larger metacontingency of the
organization as a whole. For instance the “Concept” department involved
all the interlocking behavioral contingencies that generated sketches — the
aggregate product. Sketches were in demand by the “Design” department
and it is that demand that should shape their characteristics and the
interlocking behavioral contingencies that generate them.
Lia identified a department or metacontingency, involving the set of
interlocking behavioral contingencies, their aggregate product, and the
source of receiving system demand for each key function of the
organization. The New Business department generated orders from new
customers. The Account Services department generated new orders from
existing customers, by ensuring that their current needs were met. Both
existing and new orders were inputs to the Concept department, which
generated a rough sketch that met customers’ guidelines and needs.
The Design department transformed concepts into prototypes that the
Production department used to generate ads. The Finance department let
Concept, Design, and the Production department staff know if processing
costs met the budget: in addition to letting New Business and Account
Services’ personnel know if actual sales matched the company’s goals. The
Finance department also provided accounts receivable in formation to
customers, such as timeliness and accuracy of payments.
The arrows on the new organizational chart showed the work
relationship between departments —t hat is, the lines of receiving system
demands. New Business would be the only department to interact with new
customers. The Account Services department monitored customer accounts
and provided clear specifications of customer needs and wants to the
Concept department; Concept provided sketches to the Design department;
Design provided the prototypes to the Production department; and
Production provided ads to customers. By organizing Impact as a process,
Lia simplified the number of departments and their interactions.
Lia’s goal was to maximize the entire organization’s effectiveness.
However, if some departments outperformed others, Impact would not
function properly. The maximization of one department could be
detrimental to the entire system.
 For instance, if New Business generated too many sales — and Account
Services could not ensure the completion of those orders to the customer’s
satisfaction — repeat orders would be unlikely. Sometimes the
maximization of subsystems must be controlled to optimize the whole. In
order to optimize the results of a subsystem we tend to jeopardize the
optimization of the whole system. This is what Heylighen (1992) called the
sub-optimization principle.
Concept 4-13. Sub-Optimization Principle — optimization of a
subsystem does not result in the optimization of the whole system.

What Is the Processing System Feedback?

The processing system feedback consists of information that indicates

how well the system functions. Among other indicators, Lia measured the
cost of production. The unit of measurement was the percentage of
production cost in relation to the estimated cost. Her standard was
approximately five percent discrepancy between the real and estimated cost.
Concept 4-14. Feedback of the Processing System — evaluation
of how a system functions.
Lia learned that the cost of production was generally 30 percent higher
than estimated, as each order generated a substantial amount of unnecessary
work. Impact was losing money with each order it processed. It was clear to
Lia that Impact was not designed to manage the interface between
departments needed to efficiently produce quality products and services,

Which Resources Are Indispensable to Generate the Products?

Typically, organizations conclude prematurely that they need more

resources, more equipment, more training, more employees, or more
technology. Initiating the analysis of an organization by scrutinizing its
resources can result in organizational myopia. Without access to critical
information, a company might acquire resources it does not need. To
complete the analysis, the organization must determine which resources it
requires to generate the main products and services customers buy. These
resources include personnel, services, information, materials, and
equipment.

Personnel: Managers and workers

Services: Contracted work that facilitates the organization’s
operations, such as photography and printing services.
Information: Data or knowledge, for instance, production cost.
Materials: Items needed to do the job, for example, electronic image
libraries.
Equipment: Tools needed to do the job, such as electronic systems
and computers.

Concept 4-15. Resources — indispensable means to generate the

organization products; for example, personnel, services,
information, materials, and equipment.
Lia measured various Impact assets. The most interesting to her were
human resources. Impact replaced approximately 50 percent of its graphic
designers each year. Consequently, Lia chose retention and percentage of
employee retention, per year, as the units of measurements. Her goal? To
hire high-quality employees and retain them — with minimal or no
turnover.

Who Is the Competition?

In general, there are two types of competition: competition for

customers and competition for resources.

Competition for customers: Organizations that produce a higher

quality of products and services, faster — and at a lower cost —
typically get the largest share of the market. Therefore, it is important
to analyze the organizations that compete for customers.
Competition for resources: Organizations also compete for resources,
in addition to customers: especially if resources are limited.
 Impact did not have much competition for customers because it was the
only advertising agency within 100 miles. Personnel, however, was a
different story. Graphic designers from Impact were hired with better salary
and benefit packages by the advertising departments of local manufactures
and retailers.
Concept 4-16. Competition organizations that offer products or
services to the same potential customers and that use the same
resources to generate their products.
Lia estimated that the region (within a 100-mile radius of Impact)
needed about 500 trained graphic designers to satisfy market demand,
However, the area had no training centers for graphic designers.
The lack of regional training institutions made working for Impact an
excellent learning opportunity for aspiring designers. When the designers
acquired enough experience, they sought better offers elsewhere. After a
careful analysis, Lia concluded that the training cost was too high and that
Impact would be financially better off by offering a competitive
compensation package to its employees. The additional money spent on
salaries and benefits was less than the cost of recruitment, selection, and
training.

Value

The total performance system (TPS) analysis helped Lia identify the
following critical areas for improvement:

Mission: Initially, the company’s mission was to produce graphic

designs; however, Lia realized that such an assumption was
shortsighted. Its ultimate mission was to increase the market share of
its customers’ products and services. The bigger picture gave her
flexibility in considering future development strategies.
Receiving System: 95 percent of Impact‘s orders depended on two,
large customers. Impact needed to diversify the market by targeting
medium-size companies. Furthermore, it should stop serving small
 companies because the clientele could not afford Impact‘s regular
prices and the work was not profitable
Receiving System Feedback: Even when the customers were pleased
with quality, the final orders were sent late; 73 percent of the projects
arrived in the client’s hands after the agreed deadline.
Processing System: The organizational structure did not facilitate
smooth functioning of Impact‘s processes. Lia designed a simplified
structure — more like a matrix — that would help Impact operate as a
process, where the output from each department met the input needs of
other departments.
Processing System Feedback: Impact invested, on average, 30
percent more production dollars than estimated in the original sales
quotes. Impact was losing money.
Resources: The turnover of graphic designers was 150 percent a year.

After analyzing Impact‘s TPS, Lia formed concrete and effective

change strategies. Instead of feeling helpless, she was empowered; she
knew exactly what to do and how to measure success. Figure 4-4 illustrates
a total performance system analysis of Impact.
Figure 4-4. TPS of Impact
 Attempting to change an organization — without knowing the true
nature of its internal and external problems — generates anxiety and
threatens its survival.

Strategic Plan

TPS is an invaluable tool for strategic planning, ensuring competitive

advantage and profitability. The same questions used to analyze an
organization today are applicable in planning its future direction of
development.
Concept 4-17. Strategic Plan — specifying the organization’s
activities that ensure future competitive advantage and
profitability.
Following Impact‘s TPS analysis, Lia met with members of her
leadership team and engaged in a strategic planning session. Table 4-1
summarizes the three-year strategic plan Lia and her team developed.
 Conclusions

The analysis of the organization as a TPS shows another aspect of the

constant and orderly component of the paradox of change, rooted in
environmental selection. It is necessary to understand the environmental
selection dynamics — from the receiving system and the macrosystem —
operating upon the organization we are analyzing to address change
effectively. The receiving system —t he Customers _ impose demands on
the organizations’ aggregate products, which shape the way the
organization is organized to meet such demands, That is, the local
companies needing to advertise and market their aggregate products impose
demands on the graphic designs and marketing plans of Impact.

Table 4-1. Outline of Impact’s Strategic Plan

Within
Present Three Change Strategy
Years

- Incorporate the
To increase the Every mission in training
market share of person in programs and
products and the regular materials of
services In organization the organization
Mission
customer understands - Use the mission to
organizations the mission lead ongoing
through marketing and works problem solving and
and advertising toward it organizational
improvements
 Within
Present Three Change Strategy
Years

Develop market
Incorporate
Print advertising research services
market
Products and marketing and offer them to
research
plans current and potential
services
customers

Incorporate
Percentage
medium-size
of total
companies,
Percentage of total sales: 70%
eliminate small
Receiving sales: 95% large medium,
companies, and
System and 5% small 30% large,
reduce the
companies and no
percentage of total
small
sales from large
companies
companies

Develop and
Data-based implement an
Receiving
There are no proof of effective
System
systematic data customer measurement
Feedback
satisfaction system for receiving
system feedback

Complex and Simple and

Processing Streamline
inefficient efficient
System processes
processes processes

Data-based Develop and

Processing
There are no proof of effective
System
systematic data process measurement
Feedback
efficiency system
 Within
Present Three Change Strategy
Years

Develop and
90%
implement
50% turnover of retention of
Resources competitive salary
graphic designers graphic
and benefit
designers
programs

Develop and
Offer
Prices higher than implement pricing
Competition competitive
the competition system so Impact is
prices
competitive

Likewise, customers’ practices are selected by the macrosystem

demands of their own organizations’ aggregate products. The advertising
industry consists of the metacontingency that contains a business like
Impact and its customers. In the previous chapter, the point was made that
the analysis of the organization ought to start by the macrosystem that
contains it. In this chapter, the emphasis was on analyzing the parameters of
the organization metacontingency using the TPS. Figure 4-5 shows the first
two components of the model.
Figure 4-5. Levels 1-2 of the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model
 Analyzing an organization as a TPS provides an objective perspective
because each component of the analysis is based on data, not just simple
speculation. It also provides an opportunity for organizations to look at the
company from the customer’s point of view. The results of measurement are
the starting point in organizational change; they should be the basis to set
performance standards for each component of the TPS and to evaluate
interventions.
The TPS analysis starts by distinguishing the mission and the
organization’s products and services. The following questions are then
addressed: Who receives the products? What information/data verifies the
receivers are satisfied with the products? What process generates the
products? What information/data testifies that the process is working well?
What processes are indispensable to transform the resources into products?
Who competes for the resources and/or receiving systems? Ultimately, TPS
provides a framework for strategic planning where the overall activities of
the organization are designed to meet the mission.

Review

Perform a TPS analysis of an organization you are familiar with,

following the diagram presented in Figure 4-6.
 Figure 4-6. Total Performance System Framework

Define and identify at least one measure (including type, unit, and
standard) for each one of the TPS components: mission, products,
receiving system, receiving system feedback, process, processing
system feedback, resources and competition.

Based on the analysis of the TPS, outline your strategic plan for the
development of your organization using Table 4-2.

Table 4-2. Strategic Planning Framework

Within Three Change

Present
Years Strategy

Mission

Products
 Within Three Change
Present
Years Strategy

Receiving System

Receiving System
Feedback

Processing System

Processing System
Feedback

Resources

Competition

1 With the exception of the customer, Figure 4-3 represents the

Processing System of Impact. It illustrates which departments interact with
the customers.
Chapter 5
Process
 CHAPTER 5

PROCESS
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
Chinese proverb

Lost

When Daniel graduated sum cum laude from the master’s program of
public health, it was a dream come true. It was all worth it, he repeated over
and over to himself as he walked toward the podium to receive his diploma.
Daniel’s master’s thesis was a success; as always, he earned an “A”.
One of the faculty members participating in his oral defense offered Daniel
a job as a sales representative for Salud lnc., a company for which the
faculty member was a senior vice president. Salud distributes
pharmaceutical products from the most established drug manufacturing
companies in the country.
On his first day at work, the general manager’s administrative assistant,
Rose, led Daniel to an office where five employees were engaged in casual
conversation, laughing loudly. When the group realized Daniel’s presence,
they silenced. This is Daniel Salas, our new sales representative, Rose said.
How long are you going to last? One of the men said. While Daniel
struggled to recover from such an unwelcoming statement, John, who was
going to be in charge Of Daniel’s training, said, What are you doing here
Daniel? Why would someone who graduated with honors come to work for
a company like Salud? Why don’t you go and work at Integration, the most
successful company in the country. Here, we don ‘t even know if we will
have a job next month. The others laughed.
Not knowing what to say, Daniel flashed an embarrassed smile and
followed Rose to his new desk, where company literature awaited. He
turned the various pages, pretending he was reading, but all Daniel could
think about was looking for another job. He imagined his faculty advisor
saying, It’s hard to believe that you did so well in school and so bad in the
real world. And then he imagined John, laughing while he sarcastically
said, I told you that you were “too good” for this lousy company.
After two hours of “reading,” Daniel armed himself with courage and
went across the hall to John’s office. I need to have a general understanding
of Salud: What is the mission? What are the goals for this year? What is the
relationship between the sales department and the rest of the organization ?
What…
John interrupted. In a mocking tone, he said, Cooool down,
brother!Don’t be a pain! The only things that you need to know about are
the products you have to sell. John handed Daniel the same brochure he had
on his desk. Then, pointing at the library shelves in his office, John said: In
that library,you will find the therapeutic manuals. time;you have a lot to
read. Daniel glanced at the library filled with dust-covered, fours inch
binders.
After a few days, Daniel realized that Salud was a disorganized mess.
His confidence was gone, he was afraid, and he was lost. Salud was too
chaotic and he had no idea where he stood in the organization. How do I
understand this organization? Can I even find my job in the organizational
chart? Are all of the others as lost as lam?

Finding Yourself in the Organization

It is common to question the relevance of one’s job in the overall

functioning of an organization. Most people do their jobs and maintain a
narrow scope, never looking beyond the task at hand. They do not take the
time to analyze the impact of the organization’s mission on their jobs and
departments. John could not help Daniel understand the organization
because his scope of understanding was limited to his own department. He
was oblivious to the interrelationships within the organization.
The method presented in this book helps to get the “big picture” of the
organization and understand how each role relates to the overall success.
Chapter 3 addressed how to define the mission of the organization based on
the analysis of the macrosystem that contains it. The macrosystem of Salud
— the health industry — consists of a multitude of interlocking behavioral
contingencies that result in the treatment of illnesses and maintenance of
health (aggregate products).
John told Daniel that the objective of Salud was to sell prescription
drugs. But selling was quite different from preventing and curing illness.
John suffered from organizational myopia — confusing the product of the
organization with the mission. The mission was not to sell but to prevent
and cure illnesses in order to contribute to the short - and long-term
physical and psychological health of the population in a cost-effective way.
Salud was not working toward achieving its true mission if the products
were ineffective or harmful.
Chapter 4 described how to analyze an organization as a TPS. Some key
elements of the TPS of Salud are the aggregate product and receiving
systems — or customers. The final aggregate product was sales, which were
measured in terms Of units sold by product type, The customers were
doctors, hospitals, labs, and pharmacies. However, doctors were the
principal market. Salud divided its master list of doctors into categories —
A , B, and C according to the number Of prescriptions they generated. For
example, an “A” doctor generally had more customers and generated a
higher level of prescriptions, This is the type of doctor Salud was most
interested in.
The demand from customers shapes the characteristics of the aggregate
products and therefore, their causal interlocking behavioral contingencies.
In Salud‘s metacontingency, the unit demand of pharmaceutical products
(aggregate products) might change its selling, purchasing, and shipment
processes: as expected, based on the principle of environmental selection.
The emphasis of this Chapter is on analyzing the processing system of
an organization; that is, what it takes to transform an organization’s
resources into its overall aggregate products. A process consists of a series
of actions and its aggregate products directed to a particular purpose.
Concept 5-1. Process — series of actions and their aggregate
products directed to a particular purpose.
 Organizational processes are complex and chaotic, as described in
Chapter 1, They involve a multitude of activities and products of many
individuals affecting each other. Because of such complexity, it is important
to understand processes from both general and detailed perspectives.
It is helpful to start with a general understanding of the processing
system, otherwise we might get lost in details. This chapter provides a
general perspective of how to think of an organization’s processing system
as a process, which involves the analysis of the relationship between
internal metacontingencies (or departments). Chapter 6 will provide a
detailed perspective of the processing system, which involves the analysis
of the actions and products of each individual.
At this point, I should distinguish two terms: function and department.
Function is the purpose of the action or a group of actions. Department
refers to a section of the organization, generally separated by different
administrative lines. Sometimes the function and the department are the
same. For instance, a sales department’s main function is to sell. So the
selling function and the sales department are in the same place. But this is
not always the case; for instance, a marketing department could be
executing the sales function rather than the marketing function of analyzing
potential and existing markets.
Concept 5-2. Function —purpose of one action or group of
actions that generates an aggregate product.
Concept 5-3. Department — section of one organization generally
separated by different administrative lines that generates a main
aggregate product.
Studying the organization requires the analysis of its containing
metacontingencies, those that describe the interactions between its main
processes and departments. This analysis would help employees like Daniel
and John to appreciate their role in the organization. Understanding the
organization as a Process involves three steps; performing a structural
analysis, performing a department-function analysis, and contrasting the IS
and the OUGHT TO BE of the organization’s structure and department
functions.
 Structural Analysis

Start by taking the company’s 38-page organizational structure and

reducing it to One page. In order to simplify the structure, focus on the
principal departments and exclude the details. Begin the process with this
thought: If we only had one page to illustrate how the organization is
working, how would I show it? Shade the areas that were directly related to
sales success. Figure 5-1 illustrates the organization of Salud Shaded are
departments that directly affected Daniel’s job.

Figure 5-1. Structural Analysis of Salud Inc.1

The structural analysis of Salud allows us to understand how the

departments related administratively; in other words, to understand who
reported to whom. For example, the chief executive officer (CEO) directed
seven departments:

Business Development — generates new business, such as drug patent

acquisitions
Finances — manages all business accounting and bookkeeping
Human Resources— recruits and places personnel
Commercial Direction — develops and implements market plans
Legal Affairs — ensures compliance with regulatory prerequisites and
legal product registration
Medical Direction — prepares clinical studies
 Information Technology oversees hardware management and
technology development

The first reporting levels to the CEO were vice presidents, second
directors and third managers. The Commercial Services vice president
directed the Market Services department and the Business Units. The
Market Services department managed three other departments: Market
Research, which conducted research in potential and exiting markets;
Advertising, which promoted the pharmaceuticals in Salud‘s portfolio; and
Market Technology, which identified the methodology and strategies for
researching the market.
Business Units I, II and III managed the Product Management
department, which analyzed sales and margins for each specific product
across the country and developed customized sales plans for each drug.
Business Units I, II and III also managed the Sale Units, which sold
pharmaceuticals in specific geographical locations across the country.
Daniel was a sales representative for the company. Each of the business
units specialized in different types of pharmaceutical products. For instance,
Daniel worked in Business Unit I, which sold products for the treatment of
central nervous system disorders. The units were divided into regions,
which corresponded to geographic locations. Business Unit II sold products
for the treatment of sexual conditions. The remaining pharmaceuticals were
sold in Business Unit III. Each business unit had an equivalent number of
people in its sales force. Figure 5-2 shows the reporting structure of
Business Unit I. In parenthesis is the number of managers and salespeople
for each division.
Structural analysis refers to the visualization of the administrative line
of reporting between departments and the levels of management. The
reporting line is critical to understanding how the organization works: who
evaluates whom and where loyalties might be. This knowledge is essential
— but by no means sufficient to succeed at organizational change.
Concept 5-4. Structural Analysis — study of the administrative
reporting lines.
 Department-Function Analysis2

In addition to understanding how an organization is structured, it is

useful to understand how its departments function. Department-function
analysis includes creating a model of effective interactions between
departments so that organizations can accomplish their goals. A department
can be conceived as a metacontingency, involving a set of interlocking
behavioral contingencies that generates aggregate products in demand by
other departments. A department-function analysis requires specifying the
function of each department in the organization; distinguishing core
departments from supporting and integrating departments; and illustrating
the relationship between departments.
Figure 5-2. Business Unit I3

Concept 5-5. Department-Function Analysis — study of the main

functions or responsibilities of the departments, the interactions
between departments and measures of success.
Specification of the Department Functions

Employees rarely know what the function of each department is and, as

Daniel showed when he asked John earlier, asking colleagues might be a
waste of time. Therefore, create a frame of reference and conduct an
investigation to see whether your speculation matches reality. Identify
components of each department metacontingency, the aggregate product,
the primary function or responsibility that summarizes the nature of its
interlocking behavioral contingencies, and measures of success. Table 5-1
shows examples of function specification and measures.
Fill out the information in Table 5-1, based on hypothesis of how the
organization ought to effectively work. To adjust and validate your
supposition, collect data and discreetly observe employees from each
department: especially those with considerable experience, like Sharon,
who had worked for 20 years in a variety of jobs. You should answer the
following questions: What is the major function of each department in the
organization? How does each department contribute to Salud‘s, goals? How
do departments interrelate?
The general assumption, in most companies, is that there are a few key
employees who “know it all” —t he company’s past, present, and potential
future. Daniel found out that this was not the case at Salud. The majority of
the employees he interacted with were not interested in, nor did they have
the time for, doing a systematic functional and measurement analysis of
their respective departments. No one “knew it all.”
Obtaining a general and objective understanding of any company
requires effort and research. It involves interviews, data gathering, and
observation. Incidentally, be cautious of basing your analysis on interviews
exclusively. What people say they do and what people actually do are often
different. Data gathering and direct observation are indispensable for a good
understanding of the organization. Those who intend to improve an
organization must create a frame of reference regarding how the
organization works (the IS) and how it OUGHT to work.

Differentiate Between Core, Support and Integrating Departments4

 When we do a department-function analysis, it is useful to identify three
types of departments: core, support, and integrating. The core departments
are the motor of an organization, the departments directly responsible for its
income. These departments are driven by the external customer demands.
Sales and Production are core departments in manufacturing businesses; the
Sales department generates customer orders and the Production department
executes the sales orders. Sales and Service are core departments in service
companies. Purchasing and Sales are core departments in retail companies.
Concept 5-6. Core Departments the motor of an organization,
departments directly responsible for business income
Support departments provide specific products and services to other
departments. These departments should be driven mainly by the demands of
the core departments. For instance, Maintenance supports Production in
manufacturing businesses by ensuring the working order of the equipment.
Advertising supports Sales in service-oriented companies through
promotions to potential markets. Property supports Operations in retail
companies by buying properties for new stores.

Table 5-1. Responsibilities, Aggregate Products, and Measures for Each

function/Department of Salud Inc.

Aggregate
Department Main Responsibility Measures
Product
 Aggregate
Department Main Responsibility Measures
Product

- New
opportunities:
number
- Analysis of
competition:
dollars and
percentage of
sales and
margins
- Market
Identifies new
Gets new share:
customers
percentage of
Business customers
company’s
Development for the
company product sales
in the market;
market
ranking
- Sales
potential:
dollars and
percentage

Incorporates products New products

licensed to the acquisition:
business’ portfolio number
 Aggregate
Department Main Responsibility Measures
Product

- Vacancies:
number
- Employees’
evaluation
Provides needed
results
employees Employee’s
- Position in
Capable professional
the
Human development
human organizational
Resources
resources hierarchy
- Turnover:
percentage

Employees’
Implements benefit
perception:
packages
survey results

Coordinates
the
Lead time of
development Provides needed
clinical
Medical of clinical employees Employee’s
studies
studies studies professional
registry: time
according to development
and duration
the strategic
plan

Legal Affairs Legal Assures that the

compliance business fulfills the
country’s regulatory Violations:
requirements in the number and
generation, cost in dollars
manufacturing, and
distribution of product
 Aggregate
Department Main Responsibility Measures
Product

- Registered
products:
Registers new number
pharmaceutical - Registry lead
products time: number
of weeks,
months, years

- Sales: actual
and estimated
dollar sales
- Client
perception:
survey results
- Cost:
percentage of
Develops short and
sales expenses
long-term strategic
as a function
plans for market
of dollars sold
penetration
Market Marketing - Market
Research plan share:
percentage of
company’s
product sales
in the market;
market
ranking

Ensures
Feedback :
implementation of
tabulation of
marketing pan across
reports
company
 Aggregate
Department Main Responsibility Measures
Product

Ensures - Sales:
implementation of dollars and
Product Sales by marketing plan for percentage
Management product each specific goal, so - Margins:
that sales and margin dollars and
objectives are met percentage
 Aggregate
Department Main Responsibility Measures
Product

- Sales:
current and
projected
dollars
- Clients:
perception:
survey results
- Margins:
dollars and
percentage
- Cost:
Implements marketing percentage of
Business Sales by plan for each sales expenses
Units units corresponding region as function of
and therapeutic area dollars sold
- Market
share:
percentage of
company’s
product sales
in the market;
market
ranking
- Employees’
perception:
survey results

Concept 5-7. Support Departments —provide specific products

and services to other departments.
 In most organizations, Finance, Human Resources, and Information
Technology function as bridges — integrating all of the other departments.
These departments should be driven by the demand of all the departments
in the organization. Finance integrates departments because it receives or
provides data on the financial health of the entire organization. Information
Technology provides the technological infrastructure for the coordination of
departmental data. Human Resource departments provide skilled and
knowledgeable personnel to various departments.
Concept 5-8. Integrating Departments - receive and provide
information across all the departments of the organization.

Representation of the Interaction Between Departments

Creating a one-page, department-function analysis — similar to the

earlier structural analysis — is helpful. The graphic representation showing
the relationship between the departmental functions, helps us to appreciate
the interaction between process metacontingencies existing in the
organization, so the organization’s processing system can be understood as
a process where the outputs of some departments serve as input to others.
Figure 5-3 shows a department-function analysis of Salud. In the Figure,
department names summarize sets of interlocking behavioral contingencies;
their results are the aggregate products and the arrows indicate the source of
receiving system demand.
Figure 5-3. Department-Function Analysis of Salud Inc.
 Core departments at Salud included Commercial Direction and the
Business Units, which planned and executed sales. In the department-
function analysis, Daniel’s job is within the Business Units. His job, as a
salesperson, was included under “implementation of sales plans.” This is
where detailed direction on how to approach the current and potential
markets was provided. His job was to implement the sales plan, generated
by the Commercial Direction department, in his corresponding geographical
area and to meet sales and profit goals.
The Medical Direction, Market Research, Business Development and
Regulatory Affairs departments supported sales-plan development. The
Advertising and Product Management departments supported sales-plan
implementation. Staff members from Information Systems, Finances and
Human Resources provided integrated information, budget feedback and
human resources to all of Salud‘s, departments, including their own.
 Each organization is different. Departments with the same names can
serve dissimilar functions. For instance, one Marketing department might
focus on researching the various markets while another concentrates its
efforts on advertising.
The most important aspects of the department-function analysis are to
identify the main product (aggregate product generated by sets of
interlocking behavioral contingencies) and the inputs needed by each
department (source of receiving system demand) so that the organization
works efficiently and effectively. This analysis is important because it
shows how departments interact and align in pursuit of the organization’s
overall mission. In order to do such an analysis, it might be helpful to use
the framework presented in Table 5-2.

Contrast the IS and the OUGHT TO BE of the Organization Structure and

Department Functions

The third step in analyzing an organization as a process is to contrast the

IS and the OUGHT TO BE of the organization’s structure and departmental
functions. Make a structural analysis based on the reality of the
organization. Create a department-function analysis by establishing a
hypothesis of how the departments should interact. Later, investigate your
hypothesis to see if it corresponded to reality.
Salud presented the chaos typical of most organizations: from
manufacturing to service, communication, and retail. Core departments did
not work cooperatively, support departments did not assist the core
departments, and integrating departments did not work to coordinate and
streamline interdepartmental flow. Department personnel lost sight of the
organization’s mission and created their own missions, generating
considerable redundancies in business functions.
The organizational structure could be simplified. The Market Services
department did not have an essential function and the Market Research
department was redundant to the Business Development department (both
could be combined into one).
 Core departments did not have the support they needed to function
effectively. Staff members had to do the work expected from other
departments in order to fulfill their main responsibilities. They ended up
overloaded with responsibility and became ineffective and inefficient. The
Sale Units were too overloaded with work because other departments did
not serve the required supporting or integrating functions. For instance, the
Regional Managers were responsible for selecting and training their own
salespeople; they did not believe that the Human Resource department
understood the Business Units needs. So they assumed the responsibility of
recruitment and hiring their own salespeople. Another example was the
failure to receive help from the Information Technology department. One of
its salespeople, who loved computer technology, developed and maintained
a computer application to provide the salespeople accurate information
about the data. But the system he created was not integrated into any other
applications, additional rekeying from one application As a result, to
another was necessary.
Table 5-2. OUGHT TO BE Analysis of Departments.

Department Aggregate
Resources Needed
Name products
 Department Aggregate
Resources Needed
Name products

- Clinical studies
- Markets
identified
- New businesses
and licensed
products
- Regulatory
requirements met
and registered
Commercial products
Sales plans
Direction - Technology
Core infrastructure,
Departments information and
data
- Money and
means
- Capable and
trained employees
- Sales plan
implemented

(See Figure 5-3 to

Business Sales plans
continue filling in
Units implemented
this column)

Integrating Technology
Departments Information infrastructure,
Technology information and
data

Finances Money and means

 Department Aggregate
Resources Needed
Name products

Human Capable and

Resources trained employees

Medical
Clinical studies
Direction

Market
Markets identified
Research

New businesses
Business
and licensed
Development
products
Support
Departments Regulatory
requirements met
Legal affairs
and registered
products

Products
Advertising
advertised

Product Marketing plan of

Management product lines

The Business Units had many failed attempts requesting services from
the Information Systems department. Information Systems had other
priorities, and it never met the technology application needs of the sales
force. Yet another example of the company s dysfunction was the lack of
support from the Finance department. The salespeople invested several
hours a week producing sales and cost reports because the Finance
department did not understand its role: to provide financial information to
the Business Units on an ongoing basis.
 The two core departments, Commercial Direction and the Business
Units, did not function cooperatively. In spite of the immense amount of
work that Commercial Planning did to develop the marketing plans, the
Business Units failed to implement them. The Business Units did not
understand the plans and there were no incentives to implement them. On
top of this, the Support departments were no help. As a result, the sales
people had to do all of the above-mentioned functions — which left them
little time to sell the products. Sales were the main product of Salud;
without sales the business would eventually fail.
The discrepancy between the IS and the OUGHT TO BE should not be
discouraging. On the contrary, the discrepancies are opportunities for
improvement to achieve the organization’s mission. The first step is to
create a plan to start smoothing the rough edges between the company’s
departments. This will help employees like Daniel not to feel lost and gain
direction and enthusiasm to contribute to the success of the organization.

Conclusions

Organizations are disorganized and chaotic. They often develop internal

structures that do not make sense or get in the way of their overall success.
However, the process through which they get to be disorganized and
ineffective is orderly — it is based on the principle of environmental
selection. This inherent contradiction makes change paradoxical.
This chapter brought the principle of environmental selection to the
processing system of an organization. Like macrosystems and organizations
change, based on their receiving system demands, so does each department
within an organization. Such consistency in the evolution of systems, no
matter how complex the system might be, brings back the constant and
orderly aspect of the paradox of organizational change.
The processing system of an organization should be studied from
general and detailed perspectives. This chapter presented the general
perspective, which consists of analyzing the interaction of the main
components of an organization — their department metacontingencies —
whereas the aggregate products of some departments serve as main
resources to other departments. Such analysis is the basis for the third
component of the Behavioral Systems Engineering Change Model
presented in this book. (See Figure 5-4.)
Understanding an organization as a process requires three steps;
creating a structural analysis, designing a department-function analysis, and
contrasting the IS and the OUGHT TO BE of the organization’s structure
and department functions.
The structural analysis shows the administrative reporting line. It
provides a picture of who has the potential to control decision making and
consequences for performance.
Figure 5-4. Levels 1-3 of the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model

The department-function analysis shows the interactions between the

metacontingencies involved in the organization — products of each
department serve as resources for other departments. The analysis identifies
the main functions or summaries of interlocking sets of behavioral
contingencies, the aggregate products, and the receiving system demands
that take place inside of the organization.
Comparing the IS to the OUGHT TO BE helps to identify and prioritize
areas of improvement within an organization. Once those areas are
identified, the analysis of the process should continue at a much more
detailed level — presented in the next chapter.

Review

In an organization that you are familiar with:

Present a one-page summary of the administrative structure

(organizational chart).
Prepare a department-function analysis and include the following:
1. Specification of the responsibilities and measures for each
function.
2. Identification of the core, support, and integrating departments.
3. Create a one-page graphic representation.
Explain the ways in which the department-function analysis describes
the following
1. Summary of interlocking behavioral contingencies.
2. Aggregate products.
3. Receiving system demand.
Compare the IS and the OUGHT TO be of the organization in terms of
organizational structure and the department-function analysis. List
potential areas for improvement.

1 Figure 5-1 represents the administrative reporting of Salud Inc., which

is a distributor of pharmaceutical products: not a manufacturer.
2 Rummler and Brache (1995) presented the concept of cross-functional
analysis in their book “Improving Performance”: How to manage the white
space of the organizational chart”
3 Figure 5-2 represents the administrative reporting of Business Unit I.
4 See M. E. Malott (1999) for a similar analysis.
Chapter 6
Task
 CHAPTER 6

TASK
The difficult we do at once; the impossible takes a bit longer.
Anonymous Chinese proverb

Shoes on Sale1

Tom enjoyed reading the Sunday paper while sipping on a cup of coffee.
As the shoe buyer for VEN Inc., he always looked at the advertising circulars
first. Reading an ad placed by his company, Tom almost dropped his cup of
coffee. The sale price on his store’s most popular athletic shoes, the Z-95, was
listed at $60. The retail price was $75.
His annual bonus was based, in part, on the profit and sales from products
he purchased. He worked hard to obtain a good price for the Z-95 because he
was certain they would attract new clients to the store. The competitors were
selling the same shoes for $80. When will the printing errors end? he furiously
asked himself.
Tom tossed the circular on the floor. It was the first time the shoes were
featured in the store’s Sunday ad — an ad that took up more than half of the
circular’s first page and would appear in each of the store’s markets. Tom
estimated the losses that would result from the printing error: $15 for each pair
of shoes; 500 pairs of shoes sold, on average, in each store; and 300 stores in
the chain. The estimated loss was $7,500 per store with a grand total of
$2,250,000!
Tom called Eva, the advertising department manager. Did you read the
paper? he asked, in a distinctly rigid tone. The Z-95 is practically being given
away. Eva had no idea what Tom was talking about, and the conversation
ended as abruptly as it had started.
A retailer of clothing, shoes, and accessories for children, infants and
adults, VEN opened in 1957. Founder Carl Pratt took a single, small store and
grew it into a national chain with 300 locations: and a payroll of 20,000 people.
 At 9 a.m. on Monday, Tom received notice of a meeting that would take
place at 2 p.m. with representatives from the Purchasing and Advertising
departments. Carl had requested the meeting to discuss the quality of the
weekly circular.
In a calm — yet firm — voice, Carl began the meeting by recapping recent
events. In the last six months, we have made 18 significant mistakes in our
weekly circular. To date, the estimated cost of those errors has reached $4
million.
Representatives from the Advertising department blamed the Purchasing
department for providing incorrect information and last-minute changes.
Purchasing department staff accused the Advertising department of printing the
wrong price. And what is the correct price? demanded Eva. All of you in the
Purchasing department change the information you give us whenever you feel
like it!
Tom interrupted her. You wouldn’t see a donkey if it were standing right
under your nose! The discussion continued to escalate until Carl finally said,
That’s enough!
This was a daily problem. The interdepartmental processes were a complete
mess. There was no effective communication and responsibilities were unclear.
Was it possible to continue operating amid such internal chaos and still
effectively compete in the market? The answer was NO. The competition was
gaining on them and, in some markets, VEN was losing its competitive
advantage and sales.

Task Analysis

The situation at VEN is not unique. Whenever there is crisis, people point
fingers at each other instead of systems. It is easier to blame a scapegoat,
particularly when the reasons behind the problem are unknown, than it is to
take the time to study the sources of the problem.
Employees and managers are the victims of poorly-designed processes.
Rather than blaming one another, it would be more effective to examine — in
detail— the tasks that make up the organizational processes so that conflicts
and inefficiencies can be identified. An objective and detailed task analysis is
like taking an X-ray of the organization.
 It takes time and dedication to study the tasks within processes. Skill and
experience are needed because one can easily get lost in the details and miss
the big picture. To avoid losing perspective, the study of tasks within processes
should be done in a systematic fashion. This involves creating a general outline
of the tasks within a process, analyzing what people do and produce,
identifying the information-systems technology infrastructure, and determining
the impact of task optimization.

General Tasks and Aggregate Products (Summary Map)

A process is a series of tasks — from a few to a hundred or even thousands

performed to accomplish a specific purpose. Therefore, before we begin a
process analysis, it is helpful to create a frame of reference: a general outline.
The outline consists of a graphic representation of the context in which the
tasks take place. It is like having a view of the process from 20,000 feet above.
The outline can appear graphically in an executive summary of the process, An
executive summary consists of the following: identification, scope,
subprocesses, units, general tasks, aggregate products, participants, uniqueness,
and duration. Figure 6-1 shows the executive summary of the process that
generates VEN‘s weekly circular.

Figure 6-1. Executive Summary of the Process that Generates VEN's Weekly
Circular
 Concept 6-1. Process Executive Summary —graphic outline of the
process. Includes identification, scope, subprocesses, units, general
tasks, aggregate products, participants, uniqueness, and duration.
The identification of the process is the first step, it is the description of the
metacontingency that we are analyzing. In the case of VEN, analysis would
start with the weekly circular’s production process.
Concept 6-2. Identification — a description of the process
metacontingency being analyzed and where it fits into the overall
functioning of the organization.
The scope refers to the limits of the process or metacontingency: where it
begins and where it ends. The scope is arbitrary because every process is part
of other, more complex, processes. The scope must be defined to avoid getting
lost in irrelevant issues and not completing the analysis. The circular’s
production process begins when buyers plan which promotional products to
include and ends when customers receive it with their Sunday newspapers.
Concept 6-3. Scope — the limits of the process metacontingency,
where it begins and where it ends.
The main components of the overall process, subprocesses or smaller
metacontingencies are listed in the order of occurrence. The production of the
circular includes the following subprocesses: planning, product selection,
information processing, design, production, and distribution
Concept 6-4. Subprocesses — the main component
metacontingencies of a larger process, listed in the order of
occurrence.
The units involved in the process may be departments within the
organization being analyzed — in addition to departments or groups of people
from outside of the organization, such as suppliers, vendors, and customers.
Without knowing who the participants are and what they do, it is impossible to
understand the process.
Production of the VEN‘s weekly circular includes staff from Purchasing,
Advertising, Administrative Support, and Marketing: as well as representatives
from the 300 stores. The process also involves units outside of VEN, such as
product manufacturers and service providers (including print shops and
newspapers).
Concept 6-5. Units — departments or groups of individuals that
participate in the process.
The participants are the people that carry out tasks within a process; in
other words, those that participate in the set of interlocking behavioral
contingencies. It is often amazing to discover the number of people affected by
an apparently small process. The production process of the weekly circular
involves 1,380 people from VEN, 700 manufacturing companies and
approximately one million customers (receiving system).
Concept 6-6. Participants — individuals that play a role in the
process and whose behavior are part of the interlocking behavioral
contingencies being analyzed.
A general task consists of a group of activities carried out by different
individuals and their aggregate product. In other words, a general task is a
smaller metacontingency than that of a subprocess; a subprocess is a smaller
metacontingency than that of a process; a process is a smaller metacontingency
than that of an organization. As we have seen in the previous chapter, the
aggregate product is the evidence remaining after the activity takes place. An
individual behavioral product is the evidence left by the task of one individual.
An aggregate product is the evidence left by the composition of many smaller
products generated by individuals.
The difference between an individual behavioral product and an aggregate
product is illustrated in an automobile assembly line. The product of each
participant in the line consists of a car part with one more component added;
the aggregate product is the finished automobile. At some point, each
individual’s product in the process ought to be identified. However, it is helpful
that aggregate products are determined first in order to have an overall picture
of the process.
Negotiating with vendors is an example of a general task in the process of
producing the weekly circular. (Task 1.A in Figure 6-1.) Vendors pay or
discount their selling price to VEN in exchange for advertising. This particular
general task involves the actions and products of individuals working in the
manufacturing companies that produce products sold by VEN. These
manufacturers must analyze sales trends, customers’ usage and market share.
People from the Product Development department must meet with the
Marketing and Sales department staff to discuss the pros and cons of
advertising. Meanwhile, the Production department forecasts schedule
capabilities to meet higher product demands resulting from special promotions.
The aggregate product of all these specific tasks included in the general task
1.A, is space allocation for advertising vendor products in the weekly circular.
In Figure 6-1, general tasks are identified with a number, which indicates
the sequence of that task in the process, and a letter, which refers to the
subprocess being analyzed. For instance, the general task 1.A refers to the first
general task involved in the process of producing the circular — which belongs
to the planning subprocess. A summary map helps to identify the aggregate
products of general tasks performed by multiple individuals. In other words, it
allows us to understand the relationships of the metacontingencies involved in
a process, A more detailed map helps to identify aggregate products of tasks
performed by a single individual.
Concept 6-7. General Task - a summary of a metacontingency that
forms part of a process; that is, a group of interlocking behavioral
contingencies carried out by different individuals, the resulting
aggregate product, and the source of receiving system demand.
Uniqueness refers to the variation of single subprocesses. It is common to
discover that certain subprocesses are not implemented consistently. By
identifying the variations (or uniqueness) within a process, we can appreciate
some of its complexity. For instance, even though the production process ofthe
weekly circular was fairly standard among the product-line buyers, certain
tasks designed to Promote shoes and children’s clothing were unique. When it
came to promoting shoes, the buyer basically carried out all the tasks typically
assigned to administrative assistants, making the process of information
processing a unique variation from other product lines. When it came to
promoting children’s clothing, the design subprocess was more elaborate,
making the promotion of children’s clothing unique.
Concept 6-8. Uniqueness — variations of single processes.
Duration indicates the time it takes to complete a process. It is helpful to
determine how long each subprocess takes before attempting to calculate
duration. The production time for each circular is 31 weeks, with planning —
the subprocess with the greatest duration — taking up 24 of those weeks. Each
department performed a number of tasks to produce the circular. For instance,
the buyer alone had to review information from the previous year, select the
products that had generated the most profit, review the sale price, review the
report on the competitor’s price, review the images in the electronic library,
and handwrite a summary of the information in a list that would eventually go
to the Advertising department. It is important to specify duration because
streamlining processes usually involves reducing time expenditures.

Specific Tasks and Individual Products (Detailed Map)

In order to improve a process, it is important to understand the specific

tasks and products generated by each participant. A detailed understanding of a
process involves gathering information about what people do and produce. It
also involves diagramming the relationship between the participants’ tasks in a
detailed map to visualize disconnects, redundancies and inefficiencies.

Information About What People Do and Produce

A specific task refers to one individual’s action or set of actions and their
aggregate product. There are two differences between a general task and a
specific task. First, a general task includes many specific tasks performed by
multiple performers from different units (metacontingency); a specific task is
one or more actions performed by a single person. Second, the product of a
general task is the aggregate result from several performers’ products; the
aggregate product Of a specific task is that of only one performer. A general
task is a metacontingency; however, a detailed task is not. The product-
generating action or actions in a detailed task are done by one individual and
not by the interaction of multiple individuals.
An example of a specific task is the generation of a report by one individual
The task produces one product — the report — but it requires several actions
of that individual, such as locating past reports, reading e-mails, making calls,
entering data into a computer, and printing.
Concept 6-9. Specific Task — an individual’s action or set of actions
and the resulting behavioral product.
 The task-analysis guide is a tool for gathering the details of specific tasks
process in a to facilitate understanding of what people do and produce. (See
Figure 6-2.) Each task is thoroughly analyzed:

Who executes it? The person that carries out the task.
What does it consist of? Description of the task itself.
How long does it last? The approximate time it takes to complete the task.
What does it produce? Remaining proof after the task is completed.
What are the indispensable resources? The necessary resources to carry
out the task.
Who receives the product? The person or group of people that receives the
product.

The person that receives the product from Task A is the person who
executes Task B.
Figure 6-2. Task Analysis Guide
 Concept 6-10. Task Analysis Guide - a tool for analyzing specific
tasks within a process. It provides answers to the following
questions: Who executes it? What does it consist of How long does it
last? What does it produce What are the indispensable resources?
Who receives the products?
Figure 6-3 shows how questions in the task analysis guide are integrated
into a systems framework, where each task is described as a total performance
system (TPS). Notice that the Task A product is a Task B resource and a Task
A receiver is a Task B performer.
Figure 6-3. Task Analysis as a TPS

Figure 6-4 shows a task analysis of two tasks carried out within the data
processing subprocesses of VEN‘s weekly circular.
Figure 6-4. Example of the Use of a Task Analysis Guide
 Information included in the task analysis guide should be gathered by
interviewing and observing people performing the tasks. Sometimes it is more
convenient to interview a group rather than individuals, especially when the
participants play relatively small roles in the process and do not understand
what the rest of the people do within that process. Complementing interviews
with direct observation allows the gatherer to contrast verbal reports with what
actually occurs — particularly helpful given the frequent discrepancies
between what people say and what they do.
To avoid digression and speculation, it is helpful to focus on the end
product generated by each task. For this reason, it is important to gather a
sample of each task’s product. In addition to this collection of products, it is
helpful to know the type of information the participants use. This will be
invaluable when designing the information-systems technology that supports
process redesign.
To emphasize again — as done in the previous chapter: In order to
understand a process, objective data needs to be gathered, direct observations
performed, and actual products analyzed. Relying on verbal reports exclusively
will give an inaccurate picture of the process.

Relationships Between Specific Tasks and Products

Once information is gathered about specific tasks and products within a

process, the relationship between the participants’ actions and their products
should be studied. A detailed process map2 is used, which consists of a graphic
description of what goes on in the process. It contains all the subprocesses,
units and uniqueness presented in Figure 6-1 — the executive summary of the
process; but it includes specific tasks, rather than general.
Concept 6-11. Detailed Process Map — graphic representation of the
relationship between specific tasks and products among individuals
and units involved in a process.
Figure 6-5 shows an example of how to include each specific task within a
detailed process map. The buyer must determine which products to advertise in
the weekly circular.
Figure 6-6 shows a detailed process map of a general task: task 6.C of the
executive summary presented in Figure 6-1. The general task 6.C was part of
the information processing subprocess. It consisted of processing information
in the existing databases and distributing the results to the Advertising and
Purchasing departments (as well as the stores).
Figure 6-5. Representation of a Specific Task within a Detailed Map
 The personnel of the Administrative Support department are mainly
responsible for processing information. The general task 6.C, however,
involves 42 specific tasks and 15 participants interacting between the
Purchasing and Advertising departments, in addition to the stores. All tasks
shaded in the detailed process map would not be necessary if the list of
promotional products was precise and complete the first time the buyer
generated it.
The following was learned from this graphic representation of the detailed
process map:

1. The general task of processing/distributing information, pertaining to the

promotional products, involved 42 specific tasks and 15 people from four
different units: the Purchasing, Advertising, and Administrative Support
departments — and the stores.
2. The 42 specific tasks are part of the information-processing subprocess
and account for only one general task in the production of the weekly
circular (Task 6.C from Figure 6-1).
3. The analysis shows that the process is ineffective and redundant. The
shaded tasks are not necessary. The information that passed from one
place to another is incomplete or incorrect. The buyer and the buyer’s
 assistant provide partial or inaccurate information, creating problems for
the rest of the participants: including the stores and the Advertising and
Purchasing departments.
4. There is a fair amount of micro-management: Four people — the buyer,
the buyer’s assistant, the advertising editor, and the advertising manager
from the stores — monitor what the administrative assistant does. Too
much double-checking takes the responsibility for providing accurate
information away from the administrative assistant, ignores the
responsibility of the buyer and buyers s assistant to provide the correct
information in the first place, and generates unnecessary work for
everyone.
5. There appears to be an unhealthy separation of duties between jobs. For
instance, only the administrative assistant keyboards information into
certain databases and distribute it from one place to another, even though
it might be more practical and cost effective for the whole process if the
buyer or buyer’s assistant perform some of those tasks. For instance, a
buyer writes the information on a form and gives it to the administrative
assistant to enter in the database; and this pattern is repeated multiple
times as information is corrected or changed. So, rather than one person
having to redo the tasks, each change requires the actions of at least two
people.

In summary, let’s review the steps necessary to streamline a process so that

redundant tasks are eliminated and some tasks are added/modified to generate
the expected products.

1. Define the aggregate products that contribute to an organization’s

competitiveness and long-term survival.
2. Create a summary map that provides the “big picture” of the process, to
avoid getting lost in the details later. The map consists of an analysis of
the metacontingencies involved in the process. Specify the scope, the
main subprocesses (or less complex metacontingencies), the units or
departments participating in the process, the general tasks, the aggregate
products, the participants, the unique variations of the process, and the
duration.
3. Gather data on what people do and produce using the Task Analysis
Guide.
4. Diagram the relationship between the tasks and products generated by
each participant in a detailed process map.
5. Highlight areas for improvement. Study the detailed tasks in the map and
look for redundancies tasks that produce the same or similar products by
different individuals (this will help in deciding which tasks to eliminate).
6. Identify needed tasks that should be modified because the product that
they generate does not meet the expected criteria of quality, volume, or
cost. Afterwards, highlight those tasks and specify the required
modifications.
7. Identify gaps (missing products) in the process and determine the tasks
that most effectively and efficiently could generate those products.

Figure 6-6. Detailed Map of the Information Processing Subprocess

 Information-Technology Infrastructure

As shown in Chapter 2, a processing system involves much more than

behavior and interlocking behavioral contingencies. It also involves the
interaction of the behavior with the resources in the system. The understanding
of that interaction cannot be ignored if we are to effectively change a process.
It is worth highlighting the interaction between behavior and the information
available in the system.
Complex processes, especially those that involve a lot of information, need
integrated technology to function efficiently. It is not unusual for an
organization, especially a large one, to process millions of data records a day.
Undoubtedly, the data infrastructure makes a difference in people’s actions.
Technology often fails to facilitate processes because of two significant
shortcomings in its development. First, those who develop the technology do
not understand the process because they are not its users. As a result, the
technology does not meet the needs of the users/performers. Second,
technology applications are developed in silos; the development of one process
often creates unnecessary work and redundancy in other processes. These two
limitations in technology development end up complicating employees’
process-related tasks rather than facilitating them.
It is a constant dilemma, for most organizations, whether to purchase
commercial applications — and customize them — or develop new ones. But
technology development, without understanding what people do within the
process, can be costly and useless. Therefore, the ideal scenario is one where
process changes actually drive technology — not the other way around —
process designers work cooperatively with technology experts
The concepts of databases and computer program applications are helpful
in the understanding of technology infrastructure. For instance, a computer
program application could be any commercial application, such as Microsoft
Excel or Word. Of course, any computer application can be customized to fit
the particular needs of the application can be customized to fit particular needs
of an organization. Databases are depositories of data, which are manipulated
with computer program applications.
 Concept 6-12. Computer Program Application — list of instructions
in a programming language that tells a computer to perform a
certain task and allows the user to manipulate information.
Concept 6-13. Database systematically arranged collection of
computer data, structured so that it can be automatically retrieved or
manipulated.
It is important that every performer has the data and information needed for
process optimization. Whether or not performers have access to the critical data
— and are able to manipulate the information with technology — is an
essential issue in process redesign. Process designers should have a minimal
understanding of the data, know where the information is stored and possess
the ability to manipulate it. Table 6-1 shows a way to analyze information
technology.
Table 6-1 Information-Technology Analysis

Databases

Fields Item Advertising Image Layout Display Pricing

Item X
X X
Number A,B,C

Item Code X

Item
X
Description

Customer
ID Number

Retail
X
Price

Purchasing
X
Price

Sales Price X
 Databases

Fields Item Advertising Image Layout Display Pricing

Image
Code X
Number

Image
X
Description

Image Date X

Page
X
Layout

Items
X
Advertised

Advertised
X
Text

Advertising
X
Start Date

Advertising
X
End Date

Shelf
X
Location

In Table 6-1, each row lists an information field relevant to the advertising
process at VEN. The top row identifies several databases; the “X” identifies
databases where a specific field is located; and the letters in italics, in the top
left quadrant, refers to various applications that can manipulate a specific data
field from a database. For instance, the item-number field is located in the item,
advertising, and pricing databases.
 It is also helpful to map how information travels within a technology
infrastructure, using the information from Table 6-1. The map in Figure 6-7
shows the technology infrastructure used in all of the advertising processes,
including the production of VEN‘s, weekly circular. The information system
technological infrastructure includes eight databases in the advertising process,
six of which consist of applications exclusively for advertising and two of
which interact with other corporate processes (such as the pricing system). The
databases, most of which are not compatible, are not interrelated.
Consequently, performers in the process must manually extract data from a
database, manipulate the information, and enter it in a different database using
different applications. Such complications make the process inefficient and
prone to errors.
Figure 6-7. Map of the Existing Information-Technology Infrastructure at VEN
Inc.

A technology map, unlike a detailed process map, does not include actions
of individuals. It only refers to how information gets from one point to another.
The analysis of the technology infrastructure answers some critical questions in
process design, such as: Where is the information located? How can the data be
accessed? Can performers manipulate the data? Do the performers have the
information needed to do the job?
 Understanding how technology impacts a person’s job assists in
development and increases the likelihood it will produce efficient processes. It
also assists in identifying interfaces between departments that a process map
may not highlight.

Impact of Task Optimization

The task analysis concludes by determining which specific tasks should

remain, which could be eliminated, and which should be modified. This step is
done after the detailed map is analyzed. In order for VEN to produce its weekly
circular, there are some critical tasks that should happen within various
subprocesses:

1. The buyer provides a list of promotional products and information such as

price and product description.
2. The advertising coordinator creates an outline of the circular, based on
information provided by the buyer.
3. The designer develops the page(s) using product information provided by
the buyer
4. The administrative assistant sends the final version of the circular to the
printing shop.
5. The circular is printed.
6. An employee from the print shop delivers the circular to the newspaper.
7. Newspaper employees insert the circular in the Sunday edition.
8. The newspaper distributor delivers the papers — with the weekly circular
tucked inside — to potential and current customers.

After studying the specific tasks in the detailed process map, and sorting
the dispensable from the indispensable, is obvious that streamlining production
of VEN‘s weekly circular is possible. Simply by eliminating redundancies,
many specific tasks can be omitted.
But before attempting to change the process, impact measures of process
improvement must be determined. For instance, by examining the potential
impact of simplifying the production of the weekly circular using volume,
quality, quantity, and cost measures.
Volume. One of the six subprocesses, Information Processing, consists of
42 specific tasks. If the remaining five subprocesses required that many, the
whole production process would include more than 250 specific tasks. If all of
the redundant specific tasks were reduced (refer to the shaded areas in Figure
6-6), then 71 percent of these specific tasks could be eliminated from the
circular’s weekly Production process. The number of steps is one of the
volume measures used in this process. Another relevant measure is the number
of circulars produced. It is possible that, by altering the process, it may be
profitable to increase or decrease the number of ads published.
Quality. A quality process does not produce errors. There are two types of
errors ¯ Print and process errors. VEN‘s print errors appeared as the result of its
process errors. Staff members had made 18 significant errors in a six-month
period: a loss of $4 million in revenue.
Sometimes these process errors were detected and corrected before the
circular was sent to the printer: a costly step because of the number of people
involved in the correction process, If an error was not detected in the pre-press
stage, it became a print error.
The process errors consisted of discrepancies between the input and
product information processed in a specific task. For example, an error would
occur when the price of the product provided by the buyer did not coincide
with the price that the administrative assistant entered into the database.
Duration. The entire production process took 31 weeks. This slow pace
created a problem: The price of the products advertised was vulnerable to
competitor’s price changes. Initially, Tom decided to sell the Z-95 athletic
shoes for $85; however, the competitors surprised him by advertising a sale
price of $80. Two days before sending the final version to the print shop, Tom
changed the price. He decided that an aggressive price would motivate new
customers to purchase the shoes at VEN stores. The Advertising department’s
copy editor was baffled, as Tom had already changed the price five times. On
one of the ad-copy drafts, Tom himself had mistakenly promoted the Z-95 for
$60 — the price printed on the circular. Nobody caught the error in the process
itself: neither Tom, his assistant, the designer nor the copy editor. Shortening
the duration of the process might eliminate the need for price changes.
Cost. VEN currently devotes 160 hours each month to advertising its shoes
in the circular. Between the Publishing and the Purchasing departments, 40
hours a week (or one full-time employee equivalent) are invested in preparing
the shoe ads. Women’s clothing requires even more hours because it has more
ads. Combined, the three product lines require 487 hours each month: the
equivalent to more than three full-time employees.
The Publishing and Purchasing departments invest 5,844 working hours
each year (487 hours per month x 12 months) to promote accessories, shoes,
and women’s clothing in the weekly circular. If the average cost per hour is $30
(including benefits), monthly costs are $14,610 (487 hours per month x $30 per
hour). The annual cost to produce the promotional ads for accessories, shoes,
and women’s clothing is S 175,320 ($ 14,610 per month x 12 months). If the
company’s remaining six product lines are taken into account, the annual labor
cost for producing the circular is approximately $1,051,120 per year.
In addition to the labor cost is the price of fixing detected errors after the
circular is printed. The right price correction needs to be transmitted to the
stores so each of the 300 locations can alter its pricing system. Correcting the
price prevents discrepancies between an item’s tagged version and the one
scanned at the cash register. Generally, the price correction is not a problem if
the actual price is lower than the circular’s advertised price; however, if the
error is the other way around, and the advertised product scans higher at the
register, customers become unhappy.
An analysis of the impact of process optimization is needed to determine if
it is worth changing the process. In the case of VEN, it was. The production
process of its advertising circular had significant potential for reduction of
tasks, duration, and cost. This would improve the quality of information
handling in the processing and printing of the weekly circular.

Conclusions

Behavioral systems analysis, as we have studied so far, goes from general

to specific metacontingencies: the study of the macrosystem, the organization,
the main processes in the organization, subprocess, and general tasks. Such
analysis is a necessary component of the method presented in this book to
change organizations. We can’t change organizations effectively unless we
understand their components and dynamics.
The method presented thus far brings about the orderly part of the paradox
of organizational change. Organizational processes can be so complex that they
look chaotic and unpredictable. However, the method of analysis suggests that
there is a systematic way through which processes evolve.
 Aggregated products in all four organizational levels evolve based on
environmental selection. The macrosystem’s aggregate products are determined
by the demands of a larger macrosystem; an organization’s overall aggregate
product is determined by the demands of its customers; a department or
process’s aggregate product is determined by the demands of other departments
or processes; and a general task’s aggregate product is determined by demands
of other general tasks in a process. In spite of the fact that systems at all levels
are dynamic and chaotic, the way they evolve is constant and orderly — as the
analysis of behavioral systems shows. Here, it is the paradoxical nature of
change.
The transition from metacontingency analysis to behavior of a single
individual lies in the specific task. The specific task involves an action or
actions of one single individual and a product. There are no interlocking
behavioral contingencies at the level of a detailed task.
The transition from systems analysis to individual behavior allows us to see
that, among the thousands of tasks that make up an organization, there are
some tasks more critical than others for an organization’s long-term survival.
The fourth component in the model for change refers to the detailed analysis of
the organization viewed as a system. It consists of detailing the tasks that make
up the processes. (See Figure 6-8.)
Figure 6-8. Levels 1-4 of the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model
 In this chapter, we studied a systematic approach for task analysis within
the organizational processes. This strategy consists of (1) creating a summary
of the process; (2) analyzing the information systems technological
infrastructure; (3) detailing specific tasks and products; and (4) determining the
impact of task optimization through measures of performance.

1. The process executive summary outlines the general tasks in the process
— the least complex metacontingency that we have studied. The
executive summary has the following components: identification, scope,
 subprocesses, units, general tasks, aggregate products, participants,
uniqueness, and duration.
2. The analysis of specific tasks and products is carried out using two
different tools: a task analysis guide and a detailed process map. The task
analysis guide allows gathering of information. It includes answers to the
following questions: Who executes it? What does the task consist of?
What does it produce? How long does it take? Which are the
indispensable resources? Who receives the product? The detailed process
map graphically represents the relationship between the specific tasks and
products among participants.
3. The analysis of the information-technology infrastructure consists Of
identifying the databases, operational systems, and applications with
which the participants interact. It is common for the existing technology to
complicate the processes. The information technology is a critical
resource of a processing system that cannot be ignored when analyzing
interlocking behavioral contingencies.
4. The detailed task analysis concludes by determining the impact of process
optimization based on measures of the current process.

Review

Identify a process in your organization and perform a detailed analysis of

what people do within that process, Follow these steps:

Prepare an executive summary for that process. Specify process

identification, scope, subprocesses, units, general tasks, aggregate
products, participants, uniqueness, and duration.
Analyze the information systems technology used in the process.
Use a task analysis guide to gather information about what people do and
produce.
Create a detailed process map to diagram the relationship between the
participants’ tasks and their products in the process.
Indicate the method and units of measure that you would use to determine
the potential impact of task optimization in the process.
 1 An earlier version of the story “Shoes on Sale” was published by M. E.
Malott (2001a). Also see Garlock, 2001.
2 See Rummler & Brache (1995)for other versions of cross-functional
maps.
Chapter 7
Behavior: Part I
CHAPTER 7
 BEHAVIOR: PART I
Man is what he does!
André Malraux (1901-1976)1

Hell on Earth2

I was in Northern Thailand, giving a lecture on the behavioral analysis

of traffic safety, when — at the end of my presentation — a man
approached me: Dr. Maria Malott, I am Dr. Chang Sang. I work for the
State Hospital and urge you to visit us and give a talk to our doctors,
nurses, and staff about improving traffic safety in the community.
Tomorrow is my last day in town and I have made other plans, I replied.
Dr. Sang insisted. Dr. Malott, traffic accidents are a very serious
problem in our country, even worse in our state. We have tried everything
but it has been of no avail. We need to learn how to handle this problem
from a behavioral systems perspective.3
Dr. Sang was so persistent that he convinced me to give a talk the next
day. What neither of us knew at the time, however, was that I would be the
one who would learn the most from this experience.
As we approached the hospital the following morning, I noticed a large
group of people waiting outside. Directly in front of the main gate were
roughly two hundred adults and children in a roofless, open patio. They had
brought with them silverware and bags filled with clothes and other
belongings. It seemed as if they had literally moved in.
What is this? I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. They are the
relatives of our hospital’s patients, Dr. Sang said. They have nowhere else to
stay so they remain outside to look after their hospitalized relatives during
visiting hours.
The hospital’s reception area had horrifying pictures of traffic accidents
posted on walls. Adjacent to the pictures were written statements such as,
Wear helmets. Do not drink and drive. Drunk driving is a crime.
Dr. Sang watched silently as I read the messages and looked at the
pictures. For at least 10 years, we have been importing a large number of
inexpensive motorcycles, he said. The motorcycles are the most financially
affordable means of transportation today, although motorcycle accidents
are often fatal or result in severe brain damage.
After a pause, he continued. If we could make people wear helmets, we
could save so many lives! We have tried everything we can think of with no
success. People don’t wear helmets because they are uncomfortable,
especially with our region ‘s unbearable heat. Besides, half of all traffic
accidents involve alcohol intoxication.
Dr. Sang took me to the women’s ward first. There, we saw patients of
all ages suffering from the loss of amputated limbs, blindness, and other
tribulations. It was the same story when we walked through the men’s ward.
Once I was convinced that I had seen enough misery, Dr. Sang said,
Allow to show you one last room: the emergency room. These are the
patients that will die within the next 48 hours.
I could not believe my eyes. Men, women, and children lying on
separate beds in a single room … a man with two recently amputated limbs
… another with an open wound in his skull. There were no curtains, no
sheets, and no covers. There was only anguish and despair. It was like hell
on earth.
I recalled the “right of personal freedom” arguments I had heard so
many times when lecturing about traffic accidents. We ought to have the
freedom to choose the speed with which we drive; we ought to be able to
choose whether or not to use seat belts. After all these are our lives.
However, right in front of my eyes — in an emergency room in Northern
Thailand — was the evidence why no one should have the freedom to cause
physical harm to others. Poor traffic safety was not just a problem for the
perpetrators but the community, its families, and individuals.
On our way to the auditorium, where I was scheduled to speak, I heard a
bell and a voice in Thai coming through the loudspeakers. Dr. Sang
informed me that they were announcing my lecture.
 Approximately 90 people entered the small auditorium and sat down. I
asked for a glass of water and took a deep breath. At that moment, I decided
to leave my notes aside and change my talk. This was the first time that I
wished to speak with the help of an interpreter, so I could think of what to
say next while the interpreter translated.
How many of you have a relative or close friend who has been involved
in a serious traffic accident? I asked. Approximately 70 people raised their
hand. How many of you think that it is relatively easy to put on a helmet?
All raised their hands. How many of you that we would save many lives if
we wore helmets? All raised their hands.
Traffic accidents are the number one cause of death in Thailand, I
continued.
But what I saw in this hospital today speaks louder than any statistic
because it showed me human suffering. I don ‘t have to tell you how tragic
this problem is,you are the ones that live it day after day.
Putting on a helmet is a relative simple behavior. Why, then, is it so
uncommon for people to wear helmet’s? Why is it so difficult for people to
follow simple behavioral rules?

Functional Assessment (Part I)

The audience knew that if people wore helmets, many lives could be
saved4. They witnessed every day the tragic consequences of a nation not
adopting preventative measures.5 Likewise, the general community was
aware that helmet use would prevent trauma and death. They knew it from
the ongoing campaigns on radio, television, newspapers, and roadside
billboards. They knew it from their own loss of family members due to
preventable traffic accidents. Yet, knowing was not enough.
We often assume that people do not do what they are supposed to do
because they lack the knowledge. So we overwhelm them with memos,
informational meetings, and training programs that have no impact. If
knowledge was sufficient to change what people do, behavioral change
would be easy.
 When information-sharing efforts do not work, we assume that people
lack motivation and willingness; therefore, we accuse them of being lazy or
having no initiative. In other words, we blame them — victims of a poorly
designed system. But as we have seen in previous chapters, blaming takes
us nowhere — other than detracting attention from other improvement
alternatives.
So why is it that the people in Dr. Sang’s community fail to wear
helmets if they know that compliance could save their lives? If the failure to
wear helmets was not due to lack of knowledge or lack of desire, what was
the cause? A functional assessment provides answers to these questions. It
helps observers understand why desired behavior does not happen at all: or
why undesired behavior happens so often 6.
Functional assessment is based on the law of effect, on the assumption
that behavior is determined by the environment and not by individuals’
internal attributes. We will be more successful affecting what people do if
we how what maintains their current behavior. That is why functional
assessment is a pre-requisite for behavioral change. A functional
assessment consists of providing answers to the following questions:

1. What behavior is under analysis

2. How often does it occur?
3. Whose behavior is under analysis?
4. What is the consequence?
5. Which are the antecedent stimuli?
6. Does the contingency directly control behavior?
7. What type of contingency is it?

Concept 7-1. Functional Assessment a study of the environmental

relations that maintain behavior.
In this chapter, we will review questions one through six. In the
following chapter, we will study question seven as well as the relationship
between tasks and behavior.

What Behavior Is Under Analysis?

 Behavior is an action of an organism. For example, putting on a helmet
is a behavior. To define behavior clearly, it is helpful to distinguish action
from a condition that lacks movement. Researchers use the “dead man test”
7 — if a dead man can do it, it is not a behavior. The lack of action is not

behavior: a dead man can have a helmet on. Behavior indicates activity
such as writing, walking, talking, and putting on a helmet.
Concept 7-2. Dead Man Test — if a dead man can do it, it is not a
behavior.
Concept 7-3. Behavior — an organism ‘s action.
It is important to specify which behavior is under analysis. Although
that sounds easy, it is sometimes a challenge. Identifying examples and non-
examples of the chosen action is helpful when defining a target behavior.
For instance, the behavior of interest to Dr. Sang was putting on a helmet
before getting on a motorcycle. A non-example was putting on a hat.

How Often Does It Occur?

The only way to know if we are effectively changing what people do is

by measuring behavior before and after our intervention. The most typically
used behavioral measures are frequency and rate of responding. Frequency
consists of number of responses and rate consists of number of responses
per unit of time. For instance, we might want to measure the number of
traffic violations received (frequency) or the number of late arrivals to work
per week (rate). We might also be interested in measuring other aspects of
behaviors, such as force, latency, and duration.

Whose Behavior Is Under Analysis?

We ought to know who is performing the behavior under analysis. For

instance, we can study the behavior of motorcycle drivers and passengers
putting on a helmet. Or we could study other behaviors, such as alcohol
consumption or speeding of motorcycle drivers. We would not study
behavior of individuals who are not relevant to the problem we are
analyzing.
 What Is the Consequence?

The consequence of behavior consists of a stimulus, event, object, or

condition that is a result of the behavior and affects its future occurrences.
In other words, there is a causal relationship between the response and that
stimulus, event, object, or condition. A causal relationship is what is known
as a contingent relationship. I will use the term “after” and consequence
interchangeably in the rest of the text.
Concept 7-4. After Condition — the consequence of behavior; in
other words, a stimulus, event, object, or condition that is
presented contingent on behavior.
Our future actions are determined by what happened to us when we
acted the same way in the past. Such is the underlying assumption of the
law of effect, which states that the consequences of behavior determine its
future likelihood. Some consequences increase the future likelihood of the
response and others decrease it. Those stimulus, events, objects, or
conditions that increase the future likelihood of a response are known as
reinforcers; those elements that decrease the future likelihood of the
response are known as aversive consequences.
Concept 7-5. Reinforcer— a stimulus, event, object, or condition
that when presented immediately after the behavior, increases its
future likelihood.
Concept 7-6. Aversive Consequence — a stimulus, event, object,
or condition that, when presented immediately after the behavior,
decreases its future likelihood.
For example, it is uncomfortable to wear a helmet in hot regions.
Excessive heat is often an aversive stimulus, causing the likelihood of
helmet use to decrease. On the Other hand, pressing down on the
accelerator is a behavior that generates a breeze. In extreme hot weather, the
breeze often acts as a reinforcing stimulus, causing the future probability of
speeding to increase.
The reinforcing or aversive value of stimuli is established based on the
individual’s history with those stimuli; therefore, their value is relative. For
instance, it is possible that speeding is a reinforcing stimulus for some
people and an aversive stimulus for others, based on their unique past
experiences.
Although the reinforcing value of a stimulus is relative, there are a few
stimuli with “one size fits all” reinforcing properties because they are paired
with positive events or other incentives. Those stimuli are called
generalized conditioned reinforcers. For example, attention tends to serve as
a generalized conditioned reinforcer for most people’s behaviors because
attention is usually paired with comfort and caring. Money also tends to
serve as a generalized conditioned reinforcer because it is often paired with
the acquisition of a variety of other reinforcers8.
Concept 7-7. Generalized Conditioned Reinforcer — a stimulus,
event, or object that has acquired reinforcing properties for most
individuals through pairing with other reinforcers (e.g., attention
and money).
It is important to avoid the mistake of assuming that an organism
responds in order to obtain a consequence. This is a teleological assumption
— attributing the causes of present behavior to future events. Future events
do not control Present behaviors, past events do.
Concept 7-8. Teleology — the cause for an action is in the future.

What Are the Antecedent Stimuli?

Behavior is not only affected by consequences but also by antecedent

stimuli. The term “antecedent” is used as a generic term to refer to
something that exists or happens before the behavior. Antecedent stimuli
can serve different functions. It is worth differentiating between the
following functions: the before condition, the discriminative stimulus, and
the establishing operation.
Concept 7-9. Antecedent Condition — a stimulus, event, object, or
condition that precedes the response.

The “Before” Condition

 The before condition is one type of antecedent condition (other two
types described in this section are establishing operation and discriminative
stimuli). To identify a consequence and its effect on behavior, it is helpful to
contrast the “after” condition (or consequence)t o the “before” condition.
Everything that happened prior to the behavior is considered the “before”
condition. The “after” condition is always relative to the before condition.
For example, if/when a motorcyclist puts a helmet on in North Thailand,
there is heat (before) and substantially more heat (after) if he or she leaves
it on. In the case of speeding behavior, the preceding condition to speeding
(behavior) is breeze (before) and the subsequent condition is increased
breeze (after).
Concept 7-10. Before Condition — a condition that exists before
the behavior occurs. The contrast between the before and the
after conditions helps to define the behavioral contingency.
The behavioral contingency is a basic unit of analysis that describes a
causal relationship between a behavior and its consequences. Such a
relationship takes place under a specific antecedent condition.
Concept 7-11. Behavioral Contingency — a casual relationship
between the behavior and its consequences, given specific
antecedent conditions.
The contingency can be represented by a description of the behavior and
the “before” and “after” conditions. Figure 7-1 shows a behavioral
contingency diagram and Figure 7-2 shows an example of a behavioral
contingency.
Figure 7-1. Behavioral Contingency Diagram

Figure 7-2. Example of a Behavioral Contingency

 The “before” condition typically does not evoke behavior. That is why
the connection between the behavior and “before” condition is a dotted line
rather than an arrow (which indicates a causal relationship).

Establishing Operation

An establishing operation consists of an environmental event, operation,

or stimulus condition that affects an organism by momentarily altering (a)
there reinforcing effectiveness of other events and (b) the frequency of
occurrence of the type of behavior that had been consequated by those
events.( Michael, 1993, pp. 589. 9) In other words, the establishing
operation increases the value of a consequence in such a way that the
frequency of the behavior is altered (either decreases or increases).
Concept 7-12 Establishing Operation - environmental event,
operation, or stimulus condition that affects an organism by
momentarily altering (a) the reinforcing effectiveness of other
events and (b) the frequency of occurrence of the type of behavior
that had been consequated by those events. 10
For instance, adding too much salt to food is an establishing operation
for drinking water because it increases the value of water and affects
consumption (temporarily increases drinking water). Satiating a person with
too much food is an establishing operation that alters the reinforcing value
of food and therefore affects our eating (temporarily decreases eating).
Excess sun exposure increases the value of sun block and affects the
likelihood of putting on sun block. Figure 7-3 shows the relationship
between the establishing operation and behavior.

Figure 7-3. Establishing Operation and the Behavioral Contingency11

Discriminative Stimulus

A stimulus, object, or event could also serve as a discriminative

stimulus. A stimulus in the presence of which a contingency is in effect is
called a discriminative stimulus (SD). A stimulus in the presence of which
the contingency is not in effect is called an SΔ. (The symbol is Δ
pronounced delta.)
Concept 7-13. Discriminative Stimulus (SD) a stimulus in the
presence of which a contingency is in effect.
Concept 7-14. SΔ — a stimulus in the presence of which the
contingency is not in effect.
For instance: If the stoplight is red (discriminative stimulus), and I
continue to drive (behavior), it is highly possible that I will receive a traffic
ticket (consequence) for running a red light. Only in the presence of the red
light will my driving behavior produce a traffic ticket. However, in the
presence of a green light (SΔ), when I continue driving (behavior) there will
not be a traffic ticket because there is no consequence for driving through a
green light. So the green light acts as an SΔ. Not all contingencies involve
discriminative stimuli. Figure 7-4 shows the difference between SD and SΔ.

Figure 7-4. Example of SD and SΔ

 The same stimulus or object could have different functions. For
instance: A light could act as a consequence 12, as an SD, as an SΔ, or as an
establishing operation. Therefore, it is important that we distinguish various
stimulus functions on behavior. Figure 7-5 shows a summary of various
antecedent stimulus functions.
Figure 7-5. Summary of Stimulus Functions
 Does the Contingency Directly Control Behavior?

A direct-acting contingency is one that directly affects a behavior’s

frequency without the need of other processes. A direct-acting contingency
affects the behavior when the consequence involved is immediate, probable,
and sizable. Figure 7-6 shows a graphic representation of a direct-acting
contingency.
Concept 7-15. Direct-Acting Contingency — contingency that
involves a consequence that is immediate, probable, and sizeable
that directly increases or decreases the future likelihood of the
behavior that precedes it.
Figure 7-6. Direct-Acting Contingency
 The following is an example of a direct-acting contingency: When the
stove is hot (before), and I touch it (behavior), I bum myself(after). Burning
is an immediate, probable, and sizable consequence that will effectively
reduce the likelihood that I will touch a hot stove in the future.
In order to determine whether a contingency is direct-acting and what
control it exerts on behavior, it helps to understand three points: (a) the
dimensions of the consequence,( b) the difference between direct-acting and
indirect-acting contingencies, and (c) the role of behavioral rules.

Dimensions of Consequences13

Let’s review, in more detail, the dimensions of the consequences

involved in contingencies. The dimensions are temporality, probability, and
size.
Concept 7-16. Dimensions of a Consequence — temporality,
probability, and size.
Temporality
Temporality refers to the duration of time between the behavior and the
consequence. In order to be effective, the consequence must immediately
follow the behavior. For practical purposes, consider any delay between the
response and the consequence greater than 60 seconds a delayed
consequence. Figure 7-7 is a graphic representation of a contingency
involving a delayed consequence.
 Concept 7-17. Contingency with Delayed Consequences — the
consequence is presented more than 60 seconds after the
behavior.
Figure 7-7. Contingency Involving a Delayed Consequence

To illustrate the distinction between delayed and immediate

consequences, consider the following example: When I place a coin in a
vending machine, and press the selection of a snack (behavior), I receive
the snack. Before, there is no snack. After pressing the selection, there is
(after). As a result, I will more likely use the same vending machine in the
future because the consequence of pressing the snack selection is
immediate, probable, and sizeable.
The following is an example of a contingency involving a delayed
consequence. It is cold (before). I turn on the thermostat (behavior) and the
temperature increases a few minutes later (after). Even though I will turn
the thermostat on the next time I am cold, there are other processes
(discussed later in this chapter) responsible for increasing the future
likelihood of behavior when the consequence involved is delayed.
Probability
Probability refers to the certainty with which a consequence is
contingent on behavior. The situation described by Dr. Sang, in regards to
the infrequent use of motorcycle helmets, involves a contingency with an
improbable consequence.
Concept 7-18. Contingencies with Improbable Consequences —
the behavior’s consequence may or may not occur
 There is a rare probability of physical harm (before) when a person gets
on a motorcycle. Wearing a helmet (behavior) reduces the probability of
serious physical harm in the event of an accident (after). However, the
consequence of the reduction of physical harm is improbable because the
probability of an accident is rare. Therefore, the decrease in the probability
of preventing physical harm — through the use of a helmet — is so low that
this contingency is not effective in increasing the likelihood of putting on a
helmet. Figure 7-8 shows a basic diagram of a contingency involving an
improbable consequence.
Figure 7-8. Contingency with an Improbable Consequence

Contingencies involving improbable consequences exist in industrial

and nonindustrial safety situations. Common examples include putting on a
safety helmet in construction areas, wearing steel-toed shoes in a fabricating
plant, and buckling a seatbelt when driving or riding in a car. When a
person carries out these safe behaviors, the probability of reducing physical
harm is low because physical harm is rare in these scenarios. Therefore,
contingencies involving improbable consequences do not effectively
influence behavior.
Size
The size refers to whether or not the consequence is significant. This
type of contingency involves a consequence so insignificant that it does not
affect the future likelihood of the behavior; however, the cumulative effect
of repeated occurrences of the behavior may have a significant result over
the organism.
 Concept 7-19. Contingency with Small Consequences — the
consequence of behavior is so small that only the cumulative
effect of repeated incidents of that behavior have a significant
effect.
Smoking cigarettes is an example of a behavior involving a contingency
with a small but cumulative effect. First, there is the absence of smoke
(before). Inhaling a single puff(behavior) produces an almost unnoticeable
physical harm (after), One cigarette puff does not really matter; it is not
harmful. It is the cumulative effect of cigarette smoking, over a long period
of time, which produces serious illnesses. Figure 7-9 illustrates a graphic
representation of a contingency that involves a small consequence with
cumulative effect.
Figure 7-9. Contingency with a Small Consequence and a Cumulative
Effect

Even in the case of people aware of the relationship between smoking

and cancer, the natural result of smoking does not cause them to quit
smoking because the consequence of each instance of smoking is too small.
Another relevant example is the contingency involved in dieting. Eating
one high-fat meal does not increase a person’s weight. However, the
cumulative effect of multiple occurrences of high calorie and fat
consumption is increased weight. The long-term cumulative effect of
consuming excessive amounts of calories is not enough to influence
consumption of meals high in calories and fat.

Difference Between Direct-Acting and Indirect-Acting Contingencies

Direct-acting contingencies involve immediate, probable, and sizeable

consequences that directly increase or decrease the future likelihood of the
response Verbal behavior (language) is not necessary for direct-acting
contingencies to have an effect over the behavior. For instance, after
touching a hot stove and being burned your pet will probably not touch that
hot stove again — nor will an adult or a child.
Contingencies involving delayed consequences, though probable and
sizeable, are called indirect-acting contingencies. The contingency is
indirect-acting because it does control the future likelihood of the behavior,
as we will see later on in this chapter. The control of an indirect-acting
contingency on behavior is the result Of other processes and not a direct
result of the consequence’s effect.
Concept 7-20. Indirect-Acting Contingencies contingencies that
involve delayed, though probable and sizeable, consequences.
They control behavior through additional processes other than
the contingency itself.
For instance: The behavior of turning the heater on produces a delayed
consequence, but it often influences the behavior because the change in
temperature is highly probable and sizeable. Such is the case of pain relief
medication. Consuming strong medication to alleviate a headache will
increase in the future, even though its effect is not immediate, because it is
probable and sizeable. Both of these examples involve Indirect-acting
contingencies.
Ineffective contingencies are those that involve a consequence so small
or improbable that the consequence has no effect on future occurrences of
behavior.
 Concept 7-21. Ineffective Contingencies — do not control
behavior because they involve a consequence that is too small or
improbable.
The relationship between buckling a seatbelt and traffic accidents
establishes an ineffective contingency because the likelihood of getting into
a traffic accident is relatively rare. The relationship between smoking one
cigarette and cancer establishes an ineffective contingency because the
effect of one cigarette on an individual’s health is so small. Contingencies
involving improbable or insignificant consequences cause most self-control
problems. Table 7-1 classifies the effect of the contingencies based on the
dimensions of the consequences.

Table 7-1. Contingency Effect Based on the Dimensions of the

Consequences

Dimension of the Consequence

Effect on Behavior Temporality Probability Size

Direct-acting Immediate High Significant

Effective
Indirect-acting Delayed High Significant

Ineffective NA Low Insignificant

Role of Behavioral Rules

Indirect-acting contingencies that have improbable or small

consequences do not control behavior; however, those with delayed but
probable and sizable consequences do. For an indirect-acting contingency
to be effective another phenomenon comes into play: behavioral rules. A
rule is a verbal description of a contingency. The following verbal
description provides an example: If the stove is hot, and you touch it, you
will get burned. The rule describes the conditions in which the behavior
occurs, the behavior, and its consequences.
Concept 7-22. Rule — verbal description of a contingency.
It is difficult for people to establish a connection between smoking and
physical harm without an explicit description of the relationship using
behavioral rules. For example: If you smoke consistently, over a period of
years, you might develop lung cancer.
In most daily work situations, rule specification is necessary because the
work-related contingencies are often indirect-acting. Therefore, it would be
unproductive to wait for the individual to develop a rule based on his or her
direct experiences with the contingencies.
Behavioral rules are easy to follow when they describe effective
contingencies (direct and indirect-acting contingencies). They are difficult
to follow when they describe ineffective contingencies. For example:
Consume only 2,200 calories per day to avoid weight gain. This is a
difficult rule to follow because it describes an ineffective contingency.
Consuming 100 extra calories does not have a significant effect on a
person’s weight. However, the cumulative effect of many exceptions to this
rule will result in weight gain.
It would be naive to expect the people of North Thailand to wear
helmets simply because we recite the following behavioral rule to them:
Wear a helmet when riding on a motorcycle to avoid physical harm in the
case of an accident. This is a hard rule to follow because it involves an
ineffective contingency. It is improbable that an accident or physical harm
will occur. Furthermore, there is a direct-acting contingency in effect that
decreases the probability of wearing a helmet. The helmet causes an
immediate, probable, and significant increase in heat. This heat is
uncomfortable, which effectively decreases helmet use. So there is no
reason why we should expect the people in Dr. Sang’s town to wear helmets
without additional contingency support: as we will see in future chapters.
The study of contingencies and rules that operate on behavior allows us
to understand the relationship between the behavior and its consequences.
For instance, it is possible to appreciate why the people in Northern
Thailand don’t wear helmets. Using helmets increases heat and discomfort
when driving a motorcycle. The existing contingencies are not enough to
support a high frequency of helmet use. If we understand this relationship,
we can invest energy in designing contingencies that will help generate the
desired behavior. This would be more productive than blaming people
whose behaviors lack the support of effective contingencies.

Conclusions

In this chapter, we began studying the simple aspect of the paradox Of

organizational change — that is, its fundamental unit of analysis. Although
organizations are complex because they are formed by many behaviors and
multitudes of variables affecting each other, there is one main element upon
which complexity is created: the behavioral contingency.
We also reviewed, as part of this chapter, some of the necessary
elements of the analysis of existing behavior, which will be concluded in
the next chapter. The analysis of existing behavioral contingencies that
support current behavior is an essential component of reengineering an
organization.
Rather than attributing the cause of behavior to people’s internal
motivation, the focus should be on studying the relationship between a
behavior and its consequences. This type of study is called functional
assessment — an analysis of the variables that control behavior. In this
chapter, we analyzed the first six components of functional assessment:

1. What behavior is being analyzed? Behavior is defined as an action and

the “dead man test” helps to define behavior: If a dead man can do it, it
is not a behavior.
2. How often does it occur? This consists of finding out if the desired
behavior is happening infrequently or not at all — and the frequency
of the undesired behavior.
3. Whose behavior is under analysis? This refers to the specific
individual or group of individuals whose behavior is under analysis.
4. What is the consequence? A consequence of behavior can be
reinforcing or aversive. The value of the consequence depends on each
individual’s learning history.
 5. What are the antecedent stimuli? Antecedent stimuli are those that
affect the behavior and occur before the response. Three different
antecedent stimulus functions were described: the “before” condition,
the establishing operation, and the discriminative stimulus.
6. Does the contingency directly control the behavior? Direct-acting
contingencies involve immediate, probable, and sizeable
consequences. These contingencies are called direct-acting because the
consequence directly affects the future likelihood of a response.
Indirect-acting contingencies involve delayed but probable and
sizeable consequences: they are effective in controlling behavior.
Ineffective contingencies involve consequences that are too
improbable or too small to have any effect on behavior.

The remaining component of functional assessment — type of

contingency — is presented in the next chapter.

Review

Define the following terms:

Law of effect
Behavioral contingency
Direct-acting contingency
Indirect-acting contingency
Behavioral rule

Provide an original example of each one of the following indirect-acting

contingencies — contingencies involving a consequence that is:

Delayed
Improbable
Small with a cumulative effect.
 1 André Malraux (1901-1976) was a French novelist, archeologist, art
theorist, political activist, and public official.
2 Traffic accidents are a serious global problem: 1,171,000 people die
and 10 million people suffer physical injuries in traffic accidents each year.
3 Traffic accidents are a serious problem in Thailand. Leonard Evans
(1991) reported that in 1987 there were 17 vehicles for every 1,000
inhabitants, and 5 deaths per 1,000 vehicles in Thailand. On the other hand,
in 1989 there were 778 vehicles for every 1,000 inhabitants and 24 deaths
for every 1,000 vehicles in the United States.
4 For impact of the helmet-use law, “Bicycle Helmet Use in British
Columbia…” 2000, April.
5 For information on the use of helmets and their impact on traffic
safety, refer to Chenier & Evans (1987); Thompson, Rivara, & Thompson
(1996).
6 For a behavioral analysis of safety, refer to Krause, 1997; McSween;
1995; Sulzer-Azaroff, 1998.
7 Ogden Lindsley invented this concept in 1965, referenced in Malott,
Malott & Troyan, 2000.
8 For an analysis of pay systems to improve an organization’s
performance, see Abernathy, 1996; Case, 1995; Lincoln, 1951, 1961; Stack,
1992.
9 Michael mentions that Keller and Shoenfeld first used the
“establishing operation” definition in 1950.
10 Michael (1993).
11 The connector between establishing operation and consequence does
not have an arrow because the arrow is only used if the stimulus “evokes ”
the response.
12 For a light to serve as a consequence it must have acquired
conditioning properties through specific behavioral procedures.
13 R. W. Malott, 1988, 1992; R, W, Malott & M, E. Malott, 1987,1990;
Malott, Malott & Trojan, 2000; Malott, Malott, & Shimamune, 1992a,
1992b.
Chapter 8
Behavior: Part II
CHAPTER 8
 BEHAVIOR: PART II
Actions speak louder than words.
Anonymous

Chopin Concert

At her death, Leonora Arazola had donated a good part of her estate to
Saint Guadalupe’s University to build the Frederic Chopin Theatre.
Construction took two-and-a-half years and the wait created great
expectations of the theatre’s inauguration. Leonora studied music at Saint
Guadalupe’s University when she was young and became a renowned
pianist. She toured around the world for years, playing the piano with the
Lombardo Symphonic Orchestra. Leonora loved the romantics from the
XVIII century, such as List, Berlioz, and Mendelssohn. But nobody came
close to her favorite: Frederic Chopin. She mastered his entire work —
including the two concerts, twenty-seven etudes and a variety of waltzes,
mazurkas, and Polynesians.
The auditorium was filled to capacity the night of the inauguration.
Leonora’s family sat with the university elite: the president, provost, deans,
and high administrators. Special seats were reserved for professors and
students from the school of music. The rest of the theatre was overflowing
with staff, other students, and relatives.
University President Anthony Ferraro began the evening’s festivities by
speaking about Leonora’s life and her contributions to music and the
university. Then he spoke about Leonora’s passion for Chopin and the
stories she shared about the great composer with her students, stories
Ferraro himself had heard more than once: how little Frederic was so
sensitive that his eyes would fill with tears whenever he listened to piano
music … how he had given his first concert at the age of eight … how the
competent Joseph Elsner, director of the Warsaw conservatory, had helped
Chopin reach success as a composer and pianist at the age of 19 … how he
had moved to Paris when the revolution began in Warsaw … how fragile
his health was and his death at the age of 39.
That night, the concert included a respectable group of pianists. But the
opening piece had been reserved for Pam, Leonora’s 19-year-old
granddaughter. She had grown up playing Leonora’s favorite Chopin piece:
the Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. Posth, which lasted three minutes and
59 seconds. Pam had played that piece for Leonora in the last days of her
grandmother’s life to bring her peace. And that was the nocturne that would
open the concert, the only piece that Pam would play that night.
Pam walked to the center of the stage, took a deep breath and allowed
her fingers to fly over the piano. With each keystroke, one could feel her
body and soul fill the theater with passion and sweetness. As Pam played
Chopin’s nocturne, the audience felt the emotion and appreciated the
beauty. It was as if time had come to a stand still for 150 years; her music
revived the same emotion in the audience that Chopin generated a century
and a half ago and that Leonora evoked before her death.

Functional Assessment (Part Il)

Why did Pam develop the behavioral repertoire of playing the piano
with so much passion? Why do some people develop such complex
behavioral repertoire such as Leonora and Chopin, and others do not?
There are several common factors between Pam, Leonora, and Frederic
Chopin himself: even if their skill level, technique, and creativity varied.
All three invested in many hours of practice. The other common factor was
that a close relative appreciated music and had some level of skill as a
pianist and influenced their repertoire’s development. Such had been the
role of Leonora and Chopin’s parents, as well as the role Leonora played in
her granddaughter’s life. Their close relatives provided behavioral
contingencies that effectively increased the frequency of practicing the
piano as well as the appreciation for music.
In the previous chapter, various aspects of functional assessment were
explained: What behavior is being analyzed? How often does it occur?
Whose behavior is under analysis? What is the consequence of behavior?
Which are the antecedent stimuli? Does the contingency directly control the
behavior?
This chapter begins with the last component of functional assessment:
What type of contingency is it? In order to illustrate the types of
contingencies, fictional situations will be reviewed that may have affected
the development of Pam’s repertoire.
Behavioral repertoires result from an incalculable number and type of
behavioral contingencies. It is impossible to determine the specific
behavioral contingencies that founded a sophisticated repertoire such as the
one Pam developed. A behavioral history is too complex to grasp in
retrospect. The behavioral repertoire’s complexity is even greater when we
consider that, in any given moment, a person is exposed to several
behavioral contingencies at once. However, given the lack Of scientific
evidence, we can deduce the predominant behavioral contingencies that
shape a behavioral repertoire. Even if the deduction is speculative, it
provides an appreciation of how environment may play a role in shaping
behavior.

What Is the Type of Contingency?

To identify the type of contingency operating on behavior, it must be

established whether the consequence is reinforcing or aversive for the
individual who emits the response, As detailed in the previous chapter,
events or stimuli are not inherently reinforcers or aversives: their value
depends on the individual’S history. For instance, looking down from the
top of a cliff may be a reinforcer for some and aversive for others.
However, some stimuli are neutral because they do not influence behavior.
Concept 8-1. Neutral Stimuli — do not have any influence on
behavior.
Second, it must be known if the relationship between the behavior and
consequence is one the of presentation or removal. The combination of the
consequence value and its relationship to behavior describes the four basic
behavioral contingencies: (1) presentation of a reinforcing stimulus, known
as reinforcement; (2) removal of a reinforcing stimulus, known as penalty;
(3) presentation of an aversive stimulus, known as punishment; and (4)
removal of an aversive stimulus, known as escape. Two of the
contingencies tend to increase the future likelihood of a behavior,
reinforcement and escape. The other two tend to decrease the future
likelihood of a behavior, punishment and penalty. Table 8-1 summarizes the
distinction between the four basic behavioral contingencies
Table 8-1. Distinction Between the Basic Behavioral Contingencies

Relationship to Behavior

Consequence Value Presentation Removal

Reinforcement Penalty
Reinforcer
(Increase frequency) (Decrease frequency)

Punishment Escape
Aversive
(Decrease frequency) (Increase frequency)

In addition to the basic contingencies, there are two avoidance

contingencies that prevent either the presentation of an aversive condition
or the removal of a reinforcer( more on this later in the chapter).

Basic Contingencies

Reinforcement
Presenting a reinforcer immediately after the behavior increases the
future likelihood of that behavior. This contingency is known as
reinforcement.
Concept 8-2. Reinforcement stimulus, event, object, or condition
that when presented immediately after the behavior increases its
future likelihood.
Figure 8-1 shows an example of a reinforcement contingency; Before
playing the piano, Pam feels no emotion (before), Playing the piano
(behavior) generates emotion (after). The change between the “before” and
“after” conditions resulted in the presentation of emotion.
Figure 8-1. Two Examples of Reinforcement Contingencies

Escape
When the behavior causes the removal of an aversive stimulus, event, or
situation, the future likelihood of that response increases. This contingency
is known as escape.
Concept 8-3. Escape — aversive stimulus, event, or condition that
when removed immediately after a behavior increases the future
likelihood of that behavior.
Figure 8-2 shows an example of an escape contingency. Assume that
Pam often feels stressed and playing the piano calms her. Before playing the
piano, Pam experiences anxiety (before). Playing the piano (behavior)
reduces that anxiety (after) by producing a feeling of liberation from the
aversive tension.
Figure 8-2. Example of an Escape Contingency

Punishment
When an aversive stimulus, event, or condition is contingent on
behavior, the future likelihood of that behavior decreases. This contingency
is known as punishment.
 Concept 8-4. Punishment — aversive stimulus, event, or condition
that when presented immediately after a behavior decreases the
future likelihood of that behavior.
For instance, if playing the piano (behavior) is usually followed by
Leonora’s criticism,t he absence of criticism before playing (before) and the
presence of criticism after playing (after) results in a decreased probability
that Pam will play the piano in front of Leonora in the future. Figure 8-3
shows an example of a punishment contingency for piano playing.
Figure 8-3. Example of a Punishment Contingency

Penalty
When the behavior causes the loss of a reinforcing event or condition,
the future likelihood of that behavior decreases. This contingency is known
as penalty.
Concept 8-5. Penalty — stimulus, event or condition that when
removed immediately after a behavior decreases the future
likelihood of that behavior.
For instance, the frequency with which Pam plays the piano will
decrease if the audience leaves while she plays. Before playing, Pam has an
audience (before). When she plays the piano (response), she loses her
audience (after). Figure 8-4 shows a diagram of a penalty contingency.
Figure 8-4. Example of a Penalty Contingency
Avoidance Contingencies

An avoidance contingency is one that either prevents the presentation of

an aversive stimulus or prevents the removal of a reinforcer. Both types of
avoidance contingencies cause an increase in the future probability of the
response.
Concept 8.6. Avoidance Contingency — the behavior prevents the
presentation of an aversive stimulus or the removal of a
reinforcer.
Avoidance of the Presentation of an Aversive Condition
Because Pam’s piano playing might have been punished by the constant
criticism of Leonora in the past, Pam could do something that prevents
Leonora’s criticism; for instance, asking Leonora not to attend her piano
practice sessions. Before asking there will be criticism (before). Asking
(behavior) will prevent criticism (after). Figure 8-5 shows a contingency
diagram of the example of the avoidance of the presentation of an aversive
condition.
Figure 8-5. Example of the Avoidance of the Presentation of an Aversive
Condition

Avoidance of the Loss of a Reinforcer

 There is nothing that Pam loves more than having an attentive audience
during her practice sessions
1

. She gets annoyed when the telephone rings during the session because
someone will leave the room and the audience will be distracted from her
music. This happens almost every day. Pam can prevent losing the attention
of the audience by disconnecting the phone before her practice. Initially,
Pam lost the attention of the audience (before). By disconnecting the
telephone (behavior) she will no longer lose the attention (after). This
contingency consists of avoidance of the loss of a reinforcer. Figure 8-6
illustrates this type of avoidance contingency.
Figure 8-6. Example of Avoidance of the Loss of an Reinforcer

Avoidance of the loss of a reinforcer could involve a deadline.

Deadlines set the occasion for avoidance of the loss of the opportunity for a
reinforcer. For instance, assume that Pam loves to attend her piano lessons.
But her music instructor is very uptight, and if Pam arrives one minute after
6 p.m. (the scheduled time) the instructor leaves and Pam loses out on her
piano lesson. So Pam will avoid losing the opportunity for her piano lesson
by arriving at 6 p.m. (behavior). In this case, 6 p.m. acts as a discriminative
stimulus. Any time after 6 p.m. acts as an SΔ because the condition after
arriving is that she will lose the opportunity for a piano lesson. Figure 8-7
illustrates this avoidance contingency.
Figure 8-6. Avoidance of the Opportunity to Lose a Reinforcer
Extinction

Extinction is a procedure in which reinforcement of a previously

reinforced behavior is discontinued. Let’s suppose that the behavior of
playing the piano is reinforced by the audience’s attention. When Pam
begins to play, she normally attracts people to the room who pay devoted
attention to her music. Generally, before playing the piano, Pam does not
have an audience (before). Playing the piano (response) results in the
audience entering the room (after). In the extinction procedure, playing the
piano no longer attracts an audience. Figure 8-8 illustrates the difference
between reinforcement and extinction.
Figure 8-8. Comparison Between Reinforcement and Extinction
 When the extinction procedure of a reinforcement contingency is
implemented, the frequency of the response tends to increase temporarily
and later decreases until the behavior ceases to occur. This phenomenon is
known as resistance to extinction.
Concept 8-7. Resistance to Extinction — when the reinforcement
contingency is not in effect, the behavior’s frequency increases
temporarily and then decreases until the behavior ceases to occur.
The extinction procedure may likewise be applied to escape. This might
be the case when playing music no longer eases anxiety (if, in the past,
playing the piano was soothing). Figure 8-9 illustrates the differences
between escape and extinction. Notice that the before and after conditions
are the same in the extinction condition.
Figure 8-9. Comparison Between Escape and Extinction

Concept 8-8. Extinction — procedure in which reinforcement of a

previously reinforced behavior is discontinued. In the extinction
 procedure, the before and after conditions are the same.

How Do You Complete a Functional Assessment?

A functional assessment allows us to identify the contingencies that

support a behavior before attempting to change it. It answers, in a
systematic fashion, to questions such as: What function does the behavior
play on the environment? What is the relationship between the behavior and
its consequence? Why doesn’t the appropriate behavior occur frequently or
why does the inappropriate behavior occur too often?2 Table 8-2
summarizes the questions of a functional assessment.

Table 8-2. Functional Assessment

Functional Assessment

What behavior is under analysis? Give an example and a

Behavior
non-example.

Frequency How often does it occur?

Performer Whose behavior is under analysis?

Is the consequence a reinforcer, an aversive condition,

Consequence
or a neutral stimulus?

What are the antecedent stimuli?

- Specify the before condition.

Antecedents
- If there is an establishing operation, specify.

- If there is a discriminative stimulus, specify.

Contingency Does the contingency directly control behavior?

 Functional Assessment

Specify the dimensions of the consequence: immediate

or delayed, probable or improbable, significant or too
small.

Specify if the contingency is direct-acting, indirect-

acting, or ineffective.

Specify if the relationship between the behavior and the

consequence is presentation, removal, or avoidance

What type of contingency is it? Choose one of the

following:

- Specify if the contingency is reinforcement,

punishment, penalty, or escape.

- Specify if the contingency is avoidance, either by the

prevention of an aversive stimulus, or by the prevention
of the removal (or the loss of an opportunity) of a
reinforcer.

- Specify if there is no contingency. Extinction.

As a matter of illustration, Table 8-3 shows an example of a functional

assessment of Pam’s piano-playing behavior.

Table 8-3. Example of a Functional Assessment

Example of Functional Assessment

Behavior What behavior is under analysis? Playing piano.

Frequency How often does it occur? Everyday about 9 p.m.

 Example of Functional Assessment

Performer Whose behavior is under analysis? Pam’s

Consequence Which consequence is under study? Attentive audience.

Which are the antecedent stimuli? The before condition

is no audience
Antecedents
SD: 9 p.m. is when people at home rest and look forward
to her playing.

Does the contingency directly control behavior? The

contingency controls behavior indirectly because the
attentive audience is a probable, sizeable, and delayed
consequence. It takes several minutes for the audience
to come to the living room when they first listen to the
music.
Contingency
Specify the contingency: indirect-acting.

Relationship between behavior and consequence: The

audience (consequence) is presented after playing the
piano (behavior).

Type of contingency: a basic reinforcement contingency

Other contingencies play a role in Pam’s piano playing. Once Pam

begins to Play, the melody she generates directly reinforces her desire to
continue playing during practice. A behavior is generally influenced by
several contingencies at the same time. A functional assessment allows
focusing on the contingencies that most likely influence the behavior under
study.

From Task to Behavior

 Systems analysis allows us to focus on an organization’s critical aspects.
This is important because a behavioral change takes time, effort, and
resources. If we examine an organization in a random fashion, we may
invest time in irrelevant aspects.
Chapters 3 to 6 described how to use behavioral systems analysis with
metacontingencies. The analysis went from the general to the specific:
macrosystem, organization, process, subprocess, and general tasks.
Transition from interlocking behavioral contingencies to individual
behavior is dope through the analysis of the specific tasks. A task consists
of a group of behaviors that generates a product. A task analysis —a s seen
in Chapter 6 — concludes with an indication of the tasks that must remain,
the ones that may be eliminated, and the ones that should be modified to
improve the processes.
Going from a detailed task analysis to a more specific behavior analysis
requires two steps: the specification of behaviors within critical tasks and a
functional assessment of the last behavior within analogs to stimulus-
response chains.

Specification of Behaviors Within Critical Tasks

Chapter 6 (Task) centered on a story involving the publishing of a

weekly advertising circular. The production of the weekly circular involved
six subprocesses. One of them alone — information processing — involved
more than 250 tasks carried out by 15 different people from several
departments. The task analysis concluded with the identification of eight
critical tasks: one of which was generating a list of promotional products.
The list included the information necessary to publish an ad; for instance,
the price of the item and date of the advertisement. The buyer carried out
this task, which involved more than the behavior of writing the information
on the weekly circular. The buyer had to review information from the
previous year, select the products that had generated the most profit, review
the sale price, review the report on the competitor’s price, review the
images in the electronic library, and handwrite a summary of the
information in a list that would eventually go to the Advertising
department.
 The tasks that the buyer had to carry out, in order to create a list of
necessary products, constituted a stimulus response chain in which the final
behavior was writing out the information. The term stimulus-response chain
generally refers to a sequence of discriminative stimuli and responses in
which each response, except for the very last one in the chain, serves as a
discriminative stimulus for the next response.
Concept 8-9. Stimulus-Response Chain — a sequence of
discriminative stimuli and responses in which each response,
except for the very last one in the chain, serves as a
discriminative stimulus for the following response.
As far as Pam’s behavior of playing the piano, it is easy to understand
the stimulus-response chain. Pressing one piano key serves as a
discriminative stimulus for pressing the next key in a melody: the presence
of the sound in one key, the next keystroke, will produce a component of a
melody.
However, the behaviors involved in generating a list of promotional
products are not contiguous like in playing a melody. It is possible that a
buyer may be interrupted in the middle of filling out the information, pause,
and continue it later: or begin to fill out the information and realize that part
of it is incorrect. Generating the list might take several days,
Because of the lack of contiguity between responses, the behaviors
involved in generating the promotional list represent an analog to stimulus-
response chain. An analog is a process that is similar to another, but it is
inherently different. The chain of responses necessary to produce a musical
piece is similar to the chain of responses necessary to generate a list of
promotional products. They are similar in that they both involve a series of
behaviors that reach a final product: a melody or a list. However, they are
different because the contingencies involved in generating the product are
of a different nature. A stimulus-response chain, in the case of Pam’s
playing the piano, involves direct-acting contingencies only — with
immediate, significant, and probable consequences and no need of rule
statements to control behaviors in the chain. A stimulus-response chain, in
the case of generating a list of promotional products, involves indirect-
acting contingencies — with delayed consequences and the need for rule
statements between instances of behavior in the chain to generate the final
product.
Concept 8-10. Analog to Stimulus-Response Chain — sequence of
stimuli and responses in which one response may save as an
antecedent stimulus for another response, with the exception of
the last one. The sequence between the components of the chain is
not continuous and it involves indirect and ineffective
contingencies.

Functional Assessment of the Last Behavior in the Chain

Each task in a detailed process map involves the behavior (or group of
behaviors)o fa single individual and the aggregate product. When we study
behavior, we ought to go one more level of analysis down from the task. We
ought to analyze the set of behaviors involved in each single task and
determine the last behavior in that set, which results in the task’s aggregate
product.
A functional-assessment of the last behavior in a stimulus-response
chain is enough to establish the basis for behavioral change. If we are able
to affect the last behavior, the rest of the behaviors in the chain will most
likely be affected as well.
If very complex chains are chosen, it is possible that no results will
materialize. A rule of thumb for establishing the chain of behaviors’ level of
specificity is selecting behaviors that have to be carried out within a few
hours. If the chosen chain’s components take weeks or months, the chain
will be too general to prove effective in a behavioral change. In such a case,
general tasks would be used — not behaviors in detailed tasks.
The functional assessment concludes with a summary of the critical
performers, behaviors,t he frequency with which the behaviors occur, and
the description of existing contingencies that maintain the rate of those
behaviors. Figure 8-10 shows an example of a functional assessment of the
existing contingencies for critical behaviors in the production of the weekly
circular in Chapter 6.
 Figure 8-10. Functional Assessment Summary of Critical Behaviors in the
Production of a Weekly Circular3

Figure 8-10 shows a functional assessment summary of the last

behavior in analogs to stimulus-response chains for eight critical tasks
identified in Chapter 6. The analysis shows that the existing contingencies
are ineffective in generating the desired behavior for the buyer (writing a
list of products to advertise), the advertising coordinator (creating a sketch
for the weekly circular on time), and the designer (turning in a quality
page). The natural contingency for writing a list of products to advertise
involves more effort from the buyer, and there are no contingencies in place
for the advertising coordinator or for the designer’s behavior.
Notice that the existing contingencies for the critical behaviors of the
remaining performers in the process consist of indirect-acting avoidance. At
the end of the process, deadlines have to be implemented in order for the
circular to be inserted in the Sunday edition of the newspaper. Deadlines
establish opportunities to complete the next critical step in the process. For
instance, if the administrative assistant does not e-mail the camera-ready
copy on time, there will not be an opportunity to publish the circular; if the
production coordinator does not print the circular on time, there won’t be an
opportunity to deliver it to the newspaper…
Deadlines are not effective, however, if they do not have a bearing in
the delivery of the consequence. Such is the case for preparing the sketch
on time. There are no consequences for the advertising coordinator to meet
timeliness criteria. Because the deadline is not enforced, it does not make a
difference.

Conclusions

With this chapter, the section regarding functional assessment of

behavior is concluded. The behavior level is the fifth component in the
model for change and the first component of engineering and sustaining
change with behavioral contingencies. Figure 8-11 shows the first five
components of the model for organizational change.
As presented all along in this book, the environment where change
occurs — organizations and their processes —i s complex and dynamic,
making the evolution of organizations seem chaotic and unpredictable. This
chapter addressed the most elemental component of change: the existing
behavioral contingencies that sustain current performance. The behavior
contingency illustrates simple, constant, and orderly aspects of the paradox
of change. The constant aspect is based on the relationship between
behavior and its consequences, which always affects future behavior. The
orderly aspect comes from the ability to predict future behavior based on
the understanding of the existing behavioral contingencies.
In this chapter, the last component of a functional assessment was
studied: What type of contingency is it? There are three types of
relationships between the behavior and the consequence: presentation,
removal, and avoidance of either a reinforcer or an aversive stimulus. Those
behavior-consequence relationships determine the four basic contingencies:
reinforcement, punishment, penalty, and escape. It is also the classification
for two types of avoidance contingencies. Extinction of previously
reinforced behavior was also discussed.
Finally, we saw that the processes within an organization involve a
multitude Of tasks, It is important to focus on the critical tasks within a
process in order to simplify the analysis and pinpoint the tasks that may be
eliminated and the tasks that should be modified to increase the
effectiveness of a process.
A behavioral analysis of all behaviors in a task may be complex and
unnecessary. Going from a detailed task analysis to a more specific
behavior analysis requires two steps: the specification of behaviors within
critical tasks and a functional assessment of the last task within a chain of
responses.
Figure 8-11. Levels 1-5 of the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model
 Review

1. How do you link a task analysis to a functional assessment of

behavior? Explain.
2. Identify an undesirable behavior in your workplace that happens on a
regular basis. Perform a functional assessment using Table 8-4.

Table 8-4. Application of Functional Assessment

Functional Assessment

What behavior is under analysis? Give an example and a

Behavior
non-example.

Frequency How often does it occur?

Performer Whose behavior is under analysis?

Is the consequence a reinforcer, an aversive condition,

Consequence
or a neutral stimulus?

What are the antecedent stimuli?

- Specify the before condition.

Antecedents
- If there is an establishing operation, specify.

- If there is a discriminative stimulus, specify.

Contingency Does the contingency directly control behavior?

Specify the dimensions of the consequence: immediate

or delayed, probable or improbable, significant or too
small.

Specify if the contingency is direct-acting, indirect-

acting, or ineffective.
 Functional Assessment

Specify if the relationship between the behavior and the

consequence is presentation, removal, or avoidance

What type of contingency is it? Choose one of the

following:

- Specify if the contingency is reinforcement,

punishment, penalty, or escape.

- Specify if the contingency is avoidance, either by the

prevention of an aversive stimulus, or by the prevention
of the removal (or the loss of an opportunity) of a
reinforcer.

- Specify if there is no contingency. Extinction.

1 Of course, there are other reinforcers for playing the piano, in addition
to having an audience. For instance, the sound of the music. In this
example, however, I highlight the audience as a reinforcer to illustrate
avoidance of the loss of a reinforcer.
2 For texts about basic principles of behavior analysis, see Baldwin &
Baldwin, 1998; Daniels, 1989, 1994, 2000; Malott & Whaley, 1976; Martin
& Paw, 1996; Miler, 1997; Sulzer-Azaroff & Mayer, 1991.
3 In the case of the advertising coordinator,finishing a sketch does not
produce any consequences. Therefore, there is no incentive for completing
it on time.
 Chapter 9
Management
 CHAPTER 9

MANAGEMENT
The end may justify the means as long as there is something that
justifies the end.
Attributed to Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)1

The Penalty2

In the United States alone:

Traffic accidents are the number one cause of death for individuals
between the ages of six and 33.
Someone dies in a motor vehicle crash every 11 minutes.
Nearly 42,000 people die each year in traffic accidents.
More than four million traffic-accident survivors suffer significant
physical damage.
The annual cost of medical treatment for victims of traffic accidents is
more than $71 billion, including more than $46 million in salaries.
Using a seat belt would prevent approximately 55 percent of accident-
related deaths and 65 percent of physical injuries.
There are laws regarding seat belt use in 49 states and the District of
Columbia.
Approximately 39 percent of the population does not wear a seat belt.3

Since retiring as a division commander from the police force, ex-captain

Jim Harmond worked in a government-funded agency helping communities
across the United States increase seat belt usage. How? Through the
implementation of Publicized Enforcement, an intervention program
developed in Elmira, New York.4
 Here is how it works: A time frame is established wherein a
community’s police officers actively increase the number of tickets they
write to drivers and passengers not wearing seat belts. This time frame is
announced publicly, through the media, prior to the event. Various
organizations are invited to participate in the implementation, including the
local police agency, area newspapers, the chamber of commerce, and the
community’s major businesses.
Although each intervention is adapted to the characteristics of the
respective community, all have the same components5: education, baseline
data collection, media campaign, increased enforcement, and post-
intervention data collection6.
Education. The first step in the Publicized Enforcement process is to
educate representatives from organizations involved with social, economic,
and personal consequences of failure to use a seat belt — including
members of the regional media and the police departments. Data on actual
accidents are presented, including physical descriptions of those who wore
seat belts versus those who did not. The data allow participants to
appreciate the positive benefits of using seat belts. Participants are also
informed about the program’s mission to increase seat belt usage in other
communities. Summary: The training sessions detail the need for
intervention to prevent unnecessary deaths and physical injuries due to
failure to buckle up.
Baseline Data Collection. The second component of the intervention
involves collecting baseline data on seat belt use, which is measured as the
percentage of the members of the community who use seat belts. Teams of
volunteers from the representative organizations collect two weeks worth of
data from locations with the heaviest traffic volume. Using a random
sampling procedure, they record the number of cars audited along with the
number of drivers and passengers wearing seat belts.
Media Campaign. The third step in the process is to educate the public
through a media campaign, detailing the baseline measures of seat belt use
in their area (usually showing a significant opportunity for improvement)
and the success of Publicized Enforcement in other communities. Through
newspapers and radio/ television programs, the public is informed about the
annual number of deaths and injuries from traffic accidents. In additions the
community is advised about the upcoming effort to increase police
enforcement of seat belt use. An example of this type of advisory is as
follows: Between August 15th and 30th, area police officers will intensify
their traffic-safety efforts. Drivers and passengers not wearing seatbelts
will be ticketed.
Increased Enforcement. The fourth step requires the police department
to increase its number of patrol units during the event, especially in heavy
traffic zones. Sponsors believe writing a ticket to an unbelted individual is a
contribution to the well-being of that person and the community. Police
officers write their tickets during the intervention and are rewarded
afterwards with praise by their peers and managers, based on the number of
tickets issued.
Post-Intervention Data Collection. The final step of the intervention
consists of measuring seat belt usage immediately following the period of
increased enforcement, with the same procedures used during the baseline
data collection. Figure 9-1 shows the seat belt use in 12 different cities in
the United States before and after a Publicized Enforcement intervention.
Figure 9-1 clearly indicates increased seat belt usage after each Publicized
Enforcement intervention.
Figure 9-1. Effect of Publicized Enforcement Interventions in Cities Across
the United States

Performance Management
 The success of Publicized Enforcement interventions is attributed to
performance management— implementing effective contingencies when
existing contingencies do not bring about the expected behavioral change.
Effective contingencies require probable and sizable consequences.

Existing Contingencies

Existing contingencies are the conditions that maintain the behavior

before attempting to change it. Consider the existing contingencies for seat
belt use before the community-wide Publicized Enforcement intervention
took place.
There are two existing contingencies in effect that could be considered.
The first is ineffective and does not support seat belt use. Upon entering the
car, there is an infinitesimally low probability of injury or death (before).
Buckling the seat belt (behavior) causes an infinitesimally lower probability
of injury or death (after). The probability of injury or death is very low
before and after buckling up. Thus, the low probability involved in this
existing contingency does not affect behavior7.
The other existing contingency consists of an effective direct-acting
punishment contingency, which decreases seat belt use. There is no
discomfort (before) prior buckling the seat belt (behavior). Immediately
afterwards, however, there is discomfort (after). This is an effective
contingency in reducing seat belt use. Summary: One existing contingency
is ineffective at increasing seat belt usage and the other is effective at
decreasing it. Figure 9-2 shows the two existing contingencies operating in
reference to buckling up.
Concept 9-1. Existing Contingency — a contingency that
maintains behavior before a performance management
intervention.
Figure 9-2. Ineffective and Effective Existing Contingencies of Seat Belt
Use
 Performance Management Contingencies

When existing contingencies do not support the target behavior intended

for change, performance management contingencies are implemented.
Concept 9-2 Performance Management Contingency — an
artificial contingency used as an intervention to alter a target
behavior not supported by existing contingencies.
The Publicized Enforcement intervention involves an effective
performance management contingency for seat belt use where existing
contingencies fail. Between August 15th and August 30th, there is a higher
probability of getting a ticket (before). Buckling up (behavior), however,
eliminates the probability of being ticketed for a seat belt infraction (after).8
This is an indirect-acting escape contingency because buckling up
effectively eliminates the chances of getting a seat belt ticket. Figure 9-3
shows the performance management contingency implemented in the
Publicized Enforcement intervention.
Figure 9-3. Management Contingency for Seat Belt Use in the Publicized
Enforcement Intervention
 Performance management contingencies often involve deadlines. For
instance, homework is due on a specific day or the opportunity for
evaluation is lost. An employee has to arrive at 8 a.m. or the boss will issue
a reprimand. Deadlines impose an opportunity to lose something (either a
reward or removal of aversive conditions). Deadlines act as discriminative
stimuli because the individual prevents losing a reward or receiving an
aversive consequence by engaging in the expected behaviors9. The high
probability of getting a ticket only exists between August 15th and August
30th. The probability of getting a seat belt-related ticket outside of this time
frame is low. Deadlines bring about conditions that set up fear, worry, or
other sorts of aversive conditions. For instance, students worry about failing
the night before an exam, so studying (behavior) reduces the aversive
feeling.

Engineering Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies

Two months after the Publicized Enforcement intervention, Jim

Harmond returned to the community. He brought together the team that
collected data for the first intervention and sent them out once again: this
time to assess maintenance of increased seat belt usage after the
intervention. The data revealed that seat belt usage had decreased
significantly.
A second Publicized Enforcement intervention was then conducted.
Results were similar to those generated by the first intervention: seat belt
usage increased. Jim returned four months after the second intervention,
gathered together the same team and collected more follow-up data. Again,
results showed the percentage of seat belt usage had decreased.
Eight months after the second Publicized Enforcement intervention, the
team measured again. Seat belt usage had decreased even further; it was
almost reaching baseline levels. Figure 9-4 shows the percentage of seat
belt usage after the two Publicized Enforcement interventions and follow-
ups.
Figure 9-4. Follow-ups on the Percentage of Seat Belt Use After the
Publicized Enforcement Intervention
 The post-event decrease in seat belt usage was repeated in each
community that Publicized Enforcement interventions took place. Team
members became frustrated. Why — after all of the training, information
gathering, public media campaigns, and police officer recognition — were
the results not maintained?
Jim realized that issuing tickets was critical to maintaining high rates of
seat belt usage among drivers and passengers; and police officers were the
ones responsible for penalizing those who failed to buckle up. The police
officers were performance managers because they delivered the
consequences of the Publicized Enforcement intervention.
Concept 9-3. Performance Manager — one who is in charge of
delivering the consequences when implementing performance
management contingencies.
It is important to distinguish between performance managers and
administrative managers. Administrative managers are those to whom we
report administratively; they are the ones that evaluate our performance and
determine our pay, Performance managers are those who ensure that the
consequences of performance management interventions are delivered. The
administrative managers are often in the best position to serve as
performance managers, but this is not always the case. To effectively
change behavior we need performance managers. Administrative managers
who do not arrange for implementing performance management
contingencies will not stimulate change effectively.
To understand why seat belt use decreased after both Publicized
Enforcement interventions, it is important to understand what happens to
the behavior of the performance managers (police officers) writing tickets.
Figure 9-5 shows the percentage of tickets the police wrote two and four
months after a Publicized Enforcement intervention in a different
community.
Figure 9-5. Rate of Ticketing After Two and Four Months of Implementing
Publicized Enforcement Intervention

Ticketing frequency decreased in proportion to seat belt usage. People

stopped buckling up because they were no longer penalized for
noncompliance. Why would police officers stop writing tickets if they
realized how important the traffic reprimands were to increasing the
community’s safety?
During the two weeks of Publicized Enforcement, the police agency
monitored the number of tickets issued and recognized/rewarded the police
officers who issued the highest number. When the two weeks of Publicized
Enforcement ended, however, so did the recognition/reward element, There
was no system in place to maintain a high rate of ticketing.
 Take a look, now, at the existing and performance management
contingencies operating here. There were no consequences for writing seat
belt related tickets before the Publicized Enforcement intervention. Police
officers considered non. compliance a minor offense and they were far more
interested in major crimes. Issuing a seat belt ticket added work that did not
result in professional recognition or advancement. The existing contingency
consisted mainly of the increased effort resulting from writing the ticket;
this was a direct-acting punishment contingency that effectively decreased
the frequency of issuing tickets. Figure 9-6 shows a diagram of the existing
contingency.
Figure 9-6. Existing Contingency for Police Officers Issuing Traffic Tickets

The performance management intervention added an effective

contingency that operated during the two weeks of Publicized Enforcement.
Prior to writing a ticket, there was the opportunity to lose positive feedback
(before). A high rate of ticketing (behavior) resulted in not losing the
positive feedback (after). The performance management contingency
consisted of an indirect-acting avoidance contingency. Ticketing prevented
the loss of the opportunity to receive recognition. Figure 9-7 shows the
performance management contingency for the police officers during the
Publicized Enforcement intervention.
Figure 9-7. Performance Management Contingency for Issuing Traffic
Tickets

A contingency analysis should not stop with the behavior of the police
officers. Figure 9-8 shows the levels of management and specific behaviors
requiring performance management to support a high rate of seat belt usage.
Figure 9-8. Levels of Performance Management Needed to Support
Publicized Enforcement Interventions10

Concept 9-4. Management of the Manager — contingencies that

maintain the behavior of the manager implementing
consequences for the behavior change of others.
Concept 9-5. Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies at Various
Levels of Management — design behavioral contingencies at all
levels of management that ultimately support the targeted
behavior change. The interlock consists of a manager delivering
the consequences for the contingencies of those in the level below.
Private citizens and influential groups have the power to exert
tremendous pressure on public administrators, particularly if the people
exerting the pressure have suffered the devastating consequences of being
in a car accident without wearing a seat belt — or know someone who has.
Citizen groups in the United States have influenced legislative changes and
increased enforcement of seat belt usage, speeding, and drunk driving.
A similar situation exists in organizations. Customers should ultimately
support performance management interventions, otherwise it is hard to
maintain them. How can customer demands become the last performance
management contingency in change interventions? By designing
interlocking behavioral contingencies at all levels of management. Figure 9-
9 shows an analysis of behavioral contingencies that can support the
intervention of ticketing drivers and passengers who fail to buckle up.
Figure 9-9. Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies at Various Management
Levels

Figure 9-911 shows the contingency design necessary to successfully

implement an intervention affecting the use of seat belts in the community,
Notice that opportunities for positive feedback establish avoidance
contingencies.
It is foolish to attempt organizational change by focusing all reform
efforts on the last person in the hierarchy, the one who ultimately performs
the processes. The police department wants officers to write more tickets
for seat belt infractions; however, it does not alter the behaviors of those
who rank above the officers. This is usually because those who make the
decisions for change — upper management — exclude themselves from the
change equation. Without changing the behavior of those in the middle- and
upper-level hierarchy, interventions are not maintainable.
The more levels of administrative management in an organization the
harder the change process. Why? Because it takes a tremendous amount of
design work to create interlocking behavioral contingencies that are directly
linked to the ultimate target behavior. A direct link might be an impossible
task if the organization is too bureaucratic.

Developing Control Systems

In order to maintain multiple levels of behavior management

contingencies, we need a control system. A control system is one that
provides information to evaluate if contingencies are maintained and
expected aggregate results are obtained. Typically, control systems involve
integrated feedback systems.
Concept 9-6. Control Systems for Behavioral Engineering —
provide information to evaluate the implementation of behavioral
contingencies at multiple management levels and the
accomplishment of expected aggregate results.
In order to maintain a high frequency of traffic tickets, a system needs
to be designed to provide data about the implementation of all interlocking
behavioral contingencies involved in the intervention. It is essential to keep
track of the percentage of passengers and drivers who buckle up; the
frequency with which police officers issue tickets; the percentage of
sergeants who provide positive feedback to police officers for high
enforcement of seat belt use; the percentage of lieutenants who give
positive feedback to sergeants for high enforcement of their shifts… and so
on.
As you can imagine, it would take a tremendous amount of work to
collect and process information about the implementation of multiple-level,
interlocking behavioral contingencies. That is why, in order to develop
effective interventions, contingencies and the technology infrastructure that
allows process feedback (like presented in Chapter 6) need to be designed.
Without effective technology, it would be hard to maintain behavioral
interventions due to the high response cost needed for ongoing evaluation.
Organizations often fail to develop effective control systems for their
change interventions. At their best, they develop systems to collect data on
the Organizations’ aggregate products, such as sales, market share, and
inventory turns. Although such data are needed, they are not sufficient to
sustain behavioral interventions. Data on implementation of performance
management contingencies and their results are essential if organizations
are to avoid “watering down” their change interventions.

Adjusting Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies

The engineering of behavioral contingencies is never ending. Just like

the systems we are trying to change are constantly evolving, the fine-tuning
of contingencies — at all levels of management — must continually
change. Control systems provide information needed to fine tune behavioral
contingencies.
By no means should the design and implementation of behavioral
interventions be viewed as the end of a change process. The interventions
ought to constantly change based on feedback and the organization’s
dynamics. After the implementation of the first set of interlocking
behavioral contingencies, we might have to add, change, or get rid of some
contingencies to adjust to other organizational changes — such as,
alterations of the reporting structure, acquisition of technology, and
modification of existing processes. Without ongoing adjustment, our
interventions could soon become obsolete.

Conclusions
 One aspect of the paradox of organizational change is that the
environment where change takes place is dynamic, complex, and chaotic.
Behavioral interventions ought to adjust to these properties. The other side
of the paradox is that the process through which we adjust our interventions
to such challenging organizational environments is constant because the
consequences always affect future behavior: It is simple because the
essential component lies in the behavioral contingency and it is systematic
because it can follow an orderly method and have predictable results.
The sixth component in the model of organizational change is
performance management. Figure 9-10 shows the six components of the
model and the ongoing analysis and intervention adjustment.
Figure 9-10. Levels 1-6 of the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model
 The sixth component refers to engineering interlocking performance
contingencies at all levels of management that ultimately support the target
behaviors for change. The contingencies are interlocked because a
component of the behavioral contingency of the manager is also a
component of the behavioral contingency of the performer. The
performance managers are those who control the behavioral consequences
for those whose behavior is targeted for change.
Performance management consists of replacing ineffective existing
contingencies with effective performance management contingencies.
Sometimes it is possible to design performance management contingencies
in which consequences are delivered automatically. For example: a
computer program that delivers consequences contingent on responses only
— such as immediate feedback for practice test answers — without the
need of managers. Other automatic contingencies include the ability to enter
a building only if an identification card is scanned at the entrance. In the
majority of organizational situations, however, someone is needed who
consistently ensures that consequences are delivered. That someone is the
performance manager.
It is important to maintain the behavior of the performance manager. If
the manager does not implement the contingencies, it is difficult to sustain
the targeted behavioral change. Maintenance of behavioral change requires
ongoing feedback (a control system) on implementation and results. The
interventions have to constantly adjust to the dynamics, complexity, and
chaos organizations typically go through.

Review

Specify the existing contingency and the performance management

contingency to change a specific behavior of interest in your organization.
Use Figure 9-11.
Figure 9-11. Exercise on Existing and Performance Management
Contingencies
 Identify the management contingencies at various levels that will
support the behavior change of the target participant. Use Figure 9-12 in the
analysis.
Figure 9-12. Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies at Various
Management Levels

1 Trotsky, Leon (1879-1940), Russian Marxist, who organized the

revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power in 1917.
2 Malott, M. E. (in press).
3 To consult statistics about the number of traffic accidents, check
Faigin, 1991; National Highway Safety Administration, 2000; Sleet, 1987.
 4 For references about the Elmira study, see Williams & Lund, 1986;
Williams Preusser & Lund, 1990; Williams, Wells, & Lund, 1987;
Williams, Lund, Preusser, & Blomberg 1986; Williams, Preusser, Biomberg
& Lund, 1987.
5 For other interventions conducted to increase safe behaviors of
passengers and drivers, see, Berry & Geller, 1991; Geller & Lehman, 1991;
Geller & Ludwig 1990; Geller, Rudd, Kalsher, Streff, Lehman, 1987;
Hagenzieker, 1991; Jonah & Grant, 1985; Jonah, Dawson, & Smith, 1982;
Ludwig & Geller, 1991; Lund, Stuster, & Fleming, 1989; Ragnarsson &
Bjorgvinsson, 1991; Rothengatter, 1991.
6 Publicized Enforcement consists of an intervention packet involving
several behavioral procedures (i.e., education, media campaign, and
increased enforcement). Further research would be needed to empirically
demonstrate which of these three procedures is more effective in controlling
behavior. However, based on the principles presented in this book, it could
be anticipated that increased enforcement is the critical element of success.
7 Some people have a strong history of rule following. Compliance with
rules that involve ineffective contingencies might have been consistently
reinforced and non-compliance might have been consistently punished,
People with such behavioral repertoire might be able to follow rules that
normally do not control behavior, such as buckling up when there is an
insignificant reduction of the probability or an accident or death.
8 The announcement of the intervention also involves other information,
such as frequency of accident and number of deaths due to failure of
buckling up.
9 See Malott, et al. (2000).
10 In some counties, the sheriff is elected by the citizens.
11 Figure 9-9 specifies the interlocking contingencies at the same levels
of management presented in Figure 9-8.
 Chapter 10
Behavioral Systems Engineering
Model
 CHAPTER 10

BEHAVIORAL SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING MODEL1
The “sane “man is not the one who has eliminated all contradictions
from himself so much as the one who uses these contradictions and involves
them in his work.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908—1961)2

The Vicious Cycle

Next slide please, Don says. Jay, the consultant, advances the next slide
while the vice president of Operations continues with his presentation about
the “manufacturing of the future” program. .. the latest and hottest change
initiative.
There are 24 people in the conference room. They nod their heads and
smile here and there. Can’t Don and Jay see how they are putting the
audience to sleep? Kim wonders.
The speakers, exchanging positions at the podium, shift gears and begin
acting like cheerleaders — rallying their fans with promises.
“Manufacturing of the future “will help us improve performance over the
competition … excel in our customer’s eyes… reduce turnover…
How many times have I heard this before? Kim asks herself. In her 20
years on the job, she’s sat through countless flashy initiatives like this.
Sighing quietly, she thinks it’s just the same old stuff, over and over again.
Gerard, the company’s new president, is alarmed about the $40 million
remaining in inventory at year-end and he pressures Don for a solution.
Gerard has never run a plant and has no clue as to what really goes on or
what it takes to change the company. He delegates two or three initiatives
per week: each with the same sense of priority.
Excuse me, someone from the audience says. Will have to work longer
hours to keep this program going? Jay — with enthusiasm that seems
clearly forced — smiles and says, not much! Wrong answer. The person
who asked the question continues with a chain of complaints. NOT MUCH?
You’re asking a lot! How can you ask us to work harder without taking
away any other responsibilities?
Jay, not knowing how to handle the complaints, tums to the group. Can
anyone address those points? he asks. Avoiding a direct answer has paid off
for him before. Let someone else take the heat.
Karen raises her hand. Most of those in the audience anticipate her
typical tell the-bosses-what they-want-to-hear comments. She concludes her
own session of corporate cheerleading by saying, We can do it! Feeling in
safe territory once more, Jay says, Excellent points.
As usual, the challenger is stigmatized as a complainer and his valid
points are ignored. Everyone pretends that good attitude alone can change
the company’s numbers, without giving it any further thought.
Kim knows what will happen. Karen will be the first one to jump
overboard once the new program is launched. Those that do try to keep the
ship afloat will do so at the expense of failing to focus on scrap rate
reduction, production quality, and other critical processes: key areas for the
company. Eventually, someone will call a meeting — in this same
conference room — to launch yet another new change initiative that will
focus on one of the neglected processes. And the game will go on. In the
end, everyone will feel victimized by their own actions, overwhelmed by
the demands; and frustrated by the lack of real progress.

Breaking the Vicious Cycle

Many change initiatives are a vicious cycle. These initiatives get

launched, people are mobilized, resources allocated, and energy invested.
Soon afterwards, other demands take over and attention, resources, and
commitment go elsewhere. When no real change occurs, justifications for
failure emerge and the same problems resurface. All that is left are partial
records and distorted memories of how the initiative began, developed, and
died. Same initiatives take new names, new sponsors, new players, and the
same vicious cycle continues.
Concept 10-1. Vicious Cycle of Organizational Change — change
is approached superficially to resolve crisis, but the underlying
problems are not resolved and they resurface. When that happens,
new superficial solutions are attempted.
In this chapter, I bring all the pieces of the Behavioral Systems
Engineering Model from previous chapters together and explain how the
Model addresses the constant, simple, and orderly aspects of the paradox of
organizational change. In other words, I will explain how to stop the vicious
cycle.
We have to start by appreciating the paradoxical nature of change.
Change involves inherent contradictions. Consider, for instance, a system
for a figure skater to win a short-program competition in the Olympics. A
technical program only lasts two minutes and 40 seconds. To get the highest
score, all aspects of performance count: proper posture, balance, length of
glide, and speed.
In order to compete well, the skater must practice the same short routine
thousands of times. And each instance of the performance is unique; it
cannot be replicated. Why? Because a short routine is complex and depends
on many factors that affect each other. Audience reactions affect emotional
conditions, practice affects skill, the position of the arms affects the ability
to gain speed, and speed varies with distance.
Because studying performance in the existing environment is complex,
training interventions must be adjusted to variables such as the type of
competition, skill of the skater, previous injuries, skill level, and
performance of other competitors. A rigid training program will not
produce consistently great performance because it will not suit all of the
changing environmental conditions.
The conditions affecting the skater’s performance might seem chaotic,
but the shaping of a professional skating repertoire is a systematic and
orderly process. Ultimately, performance will be improved as a result of
changes in the behavioral contingencies affecting each precise movement in
the short program. Each single movement in the program is different from
the one performed in previous program practices (for instance, each triple
turn is slightly different), but the functional relationship between each
movement and its consequences remains constant.
Many change initiatives fail because they are approached as if change
were simple and accomplished with permanent solutions or inflexible
interventions. We produce things and those things — the training, the
process, the technology — are sold as if they were fixed solutions. But
fixed solutions never work. For example, a rigid diet often fails. Unless the
diet is adapted to changing conditions, such as travel schedules, available
foods, social circumstances, physical health, and exercise routine, the diet
(intervention) will be unsuccessful in the long run.
In this book, I have presented a method that breaks the vicious cycle of
typical organizational change: a method that generates real change with
dynamic and evolving interventions that produce meaningful results. This
method is founded on the principles that govern change — derived from the
scientific study of behavior and the dynamics of behavioral systems — and
in the units or components of change. The remainder of the book addresses
the foundation and method of changing behavioral systems. (See Table 10-
1.)
Table 10-1. Orderly, Simple and Constant Aspects of the Change
Process

Orderly Simple, and Constant Aspects of the Change Process

Principle Units Method

 Orderly Simple, and Constant Aspects of the Change Process

Principle Units Method

- Analyzing
behavioral systems
Environmental selection:
through
- Cultural Selection - - Behavioral
metacontingencies
aggregated product demand system
(macrosystem,
alters interlocking -
organization,
behavioral contingencies Metacontingency
process, tasks)
- Selection by consequences- - Behavioral
- Engineering and
consequences alter future contingency
sustaining behavioral
behavior
change (behavior,
management)

The foundation

The basic principle underlying change is environmental selection.

Environmental demands ultimately select organizational practices. For
instance: manufacturing practices are driven by customers’ product
specifications, retailing product mix is determined by trends in consumers’
buying habits and, services are improved as the demands of
clients/consumers increase. These environmental demands shape cultural
practices within the organization. And cultural practices are made up of
many behaviors.
Just like the environment selects future practices of complex systems
(cultural selection), the consequences of behavior select future behavior
(law of effect). When rewarding consequences follow behavior, that
behavior will more likely occur in the future (e.g., rewarding consequences
for work discussions will probably increase participation). When aversive
consequences follow behavior, that behavior will less likely reoccur (e.g.,
written warnings for arriving late to work will probably decrease late
arrivals).
 Environmental selection is best expressed through the units of
organizational analysis — the behavioral system, the behavioral
contingency, and the metacontingency. We use the behavioral system, to
define the scope of the system we are analyzing; the behavioral
contingency, to analyze the behavior of single individuals; and the
metacontingency, to analyze complex systems involving the behavior of
multiple individuals affecting each other.

Behavioral System

A behavioral system is one that contains the behavior of its participants

and their interaction with the resource, which generates a product that has a
receiver. Total Performance System (TPS) is the analysis tool that helps to
illustrate how a behavioral system interacts with its environment. It has the
following components: an ultimate mission, a product, receiving system,
receiving system feedback, processing system, processing system feedback,
resources, and competition.

Behavioral Contingency

A four-year-old boy’s temper tantrums — every time his parents went

out for the evening — drove his distraught parents to seek the advice of a
psychologist. The child cried, moaned, and screamed so hard that they no
longer had a social life. The psychologist, one of my colleagues, asked the
couple if he could interview the child alone. Danny, your parents say that
when they are about to leave you cry and scream really hard, is that true?
Danny nodded his head in affirmation. And why is that? my friend asked.
Because when I do, they stay, Danny said.
Danny’s disruptive behavior paid off. When he threw a temper tantrum,
his parents would not leave, This same effect happens at all levels in
organizations — consequences affect the future probability of behavior.
Arriving on time to work is maintained if it prevents disciplinary action;
checking a particular computer screen increases if the needed information is
reliably there; participation in decision making increases if it is supported.
(Chapters 79 8 and 9 detail how consequences affect future instances of
behavior.)
The behavioral contingency is the smallest unit of analysis of a
behavioral system. It involves the behavior of one individual and its
consequences (given specific conditions). We engineer behavioral change at
the level of the behavioral contingency by affecting the frequency of
behavior or generating new behavior.

Metacontingency

A metacontingency involves a conglomerate of interlocking behavioral

contingencies containing the behavior of multiple individuals, which
generates a product that has a demand. The metacontingency of telegraph
development two centuries ago involved a complex set of interlocking
behavioral contingencies, the behavior of countless individuals in all
systems and subsystems of the telegraph industry); an aggregate product,
the transmission of messages intercity, transcontinental and transoceanic;
and the demand of the receiving systems — railroad companies and
newspapers — both of which became primary users of telegraphs.
To understand how environmental determinism works at the complex
levels of the metacontingency, we should understand three critical
components of the metacontingency: interlocking behavioral contingencies,
aggregate product, and receiving-system demand.
Interlocking behavioral contingency
“An interlocking behavioral contingency involves the behavior of at
least two participants, where any components of the behavioral contingency
or the behavioral product of one participant interacts with the behavioral
contingencies or products of other participants” (Glenn, 1988, p. 167).
For instance, consider an assembly line. A single part is assembled by
one individual, the assembled part is given to another person who labels it,
the labeled part is received by another individual who wraps it, the wrapped
product is given to another line worker who boxes it … and so forth.
The dynamics of organizations are not as linear as the preceding
assembly-line example. Instead, they involve convoluted interlocking
behavioral contingencies. For instance, person A makes a request to person
B; the request causes person B to search for a file; person B looks at the
clock, realizes it is lunch time, and leaves; person C looks up, notices that
person B has left, and stops his or her work to make a phone call …
It is impossible, impractical, and unnecessary to study all behavior that
occurs in organizations. To narrow down the set of interrelated behavior
that makes a difference for an organization, we focus on interrelationships
that generate relevant aggregate products for the success of the
organization. For instance, we might not be interested in learning about
every single telephone call people make or every employee interaction
throughout the workday.
Aggregate product
An aggregate product is the result of the behavior of multiple
individuals. Aggregate products might be the daily newspaper, the monthly
flight schedule of an airline, the daily electricity delivered in a community.
Because each organization has an incalculable number of contingencies,
we need away to identify those that are worth analyzing. A practical way to
start sorting the relevant metacontingencies is by identifying the aggregate
products critical for the organization’s survival. If an aggregate product
does not meet needed standards, then we should study metacontingencies
involving aggregate sub-products.
For instance, we might start with the final product of an organization:
the plastic parts of an injection molding company. If the aggregate product
does not meet quality standards, we might analyze the metacontingencies
that produce aggregate subproducts indispensable to the production of
plastic parts — molds, dried plastic, molding specifications, packaging, and
shipping. If the molds are damaged too often, we might study aggregate
sub-products involved in the handling process: set up, delivery, and storage.
The analysis of metacontingencies is like peeling an onion. The more
complex layers involve aggregate products with the largest number of
individuals and interlocking behavioral contingencies; whereas, the least
complex metacontingency involves the aggregate product generated by two
individuals. At the heart is the behavioral contingency that maintains the
behavior of each individual. Each layer is contained in the next layer.
 Receiving system demand
A set of interlocking behavioral contingencies will continue to exist
only if their aggregate product has demand from the receiving system. The
receiving system demand determines survival of an organizational practice.
Here lies the principle of cultural selection.
For instance, the receiving-system demand for telegraphic services
revolutionized the way organizations communicated at the beginning of the
1800s and caused substantial change in the telegraph-industry
metacontingency. Many new telegraph companies emerged, others
consolidated, and upgraded technology was developed. The whole industry
changed as consumer demand changed. If there were no demand for its
services, the telegraph industry would not have developed.
Likewise, less complex metacontingencies, such as those contained in
internal organizational processes, change, and adapt to the demands of
receiving systems. I once worked for an injection molding company that
produced plastic components for telecommunication devices, The
production metacontingency dramatically changed with the placement of a
single order from a manufacturer of health products: molded blood
conductors for heart transplants in infants. Because the stakes were so high
— a contaminated part could result in the loss of an infant’s life —w e
increased safety standards, determined additional quality control
procedures, designed a pollution-free environment, and redesigned the
layout of the plant.
But not all receiving-system demand generates adaptive changes.
Because millions of behavioral contingencies and metacontingencies form
an organization, some of its receiving systems could generate dysfunctional
processes. Consequently, organizations could evolve until reaching the
point of self-destruction.
Dysfunctional organizational growth is like cancer. A healthy human
body is composed of 30 trillion cells, all of which are constantly dying and
reproducing. In a cancerous cell, permanent gene alterations, or mutations,
cause the cell to malfunction. These mutations may take many years to
accumulate and can go unnoticed. But cancerous cells can form secondary
growths by extending to neighboring tissue. The dysfunctional cells
eventually break through nearby blood vessels— entering the circulatory
system — and invade the rest of the body. The result can be deadly. When
dysfunctional cells enter the respective receiving systems, the systems
break down and facilitate additional dysfunctional growth.
Concept 10-2. Dysfunctional Organizational Growth — receiving
system demand can shape and maintain metacontingencies
harmful for the long-term survival of an organization.
Utilizing the concept of “serendipitous architecture,” a city planner
illustrated for me the dysfunctional growth of human systems outside the
capital city of a Latin-American country. People with the least amount of
resources move from marginal zones in the country to the outskirts of the
capital, looking for better living opportunities. Initially, their situation
shows little improvement. As generations evolve, however, the economic
condition of the family improves. They acquire access to electricity, build
additional rooms onto their homes, and begin to prosper. Sections of the
various neighborhoods develop, meeting the demands of each family. But
the whole grows by accidental conditions — in a serendipitous fashion —
without a systematic plan. Eventually, the entire system may collapse as the
marginal neighborhoods outgrow the supplies of water and electricity and
fail to sustain its weak physical, economic, and social infrastructure.
Organizations often evolve in a serendipitous manner without an
integrated plan. If dysfunctional growth gets out of control and is not
properly corrected, it may eventually erode the organization to the point of
collapse. We need a process of change that helps organizations to correct
dysfunctional evolution, adapt, and survive.

The method

The change model proposed in this book consists of implementing

modifications that have survival value for the organization and help it to
avoid serendipitous evolution. The model has two components: (1) the
analysis of behavioral systems with metacontingencies and (2) behavioral
engineering to sustain behavioral change. Figure 10-1 shows a summary of
the model presented in this book.
Figure 10-1. Behavioral Systems Engineering Model
Analyzing behavioral systems with metacontingencies
 Too often, those in positions of power — the board of directors, senior
vice presidents and business owners — make change decisions without the
benefit of an objective analysis. It is not always clear how many of those
decisions are the product of ignorance( simply not knowing what it really
takes to implement change) or pretentious (people intuitively knowing
what’s best).In any event, impulsive decisions result in incidents like the
one experienced by the corporate president — at the beginning of this
chapter — who overwhelmed his team with requests for change. Those
asking for change might not realize the feasibility and consequences of their
requests; for instance, the impact that a 10 percent sales increase will have
on margins, inventory management, or labor demands.
Change cannot be taken lightly. Systems analysis with
metacontingencies allows us to study the complexity of organizations and
determine what is worth changing, which battles to fight, what is the impact
of change on other processes, competitiveness, and long-term survival.
Systems analysis requires order, research, and measurement at various
levels: macrosystem, organization, process, and tasks.
Macrosystem
The study of how an organization operates within its macrosystem
begins by answering the following questions: How is the industry
performing? What are the consumer trends? What are the conditions of the
economy? (See chapter 3.) If we ignore the macrosystem, we could end up
deceiving ourselves. For example, the company that celebrates increased
sales while its market share remains low. If the whole industry is selling
more, an increase in sales does not reflect progress — especially if the
organization’s sales are decreasing in proportion to that of the competition.
Organization
An understanding of the macrosystem gives direction to the study of the
organization as a whole. At all organizational levels of analysis, we assess
improvement priorities by objectively responding to questions like the
following: What aspects of the product need improvement, based on
customers’ feedback? What process in the organization is directly
responsible for that improvement? How is the company positioned in
relation to the competition? (See Chapter 4.)
 Process
By establishing priorities at the organizational level, we set parameters
for studying the critical processes necessary for overall success. We ought
to determine how the core processes of the organization perform and
whether support and integrating departments contribute to that core. (See
Chapter 5.)
Organizational change needs to be driven by the core of the
organization, the processes that generate the product ultimately responsible
for revenue. Unfortunately, most organizations — from manufacturing to
service, communications, and retail — have similar functional problems.
The work is driven by department structure (administrative structure) rather
than by integrated processes, and every department acts as if it were the
core. Furthermore, departments at the core do not work cooperatively:
support departments do not assist core departments and integrating
departments work independently. Personnel lose sight of their department’s
purpose. They do not understand the importance of their function to critical
issues of the business. As a result, core departments have no support and
must do much of the work that other departments should do for them. They
acquire too many responsibilities to do a good job; therefore, they end up
overwhelmed and ineffective.
Tasks
In order to fully comprehend a process, we have to understand the tasks
involved — what each individual does, uses, and produces. (Chapter 6
explained how to study tasks within processes.) By studying the tasks, we
realize that processes cannot have departmental walls. For instance, a
production process starts when the order gets into the system and ends
when the consumer receives his or her product. People from all departments
have something to do with the process. Salespeople receive the
specifications of the order, purchasing acquires the raw materials, and
engineering provides the equipment. The actions of each participant are
important, no matter what department he or she works in.
The analysis of tasks ends with the identification of the critical
behaviors. It is like sorting the wheat from the chaff — much of the
behavior occurring in organizations is irrelevant to success. We should limit
our focus to the following: behavior essential for the production of critical
tasks; tasks essential for critical processes, and processes essential for the
organization to satisfy a need of the macrosystem.

Engineering and sustaining behavioral change

Systems analysis through metacontingencies helps us to identify

interlocking behavioral contingencies that need improvement. The
transition from the analysis of interlocking behavioral contingencies to
behavioral contingencies is in identification of detailed tasks. Detailed tasks
involve the behavior of a single individual. Ultimately, we identify the
target behaviors worth changing within a task. Engineering helps us to
design interlocking behavioral contingencies that generate and maintain the
desired target behavioral change.
Concept 10-3. Behavioral Engineering — application of the
science of behavior to design environments that generate and
sustain desired behavior.
Engineering behavioral systems is like constructing a building. The
basic elements of building involve (but are not limited to) the foundation,
which supports the building and provides stability; the structure, which
supports all the imposed loads and transmits them to the foundation; and
control systems, including the heating, lighting, and acoustical systems. In
behavioral systems, the foundation consists of the interlocking behavioral
contingencies of the performers directly responsible for the process; the
structure consists of the supporting body of contingencies at various level of
management; and the control system consists of the ongoing feedback and
improvement of supportive contingencies and aggregate results.
Behavior
The foundation of behavioral systems engineering is the design and
implementation of behavioral contingencies for the performers directly
responsible for the processes.
Concept 10-4. Performer — individual responsible for the tasks
involved on the front line of the process.
 Just like we need to understand ground conditions before laying a
building’s foundation, we need to understand why the performers act the
way they do — analysis of the existing behavioral contingencies — before
we can effectively engineer new behavioral contingencies.
Effective contingencies involve consequences that are sizeable,
probable, and consistently delivered: contingent upon the target behavior.
For instance, we encourage workers to use safety glasses in a plant. If
compliance has significant consequences, like getting work-schedule
privileges, workers will wear the glasses. If consequences are not
maintained, compliance more likely will not be maintained either. (Analysis
and design of behavioral contingencies were detailed in Chapters 7 and 8.)
Therefore, to sustain compliance, we ought to affect the management
structure of the organization.
Management
Engineering a well-designed system requires much thought, creativity,
and skill. It is like setting up a structure and control systems in the
construction of a building. The structure consists in designing
metacontingencies involving behavioral contingencies at all levels of
management that ultimately support the target behavior of the performer.
(See Chapter 9.) The consequences of the performer’s contingencies, the
foundation of the behavioral engineering system, are delivered by the
manager level one. The contingencies for the behavior of manager level one
are delivered by manager level two, and so forth.
For example, consider a system where a sales representative of a
pharmaceutical company who visits high profile physicians gets positive
feedback from the district manager. High profile physicians have the
highest number of patients and therefore the highest opportunity to
prescribe drugs. In order to maintain the contingency for the sales
representative, we ought to design behavioral contingencies for the district
director to provide feedback to the performer; for the regional director to
provide feedback to the district director; and for the vice president of sales
to provide feedback to the regional director. If well designed, the system of
performance management contingencies ought to generate the expected
aggregate product — increased sales — which ought to be in demand by the
rest of the company. (See Figure 10-2 for an illustration.)
 Figure 10-2. Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies at Multiple
Management Levels

A control system is needed in order to maintain multiple levels of

performance management contingencies. It provides information to
evaluate whether contingencies are maintained and expected aggregate
results are obtained. This information is needed to fine-tune behavioral
contingencies.
The engineering of behavioral contingencies should be ongoing. Just
like the systems we are trying to change are constantly evolving, the fine-
tuning of contingencies must continually change: at all levels of
management.
 Throughout each component of the model, various analysis and change
tools were presented to assist those attempting to change organizations.
Table 10-2 shows a summary of the levels of analysis, the questions asked,
and helpful tools.

Table 10-2. Levels of Analysis and Tools for Systematic Organizational

Change

Level of
Questions Analysis Tools
Analysis

- What macrosystem are we

analyzing?
- What is the product of the
macrosystem?
- Guide for
- What is the macrosystem
formulating the
receiving system?
Macrosystem mission
- What is the macrosystem
and Mission - Analysis of the
receiving system feedback?
(Chapter 3) macrosystem as a
- What is the processing system of
total performance
the macrosystem?
system (TPS)
- What is the macrosystem
processing system feedback?
- What is the ultimate mission of
the organization?
 Level of
Questions Analysis Tools
Analysis

- What objective measurements

answer the following questions?
- What is the difference between
the mission and the products of the
organization?
- Who are the clients that receive
the products?
Analysis of the
- What is the clients’ feedback in
organization as a
relationship to the products?
total performance
- What process transforms the
system
resources into products?
- How do we know if the process is
Organization functioning well?
(Chapter 4) - What resources are necessary to
generate the products?
Who competes for resources and
clients in the organization?

Strategic Plan:
- What are the three-year goals of
the organization, with respect to the
Strategic
mission, products, clients, process,
planning
resources, and competition?
framework
- What strategies will be
implemented to achieve the goals
of the strategic plan in three years?
 Level of
Questions Analysis Tools
Analysis

- What is the summary of the

administrative organizational chart?
- How do we understand the
organization as a process where
- Structural
some departments’ output serve as
analysis
input for other departments?
- Department-
Process - What are the aggregate products,
function analysis
(Chapter 5) responsibilities, and measurements
- OUGHT To BE
of each department or function?
analysis of
- What are the core, support, and
departments
integrating departments?
- How can you graphically
represent the relationship between
the department functions?

Task Summarize a process:

(Chapter 6) - What process are we analyzing
(identification)?
- Where does it begin and end
(scope)?
- What are the subprocesses?
- Which units participate?
- How many participants does it
include? Summary map
- What are the general tasks?
- What are the main aggregate
products?
- What is the sequence of general
tasks?
- What components make the
process unique?
- How long does it last?
 Level of
Questions Analysis Tools
Analysis

- How is the relationship between

the tasks and products of the Detailed process
participants graphically represented map
in the process?

- What are the indispensable tasks?

- Which can be modified?
- Which can be eliminated?
- Which could be added? Map of existing
- Which databases, operational technology
systems, and applications do the infrastructure
participants use?
- What is the impact of task
optimization?

Behavior - What behavior is under analysis? Functional

(Chapters 7 - How often does it occur? Assessment
and 8) - Whose behavior is under
analysis?
- Is the consequence a reinforcer, an
aversive condition, or a neutral
stimulus?
- What are the antecedent stimuli
(i.e., before condition, establishing
operation, discriminative stimulus)?
- Does the contingency directly
control behavior?
- What are the dimensions of the
consequence: immediate or
delayed, probable or improbable,
significant or too small?
- Is the contingency direct-acting,
 Level of
Questions Analysis Tools
Analysis
indirect-acting or ineffective?
- Is the relationship between the
behavior and the consequence
presentation, removal, or
avoidance?
- What type of contingency is it?
Choose one of the following:

Is the contingency
reinforcement, punishment,
penalty, or escape?
Is the contingency avoidance?
If so, is it by the prevention of
an aversive stimulus, by the
prevention of the removal of a
reinforcer?
Is the behavior extinction.

- What are desired change

interventions for the performer’s
behavior?
- What are the levels of
management needed to support the Interlocking
change interventions? behavioral
Management
- What is the system of contingencies at
(Chapter 9)
contingencies that supports the various levels of
change interventions? management
- What control system facilitates
the implementation of engineered
interlocking behavioral
contingencies?
 Conclusions

Organizational change is paradoxical because it involves contradictions

between the nature of the environment where change takes place and the
process that causes the change. The environment where change occurs is
dynamic, as it evolves over time; however, the process of change is constant
because the dynamic relationship between behavior and environment does
not vary. The environment of change is complex, but the components are
simple, having only one essential part — the behavioral contingency. The
environment appears chaotic, unsystematic, and unpredictable. Yet the way
that environment gets to be chaotic is orderly, systematic, and predictable.
Change interventions that do not adapt to the intricacies, complexity,
and dynamics of organizations do not make a difference in the long term.
The actions of a production worker depend on many variables, such as the
state of technology, customer demands, equipment, conditions of the plant,
other aspects of his or her job, the job of others, and much more. All of
those variables are constantly affecting each other.
Throughout this book, I described the orderly, simple, and constant
aspects the change of process. Those consist of the principle, the units of
analysis, and the method of change.
The principle consists of the underlying law or assumption in change,
that is, environmental selection or determinism. At the metacontingency
level, environmental determinism is expressed through cultural selection —
the demands of an aggregated product alters the interlocking behavioral
contingencies that produce it. At the behavioral contingency level,
environmental determinism is expressed through selection by consequences
— the consequences of behavior alters future occurrences.
Units of analysis are the parts in which a system can be analyzed. I used
three units of analysis: the behavioral system, the metacontingency, and the
behavioral contingency. The behavioral system helps to define the system
being analyzed. The metacontingency is a complex unit; it consists of the
demand for an aggregate product generated by the behavior of at least two
individuals affecting each other. The behavioral contingency is the simplest
unit; it consists of the relationship between behavior and its antecedents and
consequences.
 The method is a systematic and orderly procedure used to alter
organizations. The method consists of the behavioral systems engineering
model presented in this book, which helps to break the vicious cycle of
organizational change that produces no results. This model has three
primary components: analyzing behavioral systems with metacontingencies
and engineering, sustaining change by manipulating behavioral
contingencies, and ongoing analysis and intervention adjustment.

Review

What is the paradoxical nature of change?

What are the two main units of analysis in organizational change?
Describe the three components of metacontingencies:
Interlocking behavioral contingencies
Aggregate product
Receiving system demand
What is the rationale for the components of the behavioral systems
engineering change model:
Macrosystem
Organization
Process
Tasks
Behavior
Management

1 For an alternative view to organizational reengineering see Hammer,

1997; Hammer & Champy, 1993; Hammer & Stanton, 1995.
2 French existentialist philosopher.
 GLOSSARY
Dynamic vs. Constant Contradiction — the environment
where change occurs is dynamic, as it evolves over time.
Concept
But the process of change is constant because the dynamic
1-1.
relationship between behavior and environment is always
present.

Concept Change — the product of alteration, variation, or

1-2. modification.

Concept Change Process — a series of actions that result in

1-3. alteration, variation, or modification.

Complex vs. Simple Contradiction — the environment of

change is complex because it occurs in the midst of
Concept multiple and convoluted interactions. It is simple because
1-4. there is only one essential process that accounts for the
evolution of organizations — the functional relationship
between the behavior and the environment.

Closed System — group of interrelated components that do

Concept
not interact or evolve with changes in the environment.
1-5.
Closed systems eventually die.

Chaotic vs. Orderly Contradiction — organizations are

Concept
seemingly unpredictable, but the process through which
1-6.
they change can be systematic and predictable.

Open System — a group of interrelated components that

Concept
adapt to complexity, dynamics, and chaos in the
1-7.
environment.

Concept Paradox of Change — change involves contradictions

1-8. between the environment where change occurs and the
process of change: dynamic vs. constant, complex vs.
simple; chaotic vs. orderly

Organizational Victim Blaming — unjustly assuming that

Concept
those who suffer the consequences of a poor functioning
2-1.
system are responsible for the system’s flaws.

Environmental Selection — the underlying principle of

Concept
change: the conditions that precede and follow the behavior
2-2.
of individuals affect how they behave in the future.

Concept Cultural Selection — cultural practices that produce

2-3. material gains for a culture tend to survive.

Concept Law — affirmation of an invariable order or relationship

2-4. that occurs under specific conditions.

Law of Effect — under constant conditions, the future

Concept probability of the behavior increases when rewarding
2-5. consequences follow it. The future probability of the
behavior decreases when aversive consequences follow it.

Concept Behavioral Selection - behavior that produces rewarding

2-6. consequences for the individual tends to reoccur.

Units of Analysis - parts in which a system can be analyzed:

Concept
behavioral system, behavioral contingency, and
2-7.
metacontingency.

Concept Behavioral System - a group of interrelated elements that

2-8. form an entity.

Total Performance System - an analysis tool of an

Concept organization which includes the mission, product, receiving
2-9. system, receiving system feedback, processing system,
processing system feedback, resources, and competition.
Concept Interlocking Behavioral Contingency — involves the
2-10. behavior of at least two participants, where any component
of the behavioral contingency or product of one participant
interacts with elements of the behavioral contingency or
product of other participants.

Concept
Behavioral Product — results after the behavior occurred.
2-11.

Concept Aggregate Product — compounded result of multiple

2-12 behavioral products.

Metacontingency — a conglomerate of interlocking

Concept behavioral contingencies containing the behavior of
2-13. multiple individuals, which generates a product that has a
demand.

Concept
Performance — behavior and its product.
2-14.

Concept Macrosystem — the system that contains the organization

3-1. we are analyzing.

Concept
Mission — the ultimate goal of the organization.
3-2.

Mission-Driven Organizations — define the ultimate

Concept mission of the organization in its macrosystem and design
3-3. contingencies that facilitate the achievement of the
intermediate and ultimate objectives.

Concept Organizational Myopia — to lose sight of the dynamics of

3-4. the macrosystem and mission.

Concept Activity Trap — focus on the activity, losing sight of the

3-5. mission.
Concept Micro Management — excessively checking on others’
3-6. activities rather than delegating responsibilities and holding
others accountable, losing sight of the main objective.

Guide for Formulating the Mission — the mission of the

Concept organization is stated in terms of the product, receiving
3-7. system, and feedback from the receiving and processing
systems of the macrosystem.

Basic Elements of Measurement — type of measure (nature

Concept
of the measure), unit of measurement (expression of the
4-1.
measure), standard (quantitative performance expectation).

Concept
Volume — quantity or rate.
4-2.

Concept
Quality — essential properties or precision.
4-3.

Concept
Timeliness — ability to meet deadlines.
4-4.

Concept
Duration — quantity of time invested.
4-5.

Concept
Cost — value defined in terms of money or effort invested.
4-6.

Concept Receiving System - customers who receive an

4-7. organization’s products and services.

Concept Market Strategy — method of taking an organization’s

4-8. products and services to the potential market.

Receiving System Feedback — data or customer

Concept
information that reflects the evaluation of the organization’s
4-9.
products and services.
Concept Process — systematic tasks that transform an organization’s
4-10. resources into products and services.

Concept Organizational Structure — administrative-reporting

4-11. between departments within organizations.

Concept Organizational Chart — graphic representation of the

4-12. organizational structure.

Concept Sub-Optimization Principle — optimization of a subsystem

4-13. does not result in the optimization of the whole system.

Concept Feedback of the Processing System — evaluation of how a

4-14. system functions.

Resources — indispensable means to generate the

Concept
organization’s products; for example, personnel, services,
4-15.
information, materials, and equipment.

Competition — organizations that offer products or services

Concept
to the same potential customers and that use the same
4-16.
resources to generate their products.

Concept Strategic Plan — specifying the organization’s activities

4-17. that ensure future competitive advantage and profitability.

Concept Process — series of actions and their aggregate products

5-1. directed to a particular purpose.

Concept Function — purpose of one action or group of actions that

5-2. generates an aggregate product.

Department — section of one organization generally

Concept
separated by different administrative lines that generates a
5-3.
main aggregate product.

Concept Structural Analysis — study of the administrative reporting

5-4. lines.

Department-Function Analysis — study of the main

Concept
functions or responsibilities of the departments, the
5-5.
interactions between departments and measures of success.

Concept Core Departments — the motor of an organization,

5-6. departments directly responsible for business income.

Concept Support Departments — provide specific products and

5-7. services to other departments.

Concept Integrating Departments — receive and provide information

5-8. across all the departments of the organization.

Process Executive Summary — graphic outline of the

Concept process. Includes identification, scope, subprocesses, units,
6-1. general tasks aggregate products, participants, uniqueness,
and duration.

Identification - a description of the process

Concept
metacontingency being analyzed and where it fits into the
6-2.
overall functioning of the organization.

Concept Scope — the limits of the process metacontingency, where

6-3. it begins and where it ends.

Concept Subprocesses — the main component metacontingencies of

6-4. a larger process, listed in the order of occurrence.

Concept Units — departments or groups of individuals that

6-5. participate in the process.

Participants — individuals that play a role in the process

Concept
and whose behavior are part of the interlocking behavioral
6-6.
contingencies being analyzed.
Concept General Task — a summary of a metacontingency that
6-7. forms part of a process; that is, a group of interlocking
behavioral contingencies carried out by different
individuals, the resulting aggregate product, and the source
of receiving system demand.

Concept
Uniqueness — variations of single processes.
6-8.

Concept Specific Task — an individual’s action or set of actions and

6-9. the resulting behavioral product.

Task Analysis Guide — a tool for analyzing specific tasks

within a process. It provides answers to the following
Concept
questions: Who executes it? What does it consist of? How
6-10.
long does it last? What does it produce? What are the
indispensable resources? Who receives the products?

Detailed Process Map — graphic representation of the

Concept
relationship between specific tasks and products among
6-11.
individuals and units involved in a process.

Computer Program Application — list of instructions in a

Concept
programming language that tells a computer to perform a
6-12.
certain task and allows the user to manipulate information.

Database — systematically arranged collection of computer

Concept
data, structured so that it can be automatically retrieved or
6-13.
manipulated.

Concept Functional Assessment — a study of the environmental

7-1. relations that maintain behavior.

Concept Dead Man Test — if a dead man can do it, it is not a

7-2. behavior.

Concept Behavior — an organism’s action.

7-3.

After Condition — the consequence of behavior; in other

Concept
words, a stimulus, event, object, or condition that is
7-4.
presented contingent on behavior.

Reinforcer — a stimulus, event, object, or condition that

Concept
when presented immediately after the behavior, increases its
7-5.
future likelihood.

Aversive Consequence — a stimulus, event, object, or

Concept
condition that, when presented immediately after the
7-6.
behavior, decreases its future likelihood.

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcer — a stimulus, event, or

Concept object that has acquired reinforcing properties for most
7-7. individuals through pairing with other reinforcers (e.g.,
attention and money).

Concept
Teleology — the cause for an action is in the future.
7-8.

Concept Antecedent Condition — a stimulus, event, object, or

7-9. condition that precedes the response.

Before Condition —a condition that exists before the

Concept
behavior occurs. The contrast between the before and the
7-10.
after conditions helps to define the behavioral contingency.

Behavioral Contingency — a casual relationship between

Concept
the behavior and its consequences, given specific
7-11.
antecedent conditions.

Concept Establishing Operation — environmental event, operation,

7-12. or stimulus condition that affects an organism by
momentarily altering (a) the reinforcing effectiveness of
 other events and (b) the frequency of occurrence of the type
of behavior that had been consequated by those events.

Concept Discriminative Stimulus (SD) — a stimulus in the presence

7-13. of which a contingency is in effect.

Concept SD — a stimulus in the presence of which the contingency

7-14. is not in effect.

Direct-Acting Contingency — contingency that involves a

Concept consequence that is immediate, probable, and sizeable that
7-15. directly increases or decreases the future likelihood of the
behavior that precedes it.

Concept Dimensions of a Consequence — temporality, probability,

7-16. and size.

Contingency with Delayed Consequences — the

Concept
consequence is presented more than 60 seconds after the
7-17.
behavior.

Concept Contingencies with Improbable Consequences — the

7-18. behavior’s consequence may or may not occur.

Contingency with Small Consequences - the consequence

Concept
of behavior is so small that only the cumulative effect of
7-19.
repeated incidents of that behavior have a significant effect.

Indirect-Acting Contingencies - contingencies that involve

Concept delayed, though probable and sizeable, consequences. They
7-20. control behavior through additional processes other than the
contingency itself.

Ineffective Contingencies — do not control behavior

Concept
because they involve a consequence that is too small or
7-21.
improbable.
Concept Rule — verbal description of a contingency.
7-22.

Concept
Neutral Stimuli — do not have any influence on behavior.
8-1.

Reinforcement — stimulus, event, object, or condition that

Concept
when presented immediately after the behavior increases its
8-2.
future likelihood.

Escape — aversive stimulus, event, or condition that when

Concept
removed immediately after a behavior increases the future
8-3.
likelihood of that behavior.

Punishment — aversive stimulus, event, or condition that

Concept
when presented immediately after a behavior decreases the
8-4.
future likelihood of that behavior.

Penalty — stimulus, event or condition that when removed

Concept
immediately after a behavior decreases the future likelihood
8-5.
of that behavior.

Avoidance Contingency — the behavior prevents the

Concept
presentation of an aversive stimulus or the removal of a
8-6.
reinforcer.

Resistance to Extinction — when the reinforcement

Concept contingency is not in effect, the behavior’s frequency
8-7. increases temporarily and then decreases until the behavior
ceases to occur.

Extinction — procedure in which reinforcement of a

Concept previously reinforced behavior is discontinued. In the
8-8. extinction procedure, the before and after conditions are the
same.

Concept Stimulus-Response Chain — a sequence of discriminative

8-9. stimuli and responses in which each response, except for
the very last one in the chain, serves as a discriminative
stimulus for the following response.

Analog to Stimulus-Response Chain — sequence of stimuli

and responses in which one response may serve as an
Concept antecedent stimulus for another response, with the
8-10. exception of the last one. The sequence between the
components of the chain is not continuous and it involves
indirect and ineffective contingencies.

Concept Existing Contingency — a contingency that maintains

9-1. behavior before a performance management intervention.

Performance Management Contingency — an artificial

Concept
contingency used as an intervention to alter a target
9-2.
behavior not supported by existing contingencies.

Performance Manager — one who is in charge of delivering

Concept
the consequences when implementing performance
9-3.
management contingencies.

Management of the Manager — contingencies that maintain

Concept
the behavior of the manager implementing consequences
9-4.
for the behavior change of others.

Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies at Various Levels of

Management — design behavioral contingencies at all
Concept levels of management that ultimately support the targeted
9-5. behavior change. The interlock consists of a manager
delivering the consequences for the contingencies of those
in the level below.

Concept Control Systems for Behavioral Engineering — provide

9-6. information to evaluate the implementation of behavioral
contingencies at multiple management levels and the
accomplishment of expected aggregate results.
 Vicious Cycle of Organizational Change — change is
Concept approached superficially to resolve crisis, but the
10-1. underlying problems are not resolved and they resurface.
When that happens, new superficial solutions are attempted.

Dysfunctional Organizational Growth — receiving system

Concept
demand can shape and maintain metacontingencies harmful
10-2.
for the long-term survival of an organization.

Behavioral Engineering — application of the science of

Concept
behavior to design environments that generate and sustain
10-3.
desired behavior.

Concept Performer — individual responsible for the tasks involved

10-4. on the front line of the process
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