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Too often management attempts to control employee behavior by threats and punishment. Behavior analysis eschews aversive control and organizational behavior management (OBM) exemplifies this philosophical and ethical preference with a rich history of reinforcement strategies for appropriate work performance. Discipline in OBM emphasizes clarification of job requirements, monitoring behavior and results, frequent feedback, and maximizing short-, medium-, and long-term contingencies of reinforcement for effective performance, thus preventing additional problematic behaviors from employees. This results in efficient supervision that promotes employee development leading to successful worker performance and strategic goals for the organization. However, dangerous or inappropriate work behaviors necessitate punitive consequences. Well controlled evidence-based research concerning punishment in organizational settings is lacking and possible benefits are unknown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback surrounds our personal and professional worlds, informing us about what worked and what did not. Within workplace settings, it is important to understand how feedback operates in order to deliberately and carefully craft performance information that, when delivered, generates desirable organizational outcomes. The current paper examines the many potential functions of feedback, including details on how such functions might be established. Behavioral investigations into how to best structure and deliver feedback are detailed, along with considerations of factors that may impact the reception of feedback. Finally, using the current literature as a blueprint, several possible research directions are suggested that would fit well within a behavior analytic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both business and behavior can be understood through the lens of variation and selection, with adaptive approaches prospering and other approaches perishing. The Handbook of Organizational Performance: Foundations and Advances series seeks to lay out the groundwork and direction for our field to prosper, as understood by many expert contributors in the field of organizational behavior management. Other worthwhile directions beyond the series are also noted, all guided by the notion that a science of behavior is not only possible, but also a critical missing component from the typical understanding of how to best operate a business so that it survives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]