The Behavioral Approach

The Behavioral Approach:

Ø  Attempts to define the behaviors and employee must exhibits to be effective in the job.

Ø  The various techniques define those behaviors and then require managers to assess the extent to which employees exhibits them.

Critical Incidents

Ø  This approach requires managers to keep a record of specific examples of effective and ineffective performance on the part of each employee.

Ø  Feedback About Employee: What they do well? What they do poorly?

Ø  Many Managers resist having to keep a daily or weekly log of their employee’s behavior.

Ø  It is also often difficult to compare employees because each incident is specific to that individual. 

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS)

Ø  Builds on the critical incidents approach.

Ø  It is designed to specifically define performance dimensions by developing behavioral anchors associated with different levels of performance.

Ø  To develop a BARS, gather a large number of critical incidents that represents effective and ineffective performances on the job.

Ø  These incidents are classified into performances dimensions, and the ones that experts agree clearly represent a particular level of performances are used as behavior example( or anchors) to guide raters.

Organization Behavior Modification (OBM)

Ø  OBM entails managing the behavior of employee through a formal system of behavioral feedback and reinforcement.

Ø  Behaviorist View of Motivation: Individual’s future behavior is determined by the past behavior that has been positively reinforced.

Ø  OB Modi. Have four components:

o   Define a set of key behavior necessary for job performance.

o   Use a measurement system to assess whether these behaviors are exhibited.

o   Manager or consultant informs employee of those behaviors, setting goals for how often the employees should exhibit those behaviors.

o   Feedback and reinforcement are provided to employees.