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Candidate:
Donald H. Rohn
Degree
of: Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Psychology
Title: Exploring the Behavioral Function of Work Monitoring
Committee:
Dr. John Austin, Chair
Dr. James Carr
Dr. Richard Malott
Dr. Kevin Munson
Date:
Friday, February 13, 2003 4:00 pm - 6:00pm
3713 Wood Hall
Abstract:
A number of studies have suggested the key difference between effective
and ineffective managers is the extent to which managers engage in a
particular form of monitoring: Work sampling (Komaki, 2002). Effective
managers observe employees instead of relying on self-reports or secondary
sources of performance. A factor contributing to the effectiveness of
work sampling may be an increase in desired behavior as a function of
reactivity to the presence of an observer. In spite of the copious amount
of research conducted to examine the effects of observer presence on
various physiological and task performances (Guerin, 1993), a study
directed towards discovering the functional properties of observer presence
- why people change their behavior when an observer is present - has
not yet been conducted.
The evocative/eliciting effects of the presence of an observer on behavior
are consistent with a number of behavioral stimulus functions, and could
serve any number of stimulus functions depending upon the behavioral
history of an individual. Whereas evocative effects of observer presence
are consistent with multiple discriminative and motivative stimulus
functions (e.g. SD-r+, SD-r+, CEO-R), physiological responses elicited
by observer presence (e.g. palmar sweat) suggest the nature of the function
to be generally aversive. If observer presence is unpleasant, people
are likely to work to terminate or avoid observation (Olson, Laraway,
& Austin, 2001) - an undesirable prospect for those whose performance
improvement efforts rely on direct observation of employees.
The current study investigated the behavioral function of observer presence
by systematically manipulating (a) the presence/absence of an observer,
and (b) the operation of a performance-contingent observation termination
contingency. A within-subject, multi-element-design, with a non-concurrent
multiple-baseline across participants was employed to assess the effects
of experimental manipulations. Participant performance met the criteria
for termination in 93% of termination sessions. When allowed to choose
between observer-present and observer-absent conditions, participants
chose to work alone during 92% of sessions. Whereas these findings suggest
an aversive function of observer presence, the specific stimulus function
of observer presence remains in question. An argument for an SD-p+ function
of observer presence is made, however, a CEO-R function is also plausible.
Recommendations for methodological improvements and future research
are discussed.
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