OBM Network Annual Report March 2023

OVERVIEW
Founded in 1982, the Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) Network exists to develop, enhance, and support the growth and vitality of Organizational Behavior Management through research, education, practice, and collaboration. Our members are consultants, managers, professors, and students who research and apply the science of behavior in organizations in areas such as Performance Management, Behavior-Based Safety, Behavioral Systems Analysis, Consumer Behavior Analysis, Health and Wellness, Monetary Incentive Systems, Training and Development, and Leadership and Culture.

OBM NETWORK STRATEGY
The OBM Network crossed a major milestone in 2022, celebrating its 40th anniversary since our founding. As the demand for OBM continues to grow, it is our priority to ensure the high quality of OBM research, education, and application.

This past September a small group of OBM Network members met in Ponte Verde Beach, Florida during the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis (FABA) conference to align on a vision for the OBM ﬁeld and to clarify the OBM Network’s role in serving that vision.

Members who participated in this discussion included: Abigail Blackman, Nicole Gravina, Andressa Sleiman, Matt Laske, Lori Ludwig, Tim Ludwig, Nicholas Matey, Anna McCalpin, Mellanie Page, Sharlet Rafacz, and Dave Wilder.

We answered 2 questions: 1) Where do we want to see OBM as a ﬁeld in the next 5-10 years? 2) How can the OBM Network help serve this vision?

We agreed on a vision: Our vision for OBM is to grow through the dissemination of the science/application while maintaining quality standards across OBM practitioners, academics, and researchers.

This vision is broader than the OBM Network alone; it also involves universities and businesses. We all need to work together to ensure the quality of OBM research and practice. The OBM Network can contribute to this vision by:

Serving as the main hub for OBM resources, learning, and collaboration to ensure quality.

Building relationships with other ABAI SIGs, ABAI chapters, universities, businesses, and others so that the OBM Network is recognized as the place to go for OBM needs/questions/quality criteria.

Retaining members to keep OBMers connected over time.

We accomplish this now through conferences, access to our ﬂagship journal, the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, newsletters, a membership portal with multiple networking and sharing features, and other special projects. The special projects we are excited about delivering to the OBM Community in 2023 include special themed newsletters, webinars, and podcasts with top experts in our ﬁeld, and an OBM instructors’ group for those who teach OBM to come for recommended syllabi, advice, and best practices.

There is a lot of work to do, and it couldn’t be done without the numerous volunteers who care about the quality growth of our ﬁeld. The following individuals are those who are leading the way forward for the OBM Network today:

Board of Directors: Anna McCalpin (President), Doug Johnson (Incoming President), Sharlet Rafacz (Past President), Lori Ludwig (Executive Director), Adam Warman (Director of Finance), Shannon Biagi (Director of Operations), Grace Bartle (Director of Outreach)

Awards and Student Research Grant: Andressa Sleiman, Byron Wine

Newsletters: Daniel Cymbal, Sebastian Jimenez, Natasha Miller

Webinars/Podcasts: Matt Laske, Andressa Sleiman

Research & Education Committee: Denys Brand, Flo DiGennaro Reed, Sharlet Rafacz (Chair), Nicole Gravina, Doug Johnson, Lori Ludwig, Andressa Sleiman, Lori Ludwig

Ambassadors: Tim Ludwig, Kelly Therrien, Grace Bartle, Eliza Goben

MEMBERSHIP
Currently, the OBM Network has 393 members (286 Full; 106 Students). Full Members are current professionals in the ﬁeld of OBM and other related practice areas. Student Members are currently enrolled in a formal academic program in higher education.

Membership beneﬁts include access to an interactive membership portal with exclusive member-only content, subscription to the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, eligibility to apply for the Chris D. Anderson Student Research Grant, the Outstanding Innovative OBM Intervention Award, and vote in the annual election for the OBM Network President.

CONFERENCES

Recordings from our 2022 OBM Conference invited speakers are available for members on the OBM Network website. This hybrid conference took place in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis (FABA) in September, 2022. The conference drew 335 attendees.

The OBM Network is partnering with Black Association for Behavior Analysis (BABA) in sponsoring an OBM track at their annual meeting on June 16-19, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan.

STUDENT RESEARCH GRANT
Chris D. Anderson Student Research Grant
The Chris Anderson Research Award program fosters traditional research in OBM relevant to organizational settings. Recipients of this grant use behavior analytic methods, include speciﬁc behavioral targets as part of organizational change strategies, and present individual subject information or appropriate statistical tests to document group eﬀects. This grant has been awarded to 14 students since 2007. The 2022 grant recipient was Abigail Blackman for her research: The eﬀects of virtual training and self-monitoring on leading a meeting.

AWARDS
Lifetime Achievement Award
This award has been given to 20 individuals since 1988 who have fundamentally advanced our understanding or application of behavioral principles in organizational settings. Past recipients of this award have been individuals whose contributions have signiﬁcantly advanced the ﬁeld of OBM. In 2022, we honored the late Thomas Mawhinney, to reﬂect on his mentorship, dedication, and dissemination of OBM.

Outstanding Contribution Award
This award has been given to 20 individuals since 1992 who have made signiﬁcant and measured contributions to the ﬁeld. The 2022 Outstanding Contribution Award recipient was Cloyd Hyten.

Innovative Research Award:
The OBM Network gives the Innovative Research Award to authors of the most innovative research published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management each year. An awards Committee independently reviews and scores articles to determine the winner. This award has been awarded to authors of 6 journal articles since 2016. The most recent recipients were Seth Walker & Tyra Sellers for their research:Teaching Appropriate Feedback Reception Skills Using Computer-Based Instruction: A Systematic Replication.

Outstanding Applied OBM Intervention Award
This award has been given to 3 organizations since 2018 who use OBM techniques to achieve measurable results. There were no awards given in 2020-2022.