Employee Absenteeism Case Study Assignment
Employee Absenteeism – Briefly recap the case, discussing your observations and clearly identifying
Mr. Smith has contacted you for assistance with a problem that he is having at his workplace. Mr. Smith owns a small factory that manufactures custom figure skates. He has 30 employees who work for him. During the past year, he has noticed a very high absenteeism rate among his staff. The high rate of absenteeism has negatively affected the company’s productivity and ability to meet deadlines. Since the company is small and the work is highly specialized, it is difficult to obtain substitute or temporary workers.
Mr. Smith hoped that offering donuts and coffee in the mornings would help his employees feel appreciated and want to come to work, but this strategy yielded very poor results. He also explained to his staff that the low productivity could result in the factory being permanently closed. However, following this, he noticed an increase in absenteeism rates.
Mr. Smith is now turning to you for help with his staff.
1. Briefly recap the case, discussing your observations and clearly identifying a research question.
2. What are the target behaviors and why is it important to address this behavior?
3. Why might have Mr. Smith’s previous interventions not been successful?
4. What intervention do you think will result in a specific level and direction of desired change in the target behavior?
5. Choose an effective modification program to test your hypothesis for your hypothetical experiment (e.g. a token economy, lottery, or positive reinforcement) and discuss how you would implement your program and the rationale for your choice, based upon current scientific literature.
6. Make explicit how the proposed behavior plan will be monitored and outcomes analyzed, drawing clear conclusions.
7. Clearly communicate the anticipated results, addressing any potential issues of response maintenance, response transfer and/or extinction.
8. What are the value/risks/strategies in using the same person as their own experimental control?