Reference no: EM133736837

Summary of the articleInadequately kept work areas have long plagued employers as one of the primary causes of employee-related injury. In 2002, a nation- wide survey reported that food and drink service establishments experience 4.6 nonfatal on- the-job injuries every year per 100 full-time employees (U.S. Department of Labor, 2002). The failure to complete necessary cleaning tasks correctly was reported by the U.S. Department of Labor survey to cause 28% of restaurant injuries in 1994. In 1995, roughly 15% of lost- time injuries nationwide resulted from falling objects hitting workers (U.S. Department of Labor). Properly stacking dishes is a crucial safety procedure that was seldom completed correctly at the restaurant involved in this study, spurring the present organizational behavior management (OBM) study. The food service industry has benefited from the use of OBM techniques. For example, LaFleur and Hyten (1995) used performance management techniques to improve the perfor- mance of a banquet set-up staff at a hotel. Anderson, Crowell, Hantula, and Siroky (1988) used task clarification and graphic feedback to dramatically improve cleanliness at a universitytavern. Many OBM studies share similar inter- vention components, target behaviors, and settings. However, each organizational context is unique, and relevant contextual features should.