An Analysis of the Commonality and Type of Preintervention Assessment Procedures in the <i>Journal of Organizational Behavior Management</i> (2000–2015)

Wilder et al. (2018) looked at every paper in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management from 2000 to 2015. They counted how many studies used any kind of pre-intervention assessment. They also sorted the types of tools teams used before starting staff-training or performance plans.

The authors then wrote a clear, step-by-step guide for giving one tool—the Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (PDC-HS)—inside agencies that serve adults with disabilities.

Most OBM studies in those 16 years did some sort of check before treatment, but the methods varied widely. The paper does not give new outcome data; instead it offers a uniform way to run the PDC-HS so results across agencies can be compared.

Luiselli et al. (2022) extends these same PDC-HS ideas. They show how to build an entire research program inside a human-service agency using barrier analyses and leadership buy-in—exactly the steps Wilder et al. outline for single staff cases.

Simonian et al. (2020) reviewed 13 workplace studies that used preference assessments to find staff reinforcers. Their paper sits beside Wilder et al.: one tells you how to ask “Why is performance low?” (PDC-HS), the other reminds you to ask “What do staff actually want?” before you pick rewards.

Bottini et al. (2025) treat burnout as behavior with a function. The PDC-HS guide gives you the tool to test that function in real time—linking assessment to the burnout model.

If you consult in adult day programs, group homes, or clinics, you now have a standard script for the PDC-HS. Use it to pinpoint whether poor staff performance is a training issue, a resource issue, or a motivation issue—then pick the right fix the first time.