A comparison of three staff-management procedures.
Post names, times, and scores—engagement jumps when staff know exactly when they lead and everyone sees the numbers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Quilitch (1975) tested three ways to get staff moving in a state hospital.
They tried a memo, a workshop, and then a two-step combo.
The combo was simple: assign each aide specific activity times and post daily counts of how many residents joined in.
What they found
Memos and workshops did nothing.
The combo shot resident engagement from 7 activities a day to 32 across four wards.
Staff kept the gains as long as the chart stayed on the wall.
How this fits with other research
Mansell et al. (2002) later showed similar lifts using active-support training instead of schedules.
Anonymous (2019) looks like a clash: active-support training failed in their homes, but they had high staff turnover and more skilled residents.
R’s tighter control and stable team may explain the gap.
van den Broek et al. (2006) used the same single-case, staff-run style to tame dementia aggression, proving the method travels across targets.
Why it matters
Skip the lecture. Pick the staff who will run each game, put their names on a calendar, and tape yesterday’s resident count beside it. You will see more engagement by Friday.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Even though administrators must have effective staff-management procedures to ensure implementation of desired programs, many traditional staff-management proceudres remain unevaluated. This study investigated the effectiveness of three such procedures. The administrator of an institution for the retarded (1) sent a memo instructing all staff to lead daily recreational activities, (2) sponsored a workshop teaching staff to lead such activities, and (3) assigned staff activity leaders and provided performance feedback to staff by publicly posting the daily average number of active residents on each ward. Neither the memo nor the workshops motivated staff to lead activities, but after staff were scheduled to lead such activities and given performance feedback, the average daily number of residents engaged in activities on four wards for 95 retarded persons increased from seven to 32. The administration of this facility has adopted similar procedures to maintain such activities on all wards.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1975 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1975.8-59