Date of Award

4-1981

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Malcolm Robertson

Second Advisor

Dr. Subhash Sonnad

Third Advisor

Dr. Frederick Gault

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Roger Ulrich

Abstract

The effects of two staff incentive procedures, time off from work and additional monetary compensation in increasing the amount of time that professional counselors spent in direct service (client oriented) activities were compared. The participation of six outpatient counselors, three male and three female, enabled the assessment of the differential impact of these incentive procedures by sex of the counselor. Throughout the study, which lasted 30 weeks, daily records were kept on the amount of time counseling staff engaged in 18 predefined categories of staff behavior. Using a repeated measures design, time off from work and/or additional monetary compensation were contingent upon increased service delivery in categories relating to direct client contact. When given a choice, subjects consistently chose money over time off. Time off had no significant impact upon the number of direct service units delivered by the counselors. While it had no effect upon the output of the female group of counselors, additional monetary compensation produced a dramatic escalation in the units of service delivered by the male counselors. Agency practices regarding time monitoring were beyond the experimenter's control and may have contributed to the ineffectiveness of the time off component in the present study. Additional monetary compensation linked closely with counselor performance was found to be an effective, economical procedure to generate significant increases in counselor output, without measurable effect on client satisfaction.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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Psychology Commons

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