Date of Award

4-1991

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. William K. Redmon

Second Advisor

Dr. Alyce Dickinson

Third Advisor

Dr. Dale Brethower

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

The intervention was tested using a sequential presentation of conditions to assess the performance of clerical employees in a university admissions office. Ten workers received feedback on completion of mailroom tasks on a daily basis. Tasks included time of mail delivery and accuracy and quantity of responses to information requests. For mail delivery, two intervention elements were applied. First, group performance data were posted publicly. Second, verbal feedback from a supervisor was added to public posting. Improvement in time of mail delivery was observed when public posting was implemented; however, no reliable improvements were observed when supervisor feedback was added. For accuracy of response to information requests, only one intervention was implemented, combined public posting and supervisor feedback. The data indicated that a small, but stable, increase in accuracy occurred under this condition, and that accuracy eventually reached 90% or above (as compared to an average baseline level of 75%). Although plans called for assessment of feedback effects on the quantity of information requests processed, initial measurement of performance in this area led to performance improvements to the extent that most requests were processed, leaving no opportunity for variation in performance.

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