Use of feedback to improve institutional staff performance

The following study assessed the effectiveness of two simple and inexpensive performance feedback conditions in improving the job performance of institutional staff. Participants were care staff employed at a large center for the developmenta1ly disabled. During two 3 week sessions participants from two separate treatment units received publicly posted feedback graphs with either their own personal names or self-chosen anonymous codes to designate whose graphs were whose. These graphs were posted in each unit\u27s training room and depicted participant performance (use of rewards and prompts) during behavioral training sessions with developmentally disabled clients. These two conditions were investigated to determine whether designation by proper name is important in the effectiveness of public feedback. It was hypothesized that the use of personal names would have a greater effect than anonymously coded feedback. Results indicated that only one participant\u27s performance improved during the personal name condition. For the same participant there was a decrease in performance during the subsequent anonymous code condition. For the other 5 participants, neither of the two feedback conditions were successful in improving their performance