OBM AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT SYSTEMS

A review of the empirical OEM literature on quality improvement system s in organizations serving persons with developmental disabilities (DD ) suggests the current literature offers a small but growing number of studies of large-scale, long-term, applications of behavioral supervi sion to improve targeted areas of staff performance. One conclusion of fered is that it may be possible to expand the scope of OEM interventi ons in DD organizations by integrating OEM into the development of tot al quality management (TQM) approaches to quality improvement. To illu strate how such an integration might be accomplished, the current pape r discusses OEM research in four areas that are important in implement ing TQM (organizational systems analysis, team effectiveness, measurin g consumer responses, and data analysis). Recommendations for practice and future research in OEM within DD organizations are discussed.