The historical roots of organizational behavior management in the private sector: The 1950s-1980s

Applications of behavior analysis in the private sector became visible in t he late 1960s and early 1970s. By the 1980s, the field of Organizational Be havior Management (OBM) was a well established discipline. This article chr onicles the people, events and publications that contributed to the formati on of the field, beginning with the precursors in the 1950s and ending in t he early 1980s. The contributions of individuals who have been honored by t he OEM Network are detailed and emphasized. Although some historical accoun ts attribute the development of OEM to influences from traditional manageme nt fields, the present account, through documentation of the formative even ts, argues that the field developed in relative isolation from such influen ces, emanating primarily from Skinner's development of programmed instructi on and the advent of behavioral applications in other settings. While appli cation of psychology to the work place predated behavioral involvement, the primary force for the development and growth of OEM came from within the f ield of behavior analysis.