The Behavior Analysis Coding System: An Applied, Real-time Approach for Measuring and Improving Interactive Skills

The goal of the behavior analysis (BA) approach is to code, in real time, individuals’ sequential utterances during team meetings, thereby providing objective data that can be used for immediate post-meeting behavioral feedback. The approach was developed during industrial training courses to improve employee’s interactive skills. Although a comprehensive 13-category system has been established, the value of the BA system involves principles for category development and the provision of immediate feedback to help people improve their interactions with others. Accordingly, BA could help teams improve language use (Leshed et al., 2009), dysfunctional team processes (Johnson, Hollenbeck, Scott DeRue, Barnes, & Jundt, 2013), and performance (Gabelica, Van den Bossche, Segers, & Gijselaers, 2012).