A technology for program maintenance: programming key researcher behaviors in a student housing cooperative.

Behavioral researchers play critical, but often unanalyzed, roles in the programs they develop. Unless they replace their key activities with standardized procedures, their continued participation may be essential to program success--a situation that is often not only impractical but may be prohibitively expensive and disliked by local staff. This study was conducted in a student housing cooperative that is dependent on close researcher supervision for its continued health and survival. A key activity of the co-op researchers was to provide public recognition for good job performance by co-op members. The purposes of this study were (a) to replace that idiosyncratic recognition with systematic procedures so members, instead of the researchers, would provide public recognition to each other for good job performance; and (b) to evaluate those procedures by comparing job performance when member-delivered recognition was provided and when it was not. When the procedures were in place, job performance increased and fines for poor job performance and complaining at meetings decreased. This study suggests that procedures can be developed to reduce program reliance on the researcher that are effective, inexpensive, sustainable, and acceptable to the participants--a first step toward developing a technology of program maintenance.