85400 - DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF INTERVENTIONS

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will: - know main approaches to intervention design and evaluation tools in organizational settings - be able to design and evaluate interventions in Organizational Psychology.

Course contents

1. Process consultation and survey feedback

2. Design process (of interventions and of intervention evaluations)

3. Evaluation processes and principles (main aspects, basic models, formative and summative evaluations, realistic evaluation)

4. Research designs for the evaluation of WOP interventions (quasi experimental and longitudinal designs, within subjects and single case design)

Readings/Bibliography

a) Owen, J.M. (2007) Program evaluation: forms and approaches, New York: Guilford Press, 3. Ed. (chapters 1-3) or, alternatively, Posavac, E.J., Carey, R.G. (2007) Program evaluation : methods and case studies, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Carey and Associates, 7. ed. (chapters 1-3) (both books are available in the Psychology library)

b) Komaki J., Goltz S. (2001) Within-group research designs: going beyond program evaluation questions, in Merle Johnson, Redmon, Mawhinney, Handbook of organizational performance, New York: Haworth Press (pp. 81-86, 92-106).

c) Pawson R. & Tilley N. (2004) Realist evaluation (available on the moodle platform)

d) One empirical paper out of the following three (available on the moodle platform):

- Staats, H; van Leeuwen, E; Wit, A (2000) A longitudinal study of informational interventions to save energy in an office building Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 33(1), pp. 101 – 104.

- Ludwig, TD; Gray, TW; Rowell, A (1998) Increasing recycling in academic buildings: A systematic replication, Journal Applied Behavioral Analysis, 31(4), pp. 683 – 686.

- Kneringer, MJ; Page, TJ (1999) Improving staff nutritional practices in community-based group homes: Evaluation, training, and management, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 32(2), pp. 221 – 224.

e) Schein E.H. (2010). Le forme dell’aiuto. Milano: R. Cortina (capp. da 3 a 8).

Teaching methods

The course will use one or more of the following teaching methods:

- lectures,

- a case simulation.

- small group discussions,

- students’ oral presentation.

Assessment methods

Learning will be evaluated by:

1) traditional examination (open and closed questions),

2) an individual reaction paper on an empirical paper based on the evaluation of an intervention.

Teaching tools

The course will use one or more of the following teaching methods:

- lectures,

- simulation,

- group case study.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Zappalà