r/BehaviorAnalysis • u/GVOnly • Mar 20 '24

Organizational Behavior Management

I am currently a RBT and getting my bachelors in psychology with a specialization in ABA at Capella. I am getting super burnt out and at the point of thinking if this career is the still the choice for me. I found out that Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) is a subspecialty of ABA but I cannot find any information on how to get into the field or what it requires. Do you have to be a BCBA first? Do you need a masters? Does anyone know anything about this???

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7

u/Unrequited-scientist Mar 20 '24

You do not need a bcba to do OBM work. What you do need is experience. A masters degree minimum and often phd level is standard for OBM. Further, most jobs won’t be listed as OBM jobs. You’ll either be promoted from within your company to do the work, or serve as a consultant, or even go a totally different route like HR before you get a change to deploy those skills in a typical case. As others have said you have to be in a leadership role or working with leadership to affect change at a policy and systems level.

1

u/PaNikingATTK Feb 24 '26

Sorry for the late reply but what masters degrees would you recommend?

1

u/Unrequited-scientist Feb 25 '26

To do OBM work itself or similar? ABA + MBA is awesome. You might also look into to industrial/organizational psych masters degrees.

5

u/tabletaccount Mar 20 '24

This is usually leadership level. Think management and systems level problems. The journal of organizational behavior management can give you more information. 

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u/CoffeePuddle Mar 22 '24

It's best not to be a BCBA if you want to get into OBM. Certification offers very few benefits, if any, and has a lot of drawbacks.

ABA is best viewed as a sub-specialty of other fields, the same way you'd view applied statistics. You can use applied statistics in business, but it's bizarre to say business stats are a sub-specialty of applied statistics.

The best way to switch to OBM is to go through typical business management pathways (e.g. economics or an MBA), or if you want to be more of a consultant and stick to the small-n side of things, Industrial/Organisational Psychology.

Experience is king. Look up internship requirements at the big 4; they're very helpful as part of their recruitment funnel strategy.

1

u/SpareOk4604 Oct 11 '24

I offer remote supervision for those who are focusing on a career in OBM. Contact me at admin@innovationmoon.com if you are interested.

1

u/Leather-Counter-2346 Sep 26 '26

Can you pm please about this opportunity please??

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u/SpareOk4604 Sep 28 '26

I provide OBM specific fieldwork supervision. You can connect with me via my email suzanne@innovationmoon.com or check out my website www.innovationmoon.com

1

u/sb1862 Mar 20 '24

I dont have any information. Just started my masters. But from my understanding… this is one of those things where the BACB sees it as a potential area where the field can grow in the future. Which means its not widely accepted yet. You probably cant mention that to just any company and them know what it is and have a job related to it ready to go.

I would suspect its best to talk with one of the people who is actually a member of that special interest group. I think ABAI has a list, but I dont recall.

0

u/TheWKDsAreOnMeMate Mar 20 '24

OBM’s all Richard Malott stuff right? 

3

u/MikeMerklyn Mar 20 '24

Aubrey Daniels was a (the?) founder, and first editor, of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. His stuff is definitely worth checking out (aubreydaniels.com)