Transactional Analysis Journal

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An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Transactional Analysis in Improving Organizational

Effectiveness
Mark J. Martinko and Fred Luthans
Transactional Analysis Journal 1981 11: 229
DOI: 10.1177/036215378101100307

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 An Analysis of the Effectiveness of
Transactional Analysis in Improving
Organizational Effectiveness
Mark J. Martinko
Fred Luthans
Abstract
Customer relatioDS department employees
received three training sessions in transac-
tional analysis. A post-training multiple
choice test showed relative mastery of TA
principles and concepts. Pre-, during, and
post-training measures of employee per-
ceptions of customer satisfaction, and
customer reports of degree of satisfaction
indicated significant positive changes in
both measures. Post-training interviews of
employees and management evaluations of
departmental performance concurred in
supporting hypotheses of increased organi-
zation and work effectiveness.
Transactional analysis (TA) is a popular
intervention used to increase organizational
effectiveness. A survey of American
Society for Personnel Administrators
Chapter President's conducted by Rettig
and Amano (1976) indicated that more
than 25010 of the respondents had used TA
as a strategy for improving organizational
effectiveness. Moreover, the practitioner-
oriented literature is replete with glowing
reports on the efficacy of TA-based strate-
gies for organizational improvement. Des-
pite the frequent use of TA-based interven-
tions and anecdoctal reports of success,
there is relatively little empirical evidence
supporting the effectiveness of TA as a
strategy for improving the effectiveness of
work organizations (Huse, 1975 and
Nykodym,1978).
Perhaps the only systematic study of the
effectiveness of TA in a work organization
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is reported by Nykodym (1978). Although
his results indicated that the treatment group
scored significantly higher than controls on
surveys of supervisory behavior and organi-
zational climate, the differences are suspect
because the control and treatment groups
were not equivalent on pre-test performance
and were intact work groups. Other organi-
zational studies conducted with institu-
tional and school populations (Jesness,
19757 Arnold and Simpson, 1975; Knipping
and Chandler, 1975; Amundson, 1975;
and Erskine and Maisenbacker, 1975),
however, at least suggest that TA inter-
ventions are effective in changing behavior
and attitudes. Rather than discrediting
the use of TA as a strategy for improving
organizational effectiveness, the present
state of the research findings and the fre-
quency of the usage of TA underscores
the need for more experimentation in work
organizations under controlled conditions.
Method
The TA intervention was conducted in
the customer relations department of a
midwestern electrical utility. The utility
serves more than 500,000 customers,
generates in excess of 4,700,000,000 kilo-
watt hours per year, and received more
than S85,OOO,OOO in annual revenues.
IIl'POTHESIS
The specific hypotheses tested were:
Hypothesis 1: Employee evaluations of
customer satisfaction will be significantly
higher during and after the TA interven-
tion as compared to pre-intervention levels.
229
MARK J. MARTINKO AND FRED LUTHANS
Hypothesis 2: Customer reactions to
employee behavior will be significantly
more favorable during and after the TA
intervention as compared to pre-interven-
tion levels.
Hypothesis 3: Records of departmental
performance indicative of employee-cus-
tomer relations will improve during the
TA intervention and post-intervention
periods as compared to the pre-interven-
tion period.
DESIGN
All forty-one employees of the customer
relations department, with the exception
of one employee who refused to participate,
were randomly assigned (within workload
constraints) to one of three time-staggered
intervention groups. Each of these three
groups participated in pre-intervention
data collection, the intervention, and post-
intervention data collection. Time-stagger-
ing the intervention periods resulted in two
separate and distinct designs. The first
was a one-group pretest-posttest design
(Campbell and Stanley, 1963) which com-
bined data from the three groups and con-
trasted the pre-intervention period with the
intervention and post-intervention periods.
The second design was the result of over-
lapping the data collection periods for the
three groups. This overlap allowed for two
direct exerpimental/control group com-
parisons: (1) the post-intervention data of
Group I with the pre-intervention data of
Group II and (2) the post-intervention data
of Group II with the pre-intervention data
of Group III. Thus, although all groups
received the TA intervention, time-staggering
the intervention and data collection periods
allowed groups II and III to serve as con-
trols for Groups I and II, respectively.
This design fits Campbell and Stanley's
(1963) criteria for a posttest-only control
group design and controls for all sources of
internal validity.
An analysis comparing each of the three
treatment groups indicated that there were
no significant differences between the
groups on variables such as sex, seniority,
experience, job level, or age.
230
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PROCEDURE
The experiment included three phases:
(1) pre-intervention data collection; (2) the
TA intervention and data collection; and
(3) post-intervention data collection.
During the two-week pre-intervention
period. data collection procedures began
using the "Communications Data Sheet"
and the "Confidential Reports of Service"
form which are described below. Each
employee received a code number. Besides
the employee. only the experimenter knew
which number was assigned. These num-
bers were placed on the Confidential
Reports of Service to enable the employees
to receive individual feedback. Although
the reports could be traced back to the
employee, they were otherwise anonymous.
The second phase of the experiment
for each group consisted of three two-
and one-half-hour intervention sessions;
one session per week. They were as follows:
Session I. The first 15 minutes of this
session consisted of feedback of the infor-
mation collected from the Communica-
tions Data Sheets and the Confidential
Reports of Service. The remainder of the
class period was used to explain TA prin-
ciples. A film "Transactional Analysis"
(1973) was shown which presented the
major concepts and principles of TA. The
experimenter provided an overview of the
major points in the film and the remainder
of the session was used to explore the con-
cept of ego states (Parent, Adult, and
Child) in detail through discussions and
role plays.
Session II. The beginning of this session
was very much similar to that of the first.
It began with feedback regarding the data.
TA instruction consisted of a brief summary
of the princples presented in the first
session and an in-depth description and
discussion of transactions. Segments from
the film describing transactions were re-
played, a slide-tape program illustrating
customer transactions in an electric utility
was presented. and the employees engaged
in video-taped role-play situations.
Session III. As with previous sessions,
this session began with data feedback. A
brief summary of ego states and transac-
Transactional AnalysisJournal

tions was presented and the remainder of
the time was devoted to describing and dis-
cussing the finer points of TA such as
strokes, stamps, rackets, games, life
positions, and scripts.
In the post-intervention phase, data
collectioncontinued for two weeks.
DEPENDENT VARIABLES
There were four major dependent
variables. The first was the Communica-
tions Data Sheet (CDS). In completing
these measures, each employee indicated
whether the customer with whom they were
corresponding was disruptive or not disrup-
tive at the beginning of their conversation.
At the end of each conversation, the
employees indicated whether the customer
was satisfied, dissatisfied, or if they were
unsure of the customer's satisfaction. Each
of these categories was operationally
defined and rating criteria were discussed.
The second dependent measure was the
"Confidential Report of Service" (CRS).
This form asked customers to rate their
satisfaction with employee behavior by
indicating whether or not they were treated
courteously and had their questions
answered. The sheet also asked whether or
not the employee appeared knowledgeable
and if the customer had a more favorable
impression of the company as a result of
the contact. Eight CRS's were mailed for
each employee per day. These customers
were randomly selected from the employees'
daily logs.
The ratios of accurate to inaccurate
meter re-reads and the ratios of re-reads to
total calls were used as measures of overall
organizational effectiveness. These mea-
sures are important because meter re-reads
are given to customers as a last resort when
employees are unable to adequately explain
changes in customers' usages or loss of
service.
One year after the intervention, structured
interviews were conducted with the partici-
pants to more fully assess the impact of the
intervention.
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AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TA
Results and Discussion
PARTICIPANT REACTIONS AND LEARNING
The results of a course evaluation form
and a multiple choice test on TA princi-
ples supported the notion that the subjects
viewed the course very favorably and had
obtained relative mastery of TA principles
and concepts.
PERCEPTUAL CHANGES
The data from the CDS's were used to
test Hypothesis I. Nineteen subjects who
had five or more pieces of data for each of
the data collection periods were used.
A 3 x 1 repeated measures multivariate
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was per-
formed on the percent scores. The means
for each of the response categories during
the data collection periods are presented
in Table 1. Each of the means changed
in the direction predicted. Moreover, the
results of the multivariate ANOVA sum-
marized in Table 2 indicate that the
differences between the mean scores for
the three periods were significant (multi-
variate F (8,66) = 2.44, P<.02). Similarly,
the first stepdown F for perceived disrup-
tions was highly significant (P<.OO29). The
stepdown F's for the other variables were
not significant because of their inter-
dependence with perceived disruptiveness.
Unsure of
Factor level Disruptive Satisfied Satisfaction Dissatisfied
Pre-
Intervention 9.518 92.68 5.947 2.105
Intervention 5.316 94.63 3.947 1.474
Post-
Intervention 2.474 97.32 2.474 .2105
Table 1
Mean Scores for Communications Data
Sheet Responses
A post hoc test for a linear trend using
Scheffe's procedure (Hays, 1963, p, 404)
was conducted for each of the dependent
variables over the three levels of the data
collection factor. The results for perceived
disruptiveness (S(2,16) = 3.71, P<.OS)
231
MARK J. MARTINKO AND FRED LUTHANS

The mean scores and standard deviations

Unl Step Pis Unl Pis for all groups in each phase of data collec-
variate down less variate less tion are presented in Table 3. The results
Source df F than F than of the 3 x 1 ANOVA analysis conducted on
Disruptive 2,36 6.92 .0029 6.92 .0029 the combined scores of the three groups
Satisfied 2,36 1.65 .2061 4.52 .0178 for the three phases of data collection
Uncertainty of are presented in Table 4. The overall F test
Satisfaction 2,36 .62 .5445 2.85 .0711 was marginally significant, F (2,262) =
Dissatisfied 2,36 1.15 .3301 5.46 .0086 2.855, P<.058. Thus, it could be concluded
Multivariate F, 2.44, df "" 8,66, P<.0223 with reasonable confidence that there were
differences in customers' reactions to
Table 2 employee behavior during the three
Multivariate ANOVA Summary Table For different phases of data collection.
SUbjects Perceptions
Factor
were significant, while the results for per- Level Group I Group II Group III Total
ceived satisfaction (S(2,16) = 2.99, P<.lO) Pre-Inter-
and perceived dissatisfaction (S(2,16) = vention 3.43/1.09 3.67/.88 3.71/.81 3.616/.93
3.24, P<.10) were marginally significant. Inter-
vention 3.70/ .95 3.84/.51 3.88/.57 3.80 /.72
Only the results for uncertainty about
Post-Inter-
satisfaction (S(2,16) = 2.37, N.S.) were vention 3.62/ .97 3.78/.83 3.84/.68 3.73 /.86
not significant. Because of the inter-
dependence of the other variables on per- Table 3
ceived disruptiveness which was significant Means and Standard Deviations for the
at the .05 level and the other marginally Combined Analysis
significant results, it is reasonable to con-
clude that there was an increase in the
quality of subjects' perceptions of cus-
tomers throughout the three data collec-
tion periods. Pis
Source SS df MS F less than
Thus, the analysis supports the hypo-
thesis that employee perceptions of cus- Collection
Period 4.202 2 2.1010 2.855 .0583
tomers' satisfaction would be significantly 484.978 659 .7359
ERROR
more positive during and after the TA
Total 661
intervention as compared to pre-inter-
vention levels. Table 4
ANOVA Summary Table forOverall Analysis
ofConfidential Reports ofService
HEBA VIORAL CHANGES
This is perhaps the most critical phase of
the analysis. It relates directly to the second The first planned t-test contrasting the
hypothesis concerning customer reactions mean of the pre-intervention phase with
to employee behavior as measured by the the means of the intervention and post-
eRS form. On these forms, there were intervention phases indicated that cus-
four possible Yes/No responses and a tomer reactions to employee behavior were
score of one was assigned for each correct significantly more favorable during and
response. Each completed form was after the intervention, t (659) = 2.24,
considered a single subject. The return P<.025. The second planned t-test indi-
rates for these reaction sheets were fairly cated that there was no significant difference
uniform throughout the experiment with between intervention and post-interven-
a range of 35.8 to 28.1 and a mean of 31.3. tion scores, t (659) = .79, N.S..

232 Transactional Analysis Journal

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The results of the control versus experi-
mental groups analyses were less positive.
In the first comparison, a t-test was con-
ducted between the means from the post-
intervention phase for Group I (X = 3.62)
and the pre-intervention phase for Group
II (X = 3.67). The results indicated that
there was no significant difference between
the experimental and the control group, t
(174) = .47, N.S.
The second test compared the pre-
intervention scores of Group III (X = 3.71)
with the post-intervention scores of Group
II (X = 3.78). Again, there was no signifi-
cant difference between the means of the
experimental and control groups, t (99) =
- .64, N.S.. Thus, although the differences
between the mean scores were in the pre-
dicted direction, the differences were not
significant.
In order to investigate whether or not
there were any systematic differences be-
tween the subjects in the experimental and
control groups which might have influenced
customers' reports, a second analysis was
conducted. This analysis included four 3 x 1
ANOVAs comparing the subjects in each
of the three experimental groups on the
variables of age, seniority, departmental
experience, and job classification. There
were no significant differences between
the groups for any of the variables which
were tested. Thus, there did not appear
to be any systematic differences between
the groups which might influence cus-
tomers' reports on the CRS.
The results of the 3 x 1 ANOVA and
the planned comparisons between the pre-
intervention versus the intervention and
post-intervention data indicated that there
were significant increases in the quality of
customer ratings of employee behavior.
Thus, the second hypothesis that customer
ratings of employee behavior would be
more favorable during and after the iner-
vention as compared to pre-intervention
levels was supported. However, because
neither of the control versus experimental
group comparisons were significant, it
could not be concluded with confidence
that the intervention accounted for the
results.
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AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TA
ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
This phase of the analysis involved com-
paring two indexes of departmental per-
formance during the intervention with pre-
intervention levels. The latest monthly
data were compared with the same period
the previous year. In this way, the compari-
son periods would be similar on variables
that might influence' the number of calls
and meter re-reads such as weather, rates,
and the political climate.
During the year prior to the interven-
tion, there was a total of 310 meter re-reads
with 49 indicating previous errors in read-
ing. During the intervention period there
were 336 re-reads with 97 showing pre-
vious errors. The differences between
these two statistics were examined using the
test of proportions described by Glass and
Stanley (1970, p. 124). The results indica-
ted that there were significantly fewer
inappropriate readings during the interven-
tion period as compared to the pre-inter-
vention period (Z = 7.38, P<'OOI).
In the pre-intervention period there were
20,123 calls with 310 requests for re-reads.
In the intervention period, there were
33,026 calls with 336 requests for meter
re-reads. Using the test of proportions
described above, it was found that there
was a significantly lower proporton of
requests for re-reads in the intervention
period as compared to the control period
(Z = 5.47, P<.OOI). Again, assuming that
the proportion of requests for meter re-
reads is a valid index of performance, the
data indicates that the employees were
significantly more effective during the
intervention as compared to pre-interven-
tion levels. This finding was particularly
important because it indicated that the
effects of the intervention generalized to
areas of performance other than those
specificallytargeted for change.
PARTICIPANT INTERVIEWS
The first interview question asked if
the employees perceived a noticeable
improvement in the performance of their
work group as a result of the TA inter-
vention. Thirty-one of the thirty-five sub-
jects interviewed gave an affirmative answer.
233
MARK J. MARTINKO AND FRED LUTHANS
Only one subject said that he was unsure
of whether or not a change occurred and
the remaining three subjects said that they
did not observe a change.
The second item of interest was the inter-
view with the department head who attended
all aspects of the intervention for each
group. The manager said that he saw
immediate changes and a definite improve-
ment in a number of people. The manager
estimated that at least half of the people
were still effected by the intervention and
acknowledged that his estimate may have
been conservative.
The manager also said that prior to the
TA intervention, he averaged two or three
call referrals per day. During the interven-
tion, he estimated that the number of call
referrals decreased to three or four per
week. He said that this reduction was highly
significant and that it was maintained up to
the time of the interview.
Despite the fact that this interview data
is anecdotal, these findings are important
since, like the measures indicating improve-
ments in organizational effectiveness, they
imply that the effects of the intervention
generalized to areas other than those speci-
fically targeted for change. In addition,
the fact that the reduction in call referrals
extended well beyond the intervention
periods supports the case that there were
some relatively permanent effects resulting
from the intervention.
Conclusions
In general, the results indicate that the
TA intervention had its desired effects.
The customer service personnel reacted
very favorably to the TA training and
learned the major concepts. Throughout
the three data collection periods, there were
significant increases in their perceptions of
customer satisfaction at the beginning and
end of business transactions. Customers'
reactions to employee behavior were signi-
ficantly more favorable during and after
the TA intervention as compared to pre-
intervention levels. Measures of depart-
mental performance indicated significant
improvements during the intervention
period. Finally, the interviews with the
234
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participants and the department manager
supported the intervention as being suc-
cessful.
The most serious limitation of the study
was that there were no significant differences
in the experimental and control group com-
parisons of customers' ratings of employee
behavior during the post-intervention and
pre-intervention data collection periods.
However, this limitation is not unique.
Few of the other TA intervention studies
included control groups in their assess-
ments of behavioral changes. Moreover,
when they did, they also failed to demon-
strate significant differences between the
control and experimental groups. Thus, as
with previous studies, it was not possible to
demonstrate conclusivelythat the observed
changes in customer ratings of employee
behavior were directly attributable to the
intervention and the possibility remains
that some uncontrolled environmental
factor may have influenced the results.
Finally, as previously noted, up to the
present, there have been only a few studies
that systematically investigate the effects
of TA as a technique for organization
development and human resource manage-
ment. This lack of conclusive evidence
should not become an excuse for arbitrarily
labeling TA as a fad or a gimmick. There
is, for example, empirical research which
documents that subjects can reliably
classify verbal statements according to the
theoretical constructs of TA (Thompson,
1972 and Brennan and McClenaghan, 1978)
and there are empirical reports of success-
ful TA interventions in non-work oriented
organizations (Arnold and Simpson, 1975;
Knipping and Chandler, 1975; Amundson,
1975; Erskine and Maisenbacker, 1975;
and Jesness, 1975). The present study pro-
vides enough supportive evidence for TA-
based interventions that further serious
consideration and evaluation of this
strategy are warranted.
Mark J. Martinko is an assistant pro-
fessor of management at the Florida State
University. His research and teaching
interests are in the areas of organization
behavior and development.
Transactional Analysis Journal

Fred Luthans is a Regent's Professor of
management at the University of Nebraska.
His research and teaching interests are in
the areas of organizational behavior and
theory.
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AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TA
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