Measuring the Pulse of the Enterprise

Author

• Jon Warner , Paul Carey

Produced

• 2005

Key Features

320 pages in a 3-ring binder

Getting the most from organizational opinion/belief/culture surveys

Surveys of people’s opinions, attitudes, values, beliefs, knowledge and general views have a long history. The ancient Egyptians regularly used surveys as part of a broadly based population census process and the Romans used surveys to track demographic changes in the major cities across its empire. The Normans in France also surveyed people’s skills and knowledge in their conquered lands and the British surveyed people in their colonial empire to help them assess what future ruling strategies they should adopt.

Organizational surveys have been used in a variety of different ways. These include surveys to:

• Analyze the most critical factors that determine the climate or culture of an enterprise at a point in time
• Compare the performance of an enterprise with its competition
• Compare groups or teams inside the enterprise with each other
• Gauge the impact or effectiveness of organizational policies, practices, or strategies
• Measure individual or team satisfaction or morale
• Assess the appropriateness of enterprise wide leadership approaches or style
• Analyze the relative success of enterprise wide communication processes
• Determine performance inhibitors for individuals or teams in the enterprise

Whatever the reason for conducting a survey, it has to be carefully planned, efficiently carried out and effectively acted upon. This manual describes the major steps that should be considered well before any widespread survey is undertaken, during the information collection process itself and, finally, when input has been collated, analyzed and now needs to be acted upon.