The Significance Of Survey Tools In Organizational Development
Importance
The usage of effective tools are necessary for the formation of progressive strategies in an organizational setup. The initial parts of the report were focused towards understanding the crucial factors that influence organizational development. The interview pointed towards the preferred tool usage by the managing heads of the organization. Survey tool was found to be very popular among the mangers. Hence, survey tool has to be selected and analyzed as an important tool for organizational development. The manager, Dr. Jon Turner indicated their preference towards using the action research model. This helped towards the greater ground level understanding of change management functions concerning organizational development. Surveys are one of the essential examples of action research tools that are used across organizations. Action research is basically a tool for researching an organization. The research is referred to as the action research and implies that plans will be formulated at the end of the research in order to address the specific issue areas that have been found. The tool also helps towards the extensive participation of the employees that are affected due to change in the organization (Burke, 2017). Action research further relies on either surveys or interviews in order to produce essential data in regards to the much important opinions of the members of the affected organizational publics.
In the interview Dr. Turner pointed out his preference for the survey tool within the action research framework. As understood from the interview, surveys are effective and quick yet simple methods of gathering essential information. According to Dr. Turner surveys have to be more honest in the way they are formed and utilized subsequently. The recommendations provided by Dr. Turner were not to make the surveys over-engineered, survey results should be presented in easier languages and color coding can be used in order to present the results of the surveys. Similar opinions have been provided by many others that have been able to gain essential ground level exposures in the organizational environments.
According to Coghlan & Brannick (2014) action research can be appropriately used in case of the measurement of group activities that unfold over a specific time. The organizational members want to effectively study their own performances in order to develop plans to improve their activities towards better productivity in the future. Thus, action research if done correctly can help to develop experimental learning techniques and effective levels of self-reflection among the employees (Freedman, 2016). However, there is a significant lack of action research reports being produced by permanent employees of an organization with complete details of the research produced in presentable forms. Thus, it also becomes important that organizations effectively use this tools with the utilization of people that are genuinely associated with the organization and willing to help the organization grow.
Renesis Likart was the person behind invention of the survey tool. It is a written questionnaire that helps to collect effective information in regards to various issues that can be faced by a given organization (Heeringa, West & Berglund, 2017). It is usually distributed among a selected group of respondents and their opinions are collected. It is an important tools to gather popular opinions across the various organizational levels. The figurative representation of data and their subsequent measurement and evaluation can be effectively done through the survey procedure. Hence, it becomes an important form of data measurement in any organization. The feedback helps to understand both the varied point of views of the respondents and measure the same in the context of previously collected data in order to understand the comparative significance of the feedback received. The effective measurement of surveys help towards the better understanding of aspects related to organizational problems. Thus, its significance cannot be altogether denied when considering the organizational developmental perspectives. It is cost effective, generates quick information and help towards effective decision making due to its distinctive positive factors. The measurement of data makes possible to separate the popular opinions of the respondents (Alejandro, 2016). Moving forward, this helps towards forming policies and frameworks that can define the growth and development of organizations across the corporate sectors.
Description of the Survey tool by the interviewee
The usage of action research towards developing organizational development plans are the most important aspects related to the identification of significant issues that can affect the organization. When the survey tool is being considered as the essential part of the action research process, a systematic procedure is involved that involves the various aspects related to information gathering and effective presentation. The usage process systematically involves, data collection, feedback, forming action plans and lastly follow up (Church & Waclawski, 2017). The benefits derived from feedback are group format, maintaining anonymity of respondents, clarification of purpose and effective generalization of the larger populations and summarization of data. Action research is mainly focused towards effective planning, action and evaluation of the implemented actions. Thus, the survey processes are used in order to facilitate the greater requirement of the action researches. The survey methods helps to gather essential and effective data. This data further helps to generate effective measurements of the information and applying the same towards the identification of ways in which issues can be managed.
Survey tool when it is used in an organizational environment by people belonging to the same organization are more effective than surveys that are done through outside sources (Rothwell, 2015). Performing research work in one’s own organization implies that an individual connected and working for the organization takes up the role of researching the identified problem issues along with the functional responsibilities that the person holds. The usage of the survey tool requires the effective understanding of the organizational requirements that are necessary before carrying out the required survey procedures (Lewis, Boston & Peterson, 2017). There is an essential need for gaining the support of organizational supervisors and seniors, peers and other important people within the organization. Moreover, required permissions and access to potentially confidential organizational information. The usage of systems and subsystems need to be effectively planned. The support functions are much importantly required. This necessitates the effective coordination between various departments and staffs. The survey tool can also be used for gaining effective data across the various levels of the organization (Cameron & Green, 2015). In this case much more coordinated activities are requirement across the various departments of the organization and may require more individuals to take the responsibility for the research.
Surveys have been used variedly as an essential part of the action research framework. Mostly it has been used in order to understand the grievances of the workers after certain important change events that occur within organizations. As informed by the manager in the interviews surveys can provide ineffective data if they are not properly planned or executed (Griffin et al., 2015). The limited nature of the available options for the responses make it challenging for it to be used towards data gathering. Hence, as indicated earlier, surveys have to be done in simplistic ways, provided in clear and concise language. Moreover, in regards to feedback results should be better presented through the use of easy language. Breaking down ideas into multiple questions will help in the better and extensive understanding of the problem issues (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Leading questions need to be avoided. Multiple part questions need to be avoided in order to reduce the chances for confusion. It is important to understand that like any other tools, the survey tool and procedures can also be affected by various crucial limitations. It is important thus that an entire team is utilized towards using and implementing the survey procedure in order to bring out the best possible outcomes from the research process (Lewis, Boston & Peterson, 2017). This will help towards organizational development and creation of effective future growth paths.
References
SG, A. (2016). History and Fundaments of Organizational Development. Journal Of Global Economics, 04(04). doi: 10.4172/2375-4389.1000222
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons. https://www.academia.edu/download/36951459/Bolman-Deal-Reframing-Organizations.pdf
Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications. https://www.dias.ac.in/download/2015/DIAS%20Technology%20Review%20(14th%20Edition%20of%20DTR).pdf#page=74
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. https://www.mim.ac.mw/books/Making%20sense%20of%20change%20management%202nd%20ed.pdf
Church, A. H., & Waclawski, J. (2017). Designing and using organizational surveys. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315258119
Coghlan, D., & Brannick, T. (2014). Doing action research in your own organization. Sage. https://213.55.83.214:8181/Education/27492.pdf
Freedman, A. M. (2016). The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of the psychology of leadership, change, and organizational development. John Wiley & Sons. https://amz.ir/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/13-The-Wiley-Blackwell-Handbook-2013.pdf
Griffin, C., Jessup, C., Dunn, J., & Dube, P. (2015). Development of Survey Tool to Evaluate Behavior and Educational Tools Affecting Water Health in Lewiston and Auburn Communities.
Heeringa, S. G., West, B. T., & Berglund, P. A. (2017). Applied survey data analysis. Chapman and Hall/CRC.
Lewis, E., Boston, D., & Peterson, S. (2017). A Global Perspective of Transformational Leadership and Organizational Development. Journal of Research Initiatives, 2(3), 5.
Rothwell, W. J. (2015). Organization development fundamentals: Managing strategic change. ATD Press.