8

The Human Relations Survey-

Step ly Step
The project reported in the preceding pages involved students,
parents, and teachers in three junior high schools. Perhaps some
readers have been asking themselves whether a similar proce-
dure is applicable to their particular setting. From experience
with these groups and with other groups in educational systems,
industrial organizations, and community settings, we beheve that
the procedure has wide applicability. Also, it seems to us quite
practicable for an interested individual or a small core of indi-
viduals to initiate such projects in a wide variety of situations.
Perhaps the PTA is ready to take the initiative, or perhaps the
student council, or an administrator. Such a project might be
especially important and productive as a student council under-
taking in exploring relationships within the student body and
between students and faculty. It would also be appropriate as
a staff project for an administrator to institute on interpersonal,
interrole, and intersubgroup relationships within the staff.
It is obvious, of course, that many different types of questions
might be asked other than the ones used in this study. It seems
desirable, however, to keep the questions open and evocative of
a wide range of feelings and perceptions rather than narrow and
restrictive. There are a number of reasons why an interview
survey is hkely to be more productive as a seff-analysis process
than a written questionnaire. Active participation of the sub-
jects of the survey in learning to interview in a scientific manner
and establishing relationships with the interviewees and involv-
ing them in the study seems to us to have several advantages.
HUMAN RELATIONS SURVEY 95

Also, good interview procedure and recording can secure fuller,

more adequate data in such a difficult area of data coUection as
interpersonal perceptions and feelings.
Frequently the groups which have been involved in a seff-
survey of human relations problems become enthusiastic about
the idea of sharing their findings with other groups. Or perhaps
other groups who have heard of the study ask for the findings,
often with the idea of cutting the data collection process. Cer-
tainly it is desirable to share the experience in such projects with
other groups in order to stimulate interest and intelligent pro-
cedure in initiating projects of their ovra. On the other hand,
it would be very undesirable to give other groups the idea that
it is possible to short-cut the process of painstaking analysis of
their ovra relationship problems. An inadequate diagnosis is the
least of many difficulties which will result if a group is encour-
aged to use somebody else's data.
The first step in any program is that somebody feels sensitive
to the need for improving relations. In the project reported
here, the curriculum director and the leaders of the teacher's
federation felt that there were many possibilities for improving
teacher-child relationships in the classroom. Because of this
belief, they organized the in-service training course for teachers
which served as the focal point for this project. However, it is
not enough for one person, or even a small group of people, to
see a need and a possibihty for improvement in human relations.
Many projects fail at this veiy first step because members of a
small subgroup assume they represent the whole group, when
they are actually a very small minority who have not taken the
responsibihty to communicate their concerns to a larger circle
of the group membership.

Consultation
The best way of going about the improvement of inter- or
intragroup relations is just as technical and professional a prob-
lem as the steps of improving work efficiency or improving one's
physical health. Many incorrect steps are possible which may
lead to increased tension, mxOre frustration, and early failure.
For this reason, it is important that the group ask for help from
appropriate sources at an early stage. Very often this is desirable
96 INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTIONS

even when there are capable consultants vdthin the group. There
is a rapidly growing number of social psychologists, cultural
anthropologists, and other professional consultants trained to
provide assistance in the planning and conducting of research-
training-action projects. Even ff it is possible to secure only a
very hmited amount of help, it is essential that this help be
secured in the first stages of strategic planning. It is now also
possible for groups to study the experience of other groups in
working effectively with consultants.^

Early Involvement of All Relevant Groups

In the present study the school officials wisely selected their
consultant for the in-service teacher training program early
enough so that it was possible for him to give guidance in a
process of collaborative planning before the program was offi-
cially scheduled to begin. Although the consultant was asked to
work with a group of thirty teachers, it seemed clear that any
project focused on improving teacher-child relationships would
need to involve the children themselves and their parents. The
school officials were glad to implement this by inviting repre-
sentatives of the four PTA groups to meet and discuss the pro-
gram with the school personnel. Probably it would have been
desirable to involve the representatives of the student council
at the same time. Actually, their collaboration was not sought
until a later date. The meetings of this representative committee
were very effective in orienting the consultant to some of the
possibihties and hmitations of working on this particular prob-
lem of intergroup relations. They were also able to begin
their training by stimulating a strategic core of group leaders
to see the possibilities and potential benefits of pioneering in
this type of action-research.

Importance of Realistic Assessment of Time and Effort

Frequently a group discovers too late that it is not ready to
put as much effort as is required into some project it has under-

^ Lippitt, Ronald. Training in Community Relations. New York: Harper and

Brothers, 1949. Chapters I and XIV.
H U M A N RELATIONS SURVEY 97

taken. One of the important responsibihties of the consultant

and of the group in undertaking such a project is to make as
clear an estimate as possible of the time and effort which wiU be
required in the long run. In our project here it was important to
help first a representative committee, and then later a larger
group of volunteers, consider reahstically the amount of inter-
viewing time, the size of the sample, the amount of training that
would be required, the time that would elapse before any raw
data could be transformed into findings and interpretation, and
other similar facts that are a part of the perspective of every
adequate fact-finding procedure. It is also important at this
stage for the group and the consultant to consider together the
type and amount of help which will be needed from the pro-
fessional consultant or consultant team in order to carry through
the project effectively.

Participation in Getting the Facts

Technicians sometimes go after facts which a particular group
is not ready to face, or which they feel are not the important
facts to help them solve the problems which are most important
for them. It is essential that the various groups which will be
involved in an action-research project collaborate with the con-
sultant in formulating the purposes of the survey and assist in
defining the areas of fact-finding. Of course, they must also
recognize that the specific formulation of questions and of a
survey instrument is a technical skill on which they need help,
just as they do in other technical decisions concerning question-
naire or interview sampling, interviewing methodology, and so
on. But there is a great difference psychologically between dele-
gating an expert to do the job and collaborating with a sldUed
person. in making pohcy decisions. In our survey it will be
recalled that teachers, parents, and students were all consulted
about interviewing procedure and about the questions to be
used in the interviews. Then the volunteer teams of parent and
child interviewers took an even more active role in collecting the
data from the child and parent samples. Many of our fears were
dispelled about the readiness, abihty, and interest of such vol-
unteers to do a sldUful job as volunteer researchers. We are now
convinced that every organization and commimity has a vast
98 INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTIONS

reservoir of personnel ready and able to take on important re-

search roles in action-research projects. Much of the success of
the data collection phase of the project, ff interviewing or other
types of field work are required, will depend on the adequacy of
the training in research procedures, and also on the group organ-
ization—team coordinators, individiial and team quotas, progress
reports, and problem sessions—and their commitments to get the
job done. During the course of the data collection phase of this
project the consultant came to feel that one of the really im-
portant educational opportunities was to communicate some of
the attitudes and skills of the scientific method to a strategic
sample of community members, adults and children, who would
be able to use these skills in a wide variety of other individual
and group problem-solving responsibihties.

Participation in Analysis and Interpretation of the Facts

The coding and tabulation of interviews or the tabulation of
questionnaire results are tasks where the skilled technician can
suggest many labor-saving procedures and can provide essential
supervision. For example, it is often possible to do much of the
work of analysis by putting the data on cards to be analyzed by
machine. Sometimes the data represent such a complex pattern
of facts that it is necessary for a consultant, with his speciahzed
training in individual and group dynamics, to spend additional
time working on the interpretation. In the present study, how-
ever, it was also very helpful to caU in a group of students on the
interpretation, once the first tabulations had been made.

Communication and Functional Understanding

We have indicated the importance of clear communication.
The facts and interpretations from the diagnostic sui-vey should
serve as a basis for stimulating an adequate process of group
seff-analysis, attitude change, and behavior change. We have
already considered the question of the consultant's role in setting
up the appropriate meetings and getting active participation
from all groups involved. The important thing about the dis-
cussion process is that the individuals concerned should move
from understanding the facts to considering the relationship of
the facts to their own behavior. If some or all members of the
HUMAN RELATIONS SURVEY 99

group have been actively involved in the fact-finding process,

there is a greater probabihty that the facts will become functional
in this sense, and flow naturally into a consideration of desirable
changes in group procedure and individual action.
The Training Link
The human relations seff-survey, although not complete in
itseff as a measure for improving group functioning, makes pos-
sible the discovery that there are many skills of individual and
group functioning which are important, and which can be
learned as a part of the regular program of group hfe. A group
can contribute as much to the individual growth and adjustment
of each member as to the growth of the group itseff by providing
opportunities for the learning of human relations skills as a part
of the official organizational program. The discovery of this
important link gives significance to the chain research-training-
action as a procedure for a continual process of improvement in
the area of interpersonal and intergroup communication and
collaboration.