LESSON 6:  Why am I here and what am I doing?
COLLECTING AND ANALYZING
INFORMATION
Organization development is vitally dependent on
organization diagnosis: the process of collecting
information that will be shared with the client in
jointly assessing how the organization is functioning
and determining the best change intervention.
The quality of the information gathered, therefore, is
a critical part of the OD Process.
Data Collection involves gathering information on
specific organizational features, such as the inputs,
design components, and outputs.
The process begins nu establishing an effective
relationship between the OD practitioner and those
from whom data will be collected and then choosing
data collection techniques.
Data Analysis organizes and examines the
information to make clear the underlying causes of an
organizational problem or to identify areas for future
development.
THE DIAGNOSTIC RELATIONSHIP
In most cases of planned change, OD practitioners
play an active role in gathering data from
organization members for diagnostic purposes.
Before collecting diagnostic information,
practitioners need to establish a relationship with
those who will provide and subsequently use it.
Because the nature of that relationship affects the
quality and usefulness of the data collected, it is vital
that OD practitioners clarify for organization
members who they are, why the data are being
collected, what the data gathering will involve, and
how the data will be used.
Questions and answers for OD Practitioners:
 Who am I? The answer to this question
introduces the OD practitioner to the
organization, particularly to those members
who do not know the consultant and yet will
be asked to provide diagnostic data.
These answers are aimed at defining the
goals of the diagnosis and data-gathering
activities.
 Who do I work for? This answer clarifies
who has hired the consultant, whether it be a
manager, a group of managers, or a group of
employees and managers.
 What do I want from you, and why? Here,
the consultant needs to specify how much
time and effort people will need to give to
provide valid data and subsequently to work
with these data in solving problems.
 How will I protect your confidentiality?
This answer addresses member concerns
about who will see their responses and in
what form.
 Who will have access to the data?
Respondents typically want to know whether
they will have access to their data and who
else in the organization will have similar
access.
 What’s in it for you? This answer is aimed
at providing organization members with a
clear delineation of the benefits they can
expect from the diagnosis.
 Can I be trusted? The diagnostic
relationship ultimately rests on the trust
established between the consultant and those
providing the data.
The first and most immediate objective is to obtain
valid information about organizational functioning.
METHODS FOR COLLECTING DATA
1. Questionnaires
 One of the most efficient ways to collect data
is through questionnaires because they
typically contain fixed-response queries
about various features of an organization.
 These paper-and-pencil measures can be
administered to large numbers of people
simultaneously.
 They can be analyzed quickly.
Standardized Questionnaires – generally based on
an explicit model of organization, group, or
individual effectiveness and contain a predetermined
set of questions that have been developed and refined
over time.
Customized Questionnaires – are tailored to the
needs of a particular client. Typically, they include
questions composed by consultants or organization
members, receive, limited use, and do not undergo
longer-term development.
2. Interviews
 Interviews are probably the most widely used
technique for collecting data in OD.
Structured Interviews – typically derived from a
conceptual model of organizational functioning.
Unstructured Interviews – are more general and
include the following broad questions about
organizational functioning:
 What are the major goals or objectives of the
organization or department?
 How does the organization currently perform
with respect to these purposes?
 What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
organization or department?
 What barriers stand in the way of goo
performance?
A popular type of group interview is the focus group
or sensing meeting. These are unstructured meetings
conducted by a manager or consultant.
3. Observations
 One of the most direct ways of collecting
data is simply to observe organizational
behavior in their functional settings.
Advantages of Observations:
 They are free of the biases inherent in self-
report data
 They put the practitioner directly in touch
with the behaviors in question, without
having to rely on others’ perceptions
 Observations also involve real-time data,
describing behavior occurring in the present
rather than the past.
 This avoids distortions that invariably arise
when people are asked to recollect their
behaviors
 Observations are adaptive in that the
consultant can modify what he or she chooses
to observe, depending on the circumstances.
4. Unobtrusive Measures
 Unobtrusive data are not collected directly
from respondents but from secondary
sources, such as company records and
archives.
SAMPLING
Sampling design involves considerable technical
detail, and consultants may need to become familiar
with basic references in this area or to obtain
professional help.
Sample Size – how many people, events, or records
are needed to carry out the diagnosis or evaluation.
Sample Selection – probably the most common
approach to sampling diagnostic data in OD is a
simple sample random, in which each member,
behavior, or record has an equal chance of being
selected.
TECHNIQUES FOR ANALYZING DATA
Qualitative Tools
Generally, are easier to use because they do not rely
on numerical data. That fact also makes them more
open to subjective biases but also easier to understand
and interpret.
1. Content Analysis – a popular technique for
assessing qualitative data, especially interview
data. This attempts to summarize comments into
meaningful categories.
2. Force-Field Analysis – derived from Kurt
Lewin’s three-step model of change. This method
organizes information pertaining to
organizational change into two major categories:
forces for change and forces for maintaining the
status quo or resisting change.
Quantitative Tools
1. Means, Standard Deviations, and
Frequency Distribution – one of the most
economical and straightforward ways to
summarize quantitative data.
 These represent the respondents’ average The most important objective of the feedback
score and the spread or variability of the process is to ensure that organization members
responses, respectively. own the data.
2. Scattergrams and Correlation Coefficients
Ownership Is the opposite of resistance to change and
– measures of the strength of a relationship
refers to people’s willingness to devise a change
between two variables.
strategy.
3. Difference Tests – it can be used to compare
a sample group against some standard or Features of Successful Feedback Processes
norm to determine whether the group is
above or below that standard. 1. Motivation to work with the data
2. Structure for the meeting
3. Appropriate Attendance
4. Appropriate Power
5. Process help

LESSON 7:
FEEDING BACK DIASGNOSTIC
INFORMATION
Perhaps the most important step in the process is
feeding back diagnostic information to the client
organization.
Determining the Content of the Feedback
Properties of an Effective Feedback data
1. Relevant
2. Understandable
3. Descriptive
4. Verifiable
5. Timely
6. Limited
7. Significant
8. Comparative
9. Unfinalized
Characteristics of the Feedback Process

 It is equally important to attend to the process

by which that information is fed back to
people.
 Data are provided to organization members in
a meeting or series of meetings
 Because the data might include sensitive
material and evaluations about organization
members’ behaviors, people may come with
considerable anxiety and fear about receiving
the feedback