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Collecting, Analyzing, and Feeding

Back Diagnostic Information
Unit 1, Week 5
 Learning objectives

 Understand the importance of the diagnostic relationship in the organization development

(OD) process.
 Describe the methods for collecting diagnostic data.
 Understand the primary techniques used to analyze diagnostic data.
 Outline the process issues associated with data feedback.
 Introduction

 Organization development is vitally dependent on collecting diagnostic 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 and the effectiveness of the feedback process,
therefore, are critical parts of the OD process.
 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.
 That information can help allay people’s natural fears that the data might be used against them
and gain members’ participation and support, which are essential to developing successful
interventions
 The Diagnostic Relationship

 Establishing the diagnostic relationship between the OD practitioner and relevant organization
members is similar to forming a contract.
 It is meant to clarify expectations and to specify the conditions of the relationship.
 In those cases where members have been directly involved in the entering and contracting
process, the diagnostic contract will typically be part of the initial contracting step.
 In situations where data will be collected from members who have not been directly involved
in entering and contracting, however, OD practitioners will need to establish a diagnostic
contract as a prelude to diagnosis.
 The Diagnostic Relationship
(OD practitioner should clarify these to others)

 Who am I?
 Why am I here, and what am I doing?
 Who do I work for?
 What do I want from you, and why?
 How will I protect your confidentiality?
 Who will have access to the data?
 What is in it for you?
 Can I be trusted?
 Collecting Data

 Questionnaires
 Interviews
 Observations
 Unobtrusive Measures
 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 measures can be administered to large numbers of people
simultaneously.
 Also, they can be analyzed quickly, especially with the use of computers, thus
permitting quantitative comparison and evaluation.
 Responses are limited, employees may not be willing to provide honest answers,
tendency to answer questions in a socially acceptable manner are the limitations of
questionnaires
 Interviews

 Interviews are probably the most widely used technique for collecting data in OD.
They permit the interviewer to ask the respondent direct questions.
 Further probing and clarification is, therefore, possible as the interview proceeds.
 One-to-one interaction and focus group or sensing meeting is mostly used
 Interviews can consume a great deal of time, Personal biases also can distort the
data, considerable skill requirement are the major drawbacks.
 Observations

 One of the more direct ways of collecting data is simply to observe organizational
behaviors in their functional settings. The OD practitioner may do this by walking
casually through a work area and looking around or by simply counting the
occurrences of specific kinds of behaviors
 Observation can range from complete participant observation, in which the OD
practitioner becomes a member of the group under study, to more detached
observation, in which the observer is clearly not part of the group or situation itself
and may use film, videotape, and other methods to record behaviors.
 OD practitioners may need to devise a coding scheme to make sense out of
observations, and this can be expensive, take time, and introduce biases into the
data.
 Unobtrusive Measures

 Unobtrusive data are not collected directly from respondents but from secondary
sources, such as company records and archives.
 These data are generally available in organizations and include records of absenteeism
or tardiness; grievances; quantity and quality of production or service; financial
performance; meeting minutes; and correspondence with key customers, suppliers, or
governmental agencies
 Unobtrusive measures provide a relatively objective view of organizational functioning.
 They are free from respondent and consultant biases and are perceived as being “real”
by many organization members
 The major problems with unobtrusive measures occur in collecting such information and
drawing valid conclusions from it.
 Sampling

 Sampling is not an issue in many OD cases. Because OD practitioners collect

interview or questionnaire data from all members of the organization or
department in question, they do not have to worry about whether the information
is representative of the organization or unit.
 Sampling becomes an issue in OD, however, when data are collected from selected
members, behaviors, or records.
 This is often the case when diagnosing organization level issues or large systems. In
these cases, it may be important to ensure that the sample of people, behaviors, or
records adequately represents the characteristics of the total population.
 Sampling techniques must be properly followed when necessary.
Questions?
Thank you
Welcome Back!
 Analyzing Data

 Qualitative Tools
 Quantitative Tools
 Qualitative Tools

 Content Analysis attempts to summarize comments into meaningful categories.

 Force-Field Analysis 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

 Means, Standard Deviations, and Frequency Distributions represent the

respondents’ average score and the spread or variability of the responses,
respectively
 Scattergrams and Correlation Coefficients make inferences about the relationships
between variables.
 Difference Tests used to compare a sample group against some standard or norm to
determine whether the group is above or below that standard
Bar and Scatter
Diagram
 Feeding Back Data

 Perhaps the most important step in the diagnostic process is feeding back diagnostic
information to the client organization.
 Although the data may have been collected with the client’s help, the OD
practitioner often organizes and presents them to the client.
 Properly analyzed and meaningful data can have an impact on organizational change
only if organization members can use the information to devise appropriate action
plans.
 A key objective of the feedback process is to be sure that the client has ownership of
the data.
 Content of Feedback

 Relevant
 Understandable
 Descriptive
 Verifiable
 Timely
 Limited
 Significant
 Comparative
 Unfinalized
 Process of Feedback

 In addition to providing effective feedback data, it is equally important to attend to the

process by which that information is fed back to people.
 Typically, data are provided to organization members in a meeting or series of meetings.
Feedback meetings provide a forum for discussing the data, drawing relevant
conclusions, and devising preliminary action plans.
 Because the data might include sensitive material and evaluations about organization
members’ behaviors, people may come to the meeting with considerable anxiety and
fear about receiving the feedback.
 This anxiety can result in defensive behaviors aimed at denying the information or
providing rationales.
 Conclusion

 Diagnosing is an important step that occurs frequently in the planned change process, a
working familiarity with these techniques is essential.
 Methods of data collection include questionnaires, interviews, observation, and unobtrusive
measures.
 Methods of analysis include qualitative techniques, such as content analysis and force-field
analysis, and quantitative techniques, such as the determination of mean, standard deviation,
and frequency distributions; scattergrams and correlation coefficients; as well as difference
tests.
 Feeding back data to a client system is concerned with identifying the content of the data to
be fed back and designing a feedback process that ensures ownership of the data.
 If members own the data, they will be motivated to solve organizational problems.
Questions?
Thank you!