Designing and Using Organizational Surveys: A Seven-Step Process

The survey process is a highly complex and situationally dependent one, in need of careful management. If poorly designed and administered, surveys can create disappointment and even disaster. Little has been written so far for those responsible for designing and implementing surveys in organizations. These authors have drawn on their extensive consulting experience to develop a concise, pragmatic, seven-step model covering the entire process, from initiation, to final evaluation, to making the results meaningful to the future of the organization. They pay special attention to the political and human sensitivities concerned and show how to overcome the many potential barriers to a successful outcome.

About the Authors

Allan H. Church is director of organization and management development at PepsiCo in Purchase, New York. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a distinguished visiting scholar in the College of Business, Technology, and Professional Programs at Benedictine University. Church is the author of numerous articles in professional journals and coeditor (with David Bracken and Carol Timmreck) of The Handbook of Multisource Feedback (Jossey-Bass, 2001).

Janine Waclawski is a principal consultant in the Management Consulting Services line of business at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and has been an instructor in Hunter College at the City University of New York. Waclawski is a past recipient of the American Society for Training and Development's Donald Bullock Memorial Dissertation Award for her research on large-scale organizational change and performance.