CHAPTER

6 Collecting, Analyzing,
and Feeding Back
Diagnostic Information

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352.
 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.
 Describe and evaluate the survey feedback
intervention.
For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 2
Data collection involves gathering information
on specific organizational features, such as the
inputs, design components and outputs
presented in Chapter 5

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 3
 The Diagnostic Relationship
The answers to the following questions provide the
substance of the diagnostic contract:
 Who is the OD Practitioner?
 Why is the practitioner here?
 Who does the practitioner work for?
 What does the practitioner want and why?
 How will the practitioner protect your confidentiality?
 Who will have access to the data?
 What’s in it for you (the organization)?
 Can the practitioner be trusted?
For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 4
 Data Collection and
Feedback Cycle

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 5
 Collecting Data

 Questionnaires: surveys
 Interviews: one on one or focus groups,
structured/unstructured
 Observations: good for interpersonal issues
 Unobtrusive Measures: indirectly collected.
Financial performance, graffiti, secondary
sources

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 6
 Strengths and Weaknesses of
Different Data Collection Methods

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 7
 Sometimes it is best to
combine two methods
 if questionnaires reveal that employees in
a department are dissatisfied with their
jobs, then company records or interviews
might show whether that discontent is
manifested in lowered quality work.

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 8
 Sampling
Sampling involves deciding upon the sample size and
the sample selection method:
 Sample Size
 Population vs. Sample
 Importance of Sample Size (Confidence Level
and Margin of Error)
 Sample Selection
 Random
 Stratified
For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 9
 Analyzing Data

 Qualitative Tools
 Content analysis
 Force field analysis
 Quantitative Tools
 Descriptive Statistics: mean, median, and mode,
range, standard deviation
 Measures of Association (e.g., correlation)
 Difference Tests: two groups' tests

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 10
 Force-Field Analysis of Work
Group Performance
Forces for Change Forces for Status Quo

New technology Group performance norms

Higher Level of Performance

Current Performance
Better raw materials Fear of change

Competition from other groups Member complacency

Supervisor pressures Well learned skills

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 11
 Feeding Back Data

The success of data feedback depends largely

on its ability to arouse organizational action
and to direct energy toward problem solving.
Both the content and process of data
feedback impact whether the organization
will be energized to act.

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 12
 Content of Feedback
Effective feedback data should have these characteristics:
 Relevant
 Understandable  Limited
 Descriptive  Significant
 Verifiable  Comparative
 Timely  Unfinalized

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 13
 Possible Effects of Feedback

Feedback Occurs
No NO Is energy created
Change by the feedback?
YES Energy to use
data to identify and
Energy What is the direction solve problems
to deny or of the energy?
fight data
Do structures and
Failure, NO processes turn energy
frustration, into action?
Anxiety,
no change
resistance,
no change YES

Change
For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 14
 Process of Feedback
Typically, data are provided to organization members in a
meeting or series of meetings. Five features of successful
feedback processes:
 Motivation to work with the data: members need to feel that
working with the feedback data will be beneficial
 Structure for the feedback meeting: Agenda
 Appropriate attendance
 Knowledge of issues
 Ownership and interest
 Appropriate power: power over change
 Process help: help members with the process during meetings

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 15
 Examples of Feedback Data
Examples of Feedback Data and OD interventions:
 Data: In an employee engagement survey, many employees
indicate that they do not feel valued by the organization.
 Action: Implement a recognition program to acknowledge
and reward employees for their contributions
 Data: In a customer satisfaction survey, customers
consistently report that they experience long wait times
when calling the company's customer service department.
 Action: Hire additional customer service representatives to
reduce wait times.

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 16
 Steps in Survey Feedback
Survey feedback is collecting and feeding back data from an
organization or department through a questionnaire or survey.

 Members involved in designing the survey

 The survey is administered to the organization
 The data is analyzed and summarized by OD practitioner
 The data is presented to the stakeholders (top-down or
bottom-up)
 The stakeholders work with the data to solve problems or
develop action plans

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 17
 Limitations of Survey
Feedback
 Ambiguity of Purpose: disagreement about the survey
 Distrust: employees must trust being anonymous and
the management is serious.
 Unacceptable Topics: neglecting important topics
 Organizational Disturbance: infringing on employees
working time

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 18
 Summary

 This chapter described methods for collecting, analyzing and feeding back
diagnostic data.
 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.
 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.
 A special application of the data collection and feedback process is called
survey feedback, which enables OD practitioners to collect diagnostic data
from a large number of organization members and to feed back that
information for purposes of problem-solving.

For use with Organization Development and Change by Cummings, Worley and Donovan. © Cengage Learning, 2020. ISBN: 9781473768352. 19