Despite downsizings, workers' overall job satisfaction actually improved between 1988 and 1994. Some reasons given were improved work flow, better cooperation between departments, and increased fairness in supervision. Many firms today rely on attitude surveys to monitor how employees feel about working in their firms.
The use of employee attitude surveys had grown since 1944 when the National Industrial Conference Board "had difficulty finding fifty companies that had conducted opinion surveys". Today, most companies are aware of the need for employees' anonymity, the impact of both the design of the questions and their sequence, the importance of effective communication, including knowing the purpose of the survey before it is taken and getting feedback to the employees after it is completed. Computerization of surveys can provide anonymity, if there is no audit trail to the uger, especially for short answers that are entered rather than written or typed on an identifiable machine. .
Survey software packages are available that generate questions for a number of standard topics and can be customized by modifying existing questions or by adding questions. If the survey is computerized, reports can be generated with ease to provide snapshots of a given period of time, trend analysis, and breakdowns according to various demographics. You may be interested in responses by age, sex, job categories, departments, division, functions or geography.
The survey can be conducted by placing microcomputers in several locations convenient for employees' use. Employees are advised where the computers will be, for how long, and when the data will be collected (for instance, daily at 5:00 pm, for three weeks). The screens should not be viewable to supervisors or passers-by. While there may be some risk that employees will take the survey more than once, there are comparable risks with other methods too.
Managers may be interested in knowing how they are perceived by their peers and subordinates. Packages are available that can be customized, which allow the manager to complete a self-assessment tool used to compare self-perceptions to the anonymous opinions of others. This comparison may assist in the development of a more effcctive manager.
"The screens should not be viewable to supervisors or passers-by." Why?
