Measuring Results

Measurement is influenced by the following elements:

• The time available: Consider that if time is limited and data is needed for decision-making, simple measures or easily available data may be required.
• Management’s willingness to devote the time to conducting evaluation: Again, with limited time, it may be necessary to measure results using easily accessible data.
• Management’s willingness to devote the staff to conducting evaluation: Staff availability, like time, has value (cost) and may result in limited access to data.
• Management’s willingness to devote the financial resources necessary to conduct evaluation: Like time, the financial resources to fully measure results of an OD effort may exceed the value of the results.
• What else?

Popular Evaluation Methods

Nobody knows which evaluation methods are used most often in OD change interventions, but popular approaches include the following:

Attitude/climate surveys

Managers and leaders are usually concerned about the overall attitudes and opinions of their employees and often make ongoing assessments to measure it. Consequently, they usually resort to Organizational Climate Surveys (also known as Employee Attitude Survey) to measure the opinion and views of employees in the organization and its various units. Most researchers agree that organizational surveys provide a more direct and comfortable tool for communicating with department or unit management. Research also indicates that employee attitude surveys can be a powerful tool to demonstrate to employees that management desires their input for integration into the decision-making process. Such beliefs can be associated with increased morale, motivation, and productivity (Knapp & Mujtaba, 2010).

Observations

When you conduct observational studies, the individuals are observed the exact way in which they appear in real life. All the necessary measurements are made to study only those aspects that are of interest to the analyst. All measurements take place without imposing influence on the sample responses. The individuals do not know that they are being observed. Observational studies do not intend to monitor the effects of treatments on the individuals, and they do not impose any form of intervention. The observational units are fixed, and, therefore, cannot be modified. The sample must be disturbed as little as possible while you gather information.

An observational study is a poor source of information on the effects of an active intervention. In real life, there are factors like time constraints, cost, and inconvenience, which often forbid us from inspecting the entire population for a particular characteristic.

Role Plays

Role play simulation is a learning method that depends on role playing. Learners take on the role profiles of specific characters or organizations in a contrived setting. Role play is designed primarily to build first person experience in a safe and supportive environment. Role play is widely acknowledged as a powerful teaching technique in face-to-face teaching and role play online is also powerful, with some added benefits (Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, n.d.).

Surveys

A survey is a way of collecting information that you hope represents the views of the whole community or group in which you are interested. Surveys collect information in as uniform a manner as possible by asking each respondent the same questions in the same way so as to ensure that the answers are most influenced by the respondents' experiences, and not by how the interviewer words the questions.

There are three main ways of going about this (Community Tool Box, 2022, Chapter 13)

• Case study surveys, which collect information from a part of a group or community without trying to choose them for overall representation of the larger population. Case study surveys only provide specific information about the community studied.
• Sampled surveys ask a sample portion of a group to answer your questions. If done well, the results for the sample will reflect the results you would have gotten by surveying the entire group.
• Census surveys, in which you give your survey questionnaire to every member of the population you want to learn about. This will give you the most accurate information about the group, but it may not be very practical for large groups. A census is best done with smaller groups—all the clients of a particular agency, for example, as opposed to all of the citizens of a city.

Interviews

An interview is a series of questions a researcher addresses personally to respondents. The purpose of the research interview is to explore the views, experiences, beliefs and/or motivations of individuals on specific matters (e.g., factors that influence their attendance at the dentist). Qualitative methods, such as interviews, are believed to provide a “deeper” understanding of social phenomena than would be obtained from purely quantitative methods, such as questionnaires. An interview may be structured (where you ask clearly defined questions) or unstructured, where you allow some of your questioning to be led by the responses of the interviewee (Gill, Stewart, Treasure, & Chadwick, 2008).

Focus groups

Focus groups share many common features with less structured interviews, but there is more to them than merely collecting similar data from many participants at once. A focus group is a group discussion on a particular topic organized for research purposes. This discussion is guided, monitored, and recorded by a researcher (sometimes called a moderator or facilitator). (Gill, Stewart, Treasure, & Chadwick, 2008).

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