Globalization, New Technology, and Chaos in Employee Surveying

1
Globalization, New Technology, and Chaos in
Employee Surveying

• Presented by
• Allen Slade, Ph.D.
• Organizational Survey Services Manager
• at the
• Michigan Association of Industrial-Organizational
  Psychologists
• March 18, 1999

2
Overview

• Introduction - The Ford Pulse Survey System
• Globalization
• Chaos in Surveys
• Electronic Surveying

3
The Pulse Vision

• To pursue feedback about people
• as aggressively as
• we pursue feedback about profits and products.
• --------------------------------------------------
  ----
• Provide a people metric for management.
• Support work-group level feedback and action
  planning.

4
Pulse Core Dimensions
Dimension Name ( Questions, a)

• Supervision (6, .91)
• Empowerment (5, .83)
• Diversity (6, .84)
• Business Issues (10, .88)
• Survey Process (4, .92)

• Training Development (4, .84)
• Stress (4, .87)
• Reward Recognition (4, .84)
• Workload (4, .82)
• Job Company (4, .80)
• Quality (5, .80)
• Work Group/Teamwork (4, .73)

5
Linguistic and Cultural Diversityon the Pulse
Survey

• Chinese (2)
• Czech
• Dutch
• English (2)
• Finnish
• French (2)
• German
• . . . in 46 Countries

• Hungarian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Polish
• Portuguese (2)
• Spanish (4)
• Thai

6
Impact of Language, Culture and Distance on
Employee Surveys

• Survey Content
• Translation of words
• Translation of constructs
• Cultural Differences in Survey Use
• Trust of Management
• Familiarity with Surveys
• Use and Appropriateness of Anonymous Feedback
• Delays Caused by Distance

7
Effective Management of Linguistic and Cultural
Diversity

• Goal Survey robust in design, interpretability
  and acceptance across Ford
• Communication among Survey Coordinators
• Monthly Conference Call
• Annual Global Pulse Conference
• Incessant e-mails
• Translation Process
• Team of external translators and internal
  reviewers
• Differential Item Functioning to evaluate
  translations

8
Causes of Chaos

• Speed of Change
• In the external environment
• Of management expectations
• Chaos Among our Customers
• Increased Complexity
• Globalization
• Centralization

9
Reactions to Chaos

• Ineffective Reactions
• Panic
• Over-planning
• Effective Reactions
• Simplification
• Effective Management of Chaos
• Speed (Electronic Surveying)

10
Simplification

• Principles
• Try to please everybody and you will please
  nobody.
• Common as possible, different only when
  necessary.
• Simplification Planned for the 1999 Pulse
• Limiting supplemental (non-core)
• Reducing demographic questions
• Simplifying report definitions
• Reducing number of preliminary reports
• Growth is natural - Pruning is necessary.

11
Effective Management of Chaos
12
Ford Pulse Web Process Flow
ID Survey Participants
Survey Administration
Vendor Processes Data

• Survey Design
• Timing
• Participation
• Questions

Translation

• Report
• Delivery
• Browser
• Print File

ID Managers Receiving Reports
Organization Mapping
Report Definition

• Ford Intranet Server
• www.pulse.ford.com
• Database/Software
• Text - Questions, instructions, menus, etc.
• Organization Mapping Information
• Report Definitions
• Processed Results (Group Data)

• Vendor Server
• Inside Ford firewall
• Oracle Database
• Raw Survey Data
• Processing and Data
• Cleaning Rules

Process Flow
2-Way Data Exchange
1-Way Data Exchange
13
Does Technology Pay Off?
14
Some Key Decisions

• Web Browser vs. E-mail Based Surveys
• Anonymity vs. Integrity
• Timing is Key
• Universal Suffrage vs. Efficiency