„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Table 1. How Activities Should Be Valued
Scale: 1 = Low Value; 10 = High Value
Activities Karen Managers Staff
Remaining consistent
with past practices and
methods
Being cautious in
decision making
1.00 2.29 6.14
3.00 4.57 7.40
Taking risks 9.00 7.00 5.93
risk averse. It was clear that for employees to be more proactive in dealing with clients,
building relationships, and solving problems, they needed to abandon old practices and
take more risks.
CREATING A CUSTOMIZED SURVEY
The development of a customized survey similar to the one used in our case study involves the
following steps:
1. Review the organization’s mission statement. If the organization has a written
mission statement, review it and any memos or documents relating to how the mission
statement was developed. Interview the organizational leader to clarify current thinking
about the mission, vision, and values to be promoted.
2. Generate a pool of activities. Conduct interviews with organizational managers
and nonmanagerial employees. Ask general questions about what people do on a daily
basis, how they spend their time, and what activities they feel are important.
3.Create a survey form Activities will vary in their specificity, but try to end up
with ones that are general enough to apply to most people in the organization, yet
specific enough to be easily identifiable. Include activities that are consistent with the
leader’s espoused strategies as well as ones that are inconsistent. Also include some past
practices that the leader suspects are still being pursued, despite adding little value in
light of the leader’s desired strategies. Work closely with the leader in developing and
refining this survey. A sample survey form is provided in Figure 1.
4. Have the organizational leader complete the survey, assigning numerical values
to the activities. The leader should indicate how he or she feels each activity is currently
valued in the organization as a whole and how it should be valued. We recommend a
ten-point scale, where 1 = “Low Value” and 10 = “High Value.”
440 ❘❚
The Pfeiffer Library Volume 6, 2nd Edition. Copyright ©1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer