2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

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each of the RAN Employee Attitude Survey (RANEAS), the Army’s Soldier Attitude and
Opinion Survey (SAOS) and the Officer Attitude and Opinion Survey (OAOS), and the
RAAF General Attitude Survey (RGAS). The amalgamation of these surveys has facilitated
comparison and benchmarking of attitudes across the three Services whilst maintaining a
measure of single Service attitudes.
The survey was re-administered to 30% of Defence personnel in April 2001. The
results were widely used throughout the organisation. To maintain more frequent provision
of key information, the Your Say Survey was developed, it takes a number of key items
from the DAS to be more regularly administered to gather trend data on the organisation.
The Your Say Survey is administered to a 10% sample of Defence members twice a year,
and while it provides useful and current information, the sample size is not extensive
enough to allow detailed breakdowns of the data.
It was determined by the Defence Committee 21 in May 2002 that the DAS should be
administered annually to a 30% sample of Defence personnel, allowing for more
comprehensive data analysis. The Committee also directed that an Attitude Survey Review
Panel (ASRP) be established, with representatives from all Defence Groups, to review and
refine the content of the DAS. The final survey was a result of thorough consultation
through the ASRP. The item selection both maintained questions from previous surveys to
gather trend data, and incorporated new questions to feed into Balanced Scorecard and
other Group requirements. The purpose of the Defence Attitude Survey is threefold:
• To inform personnel policy and planning, both centrally and for the single
Services/APS;
• to provide Defence Groups with a picture of organisational climate, and;
• to provide ongoing measurement in relation to the Defence Matters scorecard.
METHODOLOGY OF THE DAS
Questionnaire
The DAS consists of four parallel questionnaires, one for each Service and one for
Civilians. The Civilian form excludes ADF specific items and includes a number of items
relevant to APS personnel only. Terminology in each form was Service-specific. Each
survey contained a range of personal details/demographic items including gender, age, rank,
information on deployments, specialisation, branch, Group, years of Service, education
level, postings/promotion, and family status (44 for Navy, 40 for Army and Air Force, 35
for Civilians). Navy personnel received additional questions regarding sea service. The
survey forms contained 133 attitudinal items (some broken into parts) for Service personnel
and 122 for Civilians. As in previous iterations, respondents were given the opportunity to
provide written comments at the end of the survey.
As directed by the Defence Committee, a number of changes were carried out on the
survey items, through discussion of the ASRP. This refinement process attempted to
balance the maintenance of sufficient items for gathering trend data and reducing the
21
The Defence Committee is the ADF’s senior management committee. It is responsible for making
all high level decisions effecting the ADF.
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003