2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

number of items to decrease the length of the survey. While a number of items were
excluded due to no longer being relevant or appearing to duplicate other questions, further
items were added to address issues previously excluded. The new additions included items
on Wellbeing, Internal Communication, Security, Occupational Health and Safety and
Equity and Diversity (which had been included in the 1999 iteration of the survey). Further
demographic items were also added regarding work hours (predicability of and requirement
to be on-call) as well as awareness of Organisational Renewal and the Defence Strategy
Map. The additions resulted in more items being included in the 2002 survey than the 2001
version, however total numbers were still lower than the original 1999 questionnaire.
Attitudinal items were provided response options on a five-point scale where one
equalled ‘Strongly Disagree’ and five equalled ‘Strongly Agree’ (a number of the items
were rated on satisfaction or importance scales, rather than the more common agreement
scale).
Sample
The sample for the Defence Attitude Survey is typically stratified by rank, however,
concerns had been raised by Group Heads that Groups were not being representatively.
Thus, for the 2002 sample, the thirty percent representation of the Organisation was
stratified by both rank and Group. Recruits and Officer-Cadets were not included in the
sample, as per the 2001 administration. Upon request, the whole of the Inspector General’s
Department was surveyed to provide sufficient numbers for reporting on this small Group.
Administration
The survey was administered as a ‘paper and pencil’ scannable form and employed
a ‘mail-out, mail-back’ methodology. For a selection of personnel in the Canberra region,
where correct e-mail addresses could be identified, the survey was sent out electronically.
This methodology allowed the survey to be completed and submitted on-line or printed out
and mailed back in the ‘paper and pencil’ format.
Due to declining response rates for surveys and inaccuracies encountered in address
information, additional attempts were made to ensure that survey respondents received their
surveys and were encouraged to complete them. Surveys were grouped into batches to be
delivered to individual units. In coordination with representatives from each of the Service
personnel areas, units were identified and surveys were sent to unit CO/OC s for
distribution to sampled personnel, accompanied by a covering letter from Service Chiefs. A
number of issues were encountered in this process, including the fact that some CO s are
responsible for vast numbers of personnel (for example, HMAS Cerberus), and this process
entailed double-handling of the survey forms.
Surveys were sent out directly from DSPPR in Canberra, with Civilian forms
delivered via regional shopfronts as specified by pay locations. Completed questionnaires
were returned via pre-addressed return envelopes directly to DSPPR.
Table 1 below outlines the response rate 22 by Service/APS. The response rate from
2001 is also included, and the decline indicates that delivery via unit CO/OC s was not an
22
The response rate is calculated by the number of useable returns divided by the number of surveys mailed out minus the number of
surveys returned to sender.
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45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003