2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

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the organisation. Consequently, to maintain the provision of this information, the Your Say
Survey was developed, taking a number of key items from the Attitude Survey 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 providing useful
information, the sample size is not extensive enough to allow detailed breakdowns of the data.
It was determined by the Defence Committee 58 in May 2002 that the Defence Attitude
Survey 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 Attitude Survey.
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. Service forms are
identical, with the only variation being Service-specific terminology. The Civilian form
excludes ADF specific items and includes a number of items relevant to APS personnel only.
THE AIMS OF THE DEFENCE ATTITUDE SURVEY ARE TO:
• inform personnel policy and planning, both centrally and for the single Services/APS;
• provide Defence Groups with a picture of organisational climate, and;
• provide ongoing measurement in relation to the Defence Matters scorecard.
Questionnaire
The survey consisted 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 Attitude Survey Review Panel. This refinement process
attempted to balance the maintenance of sufficient items for gathering trend data and reducing
58 The Defence Committee is the senior decision-making committee in the ADF; its membership includes the
Chief of the Defence Force and all three Service Chiefs.
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003