Week 3_discussion & Team assignment

Zach Wrote:

My employer has several methods for obtaining information from associates to help identify and solve problems, specifically interviews, surveys, and observations. Known as “fireside chats,” our one-on-one interview method randomly selects five different associates each month and provides them with a 45-minute, uninterrupted meeting with the executive director. During this interview, the executive director asks a series of predetermined questions developed to probe for honest and transparent opinions of issues and conditions within the community. Once those questions are discussed, the associate is given the opportunity to share any other items that were not mentioned previously. By randomly selecting a small number of associates each month, the issues developing in the community are shared from a cross-section of the team allowing for differing perspectives on the same concern.

Surveys are conducted annually or bi-annually to collect predetermined data for the purposes of (1) tracking progress on existing concerns and (2) identifying the manifestation of new concerns. The surveys come from the home office to address concerns that affect the entire company. Since there is a significant number of employees for whom English is a second language, the survey is offered in English and Spanish so as many people as possible can provide answers in their native tongue. Unfortunately, because many of employees are of low socio-economic status, distributing the survey electronically has mixed results – many employees do not have easy access to technology while others simply do not know who to use it. To help with this problem, employees are encouraged to complete surveys onsite using company tablets.

Finally, observations allow us “to collect data on actual behavior rather than reports of people’s behavior” (Anderson, 2016, p. 151). We do not use this a primary source of data gathering; rather, informal and formal observations give us the opportunity to confirm reports first-hand. Unofficially and informally, I will often observe goings-on to try identifying potential concerns so we can implement interventions before preemptively.

Reference:

Anderson, D. L. (20161108). Organization Development, 4th Edition [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from vbk://9781506363929

Odella Wrote:

I am an EHR program analyst. Part of my job description is to train the providers and front/back office on the database. Part of the organizational development is to collecting data, which is an essential and substantial step in this development. According to Anderson, 2020, p. 158, as a trainer, I used the surveys and questionnaires method. Before, I started at the organization, they did not have a functional training mechanism. When I built the training curriculum, I incorporated a survey that the employees would take. The survey consisted on the how, what and why of the training portion. The training that the employees received was essential to the company. Their training reflected the end of year reports. In the past many mistakes in reporting was due to employees’ errors in the database. The advantages of surveying trainees after training benefit our organization by being quick, the data was then quantified and compared amongst the executives, and repetitive surveys were done over time due to our organization turnover rate. (Anderson, 2020, p. 158) Based on the trainee’s feedback from the survey, helped me build a functional training curriculum for prospect employees and employees.

Reference

Anderson, D. L. (2020). Organization development: the process of leading organizational change (4th ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.