Question

The last employee satisfaction survey in your organisation indicates that employees are unhappy with some aspects of the organisation. However, management tends to pay attention to single item question asking employees to indicate their overall satisfaction with the job. The result of this item indicates that 86 percent of staff members are very or somewhat satisfied, so management concludes that the other results refer to issues that are probably not important to employees. Explain why managements interpretation of these results may be inaccurate.

Answer 1

A survey can never be effective with a single item question. For a survey to be effective it has to be first broken down to the least of detail possible which can give us quantifiable data. A data can be accurate when it has the right numbers.

In the above case management is coming to a conclusion after interpreting the results of a very generic question which isn't rated against any specific factor. Another important aspect of a survey done inside the organization also depends on revealing the identity of the person answering. Fearing further growth employees will tend to give a common answer based on their thoughts which would be not be the right feedback for management's evaluation.

Hence management's interpretation of these results will be inaccurate.