INTRODUCTION: This survey provides feedback to a manager on their oversight of a staff group. It would be appropriate as a support for development efforts. It would NOT be appropriate to use as part of their formal evaluation or bonuses. Such practices inevitably distort the data and lead to defensiveness rather than acceptance of the data. The survey should be used as part of a clear and publicly stated process. Respondents are often reluctant to participate if they are unsure how the data will be used, who will see it, and whether it will lead to any positive outcomes or not. THE QUESTIONS: To what extent are each of the following statements true about your manager? The way I am managed motivates me to give my best effort to the company. I receive adequate instructions and guidance to perform my job well. My manager genuinely cares for members of my work group. My manager treats everyone in my work group fairly and honestly. My manager clearly communicates how the work I do is tied to the goals and objectives of our work group, our division, and company as a whole. My manager is willing to make the key decisions that keep us on track and avoid unnecessary delays. My manager clearly tells me about his or her expectations of me in my job. My manager gives me the freedom necessary to perform my job well. My manager has the technical and business expertise needed to be effective in his/her job. My manager provides a good example of work habits and work discipline. My manager coaches me to help me learn from my successes and failures. My manager effectively manages the "people aspects" of his/her work. My manager bases plans for new products or services on realistic estimates of time, staff, and costs. My manager is effective at handling multiple and shifting priorities. My manager gives me timely, direct feedback on my performance. My manager keeps an appropriate balance between "planning for tomorrow" and "dealing with the problems of the day." My manager periodically updates the formal expectations of me to reflect the changing demands on my job. My manager expresses his or her appreciation and support for people's efforts. I can be frank and open with my manager about problems in our relationship. My manager is open to my suggestions about how to do things better. My manager leads effective, useful meetings. My manager encourages others to express opinions that might differ from his/hers. My manager takes prompt and fair corrective action with employees who fail to perform their work satisfactorily. My manager makes sure that the total workload, across all projects, is realistic and achievable. My manager gives us a clear sense of priorities, so we know which projects to work on when we cannot finish everything My manager is an effective advocate for my work group and our needs to the rest of the organization. My manager demonstrates by his/her actions and decisions that customer service has the highest priority. My manager knows how to involve upper management when conflict with other departments interferes with our effectiveness. My manager allows reasonable flexibility in our daily work procedures as long as we accomplish our overall objectives. My manager ensures that our department is organized and run to the best advantage of the company overall. THE SCALE: The questions all use the following scale: 1 Not at all 2 3 Somewhat 4 5 Mostly 6 7 To a great extent THE OUTCOME MEASURE: There is an outcome measure in this survey. By "outcome measure", we mean that it reflects the fundamental requirement for success. Outcome measures are typically not directly manipulatable, since they are the final consequence of other, more accessible, features of the manager's behavior. For example, the "quality of the team's functioning" is an outcome measure, while the "thoroughness of exploring conflict" would be one of the potential contributors to that outcome. The level of this measure should be your primary concern. In the data analysis, there are options for determining which of the other items is the strongest contributor to the key outcome. OUTCOME: The following question: The way I am managed motivates me to give my best effort to the company. PAGE FORMATING: The simplest format is to put the questions into a two-column table, with the questions in Column A and the response scale in Column B. If you print the page landscape, you can usually get the entire survey on one page, leaving the front of the page for a cover letter, explanation of purpose, pledge of confidentiality, etc. An alternate format is to print the survey in a portrait format with the scale options underneath each question. DATA ENTRY AND ANALYSIS: If you are fluent in using any data analysis package, you probably understand how this data can be analyzed. If you a novice at survey analysis -- or simply don't want to be come a statistician in your spare time -- the best procedure is probably to enter the data into a spreadsheet. Use a row for each respondent, and columns for each variable. Any outcome measures will generate additional columns, which is the average of the component questions. If someone has no answer for a question, DO NOT enter zero; enter the equivalent for "NOT AVAILBLE" in your spreadsheet. Otherwise you will throw off any calculations of means and variances. When the data is entered, you should have a column of numbers for each variable. You can typically calculate the mean and variance for those columns in formulas at the bottom. The mean scores give you a sense for the level of a given issue. Scores lower than 4 typically represent areas for concern. Scan the variances for anything which is unusually high, such as 1.5 or more. These might reflect poor consensus on key issues, or perhaps a question that spawned numerous interpreptations. There is a special option for working with the outcome measures. If you calculate the correlation between the various questions and a given outcome measure, that will give you a rough estimate of how critical that question is in determining the outcome. If you are fluent in regression analysis, that could generate a more accurate estimate, but correlation is a good rough indicator. If the correlation for a given question is greater than +.60 you should consider that as a good candidate for a possible intervention. If you present the data back to a staff group for more detailed feedback, you might want to focus discussion on those questions with the highest correlations to the outcome measures. Those are the items with the highest leverage, even if their scores are not among the lowest.