Understanding the Impact of Reorganization
An organization wanted to understand the impact its reorganization had on the working climate. We used the SOQ to provide feedback to the senior management team and the employees regarding the impact of the reorganization. The reorganization included the development of a new vision and a survey of employees’ perceptions about how well the organization had moved toward the new vision. It was a proactive move by the group and was completed ahead of the remainder of the organization’s restructuring activities.
The SOQ was administered to over 300 people within one area of the marketing department of the organization. At the time of administration, there were over 3200 people in this marketing function. Participants returned the completed instruments to CPSB for scoring and analysis.
The SOQ results were presented to approximately 12 members of senior management within this special area of the marketing function. The results were used to develop an understanding of the current status of the organization’s climate. The SOQ results were presented to the leadership team in the form of total group, subgroups and individual results (for those attending the meeting).
Intrigues and Outcomes. The presenter raised a concern about the group’s results before presenting the data. It seemed that one of the subgroup’s scores were extremely low. The presenter was concerned about how the group would react. However, when the results were presented, the group’s response was, “Of course, we would expect that kind of results from that plant.” The group proceeded to give a list of reasons why that plant would have such low climate scores (i.e., the plant was over one hundred years old; it has had labor problems and high employee injury rates for years, etc.) This reaction from the group and the description they provided of the plant with low climate scores provides strong face validity for the SOQ results.
Second Administration of the SOQ. Prior to the second administration of the SOQ, the leadership team for this part of the marketing function developed a new vision for what it was going to accomplish. They used this new vision as a framework to guide the reorganization of their business unit. The SOQ was administered to 216 people in the same area of the marketing organization seventeen months after the original administration. Completed questionnaires were sent to CPS-B for scoring and analysis. Results from the second administration were compared to those from the first administration.
The results of the second administration were presented to senior management. The presentation had two main objectives. First, it provided senior management with a current picture of the organization’s climate. Second, it provided them information about how the reorganization impacted the climate for creativity and change.
The results were organized for the total organization and for key sub-groups. Individuals at the meeting also received their personal scores on the SOQ. During the debriefing session, we:
- Reviewed the strong and weak points in the data from the second administration of the SOQ.
- Examined data from the first and second administrations to determine changes in the climate. We examined changes in the total subgroup scores across the SOQ dimensions.
- Discussed potential causes of change on specific dimensions. For example, the Challenge and Risk Taking had big changes between the first and second administration. It was noted that in a reorganization, people were doing twice the amount of work they typically did (increased Challenge). They were also less likely to take risks (low Risk Taking) because taking risks and making mistakes might provide additional threat to their job security.
- Linked SOQ data to an internal survey on people’s perception of how the organization was doing moving toward its vision. Strong relationships were found between the organization’s focus on the vision and the perceptions of the climate.
We worked with the senior management team to identify key messages that needed to be sent as a result of the climate data. These messages were developed and sent to all members of the organization. As a result of the SOQ intervention, the management team was able to develop and send a clear message about how the reorganization affected the working climate.
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