What do your stakeholders really say?

Good leaders are in tune with their stakeholder communities. Various studies of organisational behaviour and leadership quality all conclude that it is the ability of the leader to stay in touch with stakeholder opinion, and to lead proactively through decisive decision-making based on interactive communication, that ensures sustainable business success.

However, most leaders today do not have the time to personally stay in touch. A popular alternative is to use standard survey approaches to test stakeholder perceptions on key issues. However, researcher bias often undermines such an approach. Respondents can only respond to what is being asked. Various techniques are available to reduce researcher bias: most common is the "Any other comments...?" question at the end of the survey.

However, nothing compares to an unrestrained conversation with a stakeholder. Even when they intend to keep fully in contact with their entire constituency, leaders simply do not have the time for many such conversations.

In our experience, a viable alternative is to make use of qualitative research approaches. In this manner, one can effectively simulate the strategic conversation that the leader should be having with his or her constituency. We are not suggesting that leaders should disengage from strategic conversations, but rather that they supplement their eye-to-eye contacts and conversations with qualitative research.

Most organisational surveys focus predominantly on quantitative surveys, typically with multiple choice options or a rating in response to a question asked. Such "closed" question surveys are particularly powerful since they allow a direct comparison between the views of all participants on a single construct, such as an aspect of organisational dynamics, say, the open door policy of direct supervisors. If the questions are well formulated, that is, reflect the issues that have to be tested in a clear and non-ambiguous manner, the results should provide an accurate reflection of the views of participants in the survey. In conclusion, therefore, quantitative research is all about assessment and evaluation: useful to determine strength of opinion and differences between groups of people ... when you know the questions to ask!

Qualitative research attempts to understand why people do things and how they feel about things. It explores new areas of thought and behaviour; investigates new ways of looking at old problems and is particularly good in situations when you do not know the questions to ask. Qualitative research is all about the responses and NOT about the questions per se. The interpretation of the responses is integral to the process.

Qualitative surveys ask the respondent to express a view on a specific topic in his or her own words, WITHOUT restricting the possible response. In one of our recent surveys, one respondent gave an answer to a qualitative - "open" question that consisted of 348 words, an entire A4 sheet of comment. In our experience, respondents frequently comment on issues that are uppermost in their minds but often unrelated to the issue being investigated but still critical. Provided that the method of analysis of open responses is versatile and does not pre-suppose the format of the responses, it is possible to gain valuable new insights into organisational dynamics and the real hot buttons for change.

Qualitative research is not a new thing. In fact, it has been in use for decades. The big drawback of qualitative research has been the inordinate amount of time required to correctly analyse large data sets. Furthermore, if multiple researchers work on the analysis, proper calibration of the interpreting styles of the various researchers becomes a challenge. With advances in data processing technology, it is now possible to handle large data sets with comparative ease and accuracy. The largest data set we have analysed to date is the more than 350 000 paragraphs of comments from employees at a large bank, where nearly 25 000 respondents submitted their inputs to a questionnaire consisting of closed (quantitative) and open (qualitative) questions via the intranet.

We employ hybrid surveys consisting of a combination of inter-related quantitative and qualitative elements. In order to work effectively with the volume of feedback generated, we have developed a powerful solution engine which mimics the analytical sifting processes in the leader`s head and returns a series of key concepts that govern the area under investigation.

In order to gain maximum benefit from this approach, it is necessary to custom-develop a survey for the specific client purpose. We develop a set of tailored closed and open questions for the given organisational intervention (such as the implementation of a customer centric culture). The benefit of open questioning is that it allows the respondent to give his or her views outside the reference frame of the normal closed questions.

A typical response from such a hybrid research framework is given in the diagram below. It allows the management of the organisation to consider key areas for improvement holistically and in an integrated manner.

[TABLE]We have shown that it is possible to enhance the understanding of organisational dynamics if quantitative analysis is augmented by qualitative analysis. Use of our powerful solution engine provides a quick, cost-effective way to achieve superior insights.

In association with Micro Ices, What Works Strategic regularly conducts surveys of this nature for clients in all sectors of the economy. This offering provides an efficient, cost-effective service from data collection through Micro Ices to analysis, interpretation and reporting by What Works Strategic.