Records Used to Meet Organizational and External

¶ … Records Used to Meet Organizational and External Requirements

Typically, during an organizational assessment, three critical entities are involved in the process: the individuals or department being assessed, the assessment team, and the organization itself. Before the assessment, the organization sets benchmarks that the individual or department must achieve. During the assessment process the team determines if these objectives have been reached and identifies ways for the organization to improve itself. Individual qualities subject to assessment may include productivity; leadership; ability to work well with others or individually; and motivation. Areas under review from an organizational perspective may include "work flow, operations and information technology, departmentalization, hierarchy, control and information systems and de-centralization of decision-making in the organization" (Reading note: Organizational evaluation, 2011, National Resource Management and Environmental Department). Output, results, and overall impact on the external environment must often be periodically reviewed so the organization can report to investors and external authorities regarding the productivity of the organization.

Assessment data can be collected in a variety of ways, but the most typical methods involve conducting structured and unstructured individual and group interviews, submitting questionnaires or using focus groups to solicit feedback, and reviewing past documents and records. For example, a salesperson undergoing a performance review might meet with his or her supervisor and division manager to discuss his or her performance, have his or her customer satisfaction questionnaire results reviewed, and then have his or her sales figures analyzed.

When assessing the organization as a whole, similar methods may be deployed. Customer feedback and reports of product quality, sales, and profits are usually reviewed during an assessment. Focus groups are occasionally favored, particularly when assessing the target audience's receptivity to a new product or service. Case studies and field studies may be launched if more targeted feedback is required. For example, when trying to improve retail sales, the assessment team may go out to a store and assess how employees interact with customers on a daily basis.

The design of the assessment and methods of data collection should be specifically tailored to the purposes of the investigation. "The utility of the organizational assessment does not lie in the meticulous care with which it is conducted, but in the results and recommendations, which should be of use to the clients. Meaningful implementation of the recommendations is a critical phase in the organizational assessment exercise" (Reading note: Organizational evaluation, 2011, National Resource Management and Environmental Department). With this in mind, assessments must make use of a variety of methods to be fully effective. Profits and losses must be contextualized in terms of the overall organizational environment. What seems like a 'bad year' may seem better when compared with the general state of the economy. Subjective methods of assessment like performance reviews may be biased, which is why several managers usually provide input when evaluating an employee. Also, one or two extremely negative customer should not outweigh an overwhelmingly positive response from others.