HIPSYS Handbook

Questionnaires are best administered under supervision wherever possible or practical for four reasons: -

1. It precludes individuals from discussing some questions with other people and thus influencing responses.
2. If the administrator is regarded as a neutral, impartial party who can be trusted, responses are more likely to be honest.
3. It ensures, in most cases, a one hundred per cent response and return rate. Although it has been known on a few occasions for blank ones to be submitted.
4. If questionnaires can be administered to people in groups, you can have them all done in about twenty minutes (depending on the length of the questionnaire) and have no chasing up to do.

If a SI.PRO.PER application is to be used (see Chapter Seven), then there should be at least one day between a respondent completing a Self Image questionnaire and the Projected Image questionnaire so that the responses given in one are less likely to be copied in the other. However, no more than one week should separate them so that they each have the same approximate time period as a common frame of reference.

Administering these questionnaires under supervision also obviates the possibility of someone photocopying their Self Image questionnaire responses and duplicating those on the Projected Image questionnaire. This has been done. The individual confessed that he was suspicious about what management was going to do with the results and thought that this would "cover my butt". In effect it showed the Self Image and Projected Image circles to be entirely congruent [i.e., concentric and of identical size] over all facets and all one hundred questions – an unlikely possibility.

Perceived Image questionnaires should also be administered under supervision in some cases, such as an internal survey in which how employees perceive an organization is being compared with how Managers and Supervisors perceive it. This avoids possible peer pressure unduly influencing individuals’ responses.

If employees are completing a Perceived Image questionnaire on their organisation or their boss, they will have only one to complete. Alternatively, if they are doing Perceived Image questionnaires on their fellow team-members, they will have several to complete.

Where this is the case, then wherever possible there should be no less than five respondents for each Perceived Image questionnaire in cases where anonymity of responses needs to be assured.

If the Perceived Image comprises component groups, completed questionnaires must be input under their component group names. These should be displayed on the title sheet of all questionnaires. (See Chapter Three.) HIPSYS displays will then show breakdowns of responses by the various component groups of the Perceived Image as well as the aggregate Perceived Image response. For example, in an organizational application, you may wish to separate the responses of government customers, package-buying customers and bulk-buying customers so the differences in their perceptions can be compared.

All three image perspectives can be broken down into various component groups. (See Adapting an Existing HIPSYS Class in Chapter Three) up to a maximum of nine breakdowns in total. Breakdowns may be by level, length of service, gender, department, customer group, location, or whatever.

In a management application, for example, a manager may wish to break down his/her image perspectives into his/her subordinates' perceptions, his/her peers' perceptions, his/her boss’ perceptions and outsiders' perceptions.