Tools
Closely linked to our research activities, we develop tools to collect our data. These tools are well-founded and already validated by our researchers and are also available for use by interested organisations.
modul_or: A Scientific Tool for Organisational Analysis
We invented a questionnaire called Modular Organisational Research Inventory (modul_or), which assesses different levels of a firm's workforce: organisational culture, leadership styles, team climate, and motivation simultaneously. The instrument is based on the AGIL model from Talcott Parsons (1961) and evaluates four facets of each level. These facets can be arranged on two dimensions: Stability vs. Flexibility as well as Internal vs. External focus. The model holds the assumption that all four poles should be evenly represented in an organisation’s culture for high organisational effectiveness.
Firstly, the survey tests for the four cultural facets: Adaptation, Course, Trust, and Participation. Furthermore, we integrated leadership styles. The survey tests whether leader behaviour supports organisational cultural facets. Also, we integrated the group level by asking participants if team climate promotes Outcome, Innovation, Quality, and Cohesion. Lastly, on individual level, we included scales for Sense, Change, Competence and Satisfaction.
The survey exists in German, English, French, Spanish and Turkish languages in order to cover a variety of participant’s mother tongues.
Innovation Project Analysis IPA
Which way does an idea have to go through an organisation to be successful at the end? Is it possible to reconstruct this journey? Can conclusions be drawn for future projects?
The retrospective evaluation of innovation projects is highly promising for organisations because conclusions can be drawn about typical processes and pitfalls. If the results are consolidated at the organisational level, typical patterns can be identified regarding sources, implementation conditions, participants, duration and completion of innovation projects.
For this purpose, an interview guideline was developed at artop based on a survey of individual project steps. An Innovation project is split into distinct parts and the content, the result, the duration and the number of participants are analyzed. The result is visualized on a timeline using metaplan technology. Subsequently, for each project step it should be indicated how satisfied the interviewee was with the project at that time and how great they consider the prospects of success of the idea to be. This is followed by further questions on the interfaces in the process of implementing ideas and on the general innovation process at various degrees of abstraction.
After that, the data can be evaluated at the level of the individual project. Now, the process of the project is of interest, especially the stages when delays and conflicts occurred. This is useful in order to be able to counteract the imminent consequences. If similar reasons accumulate in other interviews, the organisation can prevent such problems in the future.
In addition, the general conditions under which such projects are implemented are of interest here. Now it is possible to see typical hurdles at the beginning of a project, during the implementation and at the end.
The method requires at least one hour of pure discussion time. In addition, there are expenses for follow-up, data analysis and mirroring. In comparison with other common methods from organisational research, innovation project analysis is a complementary instrument that focuses less on breadth (such as employee surveys in questionnaire format) than on a great depth of detail and deliberately addresses the process instead of the result (such as benchmark analyses).
tap2observe: Behavioural Observation
The tool measures interaction patterns in teams. In discussions, so-called interaction patterns often occur in teams, in which some people participate more in the exchange and speak up than others. Such patterns often indicate dynamics around influence, affiliation and trust. With the tap2observe tool, it is possible to precisely uncover these dynamics and make them discussable in the team.
Application
tap2observe is a programme developed by artop, which is used by a trainer to collect data during a team interaction. Immediately afterwards, the interaction patterns can be retrieved and reflected on together in the team and action can be derived. It is also possible to supplement the study with questionnaire surveys or to code discussion content in order to gain further insights into the team.