A new litmus test of organizational health designed to quickly identify gaps between management and employee perceptions that can lead to poor business performance is being offered on a complimentary basis by an Illinois-based change management firm. The AQ(SM) test, short for Awareness Quotient, was developed by Strategic Business Partners, LLC (SBP) based on years of organizational dynamics analysis and a review of over 1,000 companies.
The five-minute AQ survey measures views related to business purpose, structure, leadership, conflict, motivation, team effort and openness to change within a given company. SBP administers the test to a cross-section of the workforce as well as to a designated leader in the organization such as a group supervisor, manager or CEO. The leader answers questions based on how he or she believes the rank and file will respond. SBP then tabulates and delivers the results and interpretation within two business days.
The Awareness Quotient derived from the test is expressed as a number from 1 to 100 that represents the difference between the leader's assessment of the company and the employees' perspective on the same issues. A low Awareness Quotient in any of the seven areas or on the overall questionnaire indicates an environment that is a breeding ground for low morale, declining productivity, increasing turnover, organizational conflict, and other serious business problems.
"Frequently, businesses try to resolve whatever problems they're having without realizing that the underlying problem is that management and employees have different perceptions about certain elements of the organization. Any initiatives designed to fix the problems then become an exercise in futility," said Chuck Orabutt, President and CEO of Strategic Business Partners. "Our AQ test is the first tool that quickly shows whether management and employees are out of sync and, if so, by how much. That is the first step toward true problem resolution."
The AQ test is available exclusively from SBP (http://www.sbp-solutions.com/).