Organizational Evaluation

"The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor, he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them" - George Bernard Shaw, a great Irish playwright

With the advent of globalization, organizations all the over the world are facing steep competition, not only from local companies, but from global competitors as well. It's not only about delivering a quality product for world citizens, but an art of first surviving in the markets and then making profits. In such a market where perfect competition exists, one has to go in for a constant evaluation and introspection of his organization.

Organizational evaluation or assessment measures compare and analyze the coherence between results and specific objectives, and between specific objectives and general objectives of institutional projects, programs or plans. Evaluation is an important aspect of improving the administration in any organization. It plays a very important role in helping the managers to improve the efficiency and effectiveness in their operations. It can act as an instrument to create confidence and generate support of the people for research programs, and put forth their activities in a transparent and effective way to its shareholders.

Depending upon the time of evaluation, it can either be Ex-ante evaluation or Ex-post evaluation. When the evaluation is been conducted before or during the implementation of a task, it is known as Ex-ante evaluation. Ex-post evaluation is carried out after a task is completed. Evaluation in an organization can be carried out in an integrated form or with respect to certain departments. When it is carried out for the entire organization, the result is apprised with goals and objectives and the quality of the result is calibrated with predetermined standards. When it is carried out separately for each department, it is necessary to determine the importance of the task performed and role played in the result by the respective department.

Coordination between different departments is always an important aspect of any evaluation process. Communication within the workplace should generally be followed with proper protocols, but it should be from top to bottom and vice versa. Horizontal communication should also be promoted in an effective manner. The three vital elements in an evaluation process are the organization, the assessment team and the employees who use the assessment results. To effectively carry out the evaluation process, the assessment team must be aware of power hierarchies, decision making policies, organizational culture and other internal and external intricacies. Organizations should provide formal coaching to an assessment team before carrying out any evaluation.

Employee assessment plays a vital role in building a good rapport and cordial relations between the management and the employees. Employee evaluation should be carried out in a friendly atmosphere with minimum formalities. They should be given an opportunity to speak out openly. Interviews can be conducted in an informal and unstructured manner to gauge the employee satisfaction level. People like recognition for the work they do and mostly wish to talk about it. They like to share their problems, conflicts, perceptions and achievements.

Organizational development also depends upon how conflicts are managed. Conflicts in any organization are inevitable, but it's the skill of the management as to how they integrate those conflicts and differences in opinions in an efficient manner. This would help the evaluation team learn more about an employee's motivational level in the organization. Job satisfaction assessment can also be carried out by distributing questionnaires to employees. When the questionnaire is self-administered, the employee can choose from alternative answers and do the coding. The questionnaire method is economical and can be used on a large number of people simultaneously. Responses can be easily tabulated and statistically analyzed. Some important factors that influence organizational evaluations are impact on organization, timing of evaluation, adaptability with change, commitment towards evaluation, public relations, reputation and affiliations.

The most important advantage of organizational evaluation is that it generates reliable information, which then becomes a valuable experience and is very useful for future planning, establishment of priorities and resource allocation. As quoted by Edward, Lawler, Nadler and Cammann in their book Organizational Assessment: Perspectives on the Measurement of Organizational Behavior and the Quality of Work Life, "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. The results will only be usable when they are in consonance with the needs of clients and are operational for improving organizational functioning".