hipsys · web viewles randell, mie aust, mimeasc, for his appreciation of the potential of...

HIPSYSA Visual and Versatile Survey Program

Version 3.2

Ó 1993 and 2006David J. Christie, PhD

Email: [email protected]

HIPSYS USER'S HANDBOOK

An easy reference guide to using HIPSYS

"The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge;

and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge."

Proverbs 18 : 15.

Page Ó David J. Christie, 2006

ii

Contents

Chapter One Page Nos.

What You Can Get HIPSYS to Do for You 1 - 33

An Introduction to the HIPSYS Program and Methodologies 1 - 5

Examples of HIPSYS Applied to Individuals 6 - 23

How to Use HIPSYS to Develop Teamwork 24 - 26

Some Other Classes of HIPSYS 27 - 28

HIPSYS Applied to Organizations 29 - 32

Table 1.14: Procedures of HIPSYS Methodologies 33

Chapter Two

How to Install HIPSYS 34

Chapter Three

How to Use or Adapt Existing HIPSYS Classes and Create New Ones

35 - 46

Printing QuestionnairesAdapting An Existing HIPSYS Class

35 - 3636 - 38

Weightings 39

Adding or Deleting Facets 39 - 40

Entering or Editing Questions 40 - 41

Negative Questions/Statements 42

Randomising Questions 42

Print by Facet 43

Appendix to Chapter ThreeSample Title Sheets for Questionnaires 44 - 46

Chapter Four

How to Input Data From Completed Questionnaires 47 – 49

Manual Input 47 – 48


iii

On-line Input 49


iv

Chapter Five

Giving Feedback and Facilitating Discussion on HIPSYS Data 50 - 64One-to-One Feedback and Discussion 50 - 56

Group Discussion of HIPSYS Profiles 57 - 59

Feedback and Discussion of Organizational Applications of HIPSYS 59 - 64

Chapter Six

More Details on Interpreting HIPSYS Data 65 - 66Circle Size, Response Values and Cut-off Points 65

Polarized Responses and How to Change Cut-off Percentages 65 - 66

Chapter Seven

Corporate and Personal Image (SI.PRO.PER) Applications of HIPSYS

67 - 86

A Tool to Measure and Monitor Corporate and Personal Image 67 - 69

An Example of a SI.PRO.PER HIPSYS Applied to Individual Managers/Supervisors

70 - 75

What Is the “Ideal” Profile? 76 - 77

An Example of an Organisational Application of a SI.PRO.PER HIPSYS 78 - 86

Chapter Eight

Wording of Questionnaires 87 - 88

Chapter Nine

Creating Base HIPSYS Classes 89 - 90

Chapter Ten

Administration of Questionnaires 91 - 92


v

Chapter Eleven

Displays of HIPSYS Data 93 - 109Circles, Symbols and Organisational CultureSquares

93 - 9595 - 96

Histograms 97

Assist 98 - 99

How to Change Font Size 99

Text Reports 100

Response Calculations 100 – 101

Congruence Reports 101

Viewing Component Groups of Image Perspectives 102 - 105

Printing Data 106 - 109

Chapter Twelve

Questions Regarding Validity and Reliability 110 - 113Validity 110 - 113

Reliability 113

Use of HIPSYS 113

Chapter Thirteen

Downstream Activities for Consultants 114 - 116

HIPSYS As A Tool in An Integrated Approach to Organizational Development

114 - 115

Using HIPSYS to Develop Teamwork between Departments 116

Conclusion 116

Appendix to Chapter Thirteen

Contents of HIPSYS Methodology Manual 117 - 119


vi

List of FiguresFigure No.

Title Page

No.1.1 Circles Display of Parent Response Groups called MANAGEMENT, SUPERVISORS and

WORKFORCE2

1.2 Example of a Circles Display with Symbols 3

1.3 Histogram Display showing PARENT Groups together with Their Component Groups 4

1.4 Assist Display Showing Responses to Two Questions (Nos. 7 and 105) 5

1.5 Circles Display of Jill’s HIPSYS Profile Summary with Symbols 7

1.6 Histogram Display of Jill’s HISYS Summary Showing Parent Group Responses Only 7

1.7 Circles Display of Attitude Facet 8

1.8 Histogram Display of Attitude Facet 8

1.9 Assist Display Showing Responses to Question 12 on Attitudes 9



1.12 Circles and Histogram Display of Responses of Component Groups in Attitude Facet 11

1.13 Comparing with Figure 1.12 Enables Comparison of Responses of Different Component Groups

12

1.14 Comparison of Responses of Different Component Groups 13

1.15 Comparison of Responses of All Component Groups to Attitudes Facet by Histogram 14

1.16 Circles and Histogram Display of Jill’s Facet Standard of Work and Service 15

1.17 Jack’s Circles Display of the Communications Facet comparing the perceptions of himself with those of his Boss and his peers and his Boss and his subordinates in Year One

17

1.18 Jack’s Circles Display of the Above the Line Facet comparing the perceptions of himself with those of his Boss and his peers and his Boss and his subordinates In Year One

18

1.19 Jack’s Circles Display of the Communications Facet comparing the perceptions of himself with those of his Boss and his peers and his Boss and his subordinates in Year Two

20

1.20 Jack’s Circles Display of the Above the Line Facet comparing the perceptions of himself with those of his Boss and his peers and his Boss and his subordinates In Year Two

21

1.21 Jack’s Summary HIPSYS Profiles in Year 1 and Year 2 23

1.22 Multi-Facet Display of Target ‘A’s HIPSYS Profile 25

1.23 Display of a Management Team’s Delegation Facet 26

1.24 Multi-Facet Display of BMPI’s HIPSYS Profile in Year One 30

1.25 Multi-Facet Display of BMPI’s HIPSYS Profile in Year Two 31

5.1 Summary Circles Display of prodengr-demo 51

5.2 Summary Circles with Symbols and Histogram Displays of prodengr 52

5.3 Circles and Assist Displays of Delegation Facet 53

5.4 Multi Facet Display of prodengr-Demo 55

5.5 A Comparison of a Client’s first HIPSYS Summary (Jane1st) with a subsequent one

(Jane2nd)

56


vii

5.6 Multi-Client Display of Delegation Facet 58

5.7 Circles and Histogram Displays of “Management” Facet of Organization bmpi in Year 1 60

5.8 Selection of Six Facets Comparing Responses of Production, Maintenance and Other Workforce in bmpiYr1

61

5.9 Consolidated Summary of Professional Association's hip-ip, December, Year 1 62

5.10 Consolidated Summary of Professional Association's hip-ip2, July, Year 2 63

7.1 SI.PRO.PER Application of HIPSYS 69

7.2 Profile of Manager A's Delegation Skills 70

7.3 Profile of Manager B's Delegation Skills 71

7.4 Profile of Manager C's Delegation Skills 72

7.5 Profile of Manager D's Delegation Skills 73

7.6 Profile of a Manager’s Coaching Skills 74

7.7 Profile of a Manager’s Problem Solving Skills 75

7.8 A Profile that may be "Ideal" in some circumstances 76

7.9 Complete Positive Congruence between All Three Image Perspectives (SIPROPER) 77

7.10 Multi-Facet Display of Sunstate Sugar’s SI, PRO and PER 80

7.11 Histogram Display of Organisational Climate and Communications Facets 81

7.12 Circle and Histogram Displays of the Accountability Facet 82

7.13 A Comparison of the Components of Self Image (management, supervision and workforce) 83

7.14 A Comparison of the Summary Responses of management (SI), board (PRO) and growers (PER)

84

7.15 Circles and Assist Display of Decision Making Facet Showing Distribution of Responses to Question No. 36

85

7.16 Circles and Assist Displays of Accountability Facet 86

11.1 Circles Display with Symbols 95

11.2 Squares Display with Symbols 96

11.3 Histogram Display 97

11.4 Assist Display 98

11.5 Assist Display with SI Component Groups Weighted by 15, 5 and 1 Respectively 99

11.6 Text Report on a Facet with Ten Question 101

11.7 Congruence Report 101

11.8 Dialogue Box Showing Selection of Three Parent Image Perspectives for Display 102

11.9 Circles Displays of Aggregate Self Image and Its Component Groups (Red Circles) Compared with Projected Image and Perceived Image on Leadership Facet

103

11.10 Window Showing Selection of Three Component Groups for Display 104

11.11 Circles Display of Leadership Facet Comparing Components of Self Image i.e. management, supervision and workforce

105

11.12 Select Window Print Option 106

11.13 Print Special Print Option 108

13.1 Some Examples of How HIPSYS Can Be Used As an Organisational Development Tool 115


viii

List of Tables

Table No.

Title Page No.

1.1 Example of a Circles Display with Symbols 4

1.2 Response Groups and Component Groups 6

1.3 Facets 6

1.4 Parent Response Groups and Component Groups 16

1.5 Facets 17

1.6 Structure of HIPSYS Class mgt12 27

1.7 Facets in HIPSYS Class mgt12 27

1.8 Response Groups in HIPSYS prodengr Class 27

1.9 Facets in HIPSYS prodengr Class 27

1.10 Facets in HIPSYS Govt Class 28

1.11 Facets in HIPSYS Class fmicomp (Available on request) 28

1.12 Structure of HIPSYS Class bmpi1 29

1.13 Possible Breakdown of Parent Image Perspectives into Component Response Groups 32

1.14 Procedures of HIPSYS Methodologies 33

3.1 Possible Structure of an Adapted mgt-12 Class 38

5.1 Comparison of HIPSYS Results Year 1 and Year 2 64

7.1 Structure of Survey for Sunstate Sugar 79


ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I acknowledge with gratitude the contributions made to the development of the Holistic Image Profiling System (HIPSYS) by so many people, including the following: -

The late Dr. Bert Cunnington, BE, MBA, PhD, for his advice, guidance and encouragement in the early days of the model's formulation.

Dave Kelly, BSc (Hons), MSc, for his vision and commitment to HIPSYS. He wrote the computer software program for HIPSYS and his creative problem solving abilities got us over several otherwise daunting hurdles. Also, I appreciate his perception and skill in keeping HIPSYS up-to-date with developments in related software.

Jeff Dutton, BBus, G Cert Work Dev (AL) for his faith in the model and its potential and for enabling the field-testing of a number of HIPSYS classes.

Dr. Peter Hubbard, BSc, MBA, PhD, PhD, whose insight and enthusiasm during field testing proved HIPSYS to be a powerful catalyst for behavioural and organisational change.

Les Randell, MIE Aust, MIMeasC, for his appreciation of the potential of HIPSYS, his intelligent and helpful suggestions and the energy with which he promoted HIPSYS. Following his initiative, HIPSYS was granted federal government endorsement for quality, Australian content and commercial viability. (Certificate No. 587)

John Clements, BA (Psychology), Grad Dip Bus Admin, Grad Dip Ed, Dip Teaching, Dip MAICD, MIMC and the John Clements Consulting Group for being the first national consulting organization to appreciate the value of HIPSYS as a consulting methodology and for promoting it with their clients.

Professor Michelle Barker, BA (Hons), M. Soc Work, PhD for her advice and guidance, which ensured that the testing of HIPSYS met rigorous academic standards.

Dr. Anna Zarkada-Fraser, BA (Hons), MBA, PhD for her patience and tenacity in assisting me to compare statistical data from the SPSS program with HIPSYS data and so validate HIPSYS’ quantitative displays.

Dr. Campbell Fraser, BE (Hons), MBA, PhD for challenging me with his initial scepticism, encouraging me to subject HIPSYS to thorough academic scrutiny and for his eventual enthusiasm in promoting HIPSYS through university seminars and national and international conferences.

In addition, I am grateful to those many organisations and individuals who made themselves available for the HIPSYS methodology to be field-tested and further developed. Their openness, candour and genuine desire to give and receive honest feedback were commendable and very helpful. Some of their experiences are used in this handbook and others in the HIPSYS Methodology Manual, although names have been changed to preserve confidentially.

My sincere thanks also goes to those organisations that were the first to use HIPSYS. Most organisations tend to wait for someone else in their industry to try something new first and then make a decision based on their recommendation. Whilst it is good to be cautious, I appreciate the few with the pioneering spirit who made an independent evaluation and were not afraid to be among the first to give it a go. None of them was disappointed.

Finally, and most importantly, I am grateful to my wife, Patricia, and our adult children Serena, David, Darren and Murray who always had faith that HIPSYS would be successful. Their encouragement and prayerful support over the years were both touching and inspiring.

Dave Christie, PhDBrisbane, Australia


x

Chapter One

What You Can Get HIPSYS to Do for You

An Introduction to the HIPSYS Program and Methodologies

Successful consultants, internal and external, tailor their consulting approaches for continuous improvement to the needs of their clients. The very process of doing this in consultation with the client gives the client ownership of the approach. Their subsequent involvement gives them ownership of the outcomes and the commitment and enthusiasm to follow through on their own action plans.

Then, when they make “Before and After” comparisons, it invariably enhances the consultant’s credibility and leads to repeat business. Well-earned fees to the consultant, value to the client, and an ongoing relationship - Win/Win.

How can a consultant make this happen - consistently? With a program and methodologies that are flexible and can be customised to meet a variety of needs in a variety of industries and organizations. Methodologies that can help individuals, teams and organizations to continuously improve and provide a means of monitoring and measuring such improvement.

This is what HIPSYS can help to achieve in the hands of a skilled consultant. It will not make you a good consultant, but, if you are a good consultant, you will find it is a powerful and valuable tool.

What is a good consultant? A good consultant is one who never has to look for new clients. The clients find him/her. One of the founders of a large consulting company (and a former boss of mine) used to say, “The best way to sell consulting is to do good consulting.” I found that he was right. The word gets around and when clients move on to other organisations, they often take that consultant with them.

Like any tool, however, HIPSYS will not do your job for you, but it can help you to do a better job. The HIPSYS program and associated methodologies can be used to:

Highlight strengths and weaknesses in individuals, teams and organizations Develop action plans for improved performance in individuals, teams and organizations Ascertain training needs Measure the effectiveness of training, or, Obviate the need for training Develop management, leadership and interpersonal skills in individuals Harness the synergy that results from effective teamwork Conduct performance and development reviews (in the 360 feedback way) Coach and counsel Conduct organizational reviews Compare how customers perceive various products and services Measure and manage all facets of corporate image holistically (i.e., Self Image, Projected

Image and Perceived Image) Compare “before and after” results to monitor and measure progress


1

Phew! Sounds a bit much? Just pick one of those to start with and see how it goes. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll probably develop some new classes of your own. Good consultants do.

Briefly, HIPSYS enables the consultant and the client to visually compare a number of related variables. There are several different display modes but the three most popular are ‘Circles’, ‘Histogram’ and ‘Assist’ displays. We’ll explain the Circles displays first.

In the example shown in Figure 1.1 three aggregate (or Parent) response groups (or image perspectives) are represented as follows: -

MANAGEMENT : Red CircleSUPERVISORS : Yellow CircleWORKFORCE : Blue Circle

Figure 1.1Circles Display of Parent Response Groups called

MANAGEMENT, SUPERVISORS and WORKFORCE

The extent to which these circles overlap is indicative of how much the three Parent response groups are saying the same thing. The more they pull apart, the more they are saying different things.

There are only three responses available to each question (or statement); respondents can "Agree" with a statement, "Disagree" or "Neither Agree nor Disagree". "Agree" is usually a positive and "Disagree" is usually a negative, except where statements are negative (shown


2

by 'N' in the ‘Assist’ display and in the ‘Print Special’ coloured printout – see Chapters Three and Eleven). In such cases "Agree" yields a negative and "Disagree" a positive.

Overall responses are shown by pluses and minuses. Overall positive responses are shown by pluses (+) and overall negative ones by minuses (-).

Polarised responses, shown by zeros (0), are where at least 30% of respondents agree with a statement and at least 30% disagree with the same statement and the difference between them is less than 25%. (You can change these percentages if you like. See Chapter Six.)

"Neither Agree nor Disagree" responses mean the statement is not applicable or the respondent is saying “Don’t Know”. Overall “Neither” responses shrink the size of a Circle and show no symbol.

Symbols in the Circles in the Summary show the overall decisive responses to the total number of statements as illustrated in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2Example of a Circles Display with Symbols


3

In this case, the Parent response groups and their component response groups are structured as shown in Table 1.1

Table1.1Parent Response Groups and Their Component Response Groups

Parent Response Group (or Image Perspective)

Component Response Groups

MANAGEMENT Managers Superintendents

SUPERVISORS Foremen Engineers Other Professionals

WORKFORCE Production Maintenance Other Workforce

Histogram displays can show the overall responses of PARENT response groups (in upper case letters) together with any component groups (in lower case letters), if selected (see Chapter Five), as shown in Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3Histogram Display showing PARENT Response Groups

together with Their Component Groups


4

‘Assist’ displays show the questions (actually statements rather than questions if you want to be precise) together with the breakdown of responses by numbers and percentages, as shown in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.4Assist Display Showing Responses to Two Questions (Nos. 7 and 105)

These displays enable response group results to be displayed as follows:

Three at a time in Circles (although tiling four windows enables response group responses to be displayed twelve at a time – see Figure 1.14),

All (or selected) response groups in ‘Histograms’, and

All Parent response groups and all their component response group responses at once in ‘Assist’ displays.

This can be done for individuals, for teams, and for organizations. We’ll look at each of these in turn but let’s take an individual application first and have a look at how the data can be displayed.


5

Examples of HIPSYS Applied to Individuals

Jill’s Case: A negative outcome from the consultant’s perspective but a positive one from the client’s

Jill was an industrial chemist who worked in the laboratory of a metalliferous mine. Four operators from the processing plant brought her samples of ore for her to assay. She gave the results of her assays to her internal customers in the processing plant (the manager, a senior engineer and two senior metallurgists) so they could blend and process the ore to produce the concentrates which met the specifications of the mine’s external customers.

She was supervised by the Laboratory Manager and worked with six other chemists and technical assistants. She was regarded as a good worker but with an attitude problem that was adversely affecting the team. To reinforce Jill’s strengths and explore areas for her personal and professional development, a new HIPSYS class was tailored which would compare what she thinks of herself with what her boss, peers, operators and internal customers think.

So, the three Parent response groups (Circles - sometimes called “Image Perspectives” – see Chapter Seven) were Self, Colleagues and Processing Plant comprising component response groups as follows:

Table 1.2Response Groups and Component Groups

Parent Response Group Component Groups

SELF N/ACOLLEAGUES 1 x Boss

6 x PeersPROCESSING PLANT 4 x Operators

4 x Customers (Internal)

The consultant then decided, in consultation with the client, what facets to explore with regard to Jill and the others in the Laboratory (her boss and six peers, so she would not feel she was being singled out). It was decided that all would benefit from looking at the facets shown in Table 1.3:

Table 1.3Facets

Attitudes Standard of Work and Service Teamwork Trust Future (i.e., perceived potential) Conflict Handling

The consultant then developed questions, again, in consultation with the client, which would draw out these facets. Normally there are about ten questions per facet and they are distributed randomly throughout the questionnaire. Many sample questionnaires from existing HIPSYS classes are available and all that was necessary was for the consultant and client to pick from those and adapt them to suit the particular culture and requirements.


6

Figure 1.5Circles Display of Jill’s HIPSYS Profile Summary with Symbols

Figure 1.6Histogram Display of Jill’s HISYS Summary Showing Parent Group Responses Only

Responses are also grouped and separated out by facet, eg, Attitudes, Teamwork, et cetera. (See Table 1.3.) The facets were displayed one at a time on a computer and the results


7

discussed with Jill. Here is what the facet on her Attitudes (a touchy issue - usually never measured) looks like:

Figure1.7Circles Display of Attitude Facet

Figure 1.8Histogram Display of Attitude Facet

The degree of overlap between the circles indicates that how she saw herself with regard to her attitudes was not entirely how her Colleagues (i.e., Boss and 6 Peers) nor Processing


8

Plant (4 Operators and 4 Customers) perceived her. All three negative perceptions in her Self responses were perceived by the other two aggregate response groups - that is, the three minuses in the white area where the three Circles overlap. There were also a few more minuses that were not in her Self responses. This was where she did not see herself as others saw her.

The Histogram shows that her Self perception of her attitudes is only 50% positive, 25% non-committal, and 25% negative - suggesting that she may know she has a bit of a problem with her attitudes. Her Colleagues’ perceptions of her attitudes are 79% negative and those of the Processing Plant are 63% negative. Although Jill may have had a feeling that her attitudes were not too positive, this HIPSYS application highlighted something for her that is normally very difficult to measure – and to discuss. Responses to some of the questions on this facet follow.

Figure 1.9Assist Display Showing Responses to Question 12 on Attitudes



9



10

So far, in the Circles and the Histogram we have looked only at the aggregate response groups. We can, if we wish, separate out the component groups to make comparisons in any combination we like. (See Chapter Five.) For example, we could compare her Boss’ perceptions (Red Circle) of Jill’s Attitudes with those of her Peers (Yellow Circle) and her Customers (Blue Circle) as follows:

Figure 1.12Circles and Histogram Display of Responses of Component Groups in Attitude Facet

This shows that the Operators did not perceive her attitudes quite as negatively as did her Boss (who was noncommittal on 42% of the questions) or her Peers. But if we compare Peers, Operators and Customers (see Figure 1.13), we see that her Customers’ perceptions of her Attitudes were about as negative as those of her Peers (71% compared with 79%), although not always on the same issues - as indicated by the degree of congruence between the Red and the Blue Circles.


11

Figure 1.13Comparing with Figure 1.12 Enables Comparison

of Responses of Different Component Groups


12

If you wish, you can choose several Circles displays to show all combinations of the data at once, as follows:

Figure 1.14Comparison of Responses of Different Component Groups

Histograms can display all the aggregate response groups and their component groups at once (the font size can be reduced to fit them all in, see page 99), as follows:


13

Figure 1.15

Comparison of Responses of All Component Groupsto Attitudes Facet by Histogram


14

However, although Jill had an attitude problem that was beginning to disrupt the good teamwork that the Laboratory had hitherto enjoyed, in the facet Standard of Work andService she was exemplary. She was an excellent worker.

Figure 1.16Circles and Histogram Display of Jill’s Facet

Standard of Work and Service So, HIPSYS reinforced Jill’s strengths and gave her a focus on what she had to do to improve. Most people who are confronted with this kind of feedback feel a bit taken aback to start with, but they soon realise it is given to help them, appreciate the eye-opener and try to improve. A follow-up HIPSYS a year or so later can be very encouraging.

Jill didn’t wait for that. She resigned the following day and the client broke out the champagne.

Cases like Jill’s have happened in less that 1% of cases. The overwhelmingly more common outcome is a positive one for the individual and for those with whom he or she has an interface.


15

Jack’s Case: A positive outcome from everyone’s perspective

In the beginning Jack’s case had some similarities to Jill’s. Jack was a Factory Manager in charge of a factory with about 300 employees and in an organisation that had four factories and employed over 1,200 people.

Everyone conceded that, technically, he was the most knowledgeable and competent manager in the organisation. He was well respected by his own employees and by some departmental heads but clashed with every other factory manager in the organisation. He treated with blatant disdain those less knowledgeable and competent than himself and was not interested in mentoring or assisting in any way anyone outside his own factory.

He had very firm opinions on how things should be done in the organisation and whilst his own factory was very well run, he could not appreciate, nor did he care about, the particular difficulties that other factories had to grapple with.

His attitude to organisational issues such as maintenance, traffic co-ordination, capital investment, supplies, and industrial relations was parochial in that he cared only about how it would affect his particular factory. Each factory was different in terms of its age, technology, raw materials, processes and culture, but Jack thought everyone should run their factory the way he ran his and he did not suffer fools gladly.

When a new CEO was appointed he counselled Jack about his attitude. Jack acknowledged the CEO’s points but nothing changed. ‘And why should it?’ he thought. Everyone knew he ran the most profitable factory in the organisation.

The CEO then decided that he and all his managers and supervisory staff, 74 in all, would undergo a HIPSYS to see how they were behaving in terms of the Code of Values that he had established for the organisation. Following the procedure outlined In Table 1.14 on Page 33, a new HIPSYS class was created to achieve this. (See HIPSYS class sunsugar.) It was structured as shown in Tables 1.4 and 1.5. The number of Peers and Subordinates shown relates to Jack only.

Table 1.4Parent Response Groups and Component Groups

Parent Response Group Component Groups

SELF N/A

BOSS N/A

COLLEGAUES 6 x Peers 7 x Subordinates


16

Table 1.5Facets

Safety Respect Teamwork Communications Issues Above the Line

As can be seen from Figure 1.17 below, Jack did not have too many communications problems with his subordinates but he did have some with his boss and with some of his peers.

Figure 1.17Jack’s Circles Display of the Communications Facet comparing the perceptions of himself with

those of his Boss and his peers and his Boss and his subordinates in Year One


17

The facet named Above the Line related to attitudes. The polarised responses in the blue circles in Figure 1.18 below show that Jack was perceived by his Boss and by some of his peers and subordinates to have had some attitude problems. His noncommittal responses, indicated by the small size of his red circle (SELF), suggest that he was probably aware of this but wasn’t going to admit it – yet.

Figure 1.18Jack’s Circles Display of the Above the Line Facet comparing the perceptions of himself

with those of his Boss and his peers and his Boss and his subordinates In Year One

When the results for all 74 key personnel were in, the consultant wrote up, from the HIPSYS Print Special printout (see pages 108-109), a tentative report with action points for each individual. He then had a private two-hour session with each individual in which his/her results were displayed on a monitor and discussed face-to-face. After each facet was thoroughly discussed, the tentative report and its action points (APs) were displayed and read out aloud by the consultant. Each individual made whatever changes to the wording he/she wanted. Then the next facet was explored. Only when this whole process was completed were the reports with Action Points printed out and given to the individual together with the HIPSYS Print Special printout.


18

Jack’s Action Points for the Communications and Above the Line facets from the first HIPSYS intervention were as follows:

Open and Honest Communication: A responsibility to communicate and keep people informed on matters that affect their work. This includes a requirement to communicate deficiencies in work performance and to accept criticism of our own performance as an essential component of our development.

Most people regard me as open and honest and a good listener. I believe I communicate enough with the people I work with but my boss is noncommittal and my peers are polarised about that. My peers are also polarised on whether I update people regularly on all our work related matters. Whilst my subordinates and I believe I regularly share ideas and views with others, my boss disagrees and my peers are, again, polarised. I do not believe I withhold information that may be important to others but my boss and most of my peers say I do and so do most of my subordinates.

AP10. I will ask my boss, my peers and my subordinates for examples of information they feel I may have withheld from them and ask them what more they expect of me as far as communications is concerned.

In spite of this, most agree that I do keep everybody up-to-date when things are changing and I do not try to avoid delivering ‘bad news’ to people. Nearly all my peers and my subordinates say I use my knowledge and experience to help others solve their problems, but my boss disagrees.

AP11. I will ask my boss why he has this perception of me so that I may learn, if necessary, how to interact with him on this aspect in the same way that I evidently do with my peers and my subordinates.

Above the Line: This means approaching issues in a positive solution focussed manner rather than a negative manner. Negativity and blame destroy the innovative culture essential to our success.

I encourage others to make positive contributions to problems at work and to look for solutions to problems rather than for culprits. Whilst I often tell others when someone has done well, most of my peers say my views and comments on company decisions are not always constructive and my boss, most of my subordinates and half my peers say I sometimes unintentionally say things that make others angry.

AP15. I will try to display more sensitivity and tact.

My subordinates are evenly divided on whether I sometimes speak negatively about other teams in the company, on whether I look for someone to blame when something goes wrong, and on whether I sometimes behave in a way that discourages good performance in others. This suggests that I am relating better to some of my subordinates than to others.

AP16. I will try to relate equally well to all of my subordinates.

In terms of whether I help to lift morale at work, my peers are polarised and my boss and my subordinates are noncommittal. If I attend to the Action Points above, I believe these perceptions of me will in time become more positive.

The following year, the exercise was repeated so that progress could be measured and monitored. Whilst Jack still had a few issues to attend to, his profile changed for the better on all six facets and, when compared with Figures 1.17 and 1.18 above, Figures 1.19 and 1.20 below show how much it changed in the Communications and Above the Line facets.


19

Figure 1.19Jack’s Circles Display of the Communications Facet comparing the perceptions of himself with

those of his Boss and his peers and his Boss and his subordinates in Year Two


20

Figure 1.20Jack’s Circles Display of the Above the Line Facet comparing the perceptions of himself

with those of his Boss and his peers and his Boss and his subordinates In Year Two

The following in an extract of Jack’s Action Points for the Communications and Above the Line Facets in Year Two:

Open and Honest Communication: A responsibility to communicate and keep people informed on matters that affect their work. This includes a requirement to communicate deficiencies in work performance and to accept criticism of our own performance as an essential component of our development.

Everyone agrees I communicate enough with the people I work with. They all agree I regularly share my ideas and views with others and use my knowledge and experience to help others solve their problems. This latter point was an issue for me with my boss last year (AP11), which I seem to have fixed up.

Again, my boss and all of my peers and subordinates agree I update people regularly on all our work related matters, especially when things are changing. Most agree I do not withhold information important to others but my peers are, overall, polarised on that. This was an issue for me with my boss, my peers and my subordinates last year (AP10). I appear to have effectively addressed it with my boss and my subordinates but not yet satisfactorily with all my peers.

AP4. I will ask my peers if this perception they have of me is a historical one, or based on their observations of me over the past twelve months. If it is the latter, I will ask them for examples of information they feel I may have withheld from them and ask them what more they expect of me as far as communications is concerned.

Nevertheless, everyone says I am open and honest and do not avoid delivering ‘bad news’ to people when necessary. I am generally regarded as a good listener.

AP5. I will continue to demonstrate these good communications skills and to take responsibility for keeping people informed on matters that affect their work.

Above the Line: This means approaching issues in a positive solution focussed manner rather than a negative manner. Negativity and blame destroy the innovative culture essential to our success.

Everyone agrees I encourage others to make positive contributions to problems at work and, whilst my boss and my peers agree I look for solutions to problems rather than for someone to blame, my subordinates are polarised on that. At first glance this seems inconsistent with what they said about me in Q56 in the Teamwork facet, but one more ‘Disagree’ there would have polarised that result too.

AP8. When problems arise, I will ensure that I focus on looking for solutions rather than on looking for culprits.

Almost all of my subordinates agree with me that my views and comments on company decisions are always constructive but my peers disagree and my boss is noncommittal.

AP9. When expressing my views and making comments on company decisions in the presence of my boss and my peers, I will ensure that I do so with the same objectivity and constructive intent that I evidently do in the presence of my subordinates.

Most agree I do not speak negatively about other teams in the company. In fact, I often tell others when someone has done well. My boss agrees with me that I do not say things, even unintentionally, that make others angry but my peers disagree and my subordinates are polarised. This was an issue for me with my peers and subordinates last year too (AP15) and I do not appear to have effectively addressed it.

AP10. When communicating with my peers and my subordinates I will ensure that I show them all the same degree of tact and respect that I evidently show to my boss.


21

Nevertheless, most say I never behave in a way that discourages good performance in others and this shows an improvement in the perceptions of my subordinates compared with last year, indicating I have effectively addressed my last year’s AP16.

My boss is noncommittal, but all my subordinates and most of my peers agree I am generally regarded as having a positive attitude. All say I help lift morale at work and this, too, is an improvement on last year.

AP11. I will continue to display positive attitudes at all times and so contribute to the creation and maintenance of a co-operative and productive organisational climate.


22

Figure 1.21 below shows the increased positive congruence in Jack’s overall HIPSYS profile in Year 2 compared with Year 1.

Figure 1.21Jack’s Summary HIPSYS Profiles in Year 1 and Year 2

In these two examples, a HIPSYS intervention gave Jill and Jack the same opportunity – the opportunity to learn how to improve their communications and their attitudes whilst maintaining their high standards of work. Jill chose to reject the opportunity and Jack chose to accept it. So far, more than 99% of HIPSYS individual participants have been Jacks, showing it to be a valuable tool in the hands of a competent consultant/facilitator.


23

How to Use HIPSYS to Develop Teamwork

Now let’s see how HIPSYS can be used to develop teamwork. Good teamwork must start at the top. If the leaders haven’t got their act together as a team, it is unrealistic to expect good teamwork consistent with organisational goals anywhere else in the organization. In examining teamwork with HIPSYS there are two main approaches:

1. Each team leader (or manager) can have a HIPSYS done on him/her individually and discuss it with a consultant/facilitator, then:

1.1 the team leaders meet with their teams to explore and discuss the results displayed on a screen, and/or:

1.2 the team leaders meet as a peer group to explore and discuss their results displayed on a screen.

2. A HIPSYS can be done on the management team as a group (rather than on each of them individually), then:

2.1 the team leaders meet with their teams to explore and discuss the results (i.e., the perceptions team-members have of the management team as a whole) displayed on a screen, and/or:

2.2 the team leaders meet as a peer group to explore and discuss the results displayed on a screen.

If they elect to examine, say, eight facets of their role as leaders/managers, an individual’s Circles display in the case of Approach 1, may look like this:


24

Figure 1.22Multi-Facet Display of Target ‘A’s HIPSYS Profile


25

If each manager/team leader undergoes the same class of HIPSYS as individuals, they can then meet to compare and discuss results by displaying them facet-by-facet on a screen as shown in Figure 1.23:

Figure 1.23Display of a Management Team’s Delegation Facet

Histograms and questions with all response groups (Assist mode) can also be displayed and discussed in as much detail as is required. Action Plans for individual and team development can then be formulated and followed up. A further HIPSYS application, say, six to twelve months later will enable individual and group progress to be monitored and measured. Knowing this is going to happen, and perhaps be displayed, helps to get them implementing the required changes. All of this is explained in Chapter Five.


26

Some Other Classes of HIPSYS

The facets and questions vary from client to client. A HIPSYS class used in the mining industry (HIPSYS Class mgt12) contains only three parent image perspectives (or response groups); namely, SELF, BOSS and SUBORDINATES, with no breakdown into component response groups, as shown in Table 1.6.

Table 1.6Structure of HIPSYS Class mgt12

Parent Image Perspective Component Groups

SELF N/ABOSS N/ASUBORDINATES N/A

And the mgt12 class contains the following twelve facets:

Table 1.7Facets in HIPSYS Class mgt12

Delegation Coaching Tutoring and Training Counselling Leadership and Decision-Making Problem Solving Teamwork Communications Trust Personal Characteristics Safety Conflict Handling

The mgt12 class was adapted to produce a total of four response groups with one Parent image perspective, COLLEAGUES, having two component groups and renamed the prodengr class (because it was applied to production engineers), as shown in Table 1.8.

Table 1.8Response Groups in HIPSYS prodengr Class

Parent Image Perspective Component GroupsSELF N/ACOLLEAGUES Supervisors

PeersSUBORDINATES N/A

The prodengr class had nine facets as shown in Table 1.9. You will notice that it includes six facets from the mgt12 () class plus three new ones ().

Table 1.9Facets in HIPSYS prodengr Class

Delegation Counselling Problem solving Communications Safety Conflict Handling Organisational Awareness

Assertiveness Honouring Sponsors


27

A class used by some government departments had four different structures to reflect interfaces with different response groups but all examined the same following facets:

Table 1.10Facets in HIPSYS Govt Class

Client Service Focus Communications Delegation Managing Change Managing for Diversity Team Management Strategic Leadership Performance Management

and Development

A tertiary education institution developed a class of HIPSYS that looks at the following front-line management indicators of competency:

Table 1.11Facets in HIPSYS Class fmicomp (Available on request)

Change and Innovation Continuous Improvement Customer Service Information Leadership Operations Personal Work Safety Teamwork Workplace Learning Workplace Relations

There are many more HIPSYS classes already developed. (See HIPSYS Methodology Manual, Chapter 26.) You can take the one that best suits your client and adapt it as you wish, i.e., add or delete facets, change questions, change image perspectives and their component groups. Or you can create an entirely new class from scratch; that is, create your own image perspectives and component groups, your own facets, and your own questions. (See Chapter Three of this Handbook.)


28

HIPSYS Applied to Organizations

We have looked at how HIPSYS can be applied to individuals and to teams. It can also be applied to organizations and to products and services. Let’s have a brief look at an organizational application.

Here is an example of an organization (Base Metals Processing Inc. – BMPI) that decided to use HIPSYS for an internal organizational survey in which the results would be fed back to and discussed with all employees in small peer groups. They did the same survey again twelve months later and found they had improved in nine out of eleven facets, stayed the same on one (Management), and regressed only in the facet Work Organization. And that was as a short-term consequence of all the other changes they had implemented.

The three Parent (or aggregate) response groups (sometimes called “Image Perspectives” – see Chapter Seven) were Management, Supervisors and Workforce made up as follows:

Table 1.12Structure of HIPSYS Class bmpi1

Parent Response Group Component Response Groups

MANAGEMENT Managers Superintendents

SUPERVISORS Foremen Engineers Other Professionals

WORKFORCE Production Maintenance Other Workforce (Administration,

Technical, Engineering)


29

The multi-facet display for the first survey was:

Figure 1.24Multi-Facet Display of BMPI’s HIPSYS Profile in Year One


30

And the following year:

Figure 1.25Multi-Facet Display of BMPI’s HIPSYS Profile in Year Two

This “Before and After” comparison showed the client organization the value they had obtained from applying the HIPSYS program and methodology. It enabled them to explore and discuss in a meaningful way issues of concern to employees at all levels, listen to their feedback and recommendations, and formulate action plans to improve.

More detailed information on this HIPSYS consulting assignment is given as Case #11 in Chapter 18 of the HIPSYS Methodology Manual.


31

HIPSYS was originally created as a model for identifying and managing corporate image and it continues to be used for this purpose. (See Chapter Seven of this Handbook and HIPSYS Methodology Manual: A Guide to the Development and Application of HIPSYS .) In such applications, the Parent response groups are called “Image Perspectives” and are as follows:

SELF IMAGE : Red CirclePROJECTED IMAGE : Yellow CirclePERCEIVED IMAGE : Blue Circle

As with other applications, each of the three image perspectives can be broken down into several component groups as required. Table 1.13 is an example:

Table 1.13Possible Breakdown of Parent Image Perspectives into Component Response Groups

Parent Image Perspective Component Response Group

SELF IMAGE Managers Supervisors Workforce

PROJECTED IMAGE Office Staff Field Staff Marketing Staff

PERCEIVED IMAGE Government Agencies Customers Shareholders

Consultants are developing new classes of HIPSYS all the time. One consultant has developed a HIPSYS class to compare perceptions of roadside service warranties by vehicle type, male/female, and age group. Another has used HIPSYS to measure the effects on performance of Knowledge, Attitudes and Skills.

However, before you think about any of that, you need to learn how to use it. It’s fairly straightforward if you just carefully follow the procedures; and if you decide to use an existing class and just modify it a bit, it’s pretty easy. Like anything, the more practice you get, the easier it becomes.

Table 1.14 below summarises the processes for individual, team and organisational applications and the remaining chapters explain how to drive the HIPSYS program and use it with appropriate consulting methodologies.


32

Table 1.14Procedures of HIPSYS Methodologies

Step No.

Individual Applications Team Applications Organisational Applications

1 Identify issues with CEO, management team and by interviews with random diagonal slice.

Examine role relationships to classify teams by role interdependencies.

Identify issues with CEO, management team and by interviews with random diagonal slice.

2 Choose facets to be explored, e.g., from individuals’ duty statements, organisation’s code of values, and perceptions of relevant individuals and groups.

Follow steps 1 to 10 for Individual Applications for each member of the team.

Choose facets to be explored, e.g., from individuals’ duty statements, organisation’s code of values, and perceptions of various stakeholders.

3 Decide structure, i.e. Managers, Supervisors, Workforce; or, Self Image, Projected Image and Perceived Image, etc., plus any breakdowns of the three image perspectives.

Meet with team and display and explain summary results of all team members simultaneously.

Decide structure, i.e. Managers, Supervisors, Workforce; or, Self Image, Projected Image and Perceived Image, etc., plus any breakdowns of the three image perspectives.

4 Develop draft questions from existing classes, adapt existing class or create new one from scratch.

Display first facet for all team members simultaneously.

Develop draft questions from existing classes, adapt existing class or create new one from scratch.

5 Client to sign off on structure and draft questionnaires.

Display results for discussion of each individual one at a time and assist in developing Action Points.

Client to sign off on structure and draft questionnaires.

6 Print and distribute questionnaires or distribute key codes for input on-line.

Display next facet and discuss each individual’s issues and continue until all facets and individual’s issues have been adequately discussed and Action Points agreed.

Print and distribute questionnaires or distribute key codes for input on-line.

7 Input data manually from completed questionnaires. (NB: This step is not necessary if questionnaires are completed on-line.)

Display summary results for all team members simultaneously and summarise outcomes.

Input data manually from completed questionnaires. (NB: This step is not necessary if questionnaires are completed on-line.)

8 Consultant to view data and prepare report on results with tentative Action Points.

Prepare report to client of overall outcomes.

Consultant to view data and prepare initial report on results.

9 Display results to each individual via laptop and/or monitor and discuss.

Repeat process to measure and monitor progress.

Display results via data projector and discuss initial report with CEO/Board.

10 Amend Action Points as required and print out.

Display, explore and discuss results in peer groups by department.

11 Prepare report to client of aggregate results of individuals overall.

Prepare final report with findings and recommendations.

12 Repeat process to measure and monitor progress.

Repeat process to measure and monitor progress.


33

Chapter Two

How to Install HIPSYS

Simply download the latest version of HIPSYS from the WebPages at:

www.hipsys.com

and run the set-up program. You will be prompted for a directory to install HIPSYS into. Then, after selecting, Install, a Demonstration version of HIPSYS will be installed.

Have a look at the sample profiles in HIPSYS and check out the HIP Input and HIP Edit programs.

In the Demonstration version, the Save options are disabled. So, if you decide you want to use HIPSYS, complete and sign the Licence Agreement on our website and send it with a cheque for the licence fee to:

David J. Christie19 Kingsley StreetRochedale South

QueenslandAustralia 4123

You will then be sent a version of all the HIPSYS programs (HIPSYS, HIP Input and HIP Edit) by mail on a CD and by e-mail so you can use it straight away.

This will include all the existing classes for the sample profiles that you have already downloaded with the Demonstration version but with the Save options enabled thus allowing you to adapt these classes to your own requirements.

It will also allow you to create and use your own customised HIPSYS classes from scratch.

Chapter Three tells you how to do this.


34

http://www.hipsys.com/

Chapter Three

How to Use or Adapt Existing HIPSYS Classes and Create New Ones

Let’s say you want to use the twelve-facet class that is often used for managers and team leaders in various industries, and without any changes. (We’ll learn that first, and then learn how to make changes later.) The HIPSYS class (that is, what the particular application is called) is “mgt-12”. The three image perspectives in this case are SELF, BOSS and SUBORDINATES and there are no breakdowns into component groups. Here’s what you do.

Double click on the HIP Edit icon. Then click on:

File and Open

Select mgt-12

Open

File

Print Questionnaire

When you see Survey File, ignore it and click OK.

If you want to discuss the questionnaire with your client before you finalise it, check the box Collate by Facet. This will group all the randomised questions under their facet headings.

Don’t ever give this questionnaire to respondents to fill out. You’ll have a nightmare of a job trying to input the data because the questions will not be in numerical order. The Collate by Facet option is there just to make it easier for you to discuss the questionnaire and its facets with your client.

Printing Questionnaires

When the questionnaire is ready for respondents to fill out, and you want to print it, do NOT check the Collate by Facet box. The questions will then be printed in numerical order with no facet headings.

We will assume, for the time being, that the client has accepted the mgt-12 HIPSYS Class as it is without any changes.

Now select the questionnaires you want to print out and click OK. (Self questions are in the first person {“I”, “me”, “myself”, etc.}, Boss and Subordinates questions are in the third person (“he/she”, “his/hers”, “himself/herself”, etc}. In this case you don’t have to click


35

both Boss and Subordinate, as the questions are the same. So just print out either one of them.

Print Range defaults to “All”, click “OK”.

Now all you have to do is print a title sheet, on your letterhead if you wish, with the name of the person on whom the questionnaire is being filled out, and instructions on what to do. A suggested format appears as an Appendix at the end of this chapter. Chapter Ten explains how to administer questionnaires.

When all the questionnaires have been returned, the data can be entered manually via HIP Input. Chapter Four will tell you how to do that. Alternatively, questionnaires can be completed on-line. But before we go into that, let’s suppose that you want to adapt a HIPSYS class, or create a new one. Let’s look at that now.

Adapting an Existing HIPSYS Class

Suppose you want to break down the SUBORDINATES image perspective into three component groups. This may be by location, function, shift, or whatever the client wants. Let’s say you want to break them down into Shift A, Shift B and Shift C. Here’s what you do:

Double click on the HIP Edit icon, and then click on:

File and Open

mgt-12 and Open

Edit

Edit Perspectives

Click on SUBS, then

click on “Next” button

In the Code box type “Shift-A”. (You’re allowed up to seven characters.) In the Name box type “Shift-A”. (Any number of characters.)

In the Parent box type “SUBS” (Note: Parent image perspectives [i.e., aggregates] should be typed in UPPER CASE, and component groups in lower case. This makes them easier to distinguish - especially in the Assist display.

If the groups are of roughly equal numbers, ignore the “Weighting” box. (Weightings are optional in any case and subject to the preferences of the client/consultant. See later in this chapter.)

And ignore the Order box, as the order will be entered automatically when you Save.


36

Then click on Next and repeat the procedure for Shift-B and Shift-C. You may use the Tab key to move down the boxes if you prefer.

Before you Exit, click on SELF then keep clicking on the Next button to ensure that the Order number is:

SELF 1BOSS 2SUBORDINATES 3Shift A 4Shift B 5Shift C 6

Image perspectives must ALWAYS be in the order of:

First image perspective (Red Circle) followed by any breakdown into components.

Second image perspective (Yellow Circle) followed by any breakdown into components.

Third image perspective (Blue Circle) followed by any breakdown into components.

Don’t try to be creative about this; otherwise, you will have the wrong things in the wrong circles.

Note: Whenever an image perspective has been broken down into component groups, each component must be used. If, for any reason, a component is not to be used, it should be eliminated (in HIP Edit) and the class saved to a new name.

Now you MUST go to File and Save As and save it to a different class name. If you don’t you may input the data against the wrong class with all the wrong question numbers and that will put you in something worse than ‘sheep dip’ with your client. You will also lose your original class.

You will notice that the class name is printed at the foot of every page of the questionnaires you print out, so ALWAYS make sure you are inputting data into the proper class.


37

You will now have a new HIPSYS class, call it mgt12ABC if you like, with the following perspectives:

Table 3.1Possible Structure of an Adapted mgt-12 Class

Parent Image Perspectives (or Aggregate Response Group)

Component Groups

SELF N/A

BOSS N/A if only one Boss or if the responses of more than one Boss are to be aggregated.

But several Bosses may be included and each one separated out as a component of the BOSS Response Group, i.e.:

Boss 1 Boss 2

SUBORDINATES Shift A Shift B Shift C

(Please note that, at present, a maximum of nine component groups may be entered. However, these may be distributed amongst the three Image Perspectives (or Aggregate Response Groups) in any combination that totals nine. These nine component groups together with the three Aggregate Response Groups give a total of twelve different displays.

For example:

SELF IMAGE plus a breakdown into, say, three component groups (such as Departments in an organization) = 4,

PROJECTED IMAGE plus a breakdown into, say, two component groups = 3,

PERCEIVED IMAGE plus a breakdown into, say, four component groups (such as customer type, region or whatever) = 5.

Total = 12, the three Aggregate Response Groups (or Parent Image Perspectives) plus their nine component groups).


38

Weightings

This controls the weighting applied to breakdowns in Parent Image Perspectives (i.e., an Image Perspective or Aggregate Response Group that is broken down into Component Groups), and is not used for unified (Aggregate or Parent) image perspectives. The default weighting is 1. However, if, for example, in the Self Image of an organization, seven Managers' questionnaire responses are considered as relevant as, or need to be made up to the same number as, say, twenty-eight Supervisors, then they may be weighted as 4. This means that each response by a Manager would be counted as four responses for the purpose of aggregating the total Self Image of the organization.

However, when Managers and Supervisors are separated into Component Groups, their responses can be viewed separately and compared with Supervisors’ responses in various displays including Circles, Histogram and Assist. And so most clients consider weightings to be unnecessary. So ignore Weightings if you wish. Most Users do, but they are in the program if you want to use them.

Adding and Deleting Facets

Now suppose you want to add or delete facets. Let’s say you want to delete the facet on Safety because you’re applying the mgt-12 class to some office managers and safety is not an issue you feel there is a need to examine. You can just delete it and run with eleven facets, or you can add another facet to replace it if you want. Here’s how:

If you want to delete a facet:

Double click on HIP Edit.

File and Open.

Click on mgt-12 and Open.

Then Edit and Edit Facets.

Select the facet you want to delete (Safety) and click on the Delete button.

You will be asked if you are sure. If you are, hit the Delete button shown in the box and the Safety facet will be deleted. So will all ten questions under that facet. This will cause the remaining 110 questions to re-randomise.

When you Exit, you MUST use Save As to save it to a different name, for example, office-11. Otherwise you will lose mgt-12.

You now have a new HIPSYS class with eleven facets and 110 questions.

If you want to add another facet, say, Resource Management, to an existing class such as mgt-12, do this:



39

File and Open.

Then mgt-12 and Open.

Edit and Edit Facets.

Click on NEW.

In the Code box type “Resman”.

In the Name box type “Resource Management”.

Then OK, Save and Exit.

Again you must save it to a name other than “mgt-12”. If the new facet is part of your new class mgt12ABC, save it to that name. If not, save it to a new name.

Entering or Editing Questions (Statements)

In editing questions, the only buttons to be used are New, Delete and Restore.

New This automatically creates a new question.

Delete Deletes the current question.

Restore Allows you to restore the current question to its last saved state. Note: The last saved state is that which was last displayed on the

screen (i.e., just before it was most recently edited).

The Question Navigation buttons are to enable you to find your way around any existing HIPSYS Class.

Next Question Displays the next question number.

Previous Question Displays the previous question number.

Go To Question Prompts you for the question number you wish to see.

Next In Facet Displays the next question that belongs to the same facet as the current question.

Previous In Facet Displays the previous question that belongs to the same facet as the current question.

Go To Facet Prompts you for the facet you wish to see and displays the first question found in that facet. If none is found, then a new question can be created to the current facet.


40

If you have created a new facet as explained above, you must now type in the questions that will draw out that facet. It’s a good idea to consult with your client on this, so the questions draw out the information they will find meaningful and helpful. To type in the questions you:


File and Open.

Select mgt-12, or mgt12ABC, or whatever class you are editing, and Open.

Edit and Edit Questions.

Click on NEW.

In the Facet box, scroll down and click on Resman.

Then place the cursor in the SELF box and type in your first question. For example:

“I manage the assets under my control so as to maximize their return on investment.”

Then click on the Copy button. The question (or statement) will then appear in the Boss and Subordinates boxes. You now have to edit them to the third person as follows:

“He/She manages the assets under his/her control so as to maximise their return on investment.”

(If you want to print out male {he, him, his, etc.} and female {she, her, hers, etc.} versions of questionnaires separately, then instead of typing “he/she” and “his/her” etc., type “%SEX(he,she)%” and %SEX(his,her)%” etc. We’ll see later how this enables you to print out Male, Female or Generic forms of questionnaires.)

If you prefer, you may type the question in the BOSS or SUBORDINATES box first. Then when you hit the “Copy” button you will have to edit only the SELF box, as the questions are worded the same in the BOSS and SUBORDINATE boxes.

Now click on the NEW button and type in your next question. Do this for as many questions as you want to bring out the issues under this facet.

Then Exit and Save to the new name you created when entering the new facet or, if you have not done that yet, Save As under a new name NOW.


41

Negative Questions/Statements

To guard against the "halo effect" or the "donkey vote", it is recommended each facet should have at least one negative question. This means that to Agree with it would produce a minus and to Disagree with it would produce a plus. Some people don’t like negative questions because, they say, it makes them stop and think. This is what they’re supposed to do. Others say up to half of the questions should be negative.

When you click on the Negative Statement box a cross will appear in it and that particular question will then be treated as a negative question. This means that an "Agree" response will yield a minus and a "Disagree" response will yield a plus. (See also Chapter One page 3 and Chapter Eleven, pages 93 – 96.)

Examples of negative questions are: -

"There are many jobs I will not delegate because I can do them better myself".

"This organisation cannot always be relied on to meet its customers' deadlines in supplying them with its products."

Having entered your new image perspective (or component[s]), your new facet and your new questions, you will now have a class in which the Safety facet has been deleted and a new facet called Resources Management has been added. You could also have added the Resources Management facet without deleting the Safety facet if you had wanted to; but twelve facets is probably enough for anybody to handle and won’t cram up your computer screen too much when viewing the multi-facet displays. (See pages 54 - 55.)

Randomising Questions

If you have developed a brand new HIPSYS Class from scratch, then once you have entered all your questions under their appropriate facets, you should then randomise them. Then when questionnaires go out to respondents, the pattern of questions (for example, ten under Delegation, twelve under Leadership, eight under Communications, and so on) will not be apparent.

To randomise the question order, click on File and Save As.

Then click on the Randomise box.


42

Print by Facet (for development purposes and discussion with client only)

As was mentioned earlier, when you want to discuss the questionnaire with your clients prior to finalizing it for distribution to respondents, the Print by Facet option will group all questions under their Facet headings. This makes it easier for your client to see how the questionnaire has been structured and facilitates more meaningful discussion.

But remember; don’t ever give this version of the questionnaire to respondents to fill out. The input would be a nightmare.

What do you want to do next? Well, if you’ve given out all the questionnaires and got them back all filled out, you’re now ready to input all the data. Chapter Four tells you how to do that.


43

Appendix to Chapter Three

SELFPlease do not remove this title sheet from the questionnaire.

QUESTIONNAIRE IN RESPECT OF:

Name: Derek Budleigh

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this questionnaire is to reflect how you see yourself - your thoughts about yourself, your opinions, intentions or assumptions. Your honest responses will provide feedback that will be of value to you.

INSTRUCTIONS

Please respond to each statement in the questionnaire by circling or crossing out 'A', 'N' or 'D'.

To cross out 'A' like this means that you AGREE with the statement.

To cross out 'N' like this means that you NEITHER Agree nor Disagree with the statement. Please note that this means you DON'T KNOW or the statement is NOT APPLICABLE. If you think the statement is sometimes true of you but other times is not true, you should cross out 'A' or 'D' according to which alternative is the more characteristic of you overall.

To cross out 'D' like this means you DISAGREE with the statement.

Please record only one response to each statement after you have read it carefully.

Some statements may seem similar to others; however, each contributes in its own way to the end result so please respond to each one without regard to the others.

When you have completed this questionnaire, please send it for computer processing to: -

Name and Addressof Consultant


44

A

N

D

BOSS

Please do not remove this title sheet from the questionnaire.

QUESTIONNAIRE IN RESPECT OF: -

Name: -

Derek Budleigh

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this questionnaire is to reflect how you perceive the person named above. Your honest responses will provide feedback that will be of value to him.

INSTRUCTIONS



To cross out 'N' like this means that you NEITHER Agree nor Disagree with the statement. Please note that this means you DON'T KNOW or the statement is NOT APPLICABLE. If you think the statement is sometimes true of him but other times is not true, you should cross out 'A' or 'D' according to which alternative is the more characteristic of him overall.







45

A

N

D

SUBS

Please do not remove this title sheet from the questionnaire.

QUESTIONNAIRE IN RESPECT OF: -

Name: -

Derek Budleigh

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this questionnaire is to reflect how you perceive the person named above. Your honest responses will provide feedback that will be of value to him.

INSTRUCTIONS



To cross out 'N' like this means that you NEITHER Agree nor Disagree with the statement. Please note that this means you DON'T KNOW or the statement is NOT APPLICABLE. If you think the statement is sometimes true of him but other times is not true, you should cross out 'A' or 'D' according to which alternative is the more characteristic of him overall.







46

A

N

D

Chapter Four

How to Input Data from Completed Questionnaires

Completed questionnaires may be input manually or questionnaires may be completed on-line.

Manual Input

First of all, it’s a good idea to make sure that the computer you are entering data into is the same computer from which the questionnaires were printed out. Why? One of HIPSYS’ strengths is its flexibility. You can change it any way you want - image perspectives, facets, and questions. If you have a particular class on more than one machine, someone could make changes to it on one machine but not on the other.

As you know from previous chapters, if anyone is going to make changes they should save it to a different class name, but some people don’t always follow correct procedures. And some are saboteurs with a perceived gripe and this is a great way for them to get even if you’re careless. They may cause you to input data against a

different class/questionnaire. Wouldn’t that be fun? For them.

But you can foil their dastardly plot by keeping the password for your computer secret and following the instruction in the first sentence under the heading “Manual Input”.

Given that caution, here’s how you input data from completed questionnaires. Let’s assume you are using your new class mgt12ABC. Double click on the HIP Input icon. Then:

File and New.

Select mgt12ABC.

If you don’t want the names to appear on the computer screen, then type in a code in the Target box, eg, Mgr 1, Mgr 2, etc. and the name in the Name box. Only what is in the Target box will be displayed via HIPSYS on the computer screen. If anonymity is not a problem because they’re going to be sharing and discussing their results anyway, then type the name in here eg, “Derek Budleigh” and ignore the Name box if you wish.

Now in the Perspective box, scroll to and select the image perspective you are entering. Look at the code that you would have put in the top right-hand corner of the front sheet of the questionnaire. It will be “SELF”, or “BOSS”, or “Shift A”, or “Shift B” or “Shift C”. Your selection will be highlighted.

When you have highlighted the appropriate one, hit Enter to lock it in and it will default to that until you change it. Pretty handy if you are entering a swag of the same image perspective or component at once. In fact, it’s a good idea to sort out the questionnaires into


47

their image perspectives and component groups first so you can enter them all without having to constantly change the image perspective or component group when inputting them.

Now you strike “1” for “A” (Agree), “2” for “N” (Neither Agree nor Disagree), and “3” for “D” (Disagree).

Don’t try to use the Mouse to enter the data - it won’t work. And it would be slower anyway.

When you have entered all responses, you will be asked to confirm the image perspective you have just entered. Look at the code on the top right of the questionnaire again just to make sure and save yourself any dramas later on, and then Enter.

You will now be asked to re-enter data for verification. This is to see if you’ve made any mistakes. Hit the 1s, 2s and 3s for the same questionnaire again and, if you’ve got them all right, you will be allowed to go on to enter the next survey #2.

If you’ve made any mistakes, you will see a few “Gotcha” displays. A box will tell you how many errors you’ve made and ask you to correct them. Click on OK.

A red arrow will point to your first mistake, the question number(s) of your mistake(s) will be highlighted in red, and you will see two dots when there should be only one. Correct these mistakes with the Mouse by clicking on the correct entry. (Yes, you can use the Mouse this time.)

Then click on the Next button to enter Survey #2 and repeat the process.

When you have entered all the questionnaire data, or as much as you feel like entering for the time being,

Quit.

You will be asked if you want to Save changes. Click on Yes, and then give it a name, “Mgr1” or “DerekB”, or whatever. This is the survey file. If there are several from the same team/organization, you may want to put them all in the same directory.

If, later on, you have more questionnaires to enter for this Target (person), then when you open HIP Input, go to File and Open, instead of New, and select the survey file name.

You don’t have to input questionnaires all at once. And you don’t have to input them in any order, although it may be easier for you if you do. Just make sure you select the correct image perspective/component group each time you enter data.

Click on the End button, then Next, and continue entering data as above.

Now (Ta-Da!!!) you are almost ready to view the HIPSYS profile and all its various multi-coloured displays.


48

On-Line Input

A key code is given to each person who will be completing a questionnaire. So the client needs to tell the consultant how many key codes are required for each response group.

If you wish to make such arrangements and to set up an account, please contact us at:

[email protected]

The client will be given the key codes to allocate as appropriate. Each participant then accesses the HIPSYS web site at:

www.hipsys.com

and inputs his/her responses to the questionnaire that will appear in response to their entering their key code.


49


mailto:[email protected]

Chapter Five

Giving Feedback and Facilitating Discussion on HIPSYS Data

There are a number of ways you can explore and discuss a HIPSYS profile with a client. Here is a recommended methodology. When you’ve gained a bit of experience and become more familiar with HIPSYS, you may decide to develop different approaches.

One-to-One Feedback and Discussion

Feedback is usually best given on a one-to-one basis in the first instance. Even for organizational applications of HIPSYS the senior person (or team) should see the results in private first so they are not hit with any bombshells in public.

The first step is to ensure that the client fully understands the HIPSYS model. The extent and depth of the explanation necessary will depend on how familiar the client is with HIPSYS. It should take only a few minutes to outline the model as explained in Chapter One. Making up a simple PowerPoint slide show that illustrates the structure of the particular HIPSYS class is a good way to do that.

When you’ve done that, the client should sit alongside the facilitator with each of them facing a computer or display screen, or the facilitator facing a laptop and the client a monitor.

Let’s try an example that you may have already downloaded from the web page at:

www.hipsys.com

Go to Windows and double click on the HIPSYS icon.

Now go to full screen, and then click on File and Open.

Double click on the relevant file – for our example, let’s make it prodengr.svy, (or directory and then the particular client’s survey file name) and click the OK button. Go to full screen then Window and Tile. You should now see the following display:


50


Figure 5.1Summary Circles Display of prodengr-demo

Click on Options and All Legends On so that the client can be reminded that, in this case, the SELF circle is Red, the COLLEAGUES circle is Yellow and the SUBORDINATES circle is Blue.

Point out and discuss the significance of the overlaps and the sizes of the circles.

Click on Window, then New.

When the new window comes up, click on Window again then Tile.

Now click on the right-hand window, then on Display and Histogram. Discuss the distribution of responses shown by the Histogram.

Then click on the left-hand window, then on Options and All Plus/Minus On. Pluses, minuses and zeros will then appear on the Circles. Discuss the significance of these. Make comparisons between the Circles and the Histogram to show that they are just different ways of gaining information from the same data.

The display you are now looking at should be something like the example shown in Figure 5.2 below.


51

Figure 5.2Summary Circles with Symbols and Histogram Displays of prodengr

To move on to the first facet, hit Shift and the "+" sign on the keyboard. The circles will appear with pluses, minuses and zeros in the left-hand window and the histogram on the right for the facet called “Delegation”. Discuss these as you did for the Circles and Histogram Summaries.

When you are ready to look at the specific questions for this particular facet, click on the right-hand window with the Histogram in it then on Display and Assist. The SELF statements for the Delegation facet will then be displayed together with the SELF, COLLEAGUES and SUBORDINATES’ responses to them (or whatever the image perspectives are for the particular HIPSYS Class you may be viewing). The responses are shown in both percentage and numerical forms, as shown in the right-hand side of Figure 5.3.


52

Figure 5.3Circles and Assist Displays of Delegation Facet

You may now facilitate a discussion, question by question, on what may have given rise to the responses on that particular facet, reinforcing apparent strengths and areas for possible improvement.

The facilitator may read out each statement using the mouse arrow to direct the client’s attention to it and explain how positive, non-committal, negative and polarised responses are displayed by a “+”, a shrinking of the Circles, a “-“, or a “0” respectively. The location of symbols on the Circles can also be pointed out if desired. (See later in this chapter and also Chapter Eleven.)

Sometimes it is appropriate to discuss minority responses. (See Chapter Twelve.)

You can scroll down the questions by clicking on the downward-pointing arrow at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.

You can also scroll back up the questions by clicking on the upward-pointing arrow near the top right-hand corner. Alternatively, if you have a wheel on your mouse, use that.

When you have discussed all the questions and responses of that facet, click on the right-hand window (the one with the questions in it), then on Display and then Histogram. The Histogram can now be seen alongside the Circles to facilitate a final comment or two on that particular facet. And the screen is also now set up for movement to the next facet.


53

To move on to the next facet strike "Shift +". If you are displaying the prodengr-Demo profile, the facet you are now looking at will be Counselling. Once again the Circles with pluses, minuses and zeros will appear alongside the Histogram. The client may now be asked to give his/her interpretation of what he/she sees. The facilitator may clarify, correct and expand as appropriate.

Then click on the right-hand window (the Histogram), then on Display, then on Assist. You can now discuss the questions and responses and their relationship to the Circles again.

When you have gone through all the facets, the Summary will come up again. You may discuss the Facet Summary (which appears as the Assist display) if you wish and explain its scoring scale. (See in Chapter Eleven.) But most people aren’t really interested in that so don’t push it. Alternatively, or as well, you may wish to have a look at the Histogram Summary alongside the Circles Summary by clicking on the right-hand window, then on Display and then on Histogram.

As you discuss each facet, you may give the client a coloured printout of the Circles with pluses, minuses and zeros on the top left, the Histogram on the top right and the Assist below. All this can usually be printed on one A4 page using the Print Special command and an appropriate font size. (See By Special Arrangement in Chapter Eleven.) Alternatively, you may prefer to give them the entire printout at the end of your session.

Finally, when you have discussed all facets and the Summary, you can display all facets on the screen simultaneously.

First, click on the cross sign at the top right-hand corner of the right-hand window which is currently displaying the Histogram Summary . That window will disappear. Now click on Options and All Legends Off, because legends clutter up the images on a Multi Facet display.

Now click on Window then on Multi Facet. All facets plus the Summary will now be visible on the screen at once as shown in Figure 5.4.


54

Figure 5.4Multi Facet Display of prodengr-Demo

You may then ask the client to examine these facet profiles and identify from them what his/her particular strengths seem to be. You may then ask him/her to look at the profiles again and discuss areas for development.

These one-to-one feedback sessions take an average of one-and-a-half to two hours each for a ten-facet class of a hundred questions; although a few, including some Plant Managers, Mine Managers and Chief Executive Officers with some major issues to explore, have taken longer.

If there is to be a plenary session in which several client individuals will come together to examine and discuss their profiles, you should remind them to bring their colour-printed profiles with them for reference.

Sometimes it is useful to compare the Self Image, the Projected Image and the Perceived Image of an individual or an organization. (See Chapter Seven.) The Self Image can be defined as what one thinks, believes or assumes; the Projected Image as what one does or has done; and the Perceived Image as the perceptions others have of that person or organization. So, in this case, the client (or target) would complete two separate questionnaires, preferably a day or two apart, and the third questionnaire can be completed by his/her subordinates (or customers, or whomever).


55

An example of a question/statement that would be appropriate for those three image perspectives is:

Self Image “My subordinates are clear on the extent and limits of theirauthority.”

Projected Image “Within the past twelve months I have clarified with each of my subordinates the extent and limits of their authority.”

Perceived Image “I am clear on the extent and limits of my authority.” (of Subordinates)

(For more on how to word questionnaires, see Chapter Eight.)

If the same HIPSYS class is used, profiles can be compared a year or so later to measure progress, as shown in Figure 5.5.

Figure 5.5A Comparison of a Client’s first HIPSYS Summary (Jane1st) with a subsequent one

(Jane2nd)


56

Group Discussion of HIPSYS Profiles

Discussing profiles in groups with helpful and constructive intent can be a very good team building exercise. If you propose to do this, you should let people know in advance, before questionnaires are completed, so that it does not necessarily have to conflict with any assurances of confidentiality or anonymity which may have been given when questionnaires were completed. Confidentiality of response can still be maintained in that individuals don’t have to say what their responses about someone were, but rather help the person to understand why a majority may have a given perception of them.

It is usually best to announce this intention as questionnaires are being administered, so groups have no opportunity to collude to give each other flattering rather than honest profiles. (See Chapter Ten: How to Administer Questionnaires.)

Although HIPSYS will allow up to twenty profiles to be displayed on the screen simultaneously, the displays are usually too small and sometimes the bottom part gets chopped off. Twelve is usually the maximum number that can be looked at without too much trouble. You will need to have a data projector linked up to your computer.

Go over the HIPSYS model again as a refresher (see Chapter One). Use a PowerPoint slide show to explain the structure of the particular HIPSYS class you are using, the significance of the overlaps and Circles' size, and the pluses, minuses and zeros. Then, when you have got into the appropriate file or directory, click and/or scroll on all the relevant clients/targets and OK. For example, click on the directory mgt-12demo, and then select Managers A to F.

The clients you have selected will appear in cascade form then Tile automatically. The Summary profiles of all six subjects will appear on the screen at once. (You may have to go to full screen and Windows and Tile so the images will fill your screen.) Summaries with symbols can look a bit cluttered on a multi-client display but you can discuss the displays without symbols briefly if you wish then move on to the first facet and click on Options and All Pluses Minuses On as you did in the one-to-one sessions. Your display will now look like Figure 5.6.


57

Figure 5.6Multi-Client Display of Delegation Facet

By this stage, most people know what the circles mean, so you may not need to display the legends. However, if you think you should, go to Options and click on All Legends On.

Individuals should now be encouraged to explore and discuss their profiles with those present, or examine and discuss constructively the profiles of others.

Individuals may initially choose to remain anonymous and simply discuss profiles by number or by letter or some other designation such as a code name they used in HIP Input. In the writer's experience, however, all individuals have eventually declared their profiles openly, albeit sometimes in response to significant group pressure. Also, if all bar one participant expose their profiles, the anonymity of that one has then been shot to bits.

If anyone wishes to examine a particular profile in detail, simply click on the full screen symbol of the appropriate window (). This will enlarge it to full screen.

You may then call up a Histogram or Assist as you did in the one-to-one sessions and examine the percentage responses to particular questions. Individual respondents (if they are present in the group) may then say how they may have interpreted particular questions and give reasons for their responses.

To return to the six profiles again, simply click on the double box symbol in the top right-hand corner () and that will restore the multi-client display.


58

Those receiving feedback from the group should be encouraged to take notes on where they may need to improve to help them to draft Personal Development Plans or Action Points later.

A group of ten to twelve participants usually takes an average of about forty-five minutes to discuss each facet. Maybe more for the first one or two and less for the last couple as many issues coming up then may already have been discussed.

When all facets have been explored and discussed, the Summaries will appear next. These may be revisited one at a time as a means of giving an overview of the session.

The facilitator/consultant, who would have been taking notes throughout the session (right?), could go round the room asking each individual to share what he/she got out of the session and fill in any aspects that may have been missed. The individual should then be invited to outline his/her Personal Development Plan or Action Points for the next few months as a means of improving his/her personal effectiveness as well as the effectiveness of his/her contributions to the total team.

It may also be appropriate for team members to give public declarations of what support they will give one another in coaching, mentoring or implementing any behavioural changes.

For an eight to ten-person management team doing a ten-facet HIPSYS, you should allow at least two days for the one-to-one sessions and one-and-a-half to two days for the plenary session. That is three-and-a-half to four days of consulting time. It will invariably lead to downstream consulting activities later on. (See Chapter Thirteen.)

Feedback and Discussion of Organizational Applications of HIPSYS

A similar approach can be used to feedback and discuss organizational applications of HIPSYS. Let’s take the example used in Chapter One – BMPI. The results were discussed first of all with the senior management team, then with the supervisors, then with all employees in peer groups ranging in size from five to twenty-five, by department. Whilst responses to all questions are displayed, this approach enables each department to focus discussion on those issues and responses that are of particular concern to it. It also facilitates more open discussion when people have neither their boss nor their subordinates present.

In displaying the responses to all questions using the Assist display, the facilitator may take the approach that, “This is what you have said. Why have you said that?” Write down the reasons they give you and, wherever possible, ask for specific examples to support their perceptions.

Then ask, “What do you think should be done about it?” and write down their recommendations. When you check out the various reasons and recommendations with various groups and individuals, you will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and come up with findings and recommendations that your client will find useful and helpful. Not bad for a consultant who has probably never worked in that industry in his/her life! But that’s consulting - “Give me your watch and I’ll tell you the time.”

If you refer back to the displays of BMPI in Chapter One, you will see how the “Before and After” profiles can be compared.


59

Given the breakdowns into component groups of this particular class, the Select Perspectives option was particularly useful in this case. For example, when Managers and Superintendents were separated out from the MANAGER parent image perspective, it highlighted the fact that the Superintendents were much more aligned with the SUPERVISION in their perceptions under the Management facet.

Figure 5.7Circles and Histogram Displays of “Management” Facet of Organization bmpi in Year

1

Superintendents, whom Managers asserted were very much part of the management team, clearly didn’t feel that they were. On the contrary, this HIPSYS survey indicated how alienated Superintendents felt from that team.

The Select Perspectives option also enabled interesting comparisons to be made between Production and Maintenance and Other Workforce when they were separated out from the WORKFORCE parent image perspective. In Figure 5.8 six facets have been selected to show such a comparison.


60

Figure 5.8Selection of Six Facets Comparing Responses of Production, Maintenance and Other

Workforce in bmpiYr1

Figure 5.8 shows that the responses of Other Workforce are more positive and less negative than those of Production and Maintenance. Whilst the responses of Production and Maintenance are mostly similar, Maintenance is the more negative on the Communications and Job Satisfaction facets.

The small size of the Blue Circle (Other Workforce) in the IR, Enterprise Bargaining facet is due to the fact that Other Workforce (computer specialists, accountants, laboratory technicians and office workers) had little interest in industrial relations issues or union activities and responded noncommittally (i.e., Neither Agree nor Disagree) to 40% of the ten questions under this facet, thereby reducing the size of that circle by 40% of its radius.

Further explanation and analysis of the data from this HIPSYS consulting assignment together with findings and recommendations are given as Case #11 in Chapter 18 of the HIPSYS Methodology Manual.


61

"Before and After" profiles of organizational applications called hip-ip and hip-ip2 were compared by a Professional Association. (See Case #7 in Chapter 13 of HIPSYS Methodology Manual.) Its first hip-ip was conducted in December and it’s second, amended and renamed hip-ip2, in July of the following year. The full HIPSYS profiles appear as Profasn1.svy and Profasn2.svy in HIPSYS.

Figure 5.9Consolidated Summary of

Professional Association's hip-ip, December, Year 1


62

Figure 5.10Consolidated Summary of

Professional Association's hip-ip2, July, Year 2

The two HIPSYS classes and associated methodology enabled this Professional Association to develop and implement an appropriate action plan for improvement. This resulted in its Perceived Image going from 58% positive to 85% positive within seven months. More information on this HIPSYS consulting assignment is given as Case #7 in Chapter 13 of the HIPSYS Methodology Manual.

However, not everyone improves after having undergone a HIPSYS. There can be intervening variables that weigh against improvement. For example, a production organization was experiencing severe competition on world markets, an adverse exchange rate, increasing costs and a shortage of the raw materials it needed for its production. In order to cut its costs and regain a competitive edge, it embraced new technologies and had several rounds of retrenchments. All this motivated some to give of their best to the organization so that it would ride out the crisis and survive. Others felt that the industry would not survive in the long term. Good people were leaving and others who would like to have left had nowhere to go. Some got depressed and this affected their performance in spite of their being shown how to improve.

74 people participated in the process in Year 1 and 77 participated in Year 2. Of those 77, 13 had not participated in Year 1.


63

The numbers in Table 5.1 below show what changed in the results of the 64 people who participated in both Year 1’s and Year 2’s process.

Some received input from Subordinates and others from Customers. Everyone’s input also included a Self-assessment, a collective assessment from their Peers and one from their immediate Boss, except for the CEO who had input from the Board instead of a boss. This result is included in the table below under “Boss”. Of course, he had no input from Peers.

One individual who had Peers and Customers in Year 2 had Peers but no Customers in Year 1, so no comparison of Customers’ responses could be made is his case.

Table 5.1Comparison of HIPSYS Results Year 1 and Year 2

Perceptions of: More Positive and/or Less Negative

More Negative and/or Less Positive

No Change

Self (n=64) 51 (80%) 12 (19%) 1 (2%)

Boss (n = 64) 56 (88%) 5 (8%) 3 (5%)

Peers (n = 63) 47 (75%) 9 (14%) 7 (11%)

Subordinates or Customers (n = 63)

49 (78%) 6 (10%) 8 (13%)

The above shows that, whilst there were a few who regressed from the perspectives of some, including themselves, the great majority improved in the twelve month period between the first HIPSYS and the second. Measuring and monitoring through this process helped to keep individuals on track with the organisation’s Code of Values that was considered to be important to its long-term survival.

Similarly, with organisations operating in open systems, there can be variables that have a negative effect on people’s perceptions of the organization that are not always within the organisation’s control. For example, government regulation, industrial problems with suppliers, natural disasters, unforseen breakdowns and sabotage can contribute to a negative HIPSYS in spite of any improvements that may have been made.


64

Chapter Six

More Details on Interpreting HIPSYS Data

Circle Size, Response Values and Cut-Off Points

The size of the circle indicates the strength of the image perspective. That is, those who responded to the relevant questionnaire had a definite opinion one way or the other in that they either agreed or disagreed with the statements made in the questionnaire. If the number of positive responses exceeds the number of negative responses by 25% or more, a plus is recorded. Similarly, if the number of negative responses exceeds the number of positive responses by 25% or more, a minus is recorded.

Each time an overall “Neither Agree nor Disagree” response is recorded, the circle shrinks. Therefore, the smaller the circle, the more overall "Neither" or noncommittal responses were recorded. It is the radius of a Circle that diminishes. For example, if there were ten questions in a particular facet, each overall “Neither” response would diminish the size of the relevant circle by ten percent of its radius. If there were eight questions in the facet, each “Neither” would reduce the radius by one-eighth, and so on.

If all questions in a particular facet had “Neither” responses, there would be no Circle for that particular image perspective. However, the Histogram would show 100% ‘N’, a solid black line, and the Assist display would show the total number of “Neither” responses and the percentage of 100%. (Calculations regarding the placement of Circles are given in Appendix to Chapter 3 of the HIPSYS Methodology Manual.)

“Agree” and “Disagree” responses can be good or bad; that is, positive or negative. These are shown by pluses and minuses inside the image perspective circles. (For a fuller explanation of how symbols are located in a HIPSYS display, see Chapter Eleven.)

In a corporate or personal image (SI.PRO.PER) class of HIPSYS (see Chapter Seven) a minus in a Projected Image circle need not necessarily indicate that one is projecting a bad image with regard to a particular statement in the questionnaire. It may, but depending on how the question is worded, it may mean that one is just failing to project a good one.

Polarized Responses and How to Change the Cut-off Percentages

A “Polarised” response is where at least 30% of respondents agree with a statement and at least 30% disagree, and the difference is less than 25%. A "Polarised" result is indicated by a zero (“0”). In the HIPSYS program, 30% Agree and 30% Disagree is referred to as "Significant" and the difference of 25% as the "Cut-Off".

If a consultant wishes to change these values to different percentages, (say, 40% either side with a difference of at least 20%), it can easily be done.


65

Simply edit the file “Hipsys.ini” found in the default HIPSYS installation folder (normally “C:\Hipsys”) using a text based editor (say “Notepad”) and add the following configuration settings. Note: The following instructions assume you are using Notepad.

Click on File, then Open.

Double click on C:\ and scroll down to "HIPSYS" and click on it.

In the File Name box you will see "*.txt"; delete the "txt" and type in "ini" so that it now reads *.ini.

Click on OPEN.

Now click on HIPSYS and “ini" and OPEN.

Then click on HIPSYS and OPEN.

Scroll down to the end of the last line and place the cursor at the end of the last line by clicking the mouse there. Then press Enter.

Type in "Significant" = 0.4" and Enter.

Type in "Cut Off = 0.2" and Enter.

Click on File then Save then File and Exit.

If you wish to know what the values and cut offs are for the scoring of questions, click on the HIPSYS icon then Help. The on-line Help has all those details available, which you may access by clicking the mouse on the item that is of interest to you.


66

Chapter Seven

Corporate and Personal Image (SI.PRO.PER) Applications of HIPSYS

A Tool to Measure and Monitor Corporate and Personal Image

HIPSYS was originally developed to enable organisations to manage all components of their corporate image within the three image perspectives of the Self Image (SI), the Projected Image (PRO) and the Perceived Image (PER). (See HIPSYS Methodology Manual: A Guide to the Development and Application of HIPSYS.) Hence the name Holistic Image Profiling System, or “HIPSYS”. Then individuals wanted to use it to manage their professional and personal image in the workplace and before long, some chose to rename the three image perspectives to whatever they wanted in order to compare different perspectives on the same issues. E.g., Management, Supervision, Workforce; or, Self, Boss, Colleagues, or, whatever.

Since the creation of HIPSYS, scores of different classes have been developed involving many and varied organisations and thousands of individuals. And many classes have been created on the original framework, which has become known as the SI.PRO.PER framework. (See HIPSYS Methodology Manual, Chapter 26.)

An important attribute of HIPSYS is that it enables users to customise the structure of each class to suit the needs or preferences of the organisation or individual. In some cases in the following examples, the three image perspectives of SELF IMAGE (SI), PROJECTED IMAGE (PRO) and PERCEIVED IMAGE (PER) have no breakdown into component groups, whilst others have up to nine breakdowns.

The process is as follows. A questionnaire (developed according to the procedure shown in Table 1.14 on Page 33) is given to the client, which may be an individual, or many people if it is an organisation's image that is to be examined, to ascertain the Self Image.

More than one day but less than one week later another questionnaire is given to the individual(s) to ascertain what image he/she thinks he/she is actually projecting to others. More than one day later is recommended so that the Projected Image responses are not unduly influenced by the Self Image responses and less than a week later so that each still refers to about the same time frame. (See Chapter Ten.)

In the case of an organisation, a Projected Image questionnaire is given only to those individuals who are actually projecting the image of the organisations to its targets. Not everyone in the organization may do so. For example, a chief engineer responsible for the internal maintenance of a plant, a factory or a mine, may never interface with clients/customers and so is not projecting an image of the organisation to them. He/She should not, therefore, be asked to complete a Projected Image questionnaire. But truck drivers, telephonists, salespeople and certain other members of the workforce and the management team who do interface with clients/customers and so do project an image of the organisation to them, should complete a Projected Image questionnaire. It is important to be


67

selective in deciding who should complete a Projected Image questionnaire so that an accurate assessment of what is being projected can be made.

Finally, questionnaires are given to those who interface with the client (an individual or an organisation, as the case may be) to ascertain how they perceive that client (Perceived Image). They may be the client’s subordinates, the client’s peers, the organisation's customers, or whatever.

The responses to these three types of questionnaire are then input into a computer via HIP Input or input automatically if completed on-line, and the various displays can be viewed.

In a SI.PRO.PER HIPSYS Class the three image perspectives are as follows: -

The Self Image circle appears on the top and is coloured Red.

The Projected Image circle appears on the left and is coloured Yellow.

The Perceived Image circle appears on the right and is coloured Blue.


68

The extent of the overlaps of the circles indicates the degree of congruence between the image perspectives. The more they overlap, the more they have in common (See Figure 7.1.) and the three primary colours (red, yellow and blue) yield colours in the overlapping areas as follows: -

Self Image, also Projected but not Perceived (Area ‘A’ or SI.PRO - red and yellow make), Orange.

Self Image, also Perceived but not Projected (Area ‘B’ or SI.PER - red and blue make) Purple (or Magenta).

Projected Image, also Perceived but not part of the Self Image (Area ‘C’ or PRO.PER - yellow and blue make) Green.

Where all three image perspectives are congruent, this area is shown in White (Area ‘D’ or SI.PRO.PER).

Figure 7.1SI.PRO.PER Application of HIPSYS


69

An Example of a SI.PRO.PER HIPSYS Applied to Individual Managers/ Supervisors

The following example shows how an application of HIPSYS can be used to reinforce managers’ and supervisors’ strengths and highlight areas for their development.

What the Results Show

In this particular class there are ten questions for each facet. Some of the facets included are:

Delegation

Coaching

Problem Solving

Figure 7.2 Profile of Manager A's Delegation Skills

The Self Image has eight pluses and two minuses. Thus, with ten symbols, no "Neither" responses have been recorded and the circle is full size.

The Projected Image circle is also full size with eight pluses and two minuses. However, one of those pluses and one of those minuses is not common to the Self Image.

The Perceived Image circle has eight pluses only and is, therefore, eighty percent of its maximum radial size.


70

SI has one minus.

PRO has one minus.

PER has one plus.

SI.PER has one plus.

SI.PRO has two pluses and one minus.

PRO.PER has one plus.

SI.PRO.PER has five pluses.

Figure 7.3Profile of Manager B's Delegation Skills

All three image perspectives are their maximum size with ten symbols in each of the three circles. Four positive responses are common to all three (SI.PRO.PER).

There is one negative response in the Self Image only (SI), one positive and one negative in the Projected Image only (PRO), and one positive and two negatives in the Perceived Image only (PER).


71

Two positives and one negative are in the area of congruence between the Self Image and the Projected Image but not perceived (SI.PRO). One positive and one negative in the Self Image is perceived but is not part of the subject's Projected Image (SI.PER).

And one positive is in the Projected Image, which is perceived but is not part of the subject's Self Image (PRO.PER).

Figure 7.4Profile of Manager C's Delegation Skills

In this case the Self Image and the Projected Image are entirely congruent (SIPRO, no dot), including three negative responses and seven positive ones. Both circles are, therefore, full size because they each contain ten symbols and in this particular class there are ten questions in this facet.

One of those negative responses is perceived as a positive (PER) by those who have responded to the Perceived Image questionnaire on this particular question.

Six other positive perceptions and one negative one are congruent with the Self Image and the Projected Image (SI.PRO.PER).

With eight symbols in the Perceived Image circle two "Neithers" must have been recorded and the circle is, therefore, 80% of its maximum radius.


72

Figure 7.5Profile of Manager D's Delegation Skills

Here the Self Image is 30% positive (three pluses) and 10% negative (one minus). This means that six "Neither" responses were recorded. There are no symbols in the area shown in Red. This means that none of the responses are in the Self Image only (SI).

The Projected Image is 20% positive (two pluses) and 30% negative (three minuses).

The Perceived Image is 80% positive (eight pluses). As there are no minuses or zeros (that is, Polarised responses), this means that two "Neither" responses were recorded, because there are ten questions in the facet.


73

Figure 7.6Profile of a Manager’s Coaching Skills

The Self Image circle is 70% of its maximum radial size because it contains only seven symbols (ten questions in the facet), five positive responses (pluses) and two negative ones (minuses). Three "Neither" responses must, therefore, have been recorded.

The Projected Image circle is 90% of its maximum radial size because it contains nine symbols, two pluses and seven minuses. One "Neither" response must, therefore, have been recorded because there are ten questions in this facet. The particular question to which this “Neither “ response relates will be found in the Assist display.

The Perceived Image circle is full size because it contains ten symbols; four pluses, five minuses, and one zero. The zero indicates a Polarised response. This means that at least 30% of respondents agreed with a particular question and at least 30% of them disagreed with the same question and the difference between them was less than 25% per cent. (Where the difference is more than 25% the overall responses would swing to "Agree" or "Disagree", whichever is the greater percentage.)

There is one plus in the area of congruence between the Self Image and the Projected Image (SI.PRO) and one in the area of congruence between the Self Image and the Perceived Image (SI.PER).

PRO.PER, the area of congruence between the Projected Image and the Perceived Image but not part of the Self Image, has two minuses, and there is one plus and two minuses in the area in which all three image perspectives are congruent (SI.PRO.PER).


74

Figure 7.7Profile of a Manager’s Problem Solving Skills

In this case the Self Image is 90% of its maximum radial size because it contains nine symbols, and the Projected Image and Perceived Image circles are both full size because they each contain ten symbols.

SI contains two positives. As they are in the SI area only it means they are neither projected nor perceived as positives. In fact, the questions relating to these two positives must be both projected and perceived negatively, because the Projected Image and Perceived Image circles are full size.

PRO has one negative.

PER has one positive.

SI.PRO has one negative.

SI.PER has one positive.

PRO.PER has three negatives.

SI.PRO.PER has four positives and one negative.


75

What Is the “Ideal” Profile?

What constitutes an ideal profile is probably debateable. In many cases, three concentric circles with ten pluses would seem to be ideal. However, in other cases, perhaps something like that shown in Figure 7.8 would be "ideal".

Figure 7.8A Profile that may be "Ideal" in some circumstances

In this profile, Projected Image is entirely congruent with Perceived Image (PROPER) and all positive (ten pluses). This would seem prima facie to be desirable otherwise one is wasting energy and perhaps resources projecting an image that is not being perceived by those at whom the Projected Image is aimed. One negative in the Self Image is neither projected nor perceived, and, in some cases, this may be deemed desirable. It could be argued that it is not always be wise to project one’s shortcomings.

Sometimes it may be decided not to project a positive either. For example, some individuals and organisations do not like to blow their own trumpet about their good deeds. So, whilst it may be shown as a positive in their Self Image, it is not projected and may not be perceived.


76

On the other hand, there may be some facets of image for which this would not be the case and an "ideal" profile may then be complete congruence between all three image perspectives with all responses being positive as shown in Figure 7.9.

Figure 7.9Complete Positive Congruence between All Three Image Perspectives (SIPROPER)

Here there is complete congruence between Self Image, Projected Image and Perceived Image (SIPROPER, no dots) and all ten responses are positive.

However, as we have said, it could be argued in some cases that not all of one's Self Image ought to be projected, especially where it contains some negatives. Some things should, perhaps, be kept private and confidential and therefore not projected and, hopefully, not perceived. For example, a manager with negative attitudes towards a particular company policy perhaps ought not to communicate that to his or her subordinates or customers.

It is often the case that those who ask to have a HIPSYS done on them are the ones who are least in need of it. Some such people have been given almost perfect profiles. However, they have not regarded it as a waste of time. They thought they were on track and said it was reinforcing and encouraging to know that relevant individuals and groups thought so too.


77

An Example of an Organisational Application of a SI.PRO.PER HIPSYS

This next example shows how HIPSYS was used to enable an organisation to manage its corporate image.

Sunstate Sugar produces more than twenty percent of the nation’s raw sugar, employs over 400 permanent employees, about 350 contractors and 600 seasonal employees in the crushing season. It has four sugar mills, a cane supply unit and a corporate office. It is a co-operative owned by over 1,200 sugar cane farmers who own a total of about 1,500 sugar cane farms spread over an area covering three counties and connected by more than 600 kilometres of rail on which run approximately fifty locomotives. Its members’ equity currently totals over $500 million.

For many years it has prided itself on being a world leader in the production and marketing of high quality raw sugar. However, at a recent National Sugar Convention, it was stated that the nation’s sugar industry had slipped from being a world market leader and innovator to being a follower. For four consecutive years the crop size declined due to adverse weather conditions and the price of sugar continued to fall. This combination of factors caused Sunstate Sugar to direct its energies and expenditures on things that will increase crop yield and reduce costs.

It recently suffered from low prices, crop failure, and increasing competition from Brazil. Brazil is increasing its production while reducing its costs. In an attempt to reduce its operating costs, Sunstate Sugar offered voluntary retrenchments to its workforce and about 25% accepted. As often happens in such cases, many of its best people took the offer. Sunstate Sugar now needed to get the best out of its remaining employees whilst simultaneously getting its members to embrace today’s technology.

It developed a web site and e-mail facilities so that members could access important information immediately instead of through a field officer. It also instituted satellite estimating, which is used to estimate the sugar cane crop, schedule harvesting and monitor its progress – a job traditionally carried out by about forty field officers. Although there have been ‘teething troubles’ as experience is gained in interpreting detailed satellite data, once they have been overcome it was anticipated that this hi-tech type of estimating would produce more accurate and fairer estimating for growers. Sunstate Sugar also planned to take advantage of further operational streamlining opportunities through rapidly developing new technologies.

Growers can, if they wish, send their cane to other mills for crushing. It became apparent to Sunstate Sugar that if it is to remain commercially viable and continue improving in the face of changing realities, it must keep in touch with the concerns and perceptions, not just of its employees, but also of the cane growers whom it exists to serve. In other words, if it is to influence the perceptions the growers have of it (Perceived Image), it must manage the Self Image of all its employees and the image its employees project (Projected Image) to the growers.

There were many aspects that concerned both. If the needs of employees and growers were to be met, the attitudes and perceptions of both groups needed to be monitored to see where they were similar and where they may be different. To help it to get these important stakeholders committed to the changes necessary for it to remain viable, the management of


78

Sunstate Sugar felt it needed to survey how its employees felt about a range of issues important to the future of the organisation and compare that with how the growers who are its members perceived those issues. Following the procedure shown in Table 1.14 on page 33, the survey was structured as shown in Table 7.1 below.

Table 7.1Structure of Survey for Sunstate Sugar

Image Perspective Response Groups Comprising

SELF IMAGE Management

Supervision

Workforce

All those with the title Manager, Superintendent, Department Head or Senior.

All those in a supervisory role.

All employees of Sunstate Sugar who are neither Managers nor Supervisors.

PROJECTED IMAGE

Selected employees of Sunstate Sugar

Board

All those who interface with Growers. (Included most Managers, all Field Officers, Locomotive Crews, Navvies, Accountants, Cane Pay Clerks, and Business Services.)

Seven members of the Board of Sunstate Sugar

PERCEIVED IMAGE

Members All who own shares in Sunstate Sugar.

Facets chosen, again following the procedure shown in Table 1.14 on Page 33, were:

Structure Decision-Making Resource Utilisation Leadership Diversification Accountability Communications Organisational Climate

And again, following the procedure shown in Table 1.14 on Page 33, questions were developed to draw out each of the above Facets. Then draft questionnaires for Self Image, Projected Image and Perceived Image were given to the client to amend as required and sign off on.

In accordance with the procedure (see Chapter Ten), questionnaires were administered, data were input (see Chapter Four) and results displayed to and discussed with peer groups of all respondent groups (see Chapter Five).

A full report on the results of the HIPSYS profile, the written comments on the questionnaires and feedback and discussion sessions is given as Case #9 in chapter 15 of the HIPSYS Methodology Manual: A Guide to the Development and Application of HIPSYS.


79

The following HIPSYS multi-facet display shows the degree of positive and negative congruence between the Parent image perspectives SI, PRO and PER:

Figure 7.10Multi-Facet Display of Sunstate Sugar’s SI, PRO and PER

The small Self Image circle in the Organisational Climate and Communications facets is indicative of non-committal responses to many of the questions, as shown by the Neither Agree nor Disagree responses (N) in the Histogram display in Figure 7.11. Polarised responses are indicated by zeros in the Circles displays and by a ‘P’ within a white bar on the Histogram displays.


80

Figure 7.11Histogram Display of Organisational Climate and Communications Facets


81

That there are only two circles in the Accountability facet is due to the Self Image and Perceived Image responses being identical in terms of their positive, negative and non-committal responses to all questions as shown by the Histogram display in Figure 7.12.

Figure 7.12Circle and Histogram Displays of the Accountability Facet


82

A display of the components of an image perspective can produce interesting comparisons. For example, comparing the overall Summary responses of management, supervision and workforce showed a 46% noncommittal response from the workforce, as shown in Figure 7.13.

Figure 7.13A Comparison of the Components of Self Image (management, supervision and

workforce)

When these results are displayed and discussed in peer groups the reasons for them need to be ascertained. In this case the non-committal responses were mainly defensive. In other words, in the light of recent retrenchments and the possibility of more in the offing, the workforce was suspicious about the HIPSYS process and how the results were to be used, and were reluctant to say what they really thought. However, they opened up while discussing the data displays in peer groups with the HIPSYS facilitator.

Another revealing comparison of some of the components of the various image perspectives was that of management (SI) with board (PRO) and the growers (PER) as shown in Figure 7.14.


83

Figure 7.14A Comparison of the Summary Responses of management (SI), board (PRO) and

growers (PER)

The Polarised responses, shown by zeroes, in this overall Summary display, are indicative of split opinions within response groups. The fact that many such responses are not in overlapping areas shows that most of the issues that the three response groups are polarised on are not the same issues. The Assist displays for each facet will show what these issues are for each response group. (See Figure 7.15 below.)


84

Figure 7.15Circles and Assist Display of Decision Making Facet

Showing Distribution of Responses to Question No. 36

Such comparisons can be viewed facet by facet and in any of the several HIPSYS displays available. They allow differences between responses to stand out very visually and, when the specific questions and the responses are revealed (‘Assist’ display) together with other displays, discussion becomes focussed, meaningful and constructive.

Figure 7.16 is another example of an Assist display alongside a Circles display. The Circles show the overall responses to all questions in the Accountability facet and the Assist display shows the raw number and percentage responses of each image perspective (SI, PRO and PER) and its component response groups to each question.


85

Figure 7.16Circles and Assist Displays of Accountability Facet

The scroll bar enables questions and their responses to displayed one at a time, thereby keeping discussion focussed. For the question shown here, specific examples of buck passing would be solicited to validate (or invalidate) the response of each group.

Navigating among responses between facets is a straightforward procedure and often helps with interpretation of results. (See Chapters Five and Six.)

A further explanation of the Holistic Image Profiling System with sixteen case studies in varying degrees of detail is given in the HIPSYS Methodology Manual. It also provides information on scores of HIPSYS classes, including those referred to in this Handbook.

Sample reports in various formats are also provided in the HIPSYS Methodology Manual as a guide on how to get the best out of HIPSYS for your clients.


86

Chapter Eight

Wording of Questionnaires

You will need to ensure that statements in the questionnaires you develop are not ambiguous or double-barrelled, otherwise it may be difficult to interpret the results. Having said that, however, it is usually not a serious problem because, when the groups get together to discuss their responses, they will usually clarify how they interpreted the questions. (See Chapter Five.)

In the HIP Edit program, negative statements/questions are indicated by a cross in the negative box. (See Negative Questions/Statements on Page 42.) In the Assist display mode an “N” alongside the question number indicates that the question/statement is negative. Negative questions are not indicated in the questionnaires that go out to respondents.

In wording questions where the three image perspectives are Self Image, Projected Image and Perceived Image, care needs to be taken to ensure that the wording will reflect the particular image perspective. For example: -

Self Image is what you think about yourself:

"I know what is expected of me as a member of the team."

Projected Image is your behaviour, or what you believe you do or have done: -

"I have asked my fellow team-members what they expect of me as a member of the team."

Perceived Image is your actual impact, or what others think of you: -

"I believe he/she knows what his/her fellow team-members expect of him/her as a member of the team."

If questions have been written in HIP Edit using the %SEX(He,She)% format (see Chapter Three, page 41 and pages 89 – 90 of this chapter and Chapter Nine), then questionnaires can be printed out in the masculine or feminine genders, or generic as those shown immediately above, or personalised by name as required. (See Printing Questionnaires in Chapter Three.)

Another example would be: -

Self Image : "I am a patient person."

Projected Image : "In most trying situations I have displayed patience."

Perceived Image : "He/She is a patient person."


87

And another: -

Self Image : "I do not feel it is my subordinates' place to criticise me."

Projected Image : "I have told my subordinates I do not feel it is their place to criticise me."

Perceived Image : “He/She does not feel it is his/her subordinates' place to criticise him/her."

An example of wording in the case of an organization is:

Self : “As an organization, we care about the environment.”

Projected : “We have adequate controls in place to ensure that ourproduction activities do not adversely affect the environment.”

Perceived : “I believe %COMP% cares about the environment.”

In other applications it may be necessary to write first image perspective statements in the first person and second and third image perspectives in the third person; for example:

Self : “I have no trouble making unpopular decisions.”

Boss : “He/She has no trouble making unpopular decisions.”

Subordinates : “He/She has no trouble making unpopular decisions.”


88

Chapter Nine

Creating Base HIPSYS Classes

Creating a base HIPSYS survey Class with customised names for an individual or an organisation means that you don't have to keep replacing the words contained within "% %" marks. (See following paragraphs.) The names you want to substitute will be preserved in the base HIPSYS survey Class.

So, a base survey Class is a particular application of a HIPSYS Class in which the client’s name can appear. A base Class is created whenever you select either File and Create Survey File or whenever you select File and Print Questionnaire from within HIP Edit.

Note: When you want to print a customised questionnaire by name or gender or for any other substitute word, select the "Print Questionnaire” option.

A base survey file is a file that HIP Input and HIPSYS can use later.

Notice how some of the question wordings in the previous examples used the text fragment "%COMP%". This fragment has special meaning to HIPSYS. In fact, all words surrounded by "%" signs have special meaning. These words are substituted with user-selected values when printed, such as the name of the particular organisation or person.

When you create a base survey Class, the user assigns all the words to be substituted. The substitutions are recorded in the survey file for later use. These words personalise the survey.

One special word to remember when designing classes of survey is the "%SEX(male,female,generic)%" expression. This special expression allows you to personalise questions with gender statements. The "generic" portion of this special word is optional and if omitted will generate "male/female" when the generic option is requested. An example of the use of the gender selection follows: -

"%SEX(He,She)% is proud of %SEX(his,her)% achievements."

If the gender selected for the questionnaire were male, then the above, after expansion, would read: -

"He is proud of his achievements";

Whereas if the gender selected were female, it would read: -

"She is proud of her achievements".


89

Alternatively, the generic option may be selected, in which case the question would read: -

"He/She is proud of his/her achievements".

When you have selected either Create Survey or Print Survey from the File menu, you will be prompted to specify the values for all substitute words contained in the survey class and to specify the gender of the target if required.


90

Chapter Ten

Administration of Questionnaires

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.


91

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.


92

Chapter Eleven

Displays of HIPSYS Data

HIPSYS profiles can be printed out in a number of different forms. The Circles, Histogram and Assist displays have already been explained and are included in the Print Special option. (See Chapters Five and Eleven.) However, a further explanation of them will probably not go astray.

CIRCLES, SYMBOLS AND CULTURE

The size of a circle indicates the extent to which respondents have definite opinions, that is, "Agree" or "Disagree", and including “Polarised” responses. The smaller the circle, the more "Neither Agree nor Disagree" overall responses were given.

Pluses indicate desirable responses, minuses indicate undesirable responses. In the standard field-tested HIPSYS classes, the statements in the questionnaires are given pluses or minuses when the following criteria are in harmony: -

1. What the literature for the past thirty-odd years generally claims is good practice (for managers, salespeople, organisations, and so on, as the case may be).

2. The experience of those qualified and experienced consultants who have been involved in field-testing the questionnaires.

3. The feedback from the clients who have undergone HIPSYS.

4. The requisite culture of the organization.

Pluses and Minuses and Organisational Culture

But remember, you can change the questions and make them positive or negative as you see fit. For example, the following question/statement may be given a plus in one environment but a minus in another:

“I hold my subordinates accountable only for their own work.”

In some organizations, if a manager were to agree with this statement, teamwork would be the first casualty, so you may want an “Agree” response to yield a minus. If so, with this question, you would click on the “Negative Statement” box in HIP Edit, Edit Questions so that a cross appears in it. An “Agree” response would then yield a minus.

Real teamwork can mean neglecting one’s own work in order to help out in another department when one can do so legally, competently and safely and it is in the best interests of the organization as a whole that one does so.


93

So, maybe the Dragline Supervisor should lend the Coaling Supervisor his bulldozer when floods have washed out the haul road and he can’t get coal to the crusher. What if the dozer is suddenly needed to move a spoil heap slip near the dragline? Hey, sometimes that will happen. If it does, pat him on the back for his helpful attitude. Nine times out of ten it will be the right thing to do by the organisation. We don’t want fear of accountability for one’s own job to create a lack of co-operation within the organization.

Maybe the Workshop Supervisor should lend his fitters to the Dragline Supervisor when that one hundred million dollar machine is down and the field fitters need some help to get it going again. Then what if an emergency repair comes into the Workshop and the fitters are several kilometers down the mining lease working on the dragline? Give the Workshop Supervisor a pat on the back because nine times out of ten his co-operation will have worked out best for the mine as a whole. Learn to live with the odd occasion when it may backfire on him.

We don’t want to hear the “Not my job” syndrome. If, at a bulk handling terminal, a clerk, a storeman, or an electrician sees a big chunk of metal going up the conveyor belt to the ship loader, they should hit the button and stop the belt. A rip in a conveyor belt can be very costly. If it turns out to be a bit of cardboard blackened by coal dust and he/she thought it may have been metal, don’t ever tell them they shouldn’t have done it because it wasn’t their job. Pat them on the back.

This kind of attitude creates good inter-departmental teamwork - and that is what many organizations neglect. Their teamwork within departments may be good, but between departments it could often be a lot better. Get rid of the “work to rule” mindset by holding people accountable for taking initiatives when they were in a position to do so. Their job description will outline their prescribed activities; their discretionary activities are probably not in there but perhaps they should be held accountable for them anyway. The rule should be, “If you can do it legally, competently and safely and it is in the best interests of the organization that you do it, be prepared to explain why you didn’t.”

But it depends what kind of organisational culture your client wants to create or maintain. You see, in other organizations, you may want agreement with this question/statement to yield a minus. In assembly lines (or disassembly lines in the case of abattoirs) and some processing line jobs, you may want people to stick to the letter of their job descriptions only and not take any initiatives outside it. In which case, with this question, you would NOT click on the “Negative Statement” box in HIP Edit, Edit Questions so that NO cross appears in it. An “Agree” response would then yield a plus and a “Disagree” would yield a minus.

Zeros indicate that respondents have definite opinions but they are polarised. At least 30% agree and at least 30% disagree with the same statement, and the difference between them is less than 25%, showing responses that are firm, but polarised.


94

Figure 11.1Circles Display with Symbols

SQUARES

Most HIPSYS Users like the three intersecting circles as a method of graphically displaying a lot of complex data in a simple, highly visual and easy-to-understand form. However, the same data can be displayed as squares if preferred.

Simply click the mouse of the Display menu item and select Squares.

The HIPSYS program actually draws profiles in squares initially, and then adapts them to circles. However, where there is a very small overlap in the squares, drawing the curves to convert them to circles can cut the corners in a manner that eliminates a very small overlap. In such cases you may see symbols (i.e., pluses, minuses and zeros) shown outside the circles with a line pointing to where they would be located if the circles had overlapped. You may prefer to display such profiles as Squares.

Squares are a more accurate representation of the actual profiles but most find Circles more aesthetically appealing. The Squares option allows you to choose for yourself.


95

Figure 11.2Squares Display with Symbols

When dealing with Circles and Squares, responses to image perspectives are compared and aggregated into positive, negative, polarised and neither categories. For example, if we assume all statements in a questionnaire are positive, then: -

If SI = 'A', PRO = 'A' and PER = 'D', then SI.PRO = '+' and PER = '-'.If SI = 'D', PRO = 'P' and PER = 'D', then SI.PER = '-' and PRO = '0'.If SI = 'A', PRO = 'P' and PER = 'D', then SI = '+', PRO = '0' and PER = '-'.If SI = 'A', PRO = 'P' and PER = 'N', then SI = '+' and PRO = '0' and PER shrinks.

Note: PRO = 'P' would only occur in an application where there is more than one respondent to the Projected Image questionnaire.

Note: 'N' means response is "Neither Agree nor Disagree" (i.e., "Don't Know" or “Not Applicable”) and 'P' means responses were definite but polarised.

Note: 'N' responses shrink the size of the Circles and Squares.

(See also HIPSYS Methodology Manual.)


96

Also under the "Display" button are the following: -

HISTOGRAMS

The displays in histogram form show the percentage of Agrees, Disagrees, Neither Agree nor Disagrees, and Polarised responses for each facet and each image perspective.

Figure 11.3Histogram Display

Note: Polarised responses count as half Agree and half Disagree. In the above example the 10% polarised response to the Perceived Image is shown (and counted) as 5% on each side.


97

ASSIST

The Assist mode displays all the Self Image questions for each facet, the Self Image, Projected Image and Perceived Image responses (or whatever the three image perspectives may be called) and the percentages of Agree, Disagree and Neither Agree nor Disagree.

Figure 11.4Assist Display


98

Where appropriate, the percentage responses of component groups are also given where image perspectives have been broken down, as shown in the Self Image in Figure 11.5 below where the component groups for the SELF IMAGE Parent image perspective (SI) are Managers (Man), Supervisors (Sup) and Operators (Oper). In this case the responses have been weighted so that each component group has an equal impact on the aggregate image perspective. Weightings, however, are optional. (See page 39 in Chapter Three.)

Figure 11.5Assist Display

with SI Component Groups Weighted by 15, 5 and 1 Respectively(Man 5x15=75, Sup 15x5=75 and Oper 75x1=75. Total: 75+75+75=225)

(See also HIPSYS Methodology Manual.)

How to Change Font Size

Note: Where there is a large number of component groups of image perspectives, say, six or more, you may need to reduce the size of the font so that all the image perspectives and their breakdowns into component groups are shown on the screen with their relevant questions. To do this, click on Windows, then on Default if you wish to change the font size on all displays, or on Select Font if you wish to change the font size only on the display you have highlighted. Then click on the Font, the Font Style and the Size you want and OK.


99

TEXT REPORTS

This is a table showing the extent of response type for each Image Perspective response. For example: -

If SI = 'A', PRO = "A" and PER = 'N', then

SI = 'A',PRO = 'A'PER = "N"SI.PRO = 'A'SI.PER = 'HA'PRO.PER = 'HASI.PRO.PER = 'HA'.

If SI = 'A', PRO = "N" and PER = 'D', then

SI = 'A'PRO = 'N'PER = 'D'SI.PRO = 'HA'SI.PER = 'P'PRO.PER = 'HD'SI.PRO.PER = 'P'.

Response Calculations

The final score for each response type is worked out using the following calculation:-

Add 0 for each result of "Neither Agree nor Disagree".

Add 3 for each result of "Agree" (or “Disagree” where the statement is negative).

Add 1 for each result of "Half Agree" (or “Half Disagree” where the statement is negative).

Add -2 for each result of "Polarised".

Add -1 for each result of "Half Disagree" (or “Half Agree” where the statement is negative).

Add -3 for each result of "Disagree"(or “Agree” where the statement is negative).


100

Figure 11.6Text Report on a Facet with Ten Question

(Maximum Positive Score is 10 x 3 = 30 and Maximum Negative Score is 10 x -3 = -30)

CONGRUENCE REPORTS

A Congruence Report is a table showing the number of "Agrees" (includes “Disagrees” where the statements are negative), "Disagrees" (includes “Agrees” where the statements are negative) and "Polarised" responses in each HIP component. This format is seldom used as the information is better displayed in the Circles with symbols.

Figure 11.7 Congruence Report


101

Quantitative Summary

VIEWING COMPONENT GROUPS OF IMAGE PERSPECTIVES

If you have broken down image perspectives into component groups (see Adapting an Existing HIPSYS Class in Chapter Three), then as well as viewing the data as above you have other very useful options.

Open the sunsugar example in HIPSYS. The Summary Circle will display automatically. Now click on Facet and Lead. In this example, the Self Image of an organization has been broken down into the Self Image Management has of it, the Self Image Supervision has of it and the Self Image Workforce has of it, you can now display the data as follows: -

Strike Window and New.

Then do that again and again so that you have four Circles Displays in cascade form.

Then strike Window and Tile. You will now see four identical windows of a Circle Display of the Leadership facet on the screen.

Now click on the top right hand window, then on Options and Select Perspectives. You will see the dialogue box in Figure 11.8 below.

Figure 11.8Dialogue Box Showing Selection of Three Parent Image Perspectives (in upper case)

for Display

Click off the cross in the SI box and click on mgt and OK. In the top right hand window, the red circle will now show the Self Image of the Managers only.

Now repeat that procedure for your bottom left hand window, only this time in the dialogue box click off the cross in SI and click on supv. In the bottom left hand window the red circle will now display the Self Image of the Supervisors.


102

Finally, click on the bottom right hand window and repeat the procedure this time clicking off SI and clicking on wkfce. In that window the red circle will now display the Self Image of the Workforce in the Select Perspectives box.

So you know which is which, click on Options and All Legends On and the legends will appear in each window to remind you what the Circle Displays represent. If you now click on Options and All PlusMinus On, your display will now look like Figure 11.9 below. The windows show how each of those three component groups of Self Image compares with the Projected Image and the Perceived Image. You can often make some pretty revealing and useful comparisons this way. For example, the Workforce’s noncommittal responses to questions on leadership are revealed by the small size of the red circle in the bottom right window.

Figure 11.9Circles Displays of Aggregate Self Image and Its Component Groups (Red Circles)

Compared with Projected Image and Perceived Image on Leadership Facet

You can navigate back and forth between the facets whilst maintaining these displays by striking "Shift +" to advance through the facets or "-" to go back through them.

You may also strike Facet and select a facet to be displayed in any window that you have highlighted by clicking on it first.


103

You can also examine the three components of Self Image in one integrated display. Close down the three windows on the top right, bottom left and bottom right. Click on the remaining (top left) window and go to full screen. Then click on Options and Select Perspectives. This time click off the crosses in SI and PRO and PER and click on mgt and supv and wkfce. The dialogue box will look like Figure 11.10 below.

Figure 11.10Window Showing Selection of Three Component Groups for Display

Click on OK and your display will now look like Figure 11.11 below.


104

Figure 11.11Circles Display of Leadership Facet Comparing Components of Self Image

i.e. management, supervision and workforce.

You can now see at a glance the degrees of congruence between those three levels in the organization regarding their perceptions of the facet Leadership.

See below for instructions on how to print out such data.

(Further examples are given in the HIPSYS Methodology Manual.)


105

PRINTING DATA

There are three methods of printing a HIPSYS profile. All printing is done to the default printer.

1 By Selected Window

This method allows you to select with the mouse, which windows will print.

Note: Each window has a print attribute that may be "On" or "Off" and can be viewed by selecting the window and then selecting Options. This sub-menu will indicate the current print status of the window. A window has the print attribute "On" if there is a check mark next to "Will Print".

When all required windows have been selected, you may print them all by selecting the Print Windows option of the File menu in HIPSYS. Then all selected windows (i.e., those with the print attribute "On") will print the current contents using the same method as seen on the screen. Each print is fitted on the current page if possible and printed on the next page if necessary.

Note: Some display methods display somewhat differently on the printer than on the screen.

Figure 11.12Select Window Print Option


106

2. Through Selected Windows

This method is similar to printing selected windows. The main difference is that the windows selected for "Print Through" will print every facet and the summary in the current display format.

After selecting the windows to print through, select the Print Through option from the File menu in HIPSYS. The entire print for each window is performed to completion before the next one is started.

3. By Special Arrangement

This method, which most people find to be the most useful, will prompt you for the profiles you wish to print and then for the facets you wish to print. Each selected facet for each selected profile or survey will then be printed in the special format of one Circle Display with plus, minus and zero symbols, one Histogram Display and one Assist Display.

The layout places the Circle Display in the top left, the Histogram Display in the top right and the Assist Display filling the rest of the page (see Figure 11.13) and spanning other pages as needed.

To get this, click on File and Print Special, then select the facets you want (it will default to "All On"), and "OK".

Note: When there is only one survey loaded you will not be prompted for the survey selection.


107

Figure 11.13Print Special Print Option

Printing Out Components Group Displays of Image Perspectives

Components of image perspectives, such as those show in Figures 11.9 and 11.11, can be printed out through Word for Windows or some similar word processing software package.

When you are in HIPSYS and have on the screen the display you want to print out (such as that shown in Figure 11.11), strike Alt and Print Screen together.

Then strike Alt and Tab together to get to Program Manager.

Then open Word for Windows and open a new document.

Then strike Edit then Paste Special.

In the next dialogue box that appears, strike Paste Special or Device Independent Bitmap and the screen display you had in HIPSYS will be reproduced in your document.

You may then add any text you wish such as headings or notes to explain the HIPSYS profiles.

Then go to File and Print.

(See HIPSYS Methodology Manual for further examples.)


108

Printing Out Other Combinations of HIPSYS Data

Other combinations of HIPSYS data can be printed out by following the procedure just described.


109

Chapter Twelve

Questions Regarding Validity and Reliability

One of the first consultants to field-test HIPSYS was Dr. Peter Hubbard. Peter is an aeronautical engineer, a test pilot and a psychologist with two PhDs. After his first HIPSYS assignment, which proved to be very successful, he said to me concerning HIPSYS, “Whatever you do, keep it away from psychologists. They won’t know how to use it.”

Over the years I learned that, in some cases, he had a point. Those who are used to using various instruments in personal development, team building, organisational development, psychological testing, et cetera, sometimes have a tendency to initially regard HIPSYS as just another instrument rather than as a tool supported by a consulting methodology. Consequently the first question they ask is, "What are its measures of validity and reliability?" Because every instrument must have measures of reliability and validity. Right? Yes, if it is an instrument. But once HIPSYS is understood as a tool supported by a methodology, it can be seen that the question is irrelevant.

You may not be convinced so let’s explain.

Validity

"Validity" means "Does it measure what it is supposed to measure?"

HIPSYS does not apply labels to people or organizations. It does not use clinical terms such as Manic, Epileptoid or Hysteroid; nor does it describe people in terms of their tendencies such as Intuitive or Sensate, nor their leadership style such as Developer, Executive or Bureaucrat.

It produces various displays including circles with pluses and minuses and zeros that represent what people have said. But HIPSYS deals with perceptions, which may not necessarily be facts. Perceptions can be false, based on invalid assumptions, misinformation or prejudice.

The value of HIPSYS is that it provides a visual and graphic aid to discussing specific issues and refers people back to each of the questions and the responses to them. When they are asked to give specific cases or examples to support or justify these responses, that is what validates or invalidates the profiles. The following cases may serve to illustrate: -

Case One: A Management Application

The senior management of a mining company appointed a Liaison Committee to restructure the pay and conditions of its front-line supervisors. Overtime was to be eliminated and all supervisors were to be given a salary package that would include somewhat more than the average amount of overtime earned. They were also to be called “Team Leaders” rather than “Foremen” as a step towards creating a more team oriented culture.


110

As an indication of management's willingness to be open, the Foremen were asked to select two of their number to sit in on the committee's discussions and observe. However, their function was purely liaison, they had no authority to vote and the decision to eliminate overtime was not negotiable.

When the decision was implemented and the new package put in place, a few Foremen who had consistently chosen to work more overtime than the others claimed they had lost over $30,000 per year with the new package. It was true that the new package limited the capacity to earn through overtime but most Foremen were financially better off and had to work no more hours than they had previously done to gain that benefit.

Nevertheless, a few disgruntled individuals made their dissatisfactions known to their colleagues at every opportunity. They blamed the two representatives on the Liaison Committee for crawling to management and not standing up for the rights and interests of the Foremen. This back-biting and malicious gossip persisted for a few months prior to their all doing a HIPSYS on one another.

The two Foremen who were on the Liaison Committee received very negative Perceived Images which, to the external consultant who had known them for several years, seemed, at least in one case, not to be valid. Indeed, he seemed to be a particularly conscientious and competent Foreman/Team Leader.

In facilitating the one-to-one feedback with each Team Leader, it transpired that there were some who were quite positive about the company and their new package and some who were very bitter and resentful. The majority were in the middle and could be easily swayed by whoever was the most vocal. In this case the negatives had the bigger following.

When it came to discussing the results of the profiles in groups, with the profiles (Circles and Histograms), the questions and their responses (Assist display) displayed on a large screen, they were asked to give specific examples to show why a particular Team Leader was a bad delegator, or not good at problem solving, or could not be trusted. Some had based their responses on what they had heard from others. Some were angry with them for having "sold out to management" and this had influenced their responses. When it was explained to them that their two representatives had no decision-making authority on that committee, not even the power to recommend, and the decision to eliminate overtime had been a fait accompli and not negotiable, some of them said they didn't know that. Others said they had been told but didn't believe it when the disgruntled ones told them not to.

As the discussion continued some men got up, walked over to the two who had been on the Liaison Committee, apologised to them and shook hands. The profile had not been valid, but the methodology enabled the issues to come out. Misperceptions were corrected and a healing of relationships took place. It also thereafter robbed the disgruntled ones of their hitherto receptive audience.


111

Case Two: A Personal (i.e., Non-management) Application

This application was conducted for the Commercial Services Department of a large bauxite mining company. It was applied to a General Manager and six Managers. Although all seven participants were in a management role, they decided to do a HIPSYS so they could look, not at their management skills, but rather at their inter-personal skills in working together as a departmental team. All were graduates in accounting, economics or commerce. Six were located in the Head Office based in the state's capital city and one was based at the mine site in a remote location hundreds of kilometres from Head Office. They had the latest in computer and telecommunications technology including video conferencing via a communications satellite.

The usual methodology was followed with each individual first having his or her HIPSYS profile discussed in detail with an external consultant. Often little clues can be picked up at this stage which tell the consultant what issues need to be drawn out in the group session. One individual, the manager based at the mine site, had, on many issues, two responses in the Perceived Image that were opposite to everyone else's. With four giving a positive response and two giving a negative one, an issue would show a plus overall in the Perceived Image circle.

In the group discussion it transpired that the negative responses were from the same two individuals. They were the two who, unlike the remaining four, dealt with this manager every day. They had to work particularly closely with him whereas the others did not have much to do with him at all. The two depended on this manager's output to do their jobs whereas the others did not. The manager at the mine site placed demands on these two Head Office managers that he did not have to place on any of the others.

Whose perceptions were valid in this case? It could be argued that the two who had the most to do with the site-based manager had the more valid perceptions but, although all questions and all responses to them are shown in the Assist display, the HIPSYS profile did not reflect that in the Circles which showed many pluses. It could also be argued that both perceptions are valid; after all, they are perceptions.

Here again, it is the methodology that is of benefit. When HIPSYS is used with an appropriate methodology, it validates or invalidates a profile as the case may be. The profile itself is not as important as how it is used to unearth and address the underlying issues, some of which may not have been addressed in the questionnaire.

Questions of validity that are applied to an instrument with a label are, therefore, not relevant when applied to a survey methodology such as HIPSYS.

Polarised Responses and the Validity Issue

A Polarised response is shown in the Circles as a zero. This means that at least 30% of the respondents agreed with a statement and at least 30% disagreed with the same statement and the difference between them is less than 25%. (These percentages can be changed if required. See Chapter Six.) Which response would be the more valid?

Even though they are opposite responses, both may be equally valid in that they are reflecting the experience or opinion of the responder with regard to the particular client.


112

The HIPSYS methodology, in the hands of a competent facilitator or consultant, draws out the reasons for these different perceptions and may well in some cases validate both of them. Again, it is the methodology that validates or invalidates the data. The data itself are merely a vehicle by which to facilitate an unearthing and a discussion of the real issues.

Reliability

"Reliability" means "If you did the same questionnaire again, would you get the same result?" With HIPSYS the answer would in almost all cases be "No". Or even, “I sure hope not!”

The HIPSYS methodology should invariably lead to some form of development or action plan aimed at changing and improving the behaviour and performance of individuals, groups and organisations. So, here again, questions of reliability that are applied to instruments with a label are not relevant when applied to a methodology such as HIPSYS. And HIPSYS ought not to be used simply as an instrument that produces a profile.

Furthermore, a questionnaire to ascertain how an organization’s workforce perceives it during a time of massive retrenchments will likely yield very different responses than if the same questionnaire were given out at a time of assured job security.

One psychologist once said he didn’t like the way a particular question in a HIPSYS class was worded and he was told, “Then change it.” He was flabbergasted. After all, you wouldn’t do that with the Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the FIRO-B. But there are other psychologists, like Peter, who are good consultants as well as good psychologists and can use HIPSYS as a very visual and effective survey feedback tool.

Use of HIPSYS

If you want something off-the-shelf that will just give you a profile or a Print Special report, then use one of the field-tested classes and HIPSYS will give you that.

But to derive the full benefits of HIPSYS for your client you have to select, adapt or create an appropriate class (structure, facets and questionnaires) that will address the issues and needs you have identified with your client in the diagnostic phase of your consulting assignment. (See Chapter Three.) You then have to assist your client, face-to-face individually or in peer groups as appropriate, to interpret the data realistically. This may mean helping the client to unearth and confront some touchy issues. You then work with the client to develop strategies and Action Plans for improvement and follow up. (See Table 1.14 on page 33 and Chapter Five.)

The foregoing examples show that HIPSYS will not make you a good consultant. But, if you are a good consultant, then in your hands it can be a powerful, useful and valuable tool that will give benefits to your client and enhance your professional image.


113

Chapter Thirteen

Downstream Activities for Consultants

HIPSYS As A Tool in An Integrated Approach to Organizational Development

HIPSYS can help you create an integrated approach to an organization’s development. For example, an organizational application (such as bmpiYr1, bmpiYr2, sunsugar, hip-ip and hip-ip2 on our website and from which you may adapt your own and call it, say, OrgYr1) may show that there are some weaknesses in quality and service so a QualServ class could be created to address those issues specifically. (If you want a template one - just ask us for it.)

It may transpire from the QualServ that there are some weaknesses in the managerial area and so a management class (eg, mgt-12 adapted and renamed if necessary) can help address those. It can not only highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each individual manager, but also show them what they must do to improve. Such an application of HIPSYS can also show something of the management culture of the organization and help to build better teamwork within the management team as well as improve the teamwork within each individual manager's own team.

The mgt-12 may indicate that there are particular problems with some individuals' effectiveness in their roles or their attitudes to teamwork issues, so a HIPSYS class that looks at interpersonal skills and work standards of those providing professional services, could be applied to address those. Or it may be that the problems are in the area of values where the values of some individuals seem to conflict with those of the organization so a CodeVal class, adapted and renamed as required, may be appropriate.

Templates of the mgt-12 and CodeVal classes may be downloaded from our website at:

www.hipsys.com

Others can be made available by contacting:

[email protected]

or by telephoning David J. Christie on +61 7 3341 7819.

So one HIPSYS application may lead to another – and that can happen in any order. This provides a uniform and integrated approach to the many inter-related needs of an organization as illustrated in Figure 13.1.


114



Figure 13.1Some Examples of How HIPSYS Can Be Used

As an Organisational Development Tool.

People soon become familiar with the basic HIPSYS concept and using the one tool with appropriate methodologies for all of an organization's development requirements provides an integrated approach. It also enables organisations to correlate results across departments and functions.

For examples of organizational, team and individual applications of HIPSYS, see HIPSYS Methodology Manual – A Guide to the Development and Application of HIPSYS . The Contents of this Manual are shown in the Appendix to this chapter and extra copies of the Manual (475 pages) are available by contacting:

[email protected]

or by telephoning David J. Christie on +61 7 3341 7819.


115

Qualserv

Mgt-12

Pers Sales

CodeVal

OrgYr1


Using HIPSYS to Develop Teamwork between Departments

One of the strengths of HIPSYS is the way it can be used to develop better teamwork and co-operation between departments. Developing better teamwork within a department is usually a lot easier than developing it between departments across an organization, or even between a branch or a mine site and its head office. This is where HIPSYS can be a great help.

For example, a department may have an organizational application conducted on it to see how other departments in the organisation perceive it. After examining its results amongst its own members, it can invite representatives of the departments who contributed to the Perceived Image to join them to review the results together and with a HIPSYS Facilitator or Consultant. These representatives can then give the client department reasons for the responses displayed on the screen, supporting them with specific examples. They may also help the client department with the development of an Action Plan for improvement.

The client department may be able to clarify its role within the organisation in cases where there may be some misperceptions or unrealistic expectations on the part of those whom it services or otherwise has a functional interface with. Each will have the opportunity to better understand the other's needs and problems and negotiate mutually satisfactory solutions to improve the overall effectiveness of the organisation.

Other departments usually appreciate being involved and consulted in this way as mutual co-operation is in everyone's best interests. HIPSYS gives such discussions specific focus and facilitates a rational discussion of visual data. It also enables before and after comparisons to be made as a means of measuring continuous improvements in many areas, including some, such as attitudes, teamwork, communications, et cetera, which, although very important, can be difficult to measure.

For examples of such applications of HIPSYS, see HIPSYS Methodology Manual.

HIPSYS can also be used as a Training Needs Analysis tool. Conversely, HIPSYS assignments are often appropriate in response to what a TNA has revealed. Sometimes it is more effective for a neutral consultant to discuss a client’s strengths and weaknesses one-to-one and help them to develop strategies for improvement rather than to send them on a training course.

Nevertheless, HIPSYS has been successfully used to highlight training needs in individuals as well as teams and to help organizations to develop more effective strategies to achieve their goals and objectives. It can then be used again to monitor and measure their progress.

Conclusion

The HIPSYS program customised to the clients’ particular needs and culture, and with an appropriate methodology gives people at all levels ownership of the process. It enables issues to be identified, unearthed and managed. It provides a focus for action against which progress can be monitored and measured. Used in this way it can help both client and consultant to achieve their best aspirations.


116

Appendix to Chapter Thirteen

The HIPSYS Methodology Manual - A Guide to the Development and Application of HIPSYS

Available from:

David J Christie 19 Kingsley StreetRochedale SouthQueensland Australia 4123

Telephone : + 61 7 3341 7819

E-mail : [email protected]

The HIPSYS Methodology Manual (475 pages) explains why and how HIPSYS was originally created to help organisations to manage their corporate image. It then explains how many other classes and applications were developed and provides case studies to show how it has been used in a wide variety of organisations.

To meet the requirements of various HIPSYS users, these case studies vary from simple narratives of the process and a summary of the results to detailed and complex analyses of HIPSYS data and consequent action plans.

Together with proper mentoring and coaching the HIPSYS Methodology Manual can be very useful in the training and development of trainee consultants.


117

Contents of the HIPSYS Methodology Manual: A guide to the development and

application of HIPSYS

Chapter No. Chapter Title Page Nos.

PART ONE: THE NEED TO CREATE HIPSYS 1 – 87

Chapter 1 Background to the Development of HIPSYS 2 - 4Chapter 2 A Review of the Literature on Corporate Image 5 - 43Chapter 3. A Definition of Corporate Image and A Model for Its

Management44 - 87

PART TWO: BACKGROUND TO THE CREATION OF HIPSYS 88 – 161

Chapter 4 Narrative Corporate Image Cases Leading to the Creation of HIPSYS

89 - 91

Chapter 5 Case #1: Aluminium Extrusions 92 – 105Chapter 6 Case #2: Gamma Terminal, Intercon Oil Limited 106 - 120Chapter 7 Case #3: Cattle King Abattoirs Inc. 121 – 135Chapter 8 Case #4: Homestate Cement Company 136 – 151Chapter 9 Findings from the Four Narrative Cases 152 - 161

PART THREE: CORPORATE IMAGE APPLICATIONS OF HIPSYS 162 – 302

Chapter 10 The Application of HIPSYS to Identify and Manage Corporate Image

163 – 166

Chapter 11 Case #5: Metropolitan Mission 167 – 199Chapter 12 Case #6: Site Services Department (Mining) 200 – 215Chapter 13 Case #7: Professional Association 1 and 2: ‘Before and

After’ Comparison216 – 226

Chapter 14 Case #8: Kingsley University Campus 227 - 251Chapter 15 Case #9: Sunstate Sugar 252 - 302

PART FOUR: 360 ORGANISATIONAL REVIEWS USING HIPSYS 303 – 334

Chapter 16 Naming the Image Perspectives 304Chapter 17 Case #10: Chifley Child Care Centre 305 – 309Chapter 18 Case # 11: Base Metals Processing Inc. Year 1 and

Year 2: ‘Before and After’ Comparison310 - 334


118

PART FIVE: HIPSYS FOR INDIVIDUALS - PERSONAL IMAGE STRUCTURE AND 360 FEEDBACK STRUCTURE 335 – 442

Chapter 19 HIPSYS Applied to Individuals 336 – 337Chapter 20 Case #12: Personal Image Structure of HIPSYS for

‘Manager A’ and Report with Suggested Action Points

338 – 371

Chapter 21 Case #13: 360 Feedback Structure of HIPSYS for ‘Manager B’ with Report and Action Points for Year 1 and Year 2: ‘Before and After’ Comparison

372 – 409

Chapter 22 Case #14: Personal Image Structure of HIPSYS for Non-Managers with Report and Suggested Action Points

410 - 442

PART SIX: TEAM BUILDING USING HIPSYS 443 – 460

Chapter 23 Personal Image and 360 Feedback HIPSYS Structures in Team Building

444

Chapter 24 Case #15: Personal Image HIPSYS Structure in Team Building

445 – 452

Chapter 25 Case #16: 360 Feedback HIPSYS Structure in Team Building

453 - 460

PART SEVEN: AVAILABILITY OF HIPSYS CLASSES 461 – 475

Chapter 26 Some Other HIPSYS Classes 462 – 473Chapter 27 HIPSYS Repository 474 - 475

* * * * * * *


119

hipsys · web viewles randell, mie aust, mimeasc, for his appreciation of the potential of...

Documents