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Designing and Conducting Custom Research Projects

Center Focus International can develop and execute a custom-designed reliably sampled research project to identify and measure any aspect of organizational change and diversity.

The following list is a small sample of the companies that we have had the pleasure of doing business with:

BankBoston Wholesale Bank
Central Intelligence Agency
Hale and Dorr Law Firm
John Hancock Financial
Massachusetts General Hospital

Conducting an Organizational Assessment is a critical step for successful change and typically involves interviews, focus groups and/or surveys. Its purpose is to:

Weigh reality against leadership assumptions
Identify challenges and resources
Provide decision support for realistic priorities, budgets, and time-lines
Create baseline data to measure future change against

Sample Research Projects

Organizational Assessment: Recruitment, Retention and Climate for Diversity

CFI assessed the organizational climate for diversity to understand the conditions that hindered or contributed to the following situations:

Effective recruitment of people of color to the company
Retention of high-level talent
Broadening of the dialogue on issues related to diversity
Organizational awareness of the work experience for people of color at the company.

Focus groups and one-on-one interviews were conducted. Distinct perceptions and experiences of African Americans, Hispanics, Women, Gay Men, Lesbians and White Males were detailed in the final report.

Employee/Diversity Climate Survey

As part of its bi-annual employee survey for 4,000 employees, one company asked CFI to design a diversity segment that would be integrated and seamless. Fourteen diversity questions were designed to create a well-integrated, comprehensive 50-item survey. The instrument was distributed electronically to all employees. CFI analyzed the survey, and compared the diversity survey to the employee survey to find similarities and differences. Historical and industry data were also analyzed. The survey pinpointed areas of opportunity for the organization to work more effectively and created benchmarks from which to chart progress.

Organizational Assessment of the Climate for Diversity

CFI conducted an assessment of the organizational climate for diversity at this company using a diversity climate survey, focus groups and interviews. The tools for data gathering were developed jointly by CFI and employees serving on a diversity initiative team.

The survey included 55 items assessing employees’ perceptions of the general organizational climate for diversity and was sent to all employees. Twenty-nine focus groups were conducted, with groups of employees primarily composed on the basis of gender and organizational unit. A few focus groups were composed on the basis of gender and organizational level, racial or ethnic group, or sexual orientation. One-on-one interviews were conducted with executives, women and people of color.

Assessment for Organizational Performance

Initially, a technology group wanted to ensure high performance, and respond to an allegation of racial preference. One-on-one interviews were conducted with employees representing the racial composition of the group. Based on the findings, recommendations were developed for management. Several of the findings were implemented.

A year later, CFI was asked back to conduct another research study. The client wanted to assess to what extent things had changed in the original group, and to expand the research by broadening the dimensions examined for the perception of fairness. Additionally, the client wanted to expand the scope of the project to include another group.

Recommendations based on the findings were developed. CFI helped the client implement three of them:

strengthening division-wide cooperation
improving communication
improving the reward and recognition system