Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Interpreting Organizational Survey Results: A Critical Application Of The Self-Serving Bias, Peter A. Hausdorf, Stephen D. Risavy, David J. Stanley

Organization Management Journal

Surveys are used extensively by researchers and practitioners in organizations to measure employee attitudes and assess organizational health. Survey items can reflect a wide range of topics including employee attitudes, perceptions of management, and organizational culture. Surprisingly, the issue of whether employee focused items produce more positive employee responses (vis-a`-vis manager or organization focused items) has received little attention. Specifically, there may be self-serving biases in organizational survey responses that may lead to inaccurate diagnosing of organizational problems. We assess the impact of self-serving biases on the pattern of employee responses to organizational surveys. Results from two studies suggest that …