What makes a "good workplace?"

SteelMaiden

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
#11
What I DO want to know is whether low scores on a Lickert scale on these questions listed above are valid indicators, in each Cove reader's opinion, of whether a company is good to work for. I expect a clever job seeker might want to know a lot more, but, would you consider a company where the employees give good grades on these points is a good starting place to look for a job (i.e. to narrow your search?)
Given that, and nothing more (as in we don't know what, if any, other questions were asked) I would hazard a guess that if you truly feel your workplace is a good place to be, you are going to rate your answers in that direction when possible. I'd have to say that if a bunch of people from an organization feel theirs is a good workplace, I'd probably be inclined to think they probably have some reason to feel that way. So, yes, if I needed a job and I saw that BACA, BACB and BACD scored high in this survey I'd probably do some research in hopes of finding possible employment.
 
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Statistical Steven

Statistician
Staff member
Super Moderator
#12
You, too, are missing the point.

I took a graduate level course in survey construction. It is obvious to me, based on the insight gained from that course, that the point of the survey was NOT to single out which companies were best for any single segment of the workforce (males, females, whites, blacks, citizens, non-citizens, blind, deaf, crippled, war vets, animal lovers, wife beaters, etc., etc.), but merely to survey the general, currently employed workforce of companies to determine their state of satisfaction and thereby rank companies.

If I were to commission a survey (using someone else's money), I might want to know some of the things Steel Maiden asked in post 2. I'd also like to factor in the profitability versus stock price of the companies. I'd like to know the disparity between the compensaton for the CEO and the average employee. I'd like to know the gross income generated per employee and the net profit per employee. I'd like some way to know the culture of each company. (I've seen some VERY paternalistic privately held companies where the employees all professed to be happy, but an outside observer might remark they all seemed like Stepford wives - either robots or brainwashed!)

Yep. I'd like to know all that, BUT nobody is going to pay me to run that survey, so the discussion on all those things is moot.

What I DO want to know is whether low scores on a Lickert scale on these questions listed above are valid indicators, in each Cove reader's opinion, of whether a company is good to work for. I expect a clever job seeker might want to know a lot more, but, would you consider a company where the employees give good grades on these points is a good starting place to look for a job (i.e. to narrow your search?)
The answer to that question is NO! The survey tells me nothing about the company. Unless I know the sampling frame that participated, its like telling me that 4 out of 5 dentists surveyed perfer Trident gum.

Wes, I understand your question, but without having that additional information required, the data is meaningless.
 

Wes Bucey

Quite Involved in Discussions
#13
The problem is that "Good Workplace" is subjective. At ANY organization are happy workers and disgruntled workers. Right now with a poor economy, the options are far and few between so disgruntled workers stay the course.

Now is the criteria in the survey fair or accurate? Notice all questions are stated in the positive form? Should some questions be asked as a negative? Such as, "I feel under appreciated".

In general, I find these surveys useless. Without having several classification variables such as age, position or rank in company, gender, industry, etc. I am unable to assess the survey.
In specific answer to your question (Now is the criteria in the survey fair or accurate? Notice all questions are stated in the positive form? Should some questions be asked as a negative? Such as, "I feel under appreciated". ) The answer is NO. These were Lickert scale questions where the survey taker is asked to grade his opinion of the company on that topic on a scale (1-5 or 1-7.) To avoid confusion of the survey taker and to avoid introducing bias into the survey by implying there is anything negative about the subject of the survey (the company in this case), all questions are stated in a positive, hopefully, neutral way.

(As I have described in another thread, it is almost impossible to remove all bias from the questions, because someone will always have personal baggage he brings to taking the survey which may be triggered by a word or phrase in one or more of the questions. Depending on the depth of emotion engendered, the entire survey may be thrown into question, not just the single item triggering the emotion.)

Lickert scales themselves, introduce bias, because there is a natural tendency for folks to select the middle of the scale unless they have a very strong, emotional opinion attached to an item in the survey. Personally, I would never depend on a Lickert scale survey to give me a true result even if the questions on the survey were 100% neutral for bias.
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#14
In specific answer to your question (Now is the criteria in the survey fair or accurate? Notice all questions are stated in the positive form? Should some questions be asked as a negative? Such as, "I feel under appreciated". ) The answer is NO. These were Lickert scale questions where the survey taker is asked to grade his opinion of the company on that topic on a scale (1-5 or 1-7.) To avoid confusion of the survey taker and to avoid introducing bias into the survey by implying there is anything negative about the subject of the survey (the company in this case), all questions are stated in a positive, hopefully, neutral way.
There are those who advocate using both positive and negative Likert (not Lickert) items to avoid or counter Wikipedia reference-linkAcquiescence bias.
 
G

George Weiss

#15
Interesting topic.
My criteria are only three. Pay, position, and atmosphere.
I've been lucky to get two out of the three right. :> 3/3 = dream job.
For me the second, being "position", means the one I like, and not the CEO's job.
I look at the needs of life, being food, sex, and fluff, with food and sex, being an age dependent thing.
And so: a paycheck gets me #1, 2, and #3.
Atmosphere is relative. A warm building is nice in a cold place. I hope sex is not a banned word on this forum?
I think alot of awareness and lack of stress is relative, and is over rated.
In the cut throat just-right-now business-model world we live in, just:"show me da money!"
 
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