Never conduct an
attitude survey without acting

Management can conduct an attitude survey with their employees to assess working conditions out of curiosity, or to relieve their anxieties about everything being "all right." However, an attitude survey will raise expectations by those who take them, and those they subsequently tell. The grapevine flowing from the attitude survey can be a force for good or for bad, and one thing is for sure if it is bad management could take years to recover. When expectations of change remain unfulfilled, employees can become more demoralized than before the attitude survey. An attitude survey is not something for management to play at out of curiosity but to place in the mainstream of organisational change and development.

When setting the attitude survey scope management must decide what actions are possible and what are not, well before the attitude survey group finalises the questionnaire. When the attitude survey raises employees concerns, then management need to communicate that they fully understand these concerns and are preparing to act. If management cannot immediately solve the problems and issues raised by the attitude survey then employees must be informed of this and when matters are most likely to be dealt with.