2. 04/10/14 ASSESSMENT REPORT
Introduction
As an assignment in our Communication 452 Class we were given the task of finding an organization to serve as
a consultant for during the Spring Semester. We decided to go a slightly different route and went with a
student organization. This student organization is known to campus as APO or Alpha Phi Omega. According to
their website’s “About Us” section:
“Alpha Phi Omega is a national coeducational service organization founded on the principles
of Leadership, Friendship and Service. It provides its members the opportunity to develop
leadership skills as they volunteer on their campus, in their community, to the nation, and
to the organization. With more than 400,000 members on over 375 campuses, Alpha Phi
Omega continues to provide more service on more campuses than any other collegiate
service organization.”
It is the VISION of Alpha Phi Omega to be recognized as the premier service-based leadership
development organization.
It is the MISSION of Alpha Phi Omega to prepare campus and community leaders through
service.
The VALUES of Alpha Phi Omega are the develop leadership, promote friendship and provide
service.
The OBJECTIVES of Alpha Phi Omega are Share, Grow, Improve and Invest
Purpose
The purpose of this needs assessment was to figure out what were the aspects of APO that
needed the most work and how could we as communication consultants conduct a training
session to fit these needs.
On the other side of the purpose is the opportunity for real life application of learned
principles and communication knowledge. We as communication seniors are learning things
such as being “Learner Centered & Performance Based, differentiating between training and
telling/instruction, and learning what to do and not to do in training situations.
Data Collection
In our needs assessment process we initially conducted an informal assessment with the
executive board to get their ideas of what they felt they needed as an organization. We
decided to go this route because an executive position means you see the organization in a
different way than a general member may see it. We followed that up with an assessment
with the general body (figure a.1). Using a process of elimination we briefly discussed what
they felt was the most important need for their organization.
Outlined below in figure a.1 you will see that we categorized it as a culture change
altogether. A culture change has many components to it and it could take a few cycles to
complete. The two focuses were on Accountability/Expectations and Formality. We decided
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to focus on Accountability/Expectations because we believe that if formality IS an
expectation it will follow suite with the culture change.
Culture Change According to (Schein 2014) “Culture is a set of shared assumptions;
hence, obtaining the initial data in a group setting is more appropriate and valid than
conducting individual interviews. The contextual meaning of cultural assumptions can only
be fully understood by members of the culture; hence, creating a vehicle for their
understanding is more important than for the researcher or consultant to obtain that
understanding.” (p. 316)
“If changes in the culture are discovered to be necessary, those changes will rarely involve
the entire culture; it will almost always be a matter of changing one or two assumptions.
Only rarely does the basic paradigm have to change, but if it does, the organization faces a
multiyear major change process.”
Accountability
“Bounded voice describes a dynamic organizational process in which opportunities for voice
are strategically and provisionally limited to particular forums” (p. 312)
Members Need and want to speak up.
“At its broadest, accountability refers to the willingness and ability of an organization to
answer to relevant stakeholders. Identifying who counts as a relevant stakeholder within
civilsociety contexts is theoretically and practically difficult.” (p. 313)
Who are the stakeholders? Members, pledges, etc. APO needs to appeal to their
audience more.
Analysis
The next form of data collection was a survey using survey monkey, which was composed of
10 questions.
1. What is your position within APO?
Culture Change
Accountabilty/Expectations
family business
Formality
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2. Why did you join?
The following two responses sum up the responses givenfrom the survey.
“Because of the family atmosphere and I love service.”
“To meet new people, form friendships, be a part of an organization that has
respectable principles, and do service.”
3. Describe the culture of APO
Listed are a few of the select responses to the culture of APO:
We believe that these responses collectively describe the culture of APO as viewed by its
members.
“The culture of this chapter of APO would have to be hard to describe because we have
individuals that follow through with our cardinal principles but then you have others that
don't. So I'll say the culture of APO is hard to define.”
“I believe that the culture of APO is different than what I expected. I think APO is a lot of
fun, however I feel that sometimes members are focused too much on the friendship
principal.”
“The culture of APO is representative of most of the members; silly, laid back and
sometimes selfish. The values and habits are of the members, but not clearly representative
of the mission of the fraternity; leadership, friendship, service. When it is in the interest of
the members the values align, but the rest of the time they fall to the wayside. It is also like
a family in that it is fun-loving and supportive and sometimes we all fight like siblings.”
“Informal. There is no clear differentiation between business and family.”
“I would describe APO culture as it being energetic, close knit, and chaotic. Most of the
members are very close with each other making them close knit. The meetings and activities
done together as a chapter are full of energy from all members. At times the meetings can
get chaotic, making them drag on longer, and making it harder to get things done.”
“I believe the culture of APO is a family. I believe we value our cardinal principles LFS. But I
believe we have so many people that are not willing to do anything and a lot of burden falls
on the EC members. I love my bros but them not doing anything but complaining all the time
is getting very old.”
“APO's culture is definitely the three cardinal principles, leadership, friendship, and service.
The organization tries to get everyone active with a leading task. It enforces the friendship
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principle because it is important for everyone to get to know one another. This is very
important during the process of trying to become a member. Lastly, the service aspect is
very important. This is the foundation of the organization.”
As you can see, most people either described the culture as:
1. The tenets of the organization; Leadership, Friendship, and Service
2. Family
3. Hard to describe, or felt the lack of follow through of the values of the organization
4.Fill in the Blank APO is like_________.
Apo is Like
14
Respondents
Family 78.57%
Business 50.00%
Fun 35.71%
My Life 7.0%
5. What is your favorite aspect of APO and Why?
Family & Service
6. What do you believe should be changed?
More accountability
More service
Diversity
Serious Commitment/Involvement in the organization
7. Are you often times frustrated with the way meetings go?
a. 50% -Yes
b. 7.14%- NO
c. 42.86%- Sometimes
8. What can you do to make this change happen?
a. Change mindset- 30%
78.57%
50.00%
35.71%
7.00%
Family Business Fun My life
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b. Speak to Eboard- 80.00%
c. Other- 28.6%
9.Would you be willing to make changes to further the organization? An astounding 100%
stated
“YES”
10. What are your suggestions to help improve APO?
More service projects
Accountability
Diversity
Commitment & Involvement
Changing Culture
We recognized that number 6 and 10 were very much similar in the results. The
question was a bit repetitive. For future reference use we would delete that question or
replace it with another informational probing question.
Conclusion:
We believe that preparation training is the best way to grasp the various concepts
that APO has voiced as concerns for their organization. We do know that APO does not need
to work on its family atmosphere. It seems as if that is a concept that is strength for them.
We believe that although it is a strength point for them, we have concluded that it has also
become a weakness because of the lack of productivity in other areas of the organization.
Our training will be focused on being sure that APO is prepared for the next semester
and/or year so that service will increase, commitment and involvement will be expected,
accountability will be enacted, and the culture will change along with the newfound or
revived expectations.
It is very important for APO to be sure to handle business now, and play later.
We will use some of the process of culture assessment as outlined in the book by Edgar H.
Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership.” We will also use other sources to help us
conduct our training.
