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Investigating the promise and pitfalls of pulse surveys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2022

Matt I. Brown Open the ORCID record for Matt I. Brown [Opens in a new window]
Matt I. Brown*
Affiliation:
Geisinger Health System, Autism and Developmental Medicine Institute
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Despite the growing popularity and marketing of pulse surveys, there is little research concerning this practice. To this end, this practice forum reports the results of a four-wave pulse survey that was conducted in a health care organization. Pulse surveys provided reliable estimates of overall engagement, but scores remained stable across 8 months. Practically no differences in group scores or trends could be found despite high participation (≍ 50%). Item responses displayed little differences between groups, ICC(1) ranging from .03 to .18, and poor discriminant validity. Based on these results, pulse surveys may be adequate for estimating overall employee sentiment but not useful for detecting change over time or differences between groups. These limitations should be considered when designing or implementing pulse surveys.

Keywords

pulse surveysemployee engagementresearch–practice gapsurvey measurement
Type
Practice Forum
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 137 - 149
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

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Footnotes

Special thanks to Rick Flynn for his leadership in working with the hospital leadership team to initiate the pulse survey program.

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