Intergroup Diagnostic Survey

The Intergroup Diagnostic Survey (IDS) is a tool for diagnosing important aspects of how groups relate to each other inside organizations. Its major use is in improvement efforts in which two or more work groups are attempting to bridge gaps among each other.

Overview

Intervening across work groups within organizations requires both courage and skill. The work is much harder than team building because the dynamics of intergroup relations are significantly more complex, and there is likely to be a lot of emotion involved. Often organizational reward and accountability systems keep competition alive across groups. Here are some principles to consider when contemplating working on intergroup relations:

• Work with only one or two groups at a time
• Always do team building with separate groups first
• Test the leaders in relation to you and each other
• Do not take sides
• Do not get finessed
• Push for concrete results
• Keep your contract clean and public

Development

The IDS is an instrument designed for use in a wide variety of organizations and intergroup situations. Its validity lies primarily in the ability of its users to help group members assess a situation and make appropriate improvement plans. The instrument has clear face validity, and participants in sessions in which it is used report that it is both meaningful and useful. In addition, the IDS has content validity, as the items, scoring, and interpretation are solidly based on tested theories and on research of Anaconda and Caldwell (1988). The toll was not developed for use in organizational research, and no reliability and validity studies were carried out during its development. In addition, no norms were compiled for the instrument because no two intergroup situations would be comparable in any useful way.
  
Individuals considering using the IDS as a research instrument should plan to conduct their own reliability and validity studies. The authors suggest intraclass correlations among raters for reliability estimates. Validity studies must be designed for the specific purposes for which the instrument is being considered.

Other Uses of The IDS:

• To assess the intergroup climate (vertical, horizontal, informal, and external) within an organization
• To conduct research on intergroup relations
• To compare perceptions within a group regarding intergroup relations
• To study the effects of improvement efforts (reorganization, interventions, etc.) on intergroup relations