The Situational Outlook Questionnaire (SOQ) measures the climate for creativity, high-performance and change on nine dimensions.
The 9 dimensions of climate measured by the SOQ are:
1. Challenge /Involvement: the extent to which individual and team are given opportunities to get involved in the daily operations and long-term vision/goals.
2. Freedom: the degree that people can take initiative or perceive to be enabled to act without constantly referring to higher authorities or "rule books" for decisions.
3. Trust: the degree of emotional safety in relationships, the extent to which people are genuinely frank and open with each other in the spirit of constructive interpersonal rapports.
4. Idea-Time: the time people take to generate new ideas or consider the merits of existing ideas/opportunities/projects.
5. Plyfulness/Humor: the amount of spontaneity and levity displayed within the group/organization by people.
6. Conflict: the presence of personal tension and emotional tensions. The level of interpersonal "war-fare" where plots, traps and obstructionism are usual ingredients of interacting.
7. Idea-Support: the ways new ideas are considered, taken up or advocated. In the supportive cimate people are attentive listening and encouraging initiatives.
8. Debate: the occurence of encounters and disagreements between viewpoints and differing experiences and knowledge. The idea-tension.
9. Risk-Taking: the degree to which people can tolerate ambiguity and make decisions with some uncertainty.
All these dimensions are positively associated with creativity, performance and change except Conflict.
Measuring Climate with the SOQ allow us to position a group/organizaton on each of these dimensions along the Stagnation-Change Continuum.
Results can be considered and compared against a benchmark of international companies.
The power behind SOQ is that dimensions it measures have been validated against measures of organizational capacity to change, those organizations that have shown to be able at developing products and services and at commercialize successfully in a dynamic and competitive arena.
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