Book excerpt: This title explains how to design and administer questionnaires, analyze the data and feed them into action plans. This edition also shows whether, when and how to involve consultants, and the crucial role of surveys in quality initiatives, culture-change programmes and "Investors in People". Effective corporate initiatives and processes are the bedrock of successful organizations. The "Developing Practices" series provides managers with essential frameworks to identify, formulate and implement the best policy and practice in the management and development of people. Organizations embarking on major change need to ensure employee commitment. Surveys are a useful tool for flushing out anxieties, enhancing decision-making and maintaining morale. The key to a successful outcome, argues the author Mike Walters, lies in using initial interviews to generate ideas which can be tested in the main survey and then further refined in follow-up focus groups. The book explains in detail how to design and administer questionnaires, analyze the data and feed them into action plans. This edition also shows human resources practitioners whether, when and how to involve consultants, and the crucial role of surveys in quality initiatives, culture-change programmes and "Investors in People".