Anonymous: The Survey of Organizational Excellence

To assure your anonymity. . .

An Outside Source. This agency or institution has contracted with The University of Texas at Austin to serve as an outside, objective, and secure source for compiling your perceptions and insights. Your responses remain in the sealed return envelope until we collect and scan the data or are transmitted directly to our secure server at the university. We do not collect identifying information from your computer station.

Anonymity Statement. The administrators of the survey and The University of Texas at Austin take very seriously (for both ethical and legal reasons) the assurance of anonymity. Our statement reads, "To ensure your responses remain anonymous, employing organizations will not receive reports for categories that contain less than 5 people."

The Code Number. Each survey instrument is coded for security purposes. The code is used for both validating a scanned survey instrument or as an access code for the on-line version. The code is used to insure a valid survey instrument and is not associated with a specific individual. Coding surveys is a standard and necessary measure to eliminate duplication, fraudulent responses, survey validity, and process reliability. Please note, that a valid survey must have a code number to be counted. Once validated, code number identification is removed from your responses.

The Demographic Items. The demographic information is specific and is used for research purposes. Part of conducting a survey is determining whether or not there is bias on items based on demographic characteristics. Demographic data is returned to agencies as summed numbers, such as the number of men and women who responded. If you feel uncomfortable with any demographic item, please feel free not to answer it. If any category or combination of categories (demographic or organizational codes) on the survey contains less than 5 individual responses, that data for that specific category or combination will not be returned to the organization. For example, if there are only four male respondents, the male responses would be counted, but the perceptions of just males could not be provided back to the organization.

The On-line Survey. To assure anonymity while taking the on-line survey, the access code number you have is not associated with you as an individual. It is used only to insure a valid on-line response. Furthermore, no specific information regarding you computer's IP address, time or location, is collected by our on-line data system. If you feel uncomfortable using your desktop machine, consider using a common internet terminal at work, the public library, or any computer with internet access.