Conducting the Assessment ◾ 89
Information Collection and Exchange
An organizational assessment begins with the collection of information and
data from the organization that is to be the subject of the process, whether
it’s an entire agency or a smaller unit. The concept underlying this stage is
to find a way to provide a common background to those who are studying
the organization, so that everyone participating in the assessment has the
same “picture” as a starting point. Because people may differ on how they
see the organization, based on the information that may have been avail-
able to them in the past, this stage involves both collecting and exchanging
information, and negotiating an agreement on what represents an accurate
picture o ...