title: Importance x dissatisfaction = a formula for managerial action.
abstract: Management should not only survey employees about their satisfaction with an issue but should also inquire about how important that issue is to them. If the issue is very important to employees and they are very dissatisfied, then management action may be urgent. However, if staff members are dissatisfied with an issue that is unimportant to them, then no management action may be required. Rank ordering the items by importance and then subtracting satisfaction from importance to get a performance-gap score is insufficient. The decision maker still may have to use intuition to determine which items have priority. Rather than gap analysis, it is better to multiply the importance score by the dissatisfaction score. This will yield a clear rank order of the issues to which the management must attend. The authors used the multiplicative method with a health care organization. These results are analyzed, and management actions are recommended.
authors.affiliation: Moody College of Business, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA 70504-3570, USA. kcarson@louisana.edu
authors.forename: Kerry D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Carson
authors.forename: Paula Phillips
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Carson
authors.forename: Gwen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fontenot
authors.forename: Alfred G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Toma
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D058016:Health Facility Administration; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D010559:Personnel Management / Q000379:methods; D014481:United States