MOBIS GSA Catalog


Contents
 Company Overview
About the Principal
SIN 874-1: Consulting Services
SIN 874-2: Facilitation Services
SIN 874-3: Survey Services
SIN 874-7: Program Integration and Project Management Services
Pricing Information
Example Public Sector Clients


About the Principal

Michael A. Campion, Ph.D. is the founder and president of Campion Consulting Services (CCS) and is an accomplished Industrial/Organizational Psychologist. Dr. Campion is a Professor of Management at Purdue University, where he has been for the last 18 years, and has published over 70 research articles and given more than 150 presentations on a range of management related topics. He is among the 10 most prolific authors in his profession. Additionally, he is the past President of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and a former editor of Personnel Psychology (a leading journal of applied research). Previously he worked full time for 8 years at IBM and Weyerhaeuser Company. Other staff include a range of consultants, all with advanced degrees in Industrial/Organizational Psychology or Human Resource Management. Resumes and additional information on the staff is available by request.


Company Overview

Campion Consulting Services is a broad-based consulting firm specializing in human resource management, organizational development, and industrial/organizational psychology. We take pride in delivering workable, real-world solutions based on state of the art practices and scientific research to all of our client organizations. Whether the organization is large or small, public or private, our consulting services are specifically tailored to each client''s unique needs. Our flexibility, adaptability, and focus on custom solutions enables us to avoid problems caused by "cookie-cutter" or "one size fits all" products. CCS has conducted over 240 projects for nearly 70 clients in both private and public sector settings. 


SIN 874-1: Consulting Services

Consulting services include expert advice, assistance, guidance, input, and/or counseling and coaching provided by external contractors to assist an organization s management, organizational, and business improvement processes. Consulting services are sought by o rganizations for specific expertise, an objective outside point of view, or to temporarily increase organizational capacity. Although the category of consulting services covers a wide range of applications, almost every consulting project will involve, to some ex tent, the following steps:

1. Gain an initial understanding of project needs from those initiating the project within the organization.
2. Study the issue using an appropriate analysis technique. This step will typically include input from a variety of subject matter experts, stakeholders, and upper management in order to develop both a broad and in-depth understandi ng of the issues. This is a critical step as it clarifies the root of the problem and provides the foundation of recommendations and solutions. 
3. Develop preliminary recommendations or solutions and vet with focus groups or individual interviews with key members of the organization and stakeholders to ensure appropriateness for the organization and individual buy-in.
4. Revisions are made based on the results of step three.
5. If appropriate, the solutions are pilot tested and final revisions are made as needed.
6. Solutions are implemented and instruction, if required, is provided to the personnel.
7. Conduct a follow-up after the solutions have been used for a period of time to identify and make any further revisions.

Example consulting service projects include:

1. High Performance Work: High performance work can be consistently achieved and sustained only through the focused development of performance management, reward, and skill development and enhancement systems. Further, process and p roductivity improvement requires analysis and enhancement of job and organizational designs.
2. Systems Alignment: A key component of high performance work is ensuring that all supporting systems are in alignment. Organizational assessments and program audits are used to verify that the work being performed is in sync with the core function of the job and that the major purpose of the job is congruent with and supports the organizational mission. Additionally, organizational assessments and program audits can be used to verify that selection, performance measurement, and leadership systems are all effectively working together to foster high performance work and bolster the business strategy.
3. Leadership Systems: Properly designed selection, performance management, skill development, and reward systems can greatly enhance an organization s current and future leaders.
4. Process and Productivity Improvement: Improving systems and increasing productivity starts with an in-depth analysis of the components of the process, including upstream and downstream processes. The goal is to streamline the pro cess, enhance efficiency, and ensure that each component is aligned with the core function of the organization. 
5. Organizational Assessments: To be a high performing organization, the organizational design must be congruent with the business strategy. Organizational assessments are used to improve organizational structure including the type of organizational structure, the size and reporting relationships among organizational units, organizational culture, and the overall workflow processes. 
6. Program Audits and Evaluations: Changing strategies, a gradual breakdown of process quality, or changes to interrelated systems can create the need to evaluate even the best designed systems or programs, not to mention those that were poorly designed from the start. A thorough audit and evaluation of existing programs, based on established procedures and scientific methods, can identify areas that need improving to increase high performance work, efficiency, align programs with other syst ems or business strategies, or avoid potential legal issues.


SIN 874-2: Facilitation Services

Facilitation services enable stakeholder groups to provide input, resolve potential disputes, and come to consensus on programs, processes, or decisions. Most projects involve multiple stakeholders and thus have the need for some amount of facilitation activities. Although commonly thought of as a process used to break up deadlocks in highly contentious situations, facilitation services have a wide variety of applications. Facilitation services are used to:

1. Smooth the functioning and increase the productivity of meetings between divergent stakeholders. New employees, senior employees, union representatives, supervisors, line managers, human resource personnel, and upper management c an all have different perspectives. These different views can quickly lead to distrust and conflict if not properly managed through effective facilitation. 
2. Gain the commitment of various parties to a proposal or initiative. A key component of any successful program is stakeholder buy-in. People that have had the opportunity to provide input and feel that their ideas have been consid ered have a greater sense of buy-in than those that are not involved in the process.
3. Ensure that important information is gained. Stakeholders often have valuable insight into innovative solutions or identify unanticipated potential problems that may not be brought forward in traditional program development proce sses. Facilitation allows these ideas to be heard, considered, and explored.
4. Ensure that the necessary work is accomplished in a timely fashion by providing specific action plans with established timelines. A subtle, yet key component of facilitation is the clarification and documentation of expectations and action steps.
5. Resolve or prevent conflict by openly discussing concerns in a controlled environment where they can be heard and addressed rather than allowing them to build to the point of breakdown or open conflict.
6. Ensure that a correct decision is made or all the relevant information is gained to ensure the best possible decision. Facilitation allows all voices to be heard and concerns to be raised and also encourages brainstorming by many people with diverse experiences and ideas. This can lead to innovative solutions that may not have otherwise been considered.
7. Prevent problems caused by miscommunications or vague resolutions by identifying exactly what was discussed in each meeting and the outcomes to which each party agreed. Summary reports and other documentation are very useful in e nsuring that all parties will adhere to agreements and information from prior meetings. 
8. Keep groups and individuals focused on addressing the issues at hand rather than getting sidetracked on other problems or concerns.

Facilitation can occur in many ways. For example, facilitation can happen by:

1. Facilitating meetings.
2. Facilitating formal communications between parties.
3. Facilitating the completion of a project.
4. Facilitating bringing the right people together at the right time through networking or inviting key people to meetings that might not otherwise have been informed.

Further, facilitation can occur at different levels of depth and involvement. For example, facilitation may include:

1. Documentation of meeting content, action plans, and proposed drafts.
2. Logistical services, such as setting up meeting places and times, making accommodations, notifying participants of details, verifying participation, etc.
3. Using problem-solving techniques to resolve conflict or disputes.
4. Establishing and holding groups to a specific agenda.
5. Briefing leaders about issues of potential concern and overall progress.
6. Leading discussion groups.
7. Putting together a final report.
8. Third-party intervention.
9. Team building exercises and experiences.
10. Content interventions.


SIN 874-3: Survey Services

Surveys can be conducted on paper or electronically, they can collect both quantitative and qualitative data, and they can be collected from employees, managers, customers, or any other identifiable group. Surveys are an important method of objectively gathering large amounts of information from stakeholders in a short period of time. Scientifically based surveys can be used to develop or improve organizational programs and processes by providing both objective data from which to base decisions. Surveys can be conducted with small groups using scientific sampling techniques to yield estimates of entire populations with known levels of accuracy.

Surveys may be simple in concept, but they are far from easy in application. Too often, those unfamiliar with survey development will hastily create and use a survey without conducting the proper steps. Consequently, the resulting information is often inaccurate o r misleading. In contrast, Campion Consulting Services uses scientific survey design and implementation for accurate, complete, and unbiased data. Survey development should follow the appropriate steps:

1. Identify what information needs to be gathered and how it will be measured. This may involve focus groups or interviews with subject matter experts (employees, managers, customers, experts, etc.), analyses of existing data, revi ews of the research literature, and a variety of other activities in order to fully understand the phenomena to be measured.
2. Develop the survey items, response scales, and survey layout. This may include paper or electronic surveys. This step also includes pilot testing the survey through administration to a small sample, through protocol analyses, t hrough expert review, and through other methods.
3. Identify the population to be surveyed (including the identification of the sampling frame and units), determine the appropriate sampling approach (e.g., random, systematic, cluster, representative, snowball, expert, or convenien ce sample), and determine the sample size needed to achieve the desired level of accuracy while considering cost factors and likely response rates.
4. Develop a survey administration approach including the ways in which the survey will be distributed (e.g., postal mail, email, website, fax, personal interviews, etc.) and the data collection management plan (including personnel requirements, timeframe, and budget).
5. Administer the survey, and then collect and process the responses. This will also include sending out reminders, administering follow-up surveys, and other methods of generating the required response rate.
6. Input and analyze the data. This will include qualitative analysis of narrative data (e.g., write-in comments), as well as statistical analysis of numeric data (e.g., means, frequencies, and other descriptive statistics, togethe r with complex multivariate statistics as needed such as correlations, regressions, logit/probit analyses, factor analyses, latent covariance modeling, etc.).
7. Report results, including tabling the results and writing reports, but especially assisting the client in the interpretation of the data and determination of the appropriate courses of action suggested by the data.

Surveys can be used to understand many issues, including customer satisfaction or service perceptions, employee satisfaction or morale, employee views of organizational culture or climate, applicant or employee perceptions of fairness regarding new programs or processes, and individual or organizational safety and security awareness. Additionally, surveys are used to gather information for job analyses, multi-source performance evaluations (i.e., 360 feedback), or to collect and understand stakeholder input when develop ing or revising programs. 


SIN 874-7: Program Integration and Project Management Services

Project management services involve managing projects for clients at the administrative level including planning project steps, recruiting personnel resources, supervising, setting goals and timetables, providing feedback, solving problems, managing budgets, and s o forth. Program integration services involve incorporating the new process or system into the current organizational management system including planning the integration, developing the steps to be followed in the integration, troubleshooting problems that might occur, communicating with various stakeholders, making modifications and adjustments in the new system, and so forth. 

Designing organizational improvement programs and projects is only half of the battle. Program integration and project management services are important to introduce and drive forward improvements and refinements into an organization. Programs that are not properl y supervised and managed will lose momentum, stall out, or otherwise be less successful. Likewise, programs need to be carefully and deliberately introduced into an organization to ensure their acceptance among employees. Any program, no matter how well intentione d or designed, that is not accepted and internalized by the employees and management can quickly fall into disuse.

Program integration and project management is a broad topic that is a critical component of any consulting service and is often done in conjunction with facilitation services. For example, these consulting services utilize a lead consultant to frame or lay out the project and then manage the project s progress by overseeing the work performed by associate consultants or subcontractors and ensuring that the work assigned is being completed as scheduled. The lead consultant also plans the program s introduction and works dil igently through the program s development to promote the program in order to proactively increase acceptance and allow for a quick and smooth integration period. Once the program is introduced, it is then monitored and fine-tuned until it has been successfully int egrated. 


Pricing Information

Services are priced on an hourly basis and depend on the level of expertise required. The best price schedule is as follows:

  Principal Consultant (Ph.D. level):  $148.12
  Associate Consultant (Ph.D. level):  $98.75
  Associate Consultant (MBA / MS level):  $74.05
  Clerical:  $24.68

Example Public Sector Clients

  Army Research Institute 
  City of Chicago
  Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
  Federal Aviation Administration 
  Federal Bureau of Investigation 
  Indiana State Teacher's Association 
  Michigan US Employment Service 
  North Carolina US Employment Service 
  National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing 
  National Institute for Literacy 
  National Retail Federation 
  National Skills Standards Board 
  US Department of Commerce 
  US Department of Education 
  US Department of Labor 
  US Department of State 
  US Environmental Protection Agency
  US Patent and Trademark Office
  US Postal Service