In the Fall of 1999, Dr. Merten created the first Quality of Work Life Task Force, requesting this committee to address and make recommendations regarding the quality of work life for all George Mason University employees. This group of fourteen faculty and staff - including the chairs of the Staff and Faculty Senates and faculty specializing in organizational psychology - met regularly for almost a year.
While much of that time was spent reviewing the university's policies, members of the task force also developed and analyzed two surveys that were distributed to all university employees in April 2000. One survey, which included 73 structured questions, was sent to a random sample of 600 employees across all job categories (adjunct, restricted, administrative, and tenure-line faculty; classified staff, and wage employees). A second survey soliciting general input through three open-ended questions, was sent to all other employees.
These surveys were developed in an effort to gather the broadest possible input from members of our community and to make sure that the task force's recommendations were consistent with community needs. The full report of the research findings, a summary of responses to the open ended questions, and a newsletter summary of the survey results are available in the web site archives.
While the information elicited from the surveys is important, it is not as important as the community-wide discussion the research prompted.
The task force considered the feedback from the discussion sessions a critical element in the recommendations that were made public and forwarded to the President and Executive Council that year.