The next element, the second leg of the stool, is data from the employees of the organization that provide the employees' visions of their work and the organization. These are the internal data. This is information gathered from the people that make up the organization. It is the opinions, working knowledge, supervisory assessments, and observations that come from people that do the work of the organization. Internal data are concerned with how capable employees feel the organization is.
Internal data are the employees' assessment of how the organization is performing.
The Survey of Organizational Excellence , an employee attitude survey used by many of Texas' state agencies, assists organizations to acquire standard and readily comparable internal data on organizational competence. Organizations collect this data at least every two years and use it to identify strengths and weaknesses to improve the organization and its efforts. The 1999-2000 Survey is now underway and will provide insight into how state employees view their organization's response to the quality imperative. These are the external data. External data are gathered to gain insight into customers' or clients' preferences for products or services provided by the organization, customers' views of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, and to find what improvements are desired.