U.S. Office Of Personnel Management, 1900 E Street, NW., Room 1342, Washington, DC 20415

R -- MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF PARTNERSHIP ON FEDERAL AGENCY PERFORMANCE SOL None DUE 052298 POC Ken McMahill, 202-606-2494 WEB: OPM Procurement Home Page, http://www.opm.gov/procure. E-MAIL: Contract Specialist E-Mail, klmcmahi@opm.gov. R -- The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) seeks, on behalf of the National Partnership Council (the Council/NPC), information from parties interested in conducting research into Federal labor-management partnership. President Clinton instructed Federal agencies to create labor-management partnerships with their unions by forming labor-management committees or councils at appropriate levels, or adapting existing councils or committees if such groups exist. The purpose of labor-management partnerships is to champion change in Federal Government agencies to transform them into organizations capable of delivering the highest quality services to the American people. Background Information On October 1, 1993, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12871, Labor-Management Partnerships, which established the NPC. The Council's primary responsibilities are to support and promote effective labor-management partnerships; collect and disseminate information about partnership with an emphasis on results achieved; provide guidance on partnerships; and advise the President on the state of labor-management relations in the Federal Government. To that end the NPC, chaired by the Director of the OPM, is preparing a report on government wide labor-management partnership activities. As part of the data and information collection activities for the report, research will be conducted of labor and management representatives, Federal agencies, sub-organizations of agencies, labor organizations, management associations and other appropriate groups regarding labor-management partnership activities. The Council wishes to conduct a broad-based research effort by looking beyond perceptual data of partnership participants and practitioners (as was accomplished by the Council's 1996 and 1997 research) to other possible information-collection methods that will address progress and improvements in organizational performance resulting from partnership. The goal of the Council's 1998 research is: a) to determine the extent towhich partnership produces quantifiable improvements in Federal agency performance; b) to determine the elements of partnership that relate to quantifiable improvements in agency operations; and c) to develop a possible evaluation strategy that agencies may use to evaluate their partnership. Interested parties should consider an evaluation approach focusing on cost analyses, cost-benefit analyses, and cost-avoidance analyses. They should include in their submission proposed methods on how to determine the monetary value of benefits and how the analysis of costs and benefits can be incorporated into a research model. Parties may wish to consider the need for determining appropriate baseline data in order to compare pre- to post-partnership time periods. Although validity must be clearly defined, responders should indicate possible approaches regarding the selection of participants or participating groups. A variety of work environments such as production, non-production, customer service, policy/regulatory, etc. may be considered, and research results may be stratified according to the types of organizations that participate. Sub-organizational units may also be compared against one another. Interested parties responding to this sources sought synopsis should provide: -- Information regarding the resources they would make available to potentially do the research. -- Information regarding similar projects they have performed including references. -- An explanation of the methodologies that might be used to conduct the research projects. -- Interested parties should include in their submissions what their costs would be for performing work as described in this synopsis. Pricing submissions should include the labor categories they would propose to perform this research and hourly/daily rates for those labor categories. -- Interested parties should indicate whether or not they are a small business concern. The standard industrial code for this work is 8748 with a size threshold of $5 million dollars in average annual sales for the preceding three years as the determinant for whether or not a contractor is considered a small business concern for this procurement. Any response to this sources sought synopsis should take into account that the NPC's staff planning group, through OPM, will provide guidance on the development of specific methodology, questions and demographic items to be included in the research plan. Interested parties need to be thoroughly familiar with Federal labor-management relations and partnership and show how the proposed methodology will accomplish the above research goals. Parties must show that they have an established track record in conducting quantitative and/or qualitative research on Federal labor-management relations. Submissions must include an evaluation methodology that is valid and reliable. Responders must be able to develop, test, and administer evaluation instruments. This is a request for information only. No solicitation will be issued in response to this announcement. Responses must be received within 15 days after the date of publication of this synopsis. (0125)

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