AEIOU

Welcome to the AEIOU.

The AEIOU is an online negotiation and conflict communication behavior assessment tool. Offered in both single and multi-rater formats, the assessment helps users to build collaborative communication, negotiation and intercultural skills.

Generally speaking, negotiations fall into two categories: those about exchange and those about conflict, with the latter category being both more prevalent and more difficult for people to manage. The AEIOU Assessment offers you an opportunity to examine the communication behaviors you use when you experience conflict and must negotiate. The assessment should give you valuable feedback whether you are interested in improving your skills in a diverse workplace, with international partners or even at home.

The AEIOU was first developed (in a paper version) by Susan Coleman and Ellen Raider.

There are two versions of the AEIOU online – a single, self-rater, and a 360 degree (multirater).

For the single-self-rater version

You will respond to 50 questions about how you respond in situations where you are experiencing conflict with someone and must work through the difference. You will be asked to rate yourself on a 5-point scale of 0 to 4 (0= “almost never” to 4= “almost always”).

When responding to the items, respond in terms of how you naturally or typically respond when in conflict with others. Please do not respond in terms of how you would like to respond or how you wish you would respond assuming there were no consequences. You can either assess yourself generally or decide on a the specific context for which you want feedback.

The assessment takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.

For the multi-rater version

You must complete your self-assessment as you would in the single-self-rater version. For the multi-rater, you will also need to submit the names and email addresses of up to five people who will also rate your communication behaviors. You can pick anyone you choose but we recommend you choose a range of people as follows to get a 360 degree view of how you are impacting others:

• people you manage

• people you report to

• colleagues

• people you live with

  (who know you well and with whom you make daily life decisions)

Raters’ feedback will not be by name but you will probably recognize who gave the feedback by their role. In “Interpreting Your Results” you will find tips on how you can converse with raters once you have received their feedback.

© 2011 AEIOU