CHAPTER 7
2. As a manager, you have invited a research team to come in, study, and offer suggestions on how to improve the performance of your staff. What steps will you take to relieve staff apprehensions and worries even before the research team set s foot in your department ? Answer:
How to improve a performance at the staff / employees is by means of holding a program such as: a. Improving Performance Performance is the desired outcome of behavior. Individual performance is the basis of organizational performance. Perananpenting in performance appraisal has increased workplace motivation. This performance appraisal (performance appraisal) is basically a key factor in order to develop an effective and efficient organization. Employees want and need feedback regarding their performance and assessment provides the opportunity to provide feedback to them if performance is not in accordance with the standards, the assessment provides an opportunity to review the progress of employees and to develop performance improvement plans. there are 5 (five) factors in performance assessment, namely: 1) Quality of work include: acquisition, accuracy, performance and acceptance of output; 2) Quantity of Work include: Volume of output and contribution; 3) Supervision required, include: need advice, direction or repairs; 4) Attendance include: regularity, dapatdipercaya / reliable and timely b. Provide motivation Motivation is a state in the person that drives a desire individumelakukankegiatanspecific activities to achieve motivation goal basically is the process that determines how much effort will be devoted to carrying out the work. " Motivation or incentive to work is crucial to the achievement of something objective, then the man must be able to grow as high work motivation for employees within the company " c. Improve discipline Discipline itself interpreted as a willingness to someone that may arise with their own consciousness to follow the rules and regulations prevailing in the organization. 3. What is bias, and how can it be reduced during interview ? Answer:
Irregularities in the interview usually refers to a mistake or inaccuracy of the data collected. Deviations can be reduced during the interview by repeating and clarifying questions we ask so that they understand the questions that we provide, and cites some of the answers to ensure a deep understanding of the response person being interviewed so that we do not deviate from the answers they the y give.
4. Discuss the advantages and disadvamtages of personal and telephone interviews ? Answer:
Personal interviews are characterised by synchronous communication in time and place. Due to this synchronous communication, as no other interview method Personal interviews can take its advantage of social cues. Social cues, such as voice, intonation, body language etc. of the interviewee can give the interviewer a lot of extra information that can be added to the verbal answer of the interviewee on a question. Of course the value of social cues also depends on what the interviewer wants to know from the interviewee. If the interviewer is seen as a subject, and as an irreplaceable person, from whom the interviewer wants to know the attitude towards for example the labour union, then social cues are very important. When the interviewer interviews an expert about things or persons that have nothing to do with the expert as a subject, then social cues become less important (EMANS, 1986). On the other hand this visibility can lead to disturbing interviewer effects, when the interviewer guides with his or her behaviour the interviewee in a special direction. This disadvantage can be diminished by using an interview protocol and by the awareness of the interviewer of this effect. In Personal interviews there is no significant time delay between question and answer; the interviewer and interviewee can directly react on what the other says or does. An advantage of this synchronous communication is that the answer of the interviewee is more spontaneous, without an extended reflection. But due to this synchronous character of the medium, the interviewer must concentrate much more on the questions to be asked and the answers given. Especially when an unstructured or semi structured interview list is used, and the interviewer has to formulate questions as a result of the interactive nature of communication. WENGRAF (2001, p.194) even speaks of "double attention", which means "that you must be both listening to the informant's responses to understand what he or she is trying to get at and, at the same time, you must be bearing in mind your needs to ensure that all your questions are liable to get answered within the fixed time at the level of depth and detail that you need". Personal interviews can be tape recorded, of course with the permission of the interviewee. Using a tape recorder has the advantage that the interview report is more accurate than writing out notes. But tape recording also brings with it the danger of not taking any notes during the interview. Taking notes during the interview is important for the interviewer, even if the interview is tape recorded: (1) to check if all the questions have been answered, (2) in case of malfunctioning of the tape recorder, and (3) in case of "malfunctioning of the interviewer". In one interview I conducted I should have taken notes because I had forgotten to push the "record" button. Another disadvantage of tape recording the interview is the time a transcription of the tape recording consumes. BRYMAN (2001) suggests that one hour of tape takes five to six hours to transcribe. The synchronous communication of time and place in a Personal interview also has the advantage that the interviewer has a lot of possibilities to create a good interview ambience. In other words the interviewer can make more use of a standardisation of the
situation. On the other hand this synchronous communication of time and place can bring with it a lot of time and costs. Interviewing an interviewee in a place some 200 kilometres away will take a whole day, including travelling and interviewing. It can even take more days, when the interviewee is ill and didn't or couldn't reach the interviewer in time to cancel the interview. Also the costs, i.e. travelling costs, can become very high in this way. Doing research by using Personal interviews, which have to be held all over the globe, as for example is the case when doing research in the domain of virtual teams, takes a lot of effort, time and costs, and is therefore almost impossible for one researcher. The last advantage of this interview method is that termination of a Personal interview is easy, compared to other interview methods. In the interaction between interviewer and interviewee enough clues can be given that the end of the interview is near, for example by shuffling the papers and turning off the tape recorder. An explicit way to terminate the interview is by thanking the interviewee for cooperation and asking him or her if there are further remarks that might be relevant to the topic or the interview process. This can lead to an emergent of a whole new area of information (WENGRAF, 2001). Due to the asynchronous communication of place, one of the advantages of telephone interviewing is the extended access to participants, compared to personal interviews. MANN and STEWART (2000) make a distinction in the following categories:
Wide geographical access. People from all over the globe can be interviewed — of course if they have access to telephone or computer. personal interviewing can be very expensive and takes too much time. Hard to reach populations. It enables researchers to contact populations that might be difficult to work with on an personal basis for example mothers at home with small children, shift workers, computer addicts and people with disabilities. Closed site access. It is a possible means of access to people on sites, which have closed or limited access (such as hospitals religious communities, prisons, the military, and cults). Sensitive accounts. Some personal issues are so sensitive that participants might be reluctant to discuss them personal with an interviewer. Access to dangerous or politically sensitive sites. With telephone, interviewers can interview people living or working in war zones, or sites where diseases are rife, without needing to grapple with the danger — and the bureaucracy — of visiting the area.
Although the interviewer can interview people that are not easy to access, one of the disadvantages of asynchronous communication of place by telephone is the reduction of social cues. The interviewer does not see the interviewee, so body language etc. can not be used as a source of extra information. But social cues as voice and intonation are still available. Although social cues are reduced, enough social cues remain for terminating a telephone interview without a problem.
Another disadvantage of asynchronous communication of place is that the interviewer has no view on the situation in which the interviewee is situated. Because of this the interviewer has lesser possibilities to create a good interview ambience. personal interviews can make more use of a standardisation of the situation. Due to this lessened possibility to create a standardisation of the situation with telephone an extra disadvantage is that the interviewee can stay "visible" for other employees and managers in the organisation. As I experienced for example the interviewee was called away by his manager, so the interview had to be stopped abruptly. As in personal interviews synchronous communication of time implies that interviewer and interviewee can directly react to what the other says. This also leads to the advantage that the interviewee is more spontaneous in his response and does not deliberate too long. But on the other hand, the interviewer has to concentrate much more on the questions that need to be asked and the answers given. Another advantage of synchronous communication of time concerning telephone interviews is, as in personal interviews, the interview can be tape recorded. Tape recording a telephone interview depends on the equipment. A speakerphone is recommended (BURKE & MILLER, 2001). As with personal interview the telephone interview is also time consuming due to the fact that the tape has to be transcribed. 5. What are projective techniques and how can they be used profitabilit y ? Answer:
Projective technique is an indirect method and unstructured from the methods of investigation which has been developed by psychologists and projected use of the respondents to conclude on the underlined motive, impulse or intention that can not be secure through directly asking the respondents declined to disclose whether they or are not able to find out yourself. This technique is useful in providing an opportunity to express their attitudes of respondents without a personal embarrassment. These techniques help the respondent to project their own attitudes and feelings on the subject aware of being studied. So projective technique plays an important role in motivation research or attitude surveys. 6. How has the advancement in techonology helped data gathering via interviewing ? Answer:
Advances in technology can help us to collect data by providing easy to collect the data we need in the research, such as collecting detailed data products have been sold through the tracking of optical scanners and bar code, data searches on the Internet that provide convenience, data recording using tools such as video camera recorders and others. In some processing using electronic data processing which also provides error-free.
CHAPTER 8
1. Describe the key purpose of observation. Answer:
a. Controlled versus uncontrolled observational studies A distinction can be made between observation conducted in controlled versus uncontrolled settings. However, observation is also a potential method of data collection within an experimental, controlled research tradition. Controlled observation occurs when observational research is carried out under carefully arranged conditions. Uncontrolled observation is an observational technique that makes no attempt to control, manipulate, or influence the situation. b. Participant versus nonparticipant observation The researcher can play one of two roles while gathering observational data – that of a nonparticipant or a participant observer. Participant observation is an approach that has frequently been used in case studies, ethnographic studies, and grounded theory studies. In participant observation, the researcher gathers data by participating in the daily life of the group or organization under study. The degree of participation of researchers: 1) Passive participation 2) Moderate participation 3) Active participation 4) Complete participant observation. c. Structured versus unstructured observational studies As we have seen, observational studies can be of either the nonparticipant observer or the participant observer type. Both of these, again, can be either structured or unstructured. Where the observer has a predetermined set of categories of activities or phenomena planned to be studied, it is a structured observational study. Unstructured observational studies are claimed to be the hallmark of qualitative research. Unstructured observation may eventually lead to a set of tentative hypothesis that are tested in subsequent theory building and hypothesis testing. d. Concealed versus unconcealed observation Concealment of observation relates to whether the members of the social group under study are told that they are being investigated. A primary advantage of concealed observation is that the research subjects are not influenced by the awareness that they are being observed. 2. Discuss four dimensions that distinguish various approaches to observation. Answer:
a. Participant observation: Introduction
A key characteristics of participant observation is that the researcher gathers data by participating in the daily life of the group or the organization under study. This enables the researcher to learn about the activities of the group under study in a natural setting from an insider’s point of view through observing and participating in these activities. b. The participatory aspect of participant observation Participant observation combines the processes of participation and observation. Nonetheless, participant observation should be distinguish from both pure observation and pure participation. A distinctive feature of participant observation is that the researcher participates in the social groups under study. c. The observation aspect of participant observation While participating, the researcher should observe and record, and a later stage analyze behavior, actions, interactions, events, and the like. Getting started with participant observation and becoming a part of a social group is not without its difficulties. d. What to observe A potential problem with observational studies is getting overwhelmed by massive amounts of often disconnected data. For this reason, the researcher should try to keep a certain focus during the various stage of the observation processes. 3. Under which circumstances would you prefer observation as a method to collect data over other methods of data collection such as interviews and questionnaires? Answer:
I prefer use observation as a method to collect data over other methods of data collection such as interviews and questionnaires. Because with the observation, we can collect a real data, and find the effective result than data from other method. 4. How does participant obsevation differ from structured observation? Answer:
Difference between participant observation and structured observation Participant observation : an approach that has frequently been used in case studies, and soon. In participant observer the researcher gathers data by participating in the daily life or group or organization under study. Structured observation :is focused in nature, as it looks selectively at predetermined phenomena. The focus of structured observation is fragmented into small and manageable pieces of information.
5. Discuss how ethnography and participant observation are related. Answer:
Ethnography refers to a practice in which researchers spend long periods living within a culture in order to study it. The term has been adopted within qualitative market research
to describe occasions where researchers spend time - hours, days or weeks - observing and/or interacting with participants in areas of their everyday lives. This contrasts with interview-based research in which interaction with respondents is limited to a conventional interview or group discussion format, is more limited in time, and often takes place outside the participant's own environment. One of this research method of collecting data is through participant observation, in which the researcher gathers data by participating in the daily life of the group or organization under study. This enables the researcher to learn about the activities of the group under study in a natural setting from an insider’s point of view through observing and participating in these activities. 6. How does moderate participation differ from complete participation? Answer:
Moderate participation occurs when the researcher does not actively participate and only occasionally interacts with the social group under study, whereas in complete participation, the researcher becomes a member of the social group under study. 7. Although participant observation combines the processes of participation and observation it should be distinguished from both pure observation and pure participation. Explain. Answer:
Pure observation seeks to remove the researcher from the observed actions and behavior; the researcher is never directly involved in the actions and behavior of the group under study. Pure participation has been described as ―going native‖; the researcher becomes so involved with the group under study that eventually every objectivity and research interest is lost. 8. What is rapport and how is rapport established in participant observation? Answer:
An essential aspect of participant observation is establishing ―rapport‖. Establishing rapport involves establishing a trusting relationship with the social group under study, by showing respect, being truthful, and showing commitment to the well-being of the group or the individual members of the group, so that they feel secure in sharing (sensitive) information with the researcher. 9. Field notes are often regarded as being simultaneousl y data and data analysis. Why? Answer:
Field notes are often regarded as being simultaneously data and data analysis because of the fact that field notes are a construction of the researcher; it is the researcher who decides what goes into the field notes, the level of detail to include, how much context to include, and so on, or as the first step in the process of data analysis. 10. Is it possible to test hypotheses with structured observation? Why (not)? Answer:
Structured observation is focused in nature, as it looks selectively at predetermined phenomena. The focus of structured observation is fragmented into small and manageable
pieces of information. There are different levels of structure in structured observation. For instance, the researcher may have decided on the observation categories in a rather precise and mutually exclusive way in advance or start with a detailed plan of what will be observed and how, but collect the data in a less systematic or predetermined way. Structured observation can also be used to generate numerical data to test hypothesis. 11. How does a simple checklist differ from a sequence record on time-scale? Answer:
Because a simple checklist provides information about how often a certain event has occured, but a sequence record allows the researcher to collect information on how often an event occurs and about the order in which the events occur and a sequence record on a timescale adds a further level of detail, showing the time intervals between the events. 12. ―One of the main advantages of observation is its directness.‖ Discuss. Answer:
Interviews and questionnaires elicit verbal responses about actions and behavior from the subjects, observation alloows the researcher to gather behavioral data without asking questions. People can be observed in their natural work environment or in the lab setting, and their activities and behaviors or other items of interest can be noted, recorded, analyzed, and interpreted. 13. What is reactivity? Answer:
Reactivity occurs when the subject of the study (e.g. survey respondent) is affected either by the instruments of the study or the individuals conducting the study in a way that changes whatever is being measured. In survey research, the term reactivity applies when the individual's response is influenced by some part of the survey instrument (e.g. an item on a questionnaire); the interviewer; the survey organization sponsor conducting the study, or both; or the environment where the survey is taking place. For example, the respondent may respond positively or negatively based on the interviewer's reactions to the answer. A smile, nod, frown, or laugh may alte r how the subject chooses to respond to subsequent questions. 14. A disadvantage of observation is observer bias. Discuss at least two ways of minimizing observer bias. Answer:
The first way to minimize observer bias is observer usually given training on how to observe and what to record, because good observational studies would also establish interobserver reliability. Second way is by interviewing, because many forms of observation require the observer to be physically present knowing that we are studying them through actions and behavior, so everything will be exposed clearly when we interact with them directly.
15. Discuss the ethics of concealed observation. Answer:
Concealed observation raises ethical concerns since it may violate the principles of informed consent, privacy, and confidentiality. For this reason concealed obse rvation may harm the subjects several ways. Even, there are no strict rules for assessing the ethicality of concealed observational research. Instead, a careful, well-judged assessment of the potential harmful consequences of concealed observational research should be made by the researcher. CHAPTER 9
1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of personally administered questionnaires, mail questionnaires, and electronic questionnaires. Answer:
When collecting data from administered questionnaires, to groups of individuals, it will help us to establish rapport with the respondents while introducing the survey, provide clarification sought by the respondent on the spot, and we’ll be able to collect the questionnaires immediately after they are completed. But, the disadvantage is this method is expensive, especially if the sample is widely dispersed geographically. The other for obtaining data is from mail questionnaires and electronic questionnaires. In these methods, we’ll get enough benefits when many questions have to be obtained from a sample that is geographically dispersed. However, the questionnaires usually have a low response rate and one cannot be sure if the data obtained are unbiased since the non respondents may be different from those who did respond. 2. Explain the principles of wording, stating how these are important in questionnaire design, citing examples not in the book. Answer:
The principles of wording refers to such factors as the appropriateness of the content of the questions are worded and the level of sophistication of the language used, the type and form of question asked, the sequencing of the question and the personal data sought from the respondent is likely a different questionnaire design principles should focus in three areas and to minimize bias in research. 3. How are multiple methods of data collection and multiple sources related to reliability and validity of the measures? Answer:
Collecting data through multimethods and from multiple sources lends rigor to research because almost all data collection methods have some bias associated with them. if data obtained from several sources bear a great degree of similarity, we will have stronger conviction in the goodness of the data. For example, if an employee rates his performance as 4 on a five-point scale, and his supervisor gives him a similar rating, we may be inclined to consider him a better than average worker. This multiple sources related to the
reliability and validity of the measures because, the validity means the more scale items represent the domain or universe of the concept being measured, the greater the content validity, and reliability of a measure is an indication of the stability and consistency with which the instrument measures the concept and helps to assess the ―goodness‖ of a measure. On the other hand, multiple methods means high correlations among data obtained on the same variable from different sources and through different data collection methods lend more credibility to the research instrument and to the data obtained through these instruments. The relations between those are they have stronger conviction in the goodness of the data when they have several sources of data and the result is similar. 4. ―Every data collection method has its own built-in biases. Therefore, resorting to multimethods of data collection is only going to compound the biases.‖ How would you critique this statement? Answer:
Every data collection method may have its own biases, but doesn’t mean that resorting to multimethods of data collection is goint to compound the biases. When one method has its bias, another method will have its own bias which may be different than the first one’s. Because every method has its own biases that differ from one method to another, they result will cross-check each other biases and give more validation to the goodness of one method’s result or the other way around. 5. ―One way to deal with discrepancies found in the data obtained from multiple sources is to average the figures and take the mean as the value of the variable.‖ What is your reaction to this ? Answer:
Mean is the most commonly used measure of central tendency. It is easy to use and wellknown enough to be interpreted by everyone. To count mean, we use all data obtained so mean does represent the data well in case the data is distributed as normal. But when the data is not distributed normally, mean can give misleading descriptive value of the variable because mean is not sensitive to extreme value that usually called by outliers. 6. How has the advancement in technology helped data gathering via questionnaires? Answer:
Advancement in technology indeed helped data gathering via questionnaires. It makes data gathering less expensive, faster, and easier to modified or designed. Nowadays, questionnaires can be sent through email, either via Internet or Intranet, there are softwares available to frame subsequent questions based on the subject’s response to the preceding question, companies’ websites can also elicit survey responses like reactions to customer service, product utility, and so on. Electronic survey design system usually include a range of programs enabling the user to design sophisticated questionnaires, computerized the data collection process, check for syntactical or logical errors in the coding, and analyze the data collected. Such systems also include data analytic programs such as ANOVA, multiple regression, and others. Technology really helped data gathering.
