Part Three SOURCES AND COLLECTION OF DATA McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,All Rights Reserved.
Chapter Twelve INSTRUMENTS OF PARTICIPANT COMMUNICATION
Instrument Design Process Phase 1: Developing the instrument design strategy Phase 2: Constructing and refining the measurement questions Phase 3: Drafting and refining the instrument
Developing the Instrument Design Strategy Management-Research Question Hierarchy: The management problem/question Research question(s) Investigative questions Measurement questions
Strategic Concerns of Instrument Design What type of data is needed to answer the management question? What communication approach will be used? Should the questions be structured, unstructured, or some combination? Should the questions be disguised or undisguised?
Ways to Interact with the Participant Personal interview Telephone Mail Computer
Types of Measurement Questions? Target Classification Administrative
Appropriate Question Content Should this question be asked? Is the question of proper scope and coverage? Can the participant adequately answer this question, as asked? Will the participant willingly answer this question, as asked?
How to Test a Respondent’s Appropriateness Filter questions Screen questions
Question Wording Criteria Is the question stated in terms of a shared vocabulary? Does the question contain vocabulary with a single meaning? Does the question contain unsupported assumptions? Is the question correctly personalized? Are adequate alternatives presented within the question?
What Dictates Your Response Strategy? Characteristics of participants Nature of the topic(s) being studied Type of data needed Your analysis plan
Types of Response Questions Free-response Dichotomous Multiple-choice Checklist Rating Ranking
Guidelines to Refining the Instrument Awaken the participant's interest Use buffer questions as a guide to request sensitive information Use the funnel approach to move to more specific questions
Improving Survey Results Pretesting is an established practice for discovering errors and useful for training the research team