1. Data Collection Methods: Observation
Chapter 8
Data Collection Methods: Observation 1

2. Observation
Observation involves going into ‘the field’, - the factory, the supermarket, the waiting room, the office, or the trading room - watching what workers, consumers, or day traders do, and describing, analyzing, and interpreting what one has seen.

3. Examples Shadowing a Wall Street broker engaged in his daily routine.
Observing in-store shopping behavior of consumers via a camera.
Sitting in the corner of an office to observe how a merchant bank trader operates.
Working in a plant to study factory life.
Studying the approach skills of sales people disguised as a shopper.

4. Key dimensions characterizing type of observation
Controlled versus Uncontrolled Observational Studies
Participant versus Non-Participant Observation
Structured versus Unstructured Observational Studies
Concealed versus Unconcealed observation

5. Participant Observation
The participatory aspect:
Complete participation
Moderate participation
Active participation
To what extent should I participate?

6. Participant Observation
The observation aspect
Obtaining permission
Finding a ‘sponsor’
Establishing rapport

7. What to observe? Descriptive observation stage: Space Objects Actors
Feelings
Events
Spradly, 1980

8. What to observe? Focused and selective observation stage:
Look for a story line
Sort out regular from irregular activities
Look for variation in the storyline
Look for negative cases or exceptions
Develop a plan for systematic observation if needed
DeWalt and DeWalt, 2002

9. Structured observation
Looks selectively at predetermined phenomena
Different levels of structure

10. Coding schemes Focus Objective Ease of use
Mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive

11. Standard Coding Schemes
Simple checklist
Sequence record
Sequence record on time scale