Data Collection Methods:

Questionnaires

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 Questionnaire Design
• Definition
A questionnaire is a pre-formulated, written set of questions to
which the respondent records his answers

• Steps
1. Determine the content of the questionnaire
2. Determine the form of response
3. Determine the wording of the questions
4. Determine the question sequence
5. Write cover letter

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 1. Questionnaire content
• Framework
Need information for all constructs in
framework
• Measurement: Operationalizing
– Objective construct:
• 1 element/items
=> 1 question
– Subjective construct:
• multiple elements/items
=> multiple questions

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 Questionnaire Content
• The wording of the question and the level of
sophistication of the language used are important. These
are important because, if the respondent does not
understand the words, obviously, he or she is not going to
be able to respond to the questions.
• An underground coal miner and a top business executive
may need to be asked some of the same issues differently.
Thus, using words that fit the level of sophistication of
understanding of the respondent is necessary.
• To take an extreme example, to assess the experienced
quality of family life, a poorly educated farm hand may be
first asked to list the activities he normally engages in
when he gets home from work, and then asked to rate the
extent of satisfaction gained from each of these activities.
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 Questionnaire content
• An index of quality of family life might then be
calculated by examining the family-related
activities listed by the respondent.
• With a business executive, on the other hand, the
same concept can be tapped by asking the
individual to rate his or her satisfaction to
questions such as: Balance between work and
family life; the impact of travelling on
experiencing quality time with the family, and
the like.

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 2. Response format
• Closed vs. Open-ended questions
– Closed questions
• Helps respondents to make quick decisions
• Helps researchers to code
– Open-ended question
• First: unbiased point of view
• Final: additional insights
• Complementary to closed question: for
interpretation purpose

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 3. Question wording
• Avoid double-barreled questions

• Avoid ambiguous questions and words

• Use of ordinary words

• Avoid leading or biasing questions

• Social desirability

• Avoid recall depended questions

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 Question wording

• Use positive and negative statements

– Dresdner delivers high quality banking service
Dresdner has poor customer operational support
– Avoid double negatives

• Limit the length of the questions

Rules of thumb:
– < 20 words
– < one full line in print

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 • Both positively and negatively worded questions
need to be asked in the questionnaire so that the
respondent does not mechanically answer the items
without much mental engagement.
• For example, if one question asks for the level of
excitement that a particular advertisement evoked,
another could ask the extent to which that same
advertisement seemed irrelevant.
• The questions are worded both positively and
negatively, helps to enhance the attention span of the
respondents who might otherwise respond
mechanically.

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 4. Question sequence

Personal and sensitive data at the end

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 5. Cover letter
• The cover letter is the introductory page of
the questionnaire

• It includes:
– Identification of the researcher
– Motivation for respondents to fill it in
– Confidentiality
– Thanking of the respondent

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 • Double barreled questions should be
avoided. If one asks the question, “Do you
value and manage a diverse workforce
well”?, there may be no clear response given
to the question because one may value a
diverse workforce, but hardly know how to
manage it! In such cases, it would be better to
ask two separate questions rather than one.

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 • Ambiguous questions should also be avoided.
Questions such as “Do you discuss your work
with the president regularly”? or “Do you go to
the movies frequently”? are ambiguous, because
the terms regularly and frequently are left open
to the interpretation of each respondent.
• One individual might discuss work with the
president on a daily basis, and another every six
months. Both are “regularly” (or at regular
intervals) discussing work! But is this what the
researcher is looking for?

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 • Similarly, frequently going to the movies
might mean one movie every week to one
person, one movie every month to another,
and three times a week to a third person!
Since these terms are not defined, biased
data will be procured from the respondents.

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 • Recall dependent questions will also
introduce biases. For example, not many
people remember when exactly they started
smoking, or why they quit a particular school
and joined another when they were 10 years
old.

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 • Leading questions also result in biased
responses because the interviewee might be led
to believe that a particular type of answer is
sought and might try to oblige the interviewer,
even if the response is not what the individual
believes to be true.
• An example of a leading question is: Don’t you
think that more women should be promoted to
decision-making line positions in organizations?
Such a question is likely to elicit the obvious
response, “Surely, Yes”!

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 • Loaded questions should also be avoided
because of the emotionality it invokes, thus
eliciting biased responses.
• As an example: “Don’t you think that the
L.A.P.D. is biased against blacks?” is a
question with racial overtones which will
bring forth emotional, rather than objective
responses to the question.

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 • Questions invoking social desirability will also
produce biased responses.
• An example would be to ask if anyone felt that
workforce diversity is bad for the system.
• In the context of the changing demographics of
the workforce, even if some felt that diversity at
the workplace is disastrous, they would tend not
to disagree because it is not a socially acceptable
response.
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 • It is also important to avoid lengthy questions which
might confuse the respondent and introduce several
types of biases.
• An example of a long question is: To what extent
would asking for responses from different groups of
employees, such as for instance, production,
marketing, R & D, advertising, and sales, on such
issues as the policy governing the organization, the
organizational culture, staff discipline and other
related matters, provide valid data to the president,
to enable him to make some critical decisions on how
to run the company effectively and efficiently?

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 Validity
• If there is convergence or strong correlation
among the data obtained from different data
collection methods on the same variable, then
one can establish convergent validity because
the data converge even when collected by
different methods. The same holds true when
there is a strong and significant correlation
between the data obtained on the same
variable from different sources.
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 • For instance, if employees’ performance is to be
measured, it is better to go through the person’s
records and evaluation forms of the superiors (in case
more objective measures of output are not available).
However, such records are usually confidential in
nature and are not likely to be made accessible to the
researcher.
• Hence data will be sought from multiple sources–for
example, from the subject, the co-workers, the
immediate supervisor, other superiors, and perhaps
even the subordinates.

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