7th assignment (Data Collection Methods) April 19, 2011

Research Methods for Business

Ohsy Cahyaningrum Ulfah 09/288640/EK/17683

1. What is bias, and how can it be reduced during interviews? Bias manifested in such ways as voice inflections, differences in wording, and interpretation. It can be happen when a large number of interviews are conducted with a number of different interviewers. To reduce it during interviews, all of the interviewers should be train first before interviewing someone. Interviewers have to be thoroughly briefed about the research and trained in how to start an interview, how to proceed with the questions, how to motivate respondents to answer, what to look for in the answers, and how to close an interview. With good training for interviewers, it can decreases interviewer bias. 2. Explain the principles of wording, stating how these are important in questionnaire design, citing examples not in the book. The principles of wording: a. The appropriateness of the content of the questions. The nature of the variable tapped will determine what kinds of questions are asked. If the variables tapped are of a subjective nature (e.g., satisfaction, involvement), where respondents beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes are to be measured, the questions should tap the dimensions and elements of the concept. If objective variables, such as age and educational levels of respondents, are tapped, a single direct questions appropriated. Important! The purpose of each question should be carefully considered so that the variables are adequately measured and yet no superfluous questions are asked. Example: Asking subjective nature: Asking objective variable:

How ambitious are you? What was your greatest success?

b. How questions are worded and the level of sophistication of the language used. The language of the questionnaire should approximate the level of understanding of the respondents. The choice of words will depends on their educational level, the usage of terms and idioms in the culture, and the frames of reference of the respondents. If the some questions are either not understood or are interpreted differently by the respondent, the researcher will obtain the wrong answers to the questions, and responses will thus be biased. Important! To give the researcher the right answers to the questions, and reducing the bias in the responses.

Page 1

7th assignment (Data Collection Methods) April 19, 2011 Example: He is a successful entrepreneur This words may not be interpreted the same way in different cultures. c. The type and form of questions asked. - Open-ended versus closed questions. Open-ended questions allow respondents to answer them in any way they choose. With those questions, they have opportunity to make additional comments. Example: Please state five of things that motivates you in doing your job! Close question is asks the respondents to make quick decision to choose among the several alternatives before them. This is can help the respondents to make quick decision to choose among the several alternatives before them. Besides, it also helps the researcher to code the information easily for subsequent analysis. Example: The researcher might list 10 or 15 aspects that might be motivates the respondents for doing the job, and ask them to rank the first five among these in the order of their preference. Positively and negatively worded questions A good questionnaire should therefore include both positively and negatively worded questions. It can minimized the tendency in respondents to mechanically circle the points toward one end of the scale. A respondent who is not particularly interested in completing the questionnaire is more likely to stay involved and remain alert while answering the questions when positively and negatively worded questions are interspersed in it. The use of double negatives and excessive use of the words not and only should be avoided in the negatively worded questions because they tend to confuse respondents. Double-barreled questions It is a question that lends itself to different possible responses to its subparts. If we combined the two questions and asked a double-barreled question, we would confuse the respondents and obtain ambiguous response. Hence, the double-barreled questions should be eliminated.

Example: Do you think there is a good mall for the quality of the product and they give good services to the customers?  Do you think there is a good mall for the quality of the product?  Do you think they give good services to the customers? Ambiguous questions It have built-in bias inasmuch as different respondents might interpret such items in the questionnaire differently. The result is a mixed bag of ambiguous responses that do not accurately provide the correct answer to the question. Example: To what extent would you say you are satisfied? The respondents might find it difficult to decide whether the question refers to their state of feelings in the workplace, or at home, or in general. Recall-dependent questions Some questions might require respondents to recall experiences from the past that are hazy in their memory. Answer to such questions might have bias.

Page 2

7th assignment (Data Collection Methods) April 19, 2011

Example: if an owner of a company is asked to state who is his first employee that got promotion from him, he may not be able to give the correct answers and may be way off in his responses. Leading questions We are signaling and pressuring respondents to say yes . Example: Salespeople make good use of leading questions. Buying a roomful of furniture is a major purchase, a big decision. "The salesperson, waiting impatiently, wants to hurry the process along. What can she do? She probably wants to say, 'So buy it already. It's just a sofa.' But that would not help. Instead, she asks a leading question: 'How soon would you need your furniture delivered?' The customer might answer 'Right away' or "Not for a few months, until we move into our new house.' Either answer serves the salesperson's purpose. The question assumes that the customer will need the store's delivery service, though that is true only after the customer buys the furniture. By answering the question, the customer implies that she will go ahead with the purchase. The question helps push her into a decision that she had been uncertain about until she answered it." Loaded questions The questions are phrased in an emotionally charged manner. Example: So, you are going to vote for that lazy Manager? If one say yes, they admit to Manager being lazy, if they say no, they are lying about voting. Social desirability Questions should not be worded such that they elicit socially desirable responses Example: Why or how did your job with your previous employer end? If you've already checked up on the candidate's resume or application you'll most likely already know the answer to this, at least the former employer's side of the story, but it's even more important to hear what the prospective employee has to say about his or her departure from their previous company. You can learn an astonishing bit about a person's sense of ethics and honesty from this question alone. Length of questions A question or a statement in the questionnaire should not exceed 20 words, or exceed one full line in print. Example: Do you need other people around to stimulate you or are you self-motivated? d. Sequencing of questions The questionnaire should be such that the respondent is led from questions of a general nature to those that are more specific, and from questions that are relatively easy to answer to those that are progressively more difficult. This funnel approach facilitates the easy and smooth progress of the respondent through the items in the questionnaire. Easy questions might relate to issues that do not involve much thinking; the more difficult ones might call for more though, judgment, and decision making in providing the answers.

Page 3

7th assignment (Data Collection Methods) April 19, 2011 Example: #1 Do you think that the corporate goals are suitable with the employees? #2 What your department do when there is a problem inside it? Using the funnel approach helps the respondents to progress through the questionnaire with ease and comfort. e. Classification data or personal information Elicit such information as age, educational level, marital status and income. Some researcher ask for personal data at the end rather than the beginning of the questionnaire. Their reasoning may be that the time the respondent reaches the end of the questionnaire he or she has been convinced of the legitimacy and genuineness of the questions framed by the researcher and, hence, is more inclined and amenable to share personal information. The reason for using the numerical system in questionnaires is to ensure the anonymity of the respondent, should the questionnaires fall into the hands of someone unauthorized in the organization. It is a wise policy to ask for sensitive information by providing a range of response options, rather than seeking exact figures. Example: Expenditure cost per month Rp 500.000 749.000 Rp 750.000 999.000 Rp 1.000.000 1.499.000 Rp 1.500.000 1.999.000 Over Rp 2.000.000 This certain principles of wording need to be followed while designing a questionnaire. The questions asked must be appropriate for tapping the variable. The language and wording used should be such that it is meaningful to the employees. The form and type of questions should be geared to minimize respondent bias. The sequencing of the questions should facilitate the smooth progress of the responses from start to finish. The personal data should be gathered with due regard to the sensitivity of the respondents feelings, and with respect for privacy. 3. How are multiple methods of data collection and from multiple sources related to the reliability and validity of the measures? 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.

Page 4

7th assignment (Data Collection Methods) April 19, 2011

4. How would you use the data from observational study to reach scientific conclusions? The investigator might entertain a set of tentative hypotheses that serve as a guide as to who, when, where, and how they will observe. Once the necessary information has been observed and recorded over a period of time, patterns can be traced, and inductive discovery can then pave the way for subsequent theory building and hypothesis testing.

Page 5