Purpose of field research designs

1
Field Research Designs

• Purpose of field research designs
• Types of field studies
• Planning a field study
• Sampling plan
• Questionnaire design
• Data analysis
• Special concerns in field research

2
Purpose of Field Research

• Identify areas of concern in organization
• Monitor long-term trends
• Assess impact of program
• Provide info for decisions
• E.g., parental leave benefit plan
• E.g., Job satisfaction
• Student generated examples?

3
Purpose of Field Research (contd)

• Two-way communication channel
• Conduct research
• Aid in organizational change dev
• Symbolic channel of communication
• Via content and conduct
• E.g., parental leave benefit plan
• E.g., promotion policy

4
Types of Field Studies

• Cross-sectional
• Longitudinal

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Types of Field Studies

• Cross-sectional
• Relation between a set of variables at one
  time-point
• Usually correlational
• e.g., most student projects in IRE2002Y

6
Types of Field Studies

• Longitudinal
• Measuring changes in variables over time
• Predict how changes in one variable relate to
  changes in another variable
• E.g., most prog evaluation studies
• Issues
• More cost, time effort than cross-sectional
• Some can identify cause-effect relationships
  (i.e., not all longitudinal studies are
  experimental)

7
Types of Field Studies

• Longitudinal (contd)
• Issues
• Length of interval between measurements
• Depends on nature of phenomenon (e.g., training)
• Number of measurements
• Fatigue, demand characteristics, intrusiveness
• Participant mortality
• Effect of smaller sample size on power
• Bias created by those who drop out
  (self-selection)
• Maturation (e.g., experience v. training)
• Instrumentation (e.g., product quality)
• History (e..g, change in manufacturing material)

8
Planning a Field Study

• How? Design
• Why? Objectives
• What? Concepts
• Who? Respondents

9
Planning a Field Study

• How?
• Interview -- structured
• Questionnaire
• Paper-pencil
• Computerized (Saks p. 78-79)
• Desktop PC, Email, Web-based, Telephone
• Issues to consider
• Confidentiality, flexibility, time logistics,
  ease of use, facilities cost (Saks p. 82)

10
Planning a Field Study

• Why?
• Determine type of information needed from
  questionnaire
• Theory vs. problem-solving
• Conduct initial interviews w/some potential
  participants

11
Planning a Field Study

• Why? (contd)
• Is questionnaire needed?
• Organizational members are over-surveyed
• Will questionnaire provide info needed?
• Is the sample appropriate?
• e.g., current vs. ex-employees to study causes of
  turnover
• Can literature review or interviews suffice?
• E.g., role of legislation and provision of EI
  benefits to account for usage of maternity leave,
  interviews w/employees w/children

12
Planning a Field Study

• Why? (contd)
• Is questionnaire the best way to obtain
  information?
• Will archival data, interviews, or meta analyses
  be better?
• Superficiality concerns
• Balance needs of in-depth understanding vs.
  getting representative data

13
Planning a Field Study

• Why? (contd)
• Issues to consider
• Ownership and access to data
• Feedback to different stakeholders
• Degree of feedback
• Who provides feedback
• Level of aggregation of results
• i.e., by workgroup level, supervisory unit
• Confidentiality (Ethics)
• Participant expectations

14
Planning a Field Study

• What?
• Translate concepts into items on questionnaire
• Need clear definition of concept
• E.g., defining leave, employment status
• Use existing (reliable valid) measures
• E.g., see books on reserve listed in syllabus
• Input from users of study results
• Advantages vs. disadvantages to reliability,
  validity, credibility to users

15
Planning a Field Study

• Who?
• Type of participants determined by variables
  examined (e.g., burnout)
• Degree of applicability of questionnaire items to
  employees in different locations, functional
  units, levels etc.
• Sample size considerations
• Power to detect an effect
• Is field study an intervention?
• Credibility of results to employees

16
Planning a Field Study

• How? Design
• Why? Objectives
• What? Concepts
• Who? Respondents

17
Field Research Designs

• Purpose of field research designs
• Types of field studies
• Planning a field study
• Sampling plan
• Questionnaire design
• Data analysis
• Special concerns in field research

18
Generosity Productivity article

• What is the hypothesis?
• What are the independent and dependent variables?
• What is the method used? Justify.
• Is it a cross-sectional or a longitudinal study?
• What are the main findings?
• What are the mediating variables?
• What are the study limitations?