questionnaires lecture11

REMINDER

After the classes on 20th and 27th of January, there will be 2 classes left on 3rd and 10th of February wherein you, as a group, will make presentations on your project. We leave it to you whether you opt for a RESEARCH PROJECT or RESEARCH PROPOSAL project; In any case, be ready for a 20 minutes power-point presentation, ten minutes question-answer session and submission of a written report.

Suggested structure for written Research Project or Research Proposal project report is, as follows.

Research Project Research Proposal Project

Abstract IntroductionLiterature reviewMethodResultsDiscussionConclusionsReferences Appendices

Abstract IntroductionLiterature reviewMethodologyReferences Appendices

Collecting primary data using questionnaires

Lecture 11

Use of questionnaires (1)

Definition of Questionnaires

Techniques of data collection in which each person is asked to respond to the same set

of questions in a predetermined order

Adapted from deVaus (2002)

Use of questionnaires (3)

Types of questionnaire

Saunders et al. (2009)

Types of data variable-questions

Three distinct types of data variable used in questionnaire, are:

Opinion variable: This type of variable records what respondents feel about something or what they think or believe is true or false (opinion).

Example: How do you feel about the following statement?

‘Financial advisors should place their clients’ interest before their own’.

Behavior variable: This type of variable records what respondents actually do (behavior).

Example: How often do you place your clients’ interest before your own?

Attribute variable: Variable that records data about respondents’ characteristics, in other words things they possess, such as age, gender, marital status, education, occupation and income.

Example: How old are you?

Ensuring that essential data are collected

Data requirements table

To ensure that essential data are collected, develop a ‘Data Requirements Table’ in the following format.


PREPARING ‘DATA REQUIREMENTS TABLE’

Research question/objective: To establish employee’s attitude to the possible introduction of a no-smoking policy at their workplace.

Type of research: Predominantly descriptive, although wishing to examine differences between employees.

Investigative questions

Variable(s) examined

Detail in which data measured

Measurement question included

Do employees feel they should be able to smoke in their office if they want to as a right? (opinion)

Opinion of employee to smoking in their office as a right.

Feel…should be allowed, should not be allowed, no strong feeling

Would employees accept a smoking ban at work? (behaviour)

Likely behavior of an employee regarding the acceptance of a ban

Accept with no preconditions, accept if a smoking room was provided, not accept without additional conditions…………

How representative are the responses? (Attribute)

Age of the employee, gender of employee

Age brackets, i.e. 20-25 etc.Male/female

Stages that must occur if a question is to be valid and reliable

Source: developed from Foddy (1994)

‘ the question must be understood by the respondents in the way intended by the researcher and the answer must be understood by the researcher in the way intended by the respondent’.

DESIGNING INDIVIDUAL QUESTIONS

Researchers can do one of the three things:• Adopt questions used in other questionnaires: adopting without any

modification• Adapt questions used in other questionnaires: adapting them to suit

your condition.• Develop their own questions

Adopting or adapting questions may be necessary:

* To replicate or to compare findings with another study.

* This can allow reliability to be assessed.

But beware! There are a vast number of poor questions in

circulation; so always assess each question

carefully. Also check for copyright.

DESIGNING THE QUESTIONNAIRE (2)Types of individual questions

• Open-ended questions• Question allowing respondents to give answers in their own way.

• Close-ended questions• Question that provides a number of alternative answers from

which the respondent is instructed to choose.• Types of closed-questions

• List questions• Category questions• Ranking questions• Scale or rating questions• Quantity-questions• Grid questions

Examples of question types (1)

Open questions

6 Please list up to three things you like about your job

1…………………………………………

2…………………………………………

3…………………………………………



List questions

7 What is your religion?Please tick the appropriate box

Buddhist None Christian Other Hindu Jewish Muslim Sikh



Category questions

8 How often do you visit the shopping centre?Interviewer: listen to the respondent’s answer and tick as appropriate

First visit Once a week Less than fortnightly to once a month 2 or more times a week Less than once a week to fortnightly Less often



Ranking questions

9 Please number each of the factors listed below in order of importance to you in choosing a new car. Number the most important 1, the next 2 and so on. If a factor has no importance at all, please leave blank.

Factor ImportanceCarbon dioxide emissions [ ]Boot size [ ]Depreciation [ ] Price [ ]

Adapted from Saunders et al. (2009)


Rating questions

10 For the following statement please tick the box that matches your view most closely

Agree Tend to agree Tend to disagree Disagree

I feel employees’ views have influenced the decisions takenby management



Quantity questions

14 What is your year of birth?

(For example, for 1988 write: )


1

1

9

9 8 8


Some more materials on examples of these and other rating scales are provided in

hard copies as attached

Question wording, question order and questionnaire layout

• ‘Checklist for question wording’ given in Box 10.1 (page 317) helps avoid the most obvious problems associated with wording;

• ‘Checklist for question order’ given in Box 10.2 (page 321) helps arrange questions in a logical order; and

• ‘Checklist for questionnaire layout’ given in Box 10.3 (page 323) helps frame an appropriate layout of questionnaire.

ASSIGNMENT 9 (PART A)Those who are going to use ‘Questionnaire’ for their research project are

advised to go through their questions and check whether their all questions and questionnaire

fulfil the attributes and conditions which theabove three checklists talk about

Job Satisfaction Survey

» I am not satisfied with the benefits I receive(R)

» The benefits we receive are as good as most other organizations offer

» The benefit package we have is equitable(R)

» There are benefits we do not have which we should have(R)

Testing for Reliability and Validity

Reliability (Accuracy in measurement):1. Stability

a. Test-retest reliability b. Parallel-form reliability (Parallel/Strict parallel tests)

2. Consistencya. Inter-item consistency (Cronbach’s alpha test) b. Split-half reliability (Split-half test)

READING MATERIAL IS AVAILABLE AS ATTACHED

These four tests are available in SPSS(Command: Click ANALYZE, SCALE and RELIABILITY

ANALYSIS)

Group Assignment 10A Typical Questionnaire on Job Satisfaction: An Example

Previously we talked about how questions can be designed; particularly the following:

“Researchers can do one of the three things:• Adopt questions used in other questionnaires• Adapt questions used in other questionnaires• Develop their own questions”

Lets’ check whether the measure developed by Spector (1985) for capturing the incidence of job satisfaction can be adapted for your research. Prepare a questionnaire, using Spector’s (1985) questionnaire (hard copy attached) as your Group Assignment 10

needed to be turned in next class.

questionnaires lecture11

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