Session 6

Quantitative (Primary) Data Collection Methods:

•Administering questionnaires in survey research

Data Collection _Quantitative Research

•Survey
•Questionnaire
•Mail, self-administered
Experiments
Increasing Response rate for mail surveys
•Cover letter
•Money helps
•Interesting questions
•Follow up
•Anonymity

Pretesting of a questionnaire
 Why is this important?
 Techniques for presetting
 Screening
 Pretesting

Ethical Issues in Survey research

•right to privacy,
•the use of deception,
•respondents’ right to be informed about the purpose of the research, the need for confidentiality,
•the need for honesty in collecting data, and the need for objective reporting
•Misuse of the information obtained
•Questionnaires in quantitative research (descriptive/causal/correlational)
•Either an established scale (pure research)/ develop a questionnaire (applied research)

Guidelines for questionnaire design

•1. The appropriateness of the content of the questions.
•2. How questions are worded and the level of sophistication of the
language used.
•3. The type and form of questions asked.
•4. The sequencing of the questions.
•5. The personal data sought from the respondents (book).

The appropriateness of the content of the questions/ completeness of question

•subjective information??? Attitudes, perceptions
or
•objective facts??? Age, income, gender, nationality, education

Type and form of questions

Open ended/ more room for subjectivity

•Describe what you like the best about your job.

•
•What makes group work more engaging for you.
•Used for qualitative studies

Closed/ forced choice

•Rate these three job characteristics in order of importance.
•
•Autonomy 1 2 3
•Meaningfulness 1 2 3
•Financial Security 1 2 3
•Quantitative studies

Category Questions……for studying the behaviors

Rating Questions……..for opinions

Positively and negatively worded questions

Double Barreled Questions

•“Do you think there is a good market for the product and it will sell well?”
•Should have been……
1.“Do you think there is a good market for the product”?
2.“Do you think it will sell well?”

Ambiguous Questions
•“To what extent would you say you are happy?”
Anybody who can rephrase it more clearly????????
• Do you think HR practices are criticized by employees in this organization?
What are your spending preferences????????

Leading questions
•By asking a leading question, we are signaling and pressuring respondents to say “Yes.” or
“No
•“Don't you think that in these days of high costs of living, employees should be given good pay
raises?”
•How effective is the new compensation policy in boosting employees morale?
•How much do you like the new flavor of ABC ketchup?

Social desirability
•“In downsizing decisions, do you think older people should be removed from the jobs
first?”

•“There are advantages and disadvantages to retaining senior citizens in the workforce. To what
extent do you think companies should continue to keep the elderly on their payroll in
downsizing decisions?”
•Given the chance, would you engage in the following negative behaviors in your
organization?
•How many times you might have engaged in these negative behaviors in your
organization?

Social desirability response

Do you think investing in CSR (corporate social responsibility) is an ethical organizational
practice?”
• Rephrase??????
• How to overcome Social Desirability BIAS
•Framing of Question
•Anonymity,
•Be careful in explaining the purpose of a research which entails sensitive issues.

•Funnel Approach
 General to specific questions
 Easy to difficult

Session 7

Rigor……… in data collection

• Validity (valid and reliable scale)

• Completeness (adopting an appropriate sampling design)

Population
•The population refers to the entire group of people, or things of interest, that the researcher
wishes to investigate.

•If an organizational consultant is interested in studying the effects of a four-day work week on
the white-collar workers in IT industry in Pakistan

•Population = All white collar workers in IT industry of Pakistan

•A researcher is interested in knowing the turn over intensions of the employees of non profit
organizations of Punjab.
•A research company is interested in knowing the preference of soft drinks over energy drinks of
the adult population of Pakistan.

Sample…..a subset of population

•A sample should be a representative sample (complete). It should reflect all the
characteristics of a population in which researcher is interested.

1.To assess the training needs of all employees in an organization, data was collected only from
middle level managers.

2.To assess the training needs of middle level employees in an organization, data was collected
only from middle level male managers……………objective:

3.To assess the emergency needs of a hospital, the data was taken from the emergency ward
only one day and in one time slot.

Sampling process
Define the population.
2. Determine the sample frame.
3. Determine the sampling design.
4. Determine the appropriate sample size.
5. Execute the sampling process.

Determine the population

1.A researcher is interested in knowing the views of university students of Pakistan about online
teaching.
2.As a student you want to know how career aspirations of the students of SDSB are different
from SSE students in LUMS?
3. How many employees in private sector of Pakistan are in the favor of flex-timings?

2-Determine the sampling frame

•It is a list of all those within a population who can be sampled,
and may include individuals, households or institutions.
•LUMS
•Organization employees (HR) departments
•Islamic Banking (All the banks who deal in Islamic Banking).
•As a car showroom owner, you wan to determine the extent of post sales customers service
satisfaction in your show rooms in 3 large cities of Punjab. 2019
• Population???
• How will you determine your sampling frame??

3-Determining the Sampling Design/ methods

Generalizability/ representativeness
• Probability sampling
1.Simple random sampling

2.Systematic sampling

3.Stratified sampling

4.Cluster sampling

Convenience/Time/money/ objective

•Non-probability sampling
1.Convenience sampling

2.Purposive sampling

• Judgement

• Quota

1-Simple Random Sample…Ex-1

•In a simple random sample, every member of the population has an equal chance of being
selected.
•When generalizability is the main objective.
•Easy and convenient
•Population does not have much variation on
the variable of interest.

2- Systematic Random Sample

•Systematic sampling is similar to simple random sampling, but instead of randomly generating
numbers, individuals are chosen at regular intervals, (nth element from the population).
•Systematic way of extracting a sample
•A more evenly sampled population
3- Stratified Sampling
•This sampling method is appropriate when there are some identified sub groups of population
which need to be represented ( male , female), (low income, middle income and high
income) and you want to ensure that every sub group is sufficiently represented in the
sample.
The individuals used in the strata are internally same but externally different.
1.Divide the population into groups and calculate
how many people should be sampled
from each subgroup.
2. Then use random or systematic sampling
to select a sample from each subgroup.
Cluster Sample
•Cluster sampling also involves dividing the population into subgroups. There is similarity
between groups but each group has various characteristics of the population within . Instead
of sampling individuals from each subgroup, you randomly select an entire subgroup.

•This method is good for dealing with large

and dispersed populations. The unit of analysis

Is usually groups/ organizations.

Non-probability sampling- 1-Convenience Sampling
•Refers to the collection of information from members of the population who are conveniently
available to the collection of information from members of the population who are
conveniently available to provide it.Is used at times to obtain some “quick” information to
get a “feel” for the phenomenon or variables of interest. Generalizability is not the focus.
•How about a restaurant launching a new
Menu item filling survey from first 10 people
who ordered that dish????
2-Purposive Sampling
•This type of sampling involves the researcher using their judgement to select a sample that is
most useful to the purposes of the research. No random selection is involved

•1- Judgement Sampling (limited number of people have the information)

•2- Quota Sampling (certain groups

require adequate representation)

Thumb rules for selecting an appropriate sample size
Sampling Bias
•Errors that occur in research studies when the researchers do not properly select their
participants. Some members of the population are under/over represented.

SESSION 8

Experimental Design….. Uses different methods and techniques than survey

 Control Group

•No manipulation of IV
or
No treatment
To see the effect of an IT tutorial on IT performance
•GR-1 is not shown the tutorial

Experimental / Treatment Group

•Manipulation of IV
•Treatment is given
•GR-2 is shown the tutorial

Extraneous/nuisance variables
In research that investigates a potential cause-and-effect relationship, a confounding variable is
an unmeasured third variable that influences the DV.

IT Training IT Performance
Experience is extraneous variable
Exercise Weight Control
Extraneous variables???????

Manipulation of IV / Treatment
•To create different levels of the IV to assess the impact on the DV in experimental group.

•Different doses (5mg, 10mg, 15mg) of a drug and effect on blood pressure

•Whether 2 different levels of volume of music have different effects on moods.

Types of experiments
Lab Experiment (internal validity, less generalizable)
•Artificial Environment
•
•More Control of extraneous variables
•More Manipulation(IV, Settings)
•More Internal Validity (strength of causal claim)/
•Less External Validity(generalizability)

Field Experiment (external validity, more generalizable)

•Natural Environment/Field Setting
•Lesser control
•Less Manipulation (IV)
•Less Internal Validity/
•More External Validity

Types of Experimental Design True-Experimental design

Quasi-Experimental (No comparison)

Ethical issues in experimental design research
•Putting pressure on individuals to participate in experiments through coercion, or applying
•social pressure.
•Giving menial tasks and asking demeaning questions that diminish their self-respect.
•Deceiving subjects by deliberately misleading them as to the true purpose of the research.
•Exposing participants to physical or mental stress.
•Not allowing subjects to withdraw from the research when they want to.
•Using the research results to disadvantage the participants, or for purposes not to their liking.
•Not explaining the procedures to be followed in the experiment.
•Exposing respondents to hazardous and unsafe environments.
•Not debriefing participants fully and accurately after the experiment is over.
•Not preserving the privacy and confidentiality of the information given by the participants.
•Withholding benefits from control groups.

•What is Priming in experiments?

• If researcher want to prime happy mood. He will show happy videos to the subjects. Priming
works by making the activated concept accessible so that it can be readily used in evaluating
related objects. For example, hearing news about the economy may prime individuals to
focus on economic considerations when assessing a president's performance because
economic concepts are activated, accessible, and presumably relevant for this type of
evaluation. In this way, priming affects the opinions that individuals express, not by changing
their attitudes, but by causing them to alter the criteria they use to evaluate the object in
question

•What is manipulation check in experiments?

A manipulation check is a test used to determine the effectiveness of a manipulation in an
experimental design. ... A typical manipulation check consists of one or more questions
geared toward understanding each participant's cognizance regarding the condition to which
they were exposed In a manipulative experiment, you control and limit as many factors as
possible and hopefully just allow one factor to differ. An example would be to manipulate
the angle of boards attached to a boat to see which angle (horizontal or vertical) aquatic
species prefer to colonize

•What is Hawthorne effect in experiments?

The Hawthorne Effect is when subjects of an experimental study attempt to change or
improve their behavior simply because it is being evaluated or studied
The Hawthorne effect occurs when people behave differently because they know they are being
watched. ... The Hawthorne effect can also lead to the observation being the intervention. For
example, recommending individuals who want to lose weight should keep a diary of what
they eat and drink.

Session 9
Research Design
•We can define research design as a systematic approach that a researcher uses to conduct a
scientific study. It is a general plan about what you will do to answer the research question.

•Important elements of research design include research strategies/methodology (quantitative/

qualitative) and methods related to data collection and analysis.

•The designing decisions involves the following considerations:

–(i) What research strategy will be used? (Quan-Qual)

(ii) What type of data is required? (numbers-descriptions)

(iii) What data collection methods will be used? (interviews, questionnaires)

(iv) What will be the sample design? (simple random? Cluster?? etc)

(v) Where will the study be carried out? (natural-lab settings)

–(vi) What periods of time will the study include? (cross sectional-longitudinal)

(vii) How will the data be analyzed? (techniques and software)

(vii) What will be the unit of analysis?

Building blocks of Research Design

•Research Strategy
•Data collection methods
•Study setting
 Sampling
•Unit of analysis
•Time horizon

•Unit of analysis
1. Individual
2. Group
3. Dyads(2 parts)
4. organization
EXAMPLES:
•Individual- Purchase intensions of customers.
•Dyads/ pair. Investigation into leader follower relationship.
•Group. Effect of group diversity on performance.
•Organization. CSR and stock price relationship of construction industry.

•Time Horizon ito data collection

1. Cross sectional
2. Longitudinal

A cross-sectional study (also referred to as cross-sectional research) is simply a study in which

data are collected at one point in time.
•Pros
•They're inexpensive and fast.
•It allows researchers to look at numerous characteristics at once (age, income, gender, etc.)
Cons
•Not a good option for causal studies
•Reporting biases which creep in due to all the variables’ scales combined in a single survey
Longitudinal research involves looking at/ collecting variables over an extended period of time. 
Whether flex-time lead to better performance?
Brand awareness leads to buying intensions
•Pros
Useful in issues which involve development over time.
•Causal claims
Cons
•Time consuming
•Expensive
•Respondents may drop over time

Triangulation in research studies……More varied perspectives and confidence in results

•In the social sciences, triangulation refers to the application and combination of several research

methods in a research study of the same phenomenon. Aims to overcome the weakness or

intrinsic biases and the problems that come from single method.

•Methods: Mixed methods (Quantitative +Qualitative)

•Data: Data collected through different sources (respondent, peers, supervisors).

•Researchers: Different researchers collect/analyze data (qualitative research)