Questionnaire surveys

Chapter 8
Survey – communication approach
Conditions Attitudes,
Observational behaviors intentions Communication
Approach Approach/Survey
Events, Research Motivations,
processes, Question expectations
procedures
Survey – Communication Approach
Survey – Communication Approach
• Survey is a means of collecting data by asking
people (called respondents) either verbal or
written question.

• Survey includes – qualitative & quantitative

methods.

• Qualitative methods – In-depth interviews &

focus groups.
• Quantitative methods – Questionnaire surveys
 Questionnaire Surveys
• Questionnaire surveys are usually conducted with a large
sample of the population, researcher is interested in.

E.g. An organizational researcher might conduct a

questionnaire survey with a sample of employees to
represent all the employees of that organization to
determine worker’s feeling toward a four-day work week.

• Questionnaire surveys usually involve quantification of data

and findings are represented numerically.
E.g. from the analysis of data collected through questionnaire surveys
it is found that 78% of employees believe that four-day work week will
enhance their productivity.
 Questionnaire Survey
• Questionnaire surveys are characterized by
their structure and standardization.
– All the respondents are asked questions in a
predetermined sequence.
– Limited number of responses are available for
respondents to choose from.
E.g. The respondent may be instructed to answer one
alternative response, such as “under 17,” “18-35,” or
“over 35” to indicate the age of the person.
 Interviewer – completion Vs
Respondent - completion

• Interviewer Completed - When an interviewer

reads the questions out to the respondent and
records the respondent’s answers on the
questionnaire.

• Respondent Completed - When respondents

read and fill out the questionnaire.
Interviewer Completed Questionnaires
• Expensive in terms of interviewers’ time
(interviewers are paid for their time).
• Enhances accuracy and completeness of
responses.
• Higher response rate – as respondents may
feel reluctant to say no or feel the need to
impress the interviewer (that you know a lot
about the topic).
 Respondent – completed
Questionnaire
• Patchy and incomplete response.
E.g. respondents may not bother to provide answers to open-
ended questions that welcome suggestions or comments.
• Low response rate.
• could introduce bias into the results because people
who choose not to respond differ from those who did
respond.
• Can be cheaper and quicker.
• Respondents may be willing to share sensitive
information as it provides anonymity to respondents.
 Types of questionnaire survey
• Household questionnaire surveys
• Street/quota intercept survey
• Telephone survey
• Mail survey
• E-survey
• Customer/visitor on-site intercept survey
• Captive group surveys
• Organization surveys
 Household questionnaire survey
• Household questionnaire surveys – in which people are selected on
the basis of their place of residence and interviewed there either
face to face or contacted by mail or telephone.

• Mostly conducted by governments (local/national) or commercial

organizations for policy development or marketing purpose.

• Provide information about a community as a whole.

• Mostly interviewer-completed but could be respondent completed

e.g. information collected during census is through respondent
completed questionnaire surveys.
 Household questionnaire survey
• Household surveys could be quite lengthy and
could last up to 20 to 30 minutes.

• Household surveys are most expensive to

conduct due to the length of interviews,
problems in contacting the representative
samples or wide geographical spread of the
study area.
 Street/quota intercept surveys
• Street surveys – in which people are stopped on
the street, in the square or in shopping malls for
an interview.

• Street interviews are of relatively short length 5 to

10 minutes and are mostly interviewer-completed.

• It is difficult to get a representative sample of the

population. There are possibilities of under
-representation or over-representation.
 Street/quota intercept survey
• Under representation – certain people may not be
frequent shoppers at all.

• Over-representation – a shopping mall located in the

CBD (central business district) is visited more by office
workers than housewives or retired personnel.

• Quota Sampling – a means to overcome the problem of

unrepresentative samples. Interviewer is given a quota
of different types of people in terms of age, gender,
occupation etc. to interview.
 Telephone Survey
• Telephone interviews – when people selected to be part of the
sample are interviewed on the telephone.

• Extensively used in market research.

• Length of a telephone interview is 10 to 15 minutes. And therefore

have highest response rate.

• Respondents feel comfortable in expressing their thoughts and

opinion or to provide sensitive information as they are anonymous
to the interviewer.

• Reduces interviewer bias

 Telephone Survey
• Mostly a random sample is selected from the
telephone directory.

• Allows expanded geographic coverage without

dramatic increase in cost.

• With computer assisted telephone interviewing

(CATI) responses can be entered directly into
computer to speed up the analysis process.
 Mail Survey
• Mail surveys – when questionnaires are send
through post to the selected sample of people.

• Respondents then complete the questionnaire

and return it via post in a postpaid envelope.
(respondent-completed questionnaire)

• Lowest response rate (only 30% of respondents

bother to reply).
 E-surveys
• E-surveys – when email or internet is used to
send out questionnaires to the potential
respondents.

• Saves postage cost but it is confined to those

having access to the internet.

• Response rate is low to medium.

• Customer/visitor intercept survey – when
customers/visitors/users of a facility are surveyed on
site.
E.g. People travelling through a specific airline may be asked
to fill out a questionnaire about their experience on the
flight.

• Captive group surveys – in which members of a specific

group (having unique characteristics) are surveyed.
E.g. Members of senior citizens club or members of union of a
particular organization.

• Organization Surveys – members of an organization

are surveyed through any means such as telephone,
mail or captive group surveys.
Questionnaire Design
 Questionnaire Design
• Types of questions
– Open-ended question
– Closed/pre-coded/fixed alternative question

• Open-ended questions are free-answer questions

where respondent is not limited to choose from a
range of answers.

• Closed questions are ones where respondent has

to choose from a range of answers.
Questionnaire Design
 Questionnaire Design
– Rating response questions (Likert & attitude statements) –
Mergers and acquisitions provide a faster means of growth
than internal expansion.

Strongly Disagree Neither Agree Strongly

disagree agree nor Agree
disagree
1 2 3 4 5

– Semantic differential – bipolar adjectives anchor the

beginning and end (of poles) of the scale (4 – 7 points).
Please tick the line below to indicate the level of difficulty you face
in using public transport.
Difficult___:___:___:___:___:___:___Easy
 Questionnaire Design
• Wording of questions

– Avoid use of jargons – slang terms.

– Avoid loaded questions – that include non-neutral or
emotionally charged terms.
E.g. Do you believe radical extremists should be allowed to burn
American flag?
– Avoid leading questions – that sways the respondent to
answer in a desired manner.
E.g. Most people agree that conserving energy is important – do you
agree?
– Avoid double-barreled questions – that asks more than
one thing.
– E.g. Do you find using a cell phone convenient and time saving?