Online Survery Software Management
Statistical surveys are used to collect quantitative information about items in a population. Surveys of human populations and institutions are common in political polling and government, health, social science and marketing research. A survey may focus on opinions or factual information depending on its purpose, and many surveys involve administering questions to individuals.
When the questions are administered by a researcher, the survey is called a structured interview or a researcher-administered survey. When the questions are administered by the respondent, the survey is referred to as a questionnaire or a self-administered survey.
Structure and standardization
The questions are usually structured and standardized. The structure is intended to reduce bias; (see questionnaire construction). For example, questions should be ordered in such a way that a question does not influence the response to subsequent questions. Surveys are standardized to ensure reliability, generalizability, and validity (see quantitative marketing research). Every respondent should be presented with the same questions and in the same order as other respondents.
In organizational development (OD), carefully constructed survey instruments are often used as the basis for data gathering, organizational diagnosis, and subsequent action planning. Some OD practitioners (e.g. Fred Nickols) even consider survey guided development as the sine qua non of OD.
Serial surveys
- Serial surveys are those which repeat the same questions at different points in time, producing time-series data. They typically fall into two types:
Cross-sectional surveys which draw a new sample each time. In a sense any one-off survey will also be cross-sectional.
Longitudinal surveys where the sample from the initial survey is recontacted at a later date to be asked the same questions.
Advantages and disadvantages of surveys
Advantages
It is an efficient way of collecting information from a large number of respondents. Very large samples are possible. Statistical techniques can be used to determine validity, reliability, and statistical significance.
Surveys are flexible in the sense that a wide range of information can be collected. They can be used to study attitudes, values, beliefs, and past behaviours.
Because they are standardized, they are relatively free from several types of errors.
They are relatively easy to administer.
There is an economy in data collection due to the focus provided by standardized questions. Only questions of interest to the researcher are asked, recorded, codified, and analyzed. Time and money is not spent on tangential questions.
Disadvantages
They depend on subjects’ motivation, honesty, memory, and ability to respond. Subjects may not be aware of their reasons for any given action. They may have forgotten their reasons. They may not be motivated to give accurate answers, in fact, they may be motivated to give answers that present themselves in a favorable light.
Structured online survey software, particularly those with closed ended questions, may have low validity when researching affective variables.
Although the chosen survey individuals are often a random sample, errors due to nonresponse may exist. That is, people who choose to respond on the survey may be different from those who do not respond, thus biasing the estimates.
Survey question answer-choices could lead to vague data sets because at times they are relative only to a personal abstract notion concerning “strength of choice”. For instance the choice “moderately agree” may mean different things to different subjects, and to anyone interpreting the data for correlation. Even yes or no answers are problematic because subjects may for instance put “no” if the choice “only once” is not available.
Characteristics of researcher-administered surveys
Fewer misunderstood questions and inappropriate responses.
Fewer incomplete responses.
Generally higher response rates and better information on nonresponse, but…
Respondents may be unwilling to discuss sensitive topics with a stranger.
Greater control over the environment that the survey is administered in.
Additional information can be collected from respondent.
Subject to interviewer bias (e.g. answers influenced by desire to impress interviewer).
Generally expensive/time-consuming to run.
Characteristics of self-administered surveys
Respondents are more likely to stop participating mid-way through the survey (drop-offs).
Respondents cannot ask for clarification.
Low response rate in some modes.
Often respondents returning survey represent extremes of the population – skewed responses (consequence of low response rates).
Allows shy respondents to answer sensitive questions in private.
No interviewer intervention available for probing or explanation.
Respondents can read the whole questionnaire before answering any questions.
Free of interviewer bias.
Questions and Response Formats
Usually, a survey consists of a number of questions that the respondent has to answer in a set format. A distinction is made between open-ended and closed-ended questions. An open-ended question asks the respondent to formulate his own answer, whereas a closed-ended question has the respondent pick an answer from a given number of options. The response options for a closed-ended question should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Four types of response scales for closed-ended questions are distinguished:
Dichotomous, where the respondent has two options
Nominal-polytomous, where the respondent has more than two unordered options
Ordinal-polytomous, where the respondent has more than two ordered options
(bounded)Continuous, where the respondent is presented with a continuous scale
A respondents answer to an open-ended question is coded into a response scale afterwards.
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