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QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND CRITICAL THINKING/ANSWERS
1. What qualities should field workers possess?
Field interviewers should be personable, healthy, and well groomed. Being personable is
2. [Ethics Question] An interviewer has a rather long telephone interview. The estimate
suggests that fully completing the survey will take 30 minutes. However, what do you think
the response rate will be if people are told ahead of time that it will take 30 minutes to finish
participating in the survey? Should the interviewer fudge a little and state that the survey will
take only 15 minutes? Explain.
The respondent must be given an accurate estimate of the amount of time participating in the
interview will take. If someone is told that fifteen minutes will be required, and the questioning
3. What should the interviewer do if a question is misunderstood? If a respondent answers a
question before it is encountered in the questionnaire?
Frequently, when a question is misunderstood, the interviewer is instructed to repeat the question.
4. When should interviewers probe? Give some examples of how it should be done.
Interviewers should probe when respondents give no answer, incomplete answers, or answers that
5. How should respondents’ answers to open-ended questions be recorded?
Verbatim. Although it is difficult to write a respondent’s answer down word for word, this should
Record responses during the interview.
Use the respondent’s own words.
6. How should the fieldworker terminate the interview?
297
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Chapter Eighteen: Fieldwork 298
Fieldworkers should wait to close the interview until they have secured all pertinent information.
The interviewer who departs hastily will be unable to record the spontaneous comments
respondents sometimes offer after all formal questions have been asked. Merely recording one of
7. Why is it important to ensure fieldworkers adhere to the sampling procedure specified for a
project?
As the introduction of the chapter illustrates, the best laid plans of mice and men may go astray.
Business research is no exception. A great plan, if not properly executed, may fail to achieve its
8. [Ethics Questions] What forms does interviewer cheating take? How can it be prevented or
detected?
Interviewer cheating most often occurs on a portion of the questionnaire rather than the entire
questionnaire. Interviewers who find some questions troublesome because the questionnaire is
too long or because the questions are embarrassing may skip the questions. For example, if they
9. [Ethics Question] Two interviewers are accused of curb-stoning. What have they done?
10. Comment on the following field situations.
a. After conducting a survey with about 10 people, an interviewer noticed that many of
the respondents were saying, “Was I right?” after a particular question.
This indicates that the respondents are viewing the interview as a quiz rather than a situation
b. A questionnaire asking about a new easy-opening can has the following instructions to
interviewers: (Hand respondent can and matching instruction card.) “Would you
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter Eighteen: Fieldwork 299
please read the instructions on this card and then open this can for me?” ( Interviewer:
Note any comments respondent makes. Do not under any circumstances help him or
her to open the can or offer any explanation as to how to open it. If respondent asks
for help, tell him that the instructions are on the card. Do not discuss the can or its
contents.)
c. A researcher gives balloons to children of respondents to keep the children occupied
during the interview.
The purpose of this technique is to stop children who are constantly disturbing their parent(s).
d. An interviewer tells the supervisor, “With the price of gas, this job isn’t paying as well
as before!”
When research houses hire interviewers as independent contractors, they are often paid on a
e. When a respondent asks how much time the survey will take, the interviewer responds
“15 to 20 minutes.” Then, the respondent says “I’m sorry, I have to refuse. I can’t give
you that much time right now.”
This is an ideal situation for asking the respondent if another time would be appropriate. The
11. Write some interviewer instructions for a telephone survey.
12. A fieldworker conducting a political poll is instructed to interview registered voters. The
fieldworker interviews all willing participants eligible to vote (those who may register in
the future) because allowing their opinions to be recorded is part of her patriotic duty. Is
she doing the right thing?
13. An interviewer finds when potential respondents ask how much time the survey will take
most refuse if they are told 15 minutes. The interviewer now says 10 minutes and finds that
most respondents enjoy answering the questions. Is this the right thing to do?
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter Eighteen: Fieldwork 300
14. A fieldworker asks respondents whether they will answer a few questions. However, the
interviewer also observes the respondent’s race and approximate age. Is the ethical?
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
1. [Internet Question] Go to http://www.quirks.com/directory/telephone/index.aspx. Using
the search window, investigate the following. Suppose you were interested in conducting
telephone interviews in a number of places. List telephone facilities in Denmark, Mexico,
South Korea and in Alabama (United States). Is CATI available in every county of
Alabama?
It’s very easy to search by country and by state. There are several companies available with CATI
CASE 18.1 Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Library
Objectives: To encourage students to think about challenges when using inexperienced
fieldworkers.
Summary: This library is located at the University of Southern California. The staff wanted to
know more about who its patrons are, what library resources they find helpful, and whether they
are satisfied with the library’s services. The goal was to conduct exploratory research for less
than $250. A one-page questionnaire was developed, and student workers and library staff would
staff a table offering the survey.
Questions
1. Imagine that you were asked to help prepare for this survey. What fieldwork challenges
would you expect to arise in a survey such as this, to be carried out by inexperienced
fieldworkers?
The fieldworkers should ideally meet certain job requirements: they should be healthy, outgoing,
2. What training would you recommend for the students and other library staffers conducting
this survey? Suggest topics to cover and advice to give these fieldworkers.
All trainees should receive a briefing session on the particular project. The objective of training
How to make initial contact with the respondent and secure the interview.
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter Eighteen: Fieldwork 301
CASE 18.2 Margaret Murphy O’Hara
Objectives: The objective of this case is to portray some typical problems interviewers face and
to discuss the role of the supervisor in fieldwork.
Summary: Ms. O’Hara encounters a number of problems during her first day on the job. The
problems encountered are interviewing the wrong person, a high refusal rate, failure to set an
appointment for reinterviews with a busy subject, and the like.
Questions
1. Is Margaret going to be a good professional interviewer?
The short description of Margaret appears to indicate that she is personable and diligent. She has
2. What should Mary Zagorski tell Margaret?
Mary should first tell Margaret that she is doing a good job and then attempt to help her with the
various problems. The first thing that Mary might discuss with Margaret is the length of the
Margaret should also be informed about the value of a simple random sample. She should be
given a statement concerning the sampling procedures so that she may answer questions about
Margaret has also indicated she was having some problems with the income and age questions.
Margaret should also be given a statement about the Zagorski interviewing service to explain that
it is a “professional research company” and interviewing service, etc.
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
