Using questionnaires effectively
Questionnaires are very commonly used instruments in surveys, and rely on self reported answers from a particular sample intended to be representative of a much wider population.
The questionnaire is one of the most widely used instruments in research in the management sciences; it is also commonly used in business for market research.
Effective use of questionnaires combines the science of good research - careful selection of the sample, and of the likely responses according to the the research questions - with the art of asking good questions. A good questionnaire is difficult to compile, yet all too often it is used without a great deal of thought, as a method in its own right without being put into the context of research design, rather than as an instrument.
A poorly constructed questionnaire with poorly thought out methodology can give rise to two key problems: confusing questions which may be clear to the author of the questionnaire but mean different things to different respondents, and poor response, which means that the sample is not representative of the population.
Effectively used, however, it is a highly efficient tool for obtaining data of a both structured (i.e. the answers are predetermined) and unstructured (the answers are open to the respondent) nature.
In this section, we shall be looking at questionnaire contruction under the following headings:
The process of constructing a questionnaire
Stages
Establishing
your objectives
Administration
method
Questionnaire
construction
Pretesting
Different methods of delivering questionnaires
Some
initial considerations
Interview
methods
Self
administered
Increasing
the likelihood of completion
The organization and presentation of questionnaires
Sequencing and steering
Instructions
Presentation
The anatomy of a questionnaire question
Some basic ground rules for writing questions
Question format and response elicitation
Open ended questions
Closed questions
Alternatives
The analysis and writing up of questionnaires
