Post on 19-Jan-2016
DATA COLLECTION
For IB1-ITGS
By Indrani
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
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WHAT IS DATA COLLECTION ? Data collection is any process of preparing and
collecting data, for example, as part of a process improvement or similar project. The purpose of data collection is to obtain information to keep on record, to make decisions about important issues, or to pass information on to others. Data are primarily collected to provide information regarding a specific topic.
Data collection usually takes place early on in an improvement project, and is often formalized through a data collection plan which often contains the following activity.
Pre collection activity — agree on goals, target data, definitions, methods
Collection — data collection Present Findings — usually involves some form of
sorting analysis and/or presentation.
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WHERE DO DATA COME FROM?
All nice and collated in a database comes from: Insurance companies (claims, medications,
procedures, diagnoses, etc.)
Firms (demographic data, productivity data, etc.)
Institution (student name, subject, marks)
Offices (Employee name, address, phone, salary)
Telephone Companies (Customer name, Interest) And from many other sources
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WHERE DO DATA COME FROM?
Take a step back – if we’re starting from scratch, how do we collect / find data? Secondary data Primary data
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SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data – data someone else has collected This is what you were looking for in your
assignment.
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SECONDARY DATA – EXAMPLES OF SOURCES
Health departments Vital Statistics – birth, death
certificates Hospital, clinic, school, nurse records Private and foundation databases Central and State governments Surveillance data from state
government programs Federal agency statistics - Census,
NIH, etc.
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SECONDARY DATA – LIMITATIONS
What did you find on the frustrating side as you looked for data on the state’s websites?
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SECONDARY DATA – LIMITATIONS
When was it collected? For how long? May be out of date for what you want to analyze. May not have been collected long enough for
detecting trends. E.g. Have new anticorruption laws impacted
Russia’s government accountability ratings?
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SECONDARY DATA – LIMITATIONS
Is the data set complete? There may be missing information on some
observations Unless such missing information is caught and
corrected for, analysis will be biased.
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SECONDARY DATA – LIMITATIONS
Are there confounding problems? Sample selection bias? Source choice bias? In time series, did some observations drop out
over time?
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SECONDARY DATA – LIMITATIONS
Are the data consistent/reliable? Did variables drop out over time? Did variables change in definition over time?
E.g. number of years of education versus highest degree obtained.
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SECONDARY DATA – LIMITATIONS
Is the information exactly what you need? In some cases, may have to use “proxy
variables” – variables that may approximate something you really wanted to measure. Are they reliable? Is there correlation to what you actually want to measure?
E.g. gauging student interest in U.W. by their ranking on FAFSA – subject to gamesmanship.
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SECONDARY DATA – ADVANTAGES
No need to reinvent the wheel. If someone has already found the data, take
advantage of it.
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SECONDARY DATA – ADVANTAGES
It will save you money. Even if you have to pay for access, often it is
cheaper in terms of money than collecting your own data. (more on this later.)
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SECONDARY DATA – ADVANTAGES
It will save you time. Primary data collection is very time consuming.
(More on this later, too!)
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SECONDARY DATA – ADVANTAGES
It may be very accurate. When especially a government agency has
collected the data, incredible amounts of time and money went into it. It’s probably highly accurate.
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SECONDARY DATA – ADVANTAGES
It has great exploratory value Exploring research questions and formulating
hypothesis to test.
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PRIMARY DATA
Primary data – data you collect
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PRIMARY DATA - EXAMPLES
Surveys Focus groups Questionnaires Personal interviews Experiments and observational study
3 METHODS FOR COLLECTING DATAMgt. 450
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THREE MAJOR TECHNIQUES FOR COLLECTING DATA:1. Questionnaires2. Interviews3. Observation
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USING THESE DATA GATHERING METHODS
Each method has advantages and problems. No single method can fully measure the variable important to OD
Examples: Questionnaires and surveys are open to
self-report biases, such as respondents’ tendency to give socially desirable answers rather than honest opinions.
Observations are susceptible to observer biases, such as seeing what one wants to see rather than what is actually there.
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USE MORE THAN ONE
Because of the biases inherent in any data-collection method, it is best to use more than one method when collecting diagnostic data.
The data from the different methods can be compared, and if consistent, it is likely the variables are being validly measured.
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DEMOGRAPHICS
Information about the people you are gathering data from is important.
Collect the specific demographics necessary. Some examples Age Gender Income level Ethnic background Status (student, teacher, visitor)
Be careful not to collect demographics that are not specific to your data collection purpose.
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QUESTIONNAIRES: Questionnaires are one of the most efficient
ways to collect data. They contain fixed-response questions about
various features of an organization. These on-line or paper-and pencil measures
can be administered to large numbers of people simultaneously.
They can be analyzed quickly. They can be easily be fed back to employees. Questionnaires can be standard based on
common research or they can be customized to meet the specific data gathering need.
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QUESTIONNAIRES; THERE ARE DRAWBACKS;
Responses are limited to the questions asked in the instrument.
They provide little opportunity to probe for additional data or ask for points of clarification.
They tend to be impersonal. Often elicit response biases – tend to answer
in a socially acceptable manner.
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INTERVIEWS Interviews are probably the most widely used
technique for collecting data in OD. They permit the interviewer to ask the
respondent direct questions. Further probing and clarification is possible
as the interview proceeds. This flexibility is invaluable for gaining
private views and feelings about the organization and exploring new issues that emerge during the interview.
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INTERVIEWS Interviews may be highly structured,
resembling questionnaires, or highly unstructured, starting with general questions that allow the respondent to lead the way.
Interviews are usually conducted one-to-one but can be carried out in a group.
Group interviews save time and allow people to build on other’s responses.
Group interviews may, however, inhibit respondent’s answers if trust is an issue.
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INTERVIEWS / FOCUS GROUPS Another unstructured group meeting
conducted by a manager or a consultant. A small group of 10-15 people is selected
representing a larger group of people Group discussion is started by asking general
questions and group members are encouraged to discuss their answers in some depth.
The richness and validity of this information will depend on the extent that trust exists.
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DRAWBACK TO INTERVIEWS
They can consume a great deal of time if interviewers take full advantage of the opportunity to hear respondents out and change their questions accordingly.
Personal biases can also distort the data. The nature of the question and the interactions
between the interviewer and the respondent may discourage or encourage certain kinds of responses.
It take considerable skill to gather valid data.
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SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. How do management and non-management employees interact in the office?
2. How do you know when you have done an excellent job?
3. How do non-management employees learn about organizational change?
4. If you could change one or two things about the way management and non-management personnel interact, what would you change?
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OBSERVATIONS
Observing organizational behaviors in their functional settings is one of the most direct ways to collect data.
Observation can range from complete participant observation, where the OD practitioner becomes a member of the group under study to a more detached observation using a casually observing and noting occurrences of specific kinds of behaviors.
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ADVANTAGES TO OBSERVATION: They are free of the biases inherent in the
self-report data. They put the practitioner directly in touch
with the behaviors in question. They involved real-time data, describing
behavior occurring in the present rather than the past.
They are adapting in that they can be modified depending on what is being observed.
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PROBLEMS WITH OBSERVATION
Difficulties interpreting the meaning underlying the observations.
Observers must decide which people to observe; choose time periods, territory and events
Failure to attend to these sampling issues can result in a biased sample of data.
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OBSERVATION PROTOCOL
A decision needs to be made on what to observe.
Example:Observe how managers and employees
interact in the office.Observe who has lunch with whom. (Do
managers and non-managers eat together? Do executives have a private lunch area?)
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PRIMARY DATA - LIMITATIONS
Uniqueness May not be able to compare to other populations
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PRIMARY DATA - LIMITATIONS
Do you have the time and money for: Designing your collection instrument? Selecting your population or sample? Pretesting/piloting the instrument to work out
sources of bias? Administration of the instrument? Entry/collation of data?
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PRIMARY DATA - LIMITATIONS
Researcher error Sample bias Other confounding factors
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DATA COLLECTION CHOICE
What you must ask yourself: Will the data answer my research question?
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DATA COLLECTION CHOICE
To answer that You much first decide what your research
question is Then you need to decide what data/variables are
needed to scientifically answer the question
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DATA COLLECTION CHOICE
If that data exist in secondary form, then use them to the extent you can, keeping in mind limitations.
But if it does not, and you are able to fund primary collection, then it is the method of choice.
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END OF PACK
Thank you