Improving Organizational Surveys: New Directions, Methods and Applications. - book reviews

Administrative Science Quarterly, Dec, 1996 by Vida Scarpello

The goal of this book is to improve the survey process through linking science with practice. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 focuses on discussion of the survey process, how to ask sensitive questions, and the definition and identification of measurement error. Part 2 focuses on survey administration options. Part 3 discusses five survey applications, along with the relevant methodology.

In reading the book, I found little to disagree with. The book's 19 authors bring considerable academic and practical expertise to this project. For the most part, the book's content should be very familiar to experienced survey researchers. Nevertheless, it contains some useful, little-known information. For example, researchers interested in using surveys to investigate sensitive organizational problems (e.g., workplace violence, theft, harassment) may find Hosseini and Armacot's chapter, "Gathering Sensitive Data in Organizations," and Giacalone and Knouse's chapter, "identifying Security Risks in Organizations," particularly helpful. The former chapter introduces a series of statistical methods known as randomized response techniques (RRT), which guarantee that respondents cannot be identified by their individual responses and therefore reduce both response and nonresponse biases. The chapter does a good job of discussing various questions one might have about RRT and provides ample research references for more in-depth investigation of the technique. The latter chapter takes a direct survey approach to investigation of a sensitive topic and discusses numerous issues relevant to development and use of a security survey instrument as either an exit interview or an ongoing organizational survey. Also interesting is Booth-Kewley, Rosenfeld, and Edwards' discussion of research on responses to computer-administered vs. paper-administered surveys.

Less-experienced researchers and doctoral students should find the book valuable in several respects. Chapters in part 1 on the survey process, gathering sensitive data, and measurement errors are useful supplements to traditional texts. The five chapters on applications in part 3 show how researchers have operationalized the survey process on diverse issues. Of particular benefit to these readers is the demonstration of the mastery required of the literature in the domain of survey interest and the combination of organization development and psychometric skills needed to operationalize the survey process effectively. Finally, Dunnington's chapter, "New Methods and Technologies in the Organizational Survey Process," may be of particular interest to practicing professionals. The chapter reviews a number of commercially available software tools for use in the various steps of the survey process. For all the interesting and useful points raised in this book, however, the goal of improving the survey process through linking science with practice is not achieved. Although it is abundantly clear that the 19 authors have a great deal of knowledge, skill, and common sense to implement the survey process successfully, the communication of that expertise proves to be the stumbling block.

The book attempts to please too many audiences. Each chapter also appears to have been written independently of other chapters. This results in unsystematic coverage of some issues and redundant presentation of others. These drawbacks limit the book's utility for the exact audiences that can most benefit from the information, i.e., inexperienced survey researchers, doctoral students, practicing professionals, and professionals to be (i.e., master's students). For example, the general survey process steps and practical considerations are covered somewhat differently in chapters 1 and 5. Although much discussion is devoted to design of the survey instrument and vendor products that help in such design, the book is conspicuously lacking a discussion of how those vendor products should be evaluated with respect to the resulting survey's psychometric properties. Indeed, the issues of validity, reliability, and power are discussed only tangentially in descriptions in part 3 of the survey process applications.

The "Consortium Surveys" chapter is disappointing. It describes one company's participation in a "secret" survey consortium that is a part of another higher-level secret consortium. Furthermore, although the consortium survey appears to measure standard "Quality of Work Life Issues" and to conduct research in traditional academic areas of interest, the chapter's description of the consortium is too vague to be useful from three standpoints: (a) survey process methodology, (b) relationship between survey and organizational outcomes, and (c) consistency between consortia-sponsored and academic research.

Rather than linking science with practice, this book's contribution is its useful insights into effective practice. Although the book's content is totally credible, the overall presentation is too unsystematic to be useful as a text in graduate courses dealing with the topic. Nevertheless, the literature cited is extremely valuable to the learning and teaching of various aspects of the survey process.