Questionnaire Format

Introduction onward executing either travel on a investigateer should ask himself few examinations in whileicular * wherefore you argon asking the misgivings * who the results ar for * what you expect to ? nd from the final results * how you atomic heel 18 departure to analyse the entropy when you get them If you re? ect on these interrogatorys, it entrust be easier to compose more appropriate, accu wander questions that provide usageful ? ndings. This re? ection should in like manner foster to get a line which order will be the closely appropriate for detail guides.The weft of method therefore considers on the questions that investigateer want answered. If he want to know what throng do in a particular situation then a questionnaire will credibly be suf? cient. If its to locate why roundthing has occurred, a questionnaire will provide slight valid receptions than in-depth interviews or focus groups because in-depth interviews and focus groups al low the responsive the immunity to express things in context that may non scram mind of before. This course prep atomic sum up 18 is dedicated to the questionnaire method of interrogation in watchfulness.The work is separated into two parts part atomic yield 53 is giving an oerview nurture of more or less questionnaires and part two is consider questionnaires as a research method in varied type of man epoch ment. headnaire is a formalized impersonate of questions, usually paper based or delivered online, submitted for replies that mountain be coffin nailvass for us equal to(p) randomness * social research * trade research * focal point research Questionnaire design do 1. propound the Information assumeed 2. Specify the Type of Interviewing methodAs it was said before for each one research should begin with some common steps such as specifying the infallible information and decision making which method of interviewing should be conducted for this particul ar research including all the advantages and possible obstacles. overly the tec should assess what information will be sought latterlyr a thorough s cornerstonening of secondary sources of data and determine the marking respondent. 3. Decide on the type of questionnaire and its expression 4. Evaluation of question content. Before including a question in the schedule, psychoanalyse whether * This question is really crucial The respondent basin understand the question. (i. e. is it too technical, ambiguous, or advanced for the soft touch respondent? ) * The respondent depose answer the question. (Say, the respondents possess sufficient knowledge. As such, it is pause not to ask too practically of factual data or about past history. ) * The respondent will answer the question. Specially, if it invades into ones retirement or it requires too much effort to answer, then they usually worsen to cooperate 5. Check question phrasing. For Example * Do words ready ambiguity in moment? Are there any implied alternatives in the question? * Are there some assumptions to be made to answer the question? * Will the respondents approach the question from the similar frame of reference as designed by the researcher? 6. Determine form of response to each question The response format may be open or unsympathetic ended. In familiar, the type of response format will depend on the objective of the research, character of data to be pull unitedlyed and compend to be performed. 7. Determine sequence of questions. * Use simple and interesting crack questions * Put the questions in logical manner Ask for classificatory data at the end 8. Assess the physical layout of the questionnaire. Naturally, the questionnaire essential be printed the right way put in elegant form and facilitate sinkling. 9. Pre- preemptvass the questionnaire. It is normal design to pretest a questionnaire on a small number of target respondents. The pretest is with to assess both individ ual questions and their sequence of response pattern. jibely, a researcher must revise questions which cause lines. While developing a questionnaire, researcher must * Use simple words in framing the questions invalidate ambiguous- questions * Avoid implicit alternatives * Avoid questions that require too much retentivity recall and calculation * Avoid double barreled questions * Ideally, a questionnaire should number 1 secure some basic information to get the respondents cooperation and gradually try to collect more information about the phenomenon of interest. * It is easier to administer a multiple choice response categories that requires one simple tick. Questionnaire format Questionnaire format depends upon the come up of structure and disguise call for during data collectionStructure At the clock of fronting the questionnaire the researcher must appropriately determine the degree of structure to be imposed on the questionnaire. A highly structured questionnaire is one in which the question to be asked and the responses permitted be explicitly pre-specified. On the other hand in a non-structured questionnaire the questions to be asked are kept flexible in their own words and also the respondents are allowed to answer the questions in a manner they like. The response pattern may vary from unrestricted to unsympathetic-ended.In open-ended question the respondent is free to choose the possible response, whereas in the closed ended from the researcher pre specifies certain options and the respondent is allowed to choose the alternatives from the disposed(p) options. entomb Disguised questions is one where bearing is not made obvious to the respondents and is asked in an indirect manner. Non- mask questions, on the other hand, are ones which are direct and the social function of asking them is known pissly is the respondents. Disguised questions are utilize in the conditions when the issues concerned are such that respondents may not give ind emnify answer to direct questions.Questionnaires by the format can be shared out into the following categories Structured non-disguised questionnaire Structured-disguised questionnaire * Questions are listed in a pre-arranged order * Respondents are told about the purpose of collecting information * Questions are listed in a pre-arranged order * Respondents are not told about the purpose of conducting survey Non-structured non-disguised questionnaire Non-structured disguised questionnaire * Questions are not structured. * questioner is free to ask questions in any sequence he/she wants. Respondents are told about the purpose of collecting information * Questions are not structured * seeker is free to ask questions in any sequence he/she wants. * Respondents are not told about the purpose of conducting survey Structured, non-disguised questionnaires are very popular in marketing research studies. These are more applicable when large exemplar sizes are there. Non-structured, non-d isguised questionnaires, on the other hand, are used when a freehand is to be provided to the respondents so that in-depth information on the subject could be solicited e. . in industrial marketing research wherein number of respondents would also be low. Non-structured, disguised questionnaires are in the first determine used in motivation research. Wore Association Test, Sentence Completion Test, thematic Appreciation Test, Cartoon Test, etcetera may be used in this category, Structured disguised questionnaires are more appropriate where responses are required towards certain metier issues like attitude towards aids patients, abortion etc. Questionnaire length and structure It is comm whole accepted that a questionnaire should not be over long.Peoples short anxiety spans concoct that long questionnaires are completed less accurately as people rush to ? nish them. This is also true for obvious question repetition with respondents biased towards simply ingeminate what they said before whether it is accurate or not. One major chore with very long questionnaires is the likelihood of participants skim reading them, which increases the likelihood of participants mis controling abstruse questions. This is also a occupation with back-ground information or instructions given at the first base of the questionnaire.Many of these problems can be counteracted with careful design of the questionnaire. The amount of motivation felt by participants to complete the questionnaire can affect how much they are prepared to concentrate on completing it. For example, participants who tincture the outcomes of the research will directly bene? t them may aroma more incite to complete a questionnaire and vice versa. Since a spread of different types of users is frequently required, it is primal to understand these variations when designing and piloting the questionnaire.To increase the usability and coreiveness of the questionnaire ray it is important to consider qu estionnaire is structured. This means reviewing the sequence of questions very carefully. Grouping questions together under a common theme heading will sustain the respondent contextualize the subsequent questions. This approach will also help identify how the sequence is likely to affect the respondent. The order in which questions are presented may bias your respondent to give more or less gold responses.This can also happen with the response scales whereby a respondent gives the same answer throughout a section without reading the questions. To counteract this can either counterbalance the questions or can counterbalance the response. Piloting the questionnaire should help identify these problems and correct them in the ? nal version. Question wording When designing questions it is important to consider if each question will fox the same meaning for everyone. It is, therefore important to make sure frame of reference is clear. Providing de? nitions or examples is a useful way to overcome these problems.Some researchers provide scenarios at the beginning of sections to contextualize the questions. Keeping questions as short and simple as possible will increase the likelihood that they will be understood as closely as the accuracy of responses. Questions that are complicated by double negatives or loaded words are particularly hard for a respondent to answer. It is also important not to ask more than one question at once (e. g. How do you rate the system response multiplication to urgent and non-urgent request? ). as well as it is essential not to ask a question that requires them to interpret meaning of a term (e. g. Do you count online tutorials on a fix pedestal? What is meant by the concept regular basis, is it once a day or once a week? ). Providing a range within which to choose a response will help to clarify these choices. Ranges can also help respondents feel happier about answering some questions. For example, being asked to write down age can feel far more invasive than choosing from a weft of age ranges. Ultimately, it is always important to consider what biases you may be relaying through the wording of a question. Leading questions are frequently the major problem with or so questionnaires (e. . Why do you think online assessment is wrong? ). Similarly questions that invite a socially desirable response will produced a biased set of responses. Finally, assuming a respondent will be able to remember accurate details of events several months ago is impractical and will produce inaccurate responses. Question types Contingency questions A question that is answered only if the respondent gives a particular response to a foregoing question. This avoids asking questions of people that do not apply to them (for example, asking men if they save ever been pregnant).Matrix questions Identical response categories are assigned to multiple questions. The questions are move one under the other, forming a matrix with re sponse categories along the top and a list of questions down the side. This is an efficient use of page space and respondents time. Closed ended questions Respondents answers are limited to a fixed set of responses. Most scales are closed ended. Other types of closed ended questions include * Yes/no questions The respondent answers with a yes or a no. * Multiple choice The respondent has several option from which to choose. leprose questions Responses are graded on a continuum (example rate the appearance of the harvest-feast on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most preferred appearance Open ended questions No options or predefined categories are suggested. The respondent supplies their own answer without being constrained by a fixed set of possible responses. Examples of types of open ended questions include * all in all unstructured For example, What is your spirit on questionnaires? * Word association Words are presented and the respondent mentions the first wo rd that comes to ind. * Sentence completion Respondents complete an uncompleted sentence. For example, The most important consideration in my decision to buy a new house is . . . * Story completion Respondents complete an incomplete story. * externalise completion Respondents fill in an empty conversation balloon. * Thematic apperception test Respondents explain a picture or make up a story about what they think is happening in the picture Question Sequence Items on a questionnaire should be grouped into logically dour sections.Grouping questions that are similar will make the questionnaire easier to complete, and the respondent will feel more comfortable. Questions that use the same response formats, or those that cover a specific topic, should appear together. Each question should follow comfortably from the previous(prenominal) question. Writing a questionnaire is similar to writing anything else. Transitions between questions should be smooth. Questionnaires that recoi l from one unrelated topic to another feel disjointed and are not likely to produce high response rates.Most investigators have nominate that the order in which questions are presented can affect the way that people respond. Questions in the latter half of a questionnaire were more likely to be omitted, and contained fewer extreme responses. Some researchers have suggested that it may be necessary to present general questions before specific ones in order to avoid response contamination. Other researchers have reported that when specific questions were asked before general questions, respondents tended to exhibit greater interest in the general questions. It is not clear whether or not question-order affects response.A few researchers have reported that question-order does not effect responses, while others have reported that it does. Generally, it is believed that question-order effects exist in interviews, but not in written surveys. Some general rules about question sequence * flow logically from one to the next * researcher must ensure that the answer to a question is not influenced by previous questions * flow from the more general to the more specific * flow from the least(prenominal) sensitive to the most sensitive * flow from factual and behavioral questions to attitudinal and opinion questions * flow from unaided to aided questionsCoding and Tabulating Coding is the technical name used to categorize the data collected. It involves specifying the alternative categories or classes into which responses are to be primed(p) and assigning code numbers to the classes. In fact, code closed-ended questions are simple, depending on the response pattern one may design the confused codes for different responses. Open-ended questions are, however, very hard-fought to code. Here no uniform rules exit. The researchers have been found to apply their own discretion in developing the coding procedure..Tabulation consists of simply numeration the number of cases that fall into the various categories. It may wee the form of simple or cross tabulation. Simple tabulation involves counting the responses based on one variable. One may apply various statistical tools like mean, median, mode, standard deviation or variance to suffer and interpret the data. To present the data in graphical form one may make use of various forms of statistical graphs like histogram, frequency polygon, ogive etc. A brief description of these tools is given below.Histogram It is a form of bar chart where the values of the variable are placed on the X-axis and the frequency of each distinct occurrence is indicated on the Y-axis. relative frequency polygon Figure obtained from the histogram by joining the midpoints of the bars of the histogram with straight lines. nose cone This graph shows the number of cases having a value less than or compeer to specified quantity that is, the cummulative frequency is generated. Afterwards the cummulative frequencies are plotte d along the Y- axis against the given combination of values of the variable (or X-axis).Advantages and Disadvantages of Questionnaires Advantages Disadvantages The researcher is able to contact large numbers of people quickly, easily and efficiently using a postal questionnaire The format of questionnaire design makes it difficult for the researcher to examine complex issues and opinions. Even where open-ended questions are used, the depth of answers that the respondent can provide tend to be more-limited than with almost any other method of research. This makes it difficult for a researcher to gather information that is rich in depth and detail. Questionnaires are relatively quick and promiscuous to create, code and interpret (especially if closed questions are used). In addition, the respondent- not the researcher does the time-consuming part of completing the questionnaire With a postal questionnaire, the researcher can never be certain the person to whom the questionnaire is sent actually fills it in. For example, if your research is concerned with finding-out the opinions of women on a range of issues, it would be less than useful if an unknown number of the questionnaires sent by the researcher were filled-in by men A questionnaire is easy to standardise.For example, every respondent is asked the same question in the same way. The researcher, therefore, can be sure that everyone in the sample answers exactly the same questions, which makes this a very reliable method of research. Where the researcher is not present, its always difficult to know whether or not a respondent has understood a question properly. Questionnaires can be used to explore potentially discomfit areas (such as sexual and criminal matters) more easily than other methods. The questionnaire can, for example, be both anonymous and completed in privacy.This increases the chances of people answering questions frankly because they are not intimidated by the presence of a researcher. The researcher has to hope the questions asked mean the same to all the respondents as they do to the researcher. This is a problem that can to some extent be avoided by conducting a Pilot Study prior to conducting the real survey Relatively garish method, does not require any investments The response rate (that is, the number of questionnaires that are actually returned to the researcher) tends to be very low for postal questionnaires.A 20 25% return of questionnaires is probably something that most researchers would happily settle for and this may mean that a carefully-designed sample becomes unrepresentative of a target population. The problem of the self-selecting sample is particularly apparent in relation to questionnaires. When a response rate is very low the responses received may only be the opinions of a very highly motivated section of the sample (that is, people with tight opinions who take the time and trouble to complete and return a questionnaire)Questionnai res in Management Management questionnaires are an important way of knowing about the productivity, sales and morale of the company. It provides an opening into the hearts and minds of the employees and enables the forethought to take nonindulgent steps to change and improve the work environment for enhanced productivity. Managers need to prepare questions for recruitment of staffs, which involves all type of questions from technical to personal. Even managers themselves have to answer questions for their own appraisal process.Before designing the management questionnaire, it is necessary to understand the goal of the questionnaire? What are benefits of the questionnaire to the management and company as a all? Start with a brief introduction, highlight the objective and motive of the questionnaire and what you call for to achieve from this survey. You can define a wide range of questions on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to make it comprehensive. Make sure the questions are independent in nature and easy to understand.Top level managers need to question their subordinates about their work and need to know about their psychology Thus management questionnaires prove to be very beneficial for various different types of organizations. These questionnaires are not only important for employers but for employees as well. Management questionnaires are used in different type of management such as * slaying management A action management questionnaire is an essential instrument for collecting data. This data can be used to enhance management performance.By carrying out a survey on performance management, companies are in a better stake to identify areas that require improvement and implement ways through which improvement of performance can be achieved. * Project management A job management questionnaire covers various areas in line with a particular despatch, the strategic processes of project management, how management processes are coordina ted right from their insertion to their eventual completion. This helps to keep track of the progress that is being made and what else can be done. * Time ManagementA time management questionnaire is formulated for the purpose of evaluating individuals on their time management habits and character traits. Time is an essential resource and utile time management has a significant impact on performance. A time management questionnaire helps people identify areas of their life in which they can improve. * Supply twine Management Supply orbit management is the sensitive procedure being initiated by the corporate to ensure the growth process in which the raw material is supplied to the concerned department to boost the production.In fork up chain questionnaire, the concerned department will follow certain on the job(p) standards to answer all the questions. On the basis of the outcome of this questionnaire, an organization can easily evaluate the percentage of success of the summat e chain department. * world Resource Management A Human Resource Management Questionnaire is a set of questions regarding the management of the human resource department of an organization. It has information regarding the number of employees involved and the structure and functioning of the human resource department.Examples of questionnaires can be found in Appendix Bibliography 1. Kinnear, Thomas C. and James R. Taylor, Marketing Research An Applied Approach McGraw-Hill International Edition. 2. Adams, Anne and Cox, Anna L. (2008). Questionnaires, in-depth interviews and focus groups. In Cairns, Paul and Cox, Anna L. eds. Research Methods for Human Computer Interaction. Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 3. Questionnaire Design. A. N. Oppenheim Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. impudent edition edition (17 Aug 2000) 4.Developing a Questionnaire (Real world research). Bill Gillham. Continuum (1 Jun 2000) Appendix Performance Management Questionnaires Company soma . Industry . Number of employees . Company position . say the following using this key * Unsatisfactory *Average * technical *Excellent Efficiency in the use of resources Assurance of quality performance .. Employee satisfaction .. Employee training and development .. Customer service . character of products .. Quality standards Safety standards .. Rate of product delivery .. Staff punctuality . bodied social responsibility . Project Management Questionnaires Is there a project management process in existence? What is the scope of the project? .. What project phases are put in place? .. Upon the undertaking of projects, is there pass on delegation of tasks? Who is responsible for the realization of project objectives? Which processes of project management presently exist? What are the financial implications of these processes? . Are there guidelines in place for project organization and quality assurance? Do processes related to the projects sustain the needs of k ey stakeholders? Is the project independently carried out? Time management questionnaire Do you prioritize your tasks? Do you allow interruptions to take your attention away(predicate) from important tasks? Do you take on tasks even when the time is not sufficient? .. Do you take on other peoples tasks? . Do you take breaks during the day? Do you take a long time to complete normal tasks? . Do you find yourself working over the weekend or during holidays? . Do you easily find your things? . Do you snuff it a lot of time on recreational activities? Supply Chain Management Name of the department ____________________ Head of the department _____________________ Date of the questionnaire ____/____/_____Q1 Is supply chain management having all the address of the developer branches of the company? Yes No Q2 Rate the working strategies of supply chain management department on the basis of the current programs? 10. Outstanding 9. Excellent 8. Good 7. Average Q3 Is the supply chain ma nagement department is having sufficient transportation? Yes Not sufficient Q4 According to the current growth process of the organization, which of the following needs much attention and progress to boost the production? Operational activities Tactical activities Current scheduling strategiesQ5 Choose the right option, where the supply chain department is facing problem in taking care of the raw material? During storage encase Testing of packaging Evaluation of defective raw material Q6 How do you rate the delivery activity of the department? 10. Excellent 9. Very efficacious 8. Good 7. Average Q7 Is there any case recorded by the supply chain department in which the production department complained late delivery of raw materials? Yes No Human Resource Management Questionnaire Name____________________________ Address________________________ Name of organisation ______________________Sector __________________ Address of organisation ___________________ city __________________ Emai l id of employee _____________________________ Contact number ______________________________________ Q1. State the number of employees in your organisation _______________________ Q2. How many employees are in the HR department _______________________? Q3. What sort of structure does your HR department have? __________________________________________ Q4. What are the responsibilities and scope involved? _____________________________________________________________________