2.1 reasons.Theories also describe and explain relationships that link the variables.Klein and Zedeck suggest that good theories display the following characteristics: ·Offer novel insights Are interesting Are focused Are relevant to important topics Provide explanations 。Are practical As you read the material that will follow in the subsequent chapters and.more importantly. if you dig further and read the original statements of the theories,keep these characteristics of good theory in mind in order to decide which ones are helpful and which ones are not. Research Design In the introductory module,we considered the scientific method and the role of research in 1-O psychology.Now we will consider the operations that define research in greater detail. In carrying out research,a series of decisions need to be made before the research actually begins.These decisions include the following: Will the research be conducted in a laboratory under controlled conditions or in the field? Who will the participants be? If there are different conditions in the research(e.g.,some participants exposed to a condition and other participants not exposed to the condition),how will partici- pants be assigned to the various conditions? What will the variables of interest be? *How will measurements on these variables be collected? Collectively,the answers to these questions will determine the research design,the archi- tecture for the research. Spector(2001)has reviewed research designs in I-O psychology and devised a system of classification for distinguishing among the typical designs.He breaks designs down into three basic types:experimental,quasi-experimental,and nonexperimental.Experimental designs,whether the experiment is conducted in a laboratory or in the field,involve the assignment of participants to conditions.As an example,some participants may receive a piece-rate payment for their work,whereas others receive an hourly rate.These two different rates of pay would be two separate conditions,and participants might be assigned randomly to one condition or the other.The random assignment of participants is one of the charac- teristics that distinguishes an experiment from a quasi-experiment or nonexperiment.If participants are randomly assigned to conditions,then any differences that appear after the experimental treatment are more likely to conform to cause-effect relationships.Random assignment to conditions allows researchers to be more confident that there were not preex- isting systematic differences between the groups that were assigned to different conditions. It is not always possible to assign participants randomly to a condition.For example,an organization might institute a new pay plan at one plant location but not at another.Or the researcher would assess employee satisfaction with an existing pay plan,then the organiza- tion would change the pay plan,and the researcher would assess satisfaction again with the new plan.This would be called a quasi-experimental design. Scanned by CamScanner
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Statistics in-0Psychology to make experimental conditions as similar as possible to actual work situations.(a)Actual radar being used by an lated radar screen designed for an experiment In the experimental and quasi-experimental designs described above,the pay plan was a "treatment"or condition.Nonexperimental designs do not include any"treatment"or condi- tions.In a nonexperimental design,the researcher would simply gather information about the effects of a pay plan without introducing any condition or treatment.Researchers often use the term"independent variable"to describe the treatment or antecedent condition and the term "dependent variable"to describe the subsequent behavior of the research partici- pant.Spector(2001)identifies two common nonexperimental designs as the observational design and the survey design.In the observational design,the researcher watches an employee's behavior and makes a record about what is observed.An observer might,for example,study communication patterns and worker efficiency by recording the number of times a worker communicates with a supervisor in a given time period.Alternatively,in the survey design,the worker is asked to complete a questionnaire describing typical interaction frequency with his or her supervisor. Because of the increasing use of the Internet for survey research,one might question whether online surveys and paper-and-pencil surveys produce equivalent results.Although differences in administration mode are not dramatic,it does appear that younger respondents prefer an online to a paper-and-pencil survey (Church,2001).We will discuss the strengths and weak- nesses of various research designs in greater detail in Chapter 7 when we consider the evaluation of training programs. The various research designs we have described in this chapter are not used with equal frequency.Schaubroeck and Kuehn(1992)found that 67 percent of published studies con- ducted by 1-O psychologists were done in the field and 33 percent in a laboratory.Laboratory- based studies were usually experimental in design and used students as participants.Most field studies were not experimental and typically used employees as participants.In a fol- low-up study,Spector(2001)found very similar results. There are several reasons for the prevalence of nonexperimental field research in I-O psychology.The first is the limited extent to which a laboratory experiment can reasonably simulate "work"as it is experienced by a worker.The essence of laboratory research is control over conditions.This means that the work environment tends to be artificial and sterile,and the research deals with narrow aspects of behavior.Another,related reason is that experiments are difficult to do in the field because workers can seldom be randomly assigned to conditions or treatments.The goal of a real-life business organization is an Scanned by CamScanner
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2.1 economic one,not a scientific one.Further,it is difficult for researchers to carry out field experiments when investigating sensitive topics (King.Hebl,Morgan,Ahmad,2013). Finally,laboratory experiments often involve "samples of convenience"(i.e..students),and there is considerable doubt that the behavior of student participants engaging in simulated work reasonably represents the behavior of actual workers.Laboratory studies provide excellent methods of control and are more likely to lead to causal explanations.Field studies permit researchers to study behaviors difficult to simulate in a laboratory,but cause-effect relationships are more difficult to examine in such field studies. Methods of Data Collection Qualitative and Quantitative Research Historically,I-O psychology,particularly the"I"part of I-O,has used quantitative methods for measuring important variables or behavior.Quantitative methods rely heavily on tests, rating scales,questionnaires,and physiological measures(Stone-Romero,2002).They yield results in terms of numbers.They can be contrasted with more qualitative methods of investigation,which generally produce flow diagrams and narrative descriptions of events or processes,rather than "numbers"as measures.Qualitative methods include procedures like observations,interviews,case studies,and analysis of diaries or written documents. The preference for quantitative over qualitative research can be attributed,at least in part, to the apparent preference of journal editors for quantitative research(Hemingway,2001), possibly because numbers and statistical analyses conform to a traditional view of science (Symon,Cassell,Dickson,2000).As an example,fewer than.3 percent of the articles published in the Journal of Applied Psychology since 1990 would be classified as qualitative (Marchel Owens,2007).You may be surprised to know that in the early days of psychology. the "experimental method"was introspection,in which the participant was also the experimenter,recording his or her experiences in completing an experimental task.This method would be considered hopelessly subjective by today's standards.Some(e.g.,Marchel Owens,2007)have speculated that the founding fathers of psychology would be unable to find academic employment today! You will notice that we described the issue as qualitative and quantitative research.as opposed to qualitative versus quantitative research.The two are not mutually exclusive (Rogelberg.2002).As an example of qualitative research,consider an extended observation of a worker,which might include videotaped episodes of performance.That qualitative video record could easily be used to develop a quantitative frequency count of a particular behavior. Much of the resistance to qualitative research is the result of viewing it as excessively subjective.This concern is misplaced.All methods of research ultimately require inter- pretation,regardless of whether they are quantitative or qualitative.The researcher is an explorer,trying to develop an understanding of the phenomenon he or she has chosen to investigate,and,in so doing,should use all of the information available,regardless of its form.The key is in combining information from multiple sources to develop that theory. Rogelberg and Brooks-Laber(2002)refer to this as triangulation-looking for converging information from different sources.Detailed descriptions of qualitative research methods have been presented by Locke and Golden-Biddle(2002)and Bachiochi and Weiner(2002). Stone-Romero(2002)presents an excellent review of the variations of research designs in I-O psychology,as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Scanned by CamScanner
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d Statistics in I-O Psychology The lmportance of Context in Interpreting Research The added value of qualitative research is that it helps to identify the context for the behavior in question (Johns,2001a).Most experiments control variables that might "complicate"the research and,in the process,eliminate "context."In doing so,this control can actually make the behavior in question less,not more,comprehensible.Consider the following examples: 1.A study of patient care teams directed by a nurse-manager found that there was a strong association among coaching,goal setting,team satisfaction,medical errors by the team,and the performance of the team as perceived by team members. Unfortunately,however,the association was positive:The higher the ratings of each of the first three elements,the greater the number of medical errors by that team!By collecting qualitative data through interviews and observations,the researchers were able to unravel this seeming mystery.It turned out that the most positive teams(more coaching.goal setting.satisfaction)were also those most willing to acknowledge errors and use them to learn,while the least positive teams(less coaching,fewer goals, and lower satisfaction)covered up errors and did not learn from them (Hackman,2003). 2 A study of convenience stores found that those stores with less friendly salespersons had higher sales than the stores with more friendly sales staff(Sutton Rafaeli, 1988).Further investigation revealed that,because the less friendly stores were bus- ier to start with,the staff had less time to be friendly.It was not that a nasty demea- nor in a salesperson spurred sales. 3 You have already been introduced to the Hawthorne studies.They were largely completed by 1935.Nevertheless,controversy continues to surround their interpre- tation (Olson,Verley,Santos,Salas,2004).At the simplest level,it appeared that simply paying attention to workers improved productivity.But things are not that simple.The studies were carried out during the Great Depression,when simply having a job-any job-was considered lifesaving.Additionally,the psychologist who described these studies to the popular press was an avowed anti-unionist (Griffin,Landy,Mayocchi,2002)and inclined to highlight any practice that con- tradicted the position of the union movement.If there were consistent productivity increases-and it is not clear that there were-these changes could not be under- stood without a broader appreciation for the context in which they occurred and were reported. In each of these examples,the critical variable was context.It was the situation in which the behavior was embedded that provided the explanation.Had the researchers not investigated the context,each of these studies might have resulted in exactly the wrong policy change (i.e.,don't coach or set goals for medical teams,don't hire friendly sales clerks).Context enhances the comprehensibility and,ultimately,the value of research findings. Generalizability and Control in Research Generalizability One of the most important issues in conducting research is how widely the results can be generalized.There is a relatively simple answer to that question.An investigator can general- ize results to areas that have been sampled in the research study.Consider Figure 2.1,which is made up of concentric circles representing various factors or variables that might be Scanned by CamScanner
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2.1 Sdence and Research sampled in a study.The first area for sampling might be participants or employees.If our research sample is representative ofa larger popu- lation (eg.all individuals who work for the organization and have a given job title),then we can feel more confident in generalizing to this larger population of participants who might have been in our study. The next circle represents job titles.If the job titles of the participants in our study are a representative sample of the population of job titles that exist in a particular company.then we can be more confident about generalizing to this larger population of jobs.The next circle represents time.If we have collected data at several different points in time,we can feel more confident in generalizing across time periods than we would if all the data came from one point in time.The final circle represents organizations.If we have collected our data from many different organizations,we can be more confident in extending our findings beyond a single organization. FIGURE 2.1 Sampling Domains for 1-0 Research CASE STUDY 2.1 TRIANGULATION:THE FINANCIAL CONSULTANT In Chapter 4.we will consider the topic of job might tour the country interviewing and observing a analysis.Job analysis is a process used by I-O sample of financial consultants as they do their work. psychologists to gain understanding of a job.It in the office and outside the office.You might also ask includes an investigation of them to show you their daily appointment calendars Job analysis Process that the tasks and duties that and answer questions about the entries in these calen- determinesthe important define the job,the human dars.As part of this experience,you might spend sev- tasks of a job and the human attributes necescary to attributes necessary to per- eral days with a single financial consultant and observe successtalhy perform these form the job,and the con- the variety of tasks he or she performs.Next you might a text in which that job is interview the immediate managers of financial con- performed.Job analysis sultants and explore their views of what strategies lead typically involves the combination of data from to success or failure for consultants. many different sources in coming to a complete You might also interview retired financial consult- understanding,or theory,of the job in question. ants,as well as financial consultants who left their Consider the job ofa financial consultant or stock- consulting positions with the company to become broker who advises individual private investors on managers.Finally,you might ask a sample of financial how to invest their money.Large financial invest- consultants and managers to complete a question- ment firms employ thousands of these financial con- naire in which they rate the relative importance and sultants to provide service to their high-end clients. frequency of the tasks that consultants perform.as Suppose you were hired as an I-O psychologist to well as the abilities and personal characteristics nec- study and "understand"the job of a financial consult- essary to perform those tasks successfully.By gather- ant with an eye toward developing a recruiting.selec- ing and interpreting this wealth of information.you tion,and training program for such individuals. will gain an excellent understanding of the job.Each How might you achieve this understanding?First. of the methods of investigation gave you additional you might examine what the organization has to say information.No one method was more important about the job on its website and in its recruiting mate. than any other method,and no method alone would rials Then you might talk with senior executives of have been sufficient to achieve an understanding of the organization about the role the financial consult- the position.This is the type of triangulation that ant plays in the success of the organization.Next you Rogelberg and Brooks-Laber (2002)advocate. Scanned by CamScanner
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