Page 268 - [Uma_Sekaran]_Research_methods_for_business__a_sk(BookZZ.org)

252 DATA COLLECTION METHODS

observed in their natural work environment or in the lab setting, and their activ-
ities and behaviors or other items of interest can be noted and recorded.
Apart from the activities performed by the individuals under study, their move-
ments, work habits, the statements made and meetings conducted by them, their
facial expressions of joy, anger, and other emotions, and body language can be
observed. Other environmental factors such as layout, work-flow patterns, the
closeness of the seating arrangement, and the like, can also be noted. Children can
be observed as to their interests and attention span with various stimuli, such as
their involvement with different toys. Such observation would help toy manufac-
turers, child educators, day-care administrators, and others deeply involved in or
responsible for children’s development, to design and model ideas based on chil-
dren’s interests, which are more easily observed than traced in any other manner.
The researcher can play one of two roles while gathering field observational
data—that of a nonparticipant-observer or participant-observer.

Nonparticipant-Observer
The researcher may collect the needed data in that capacity without becoming
an integral part of the organizational system. For example, the researcher might
sit in the corner of an office and watch and record how the manager spends her
time. Observation of all the activities of managers, over a period of several days,
will allow the researcher to make some generalizations on how managers typi-
cally spend their time. By merely observing the activities, recording them sys-
tematically, and tabulating them, the researcher is able to come up with some
findings. This, however, renders it necessary that observers are physically pre-
sent at the workplace for extended periods of time and makes observational
studies time consuming.

Participant-Observer
The researcher may also play the role of the participant-observer. Here, the
researcher enters the organization or the research setting, and becomes a part of
the work team. For instance, if a researcher wants to study group dynamics in
work organizations, then she may join the organization as an employee and
observe the dynamics in groups while being a part of the work organization and
work groups. Much anthropological research is conducted in this manner, where
researchers become a part of the alien culture, which they are interested in study-
ing in depth.

Structured versus Unstructured Observational Studies
Structured Observational Studies
As we have seen, observational studies could be of either the nonparticipant-
observer or the participant-observer type. Both of these, again, could be either
structured or unstructured. Where the observer has a predetermined set of cat-
egories of activities or phenomena planned to be studied, it is a structured