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62 THE RESEARCH PROCESS

10. Company’s involvement with community, civic, and other social groups.
11. Company’s tolerance of employees’ taking time off from the job.

Behavioral factors include actual work habits such as industriousness, extent of
absenteeism, performance on the job, and the like.
The respondents could be encouraged at the interviewing stage to talk about
their jobs, other work- and non-work-related factors, and their attitudes, val-
ues, perceptions, and behaviors, some of which might influence the outcomes
at the workplace. Talking to several people at various levels in the organiza-
tion would give the interviewer a good idea of the dynamics that operate in
the system. Detailed discussions on how the unstructured and structured inter-
views are to be conducted can be found in Chapter 10, where data collection
methods are discussed.
At this stage questions might arise as to whether seeking all this information
on management philosophy, structure, and perceptions and attitudes is always
necessary; how the materials will be utilized in the research project; and how
much time one should expend in collecting such particulars. The answer to these
questions is that there is no substitute for good judgment. Depending on the sit-
uation, the type of problem investigated, and the nature of some initial responses
received, certain aspects may have to be explored in greater depth than others.
For example, if the problem as identified by the manager is related to individu-
als’ attitudes and behaviors, then the value system, the corporate culture, and
employee perceptions may have to be delved into more deeply than the struc-
tural aspects. On the other hand, if reorganization of the work layout is the sub-
ject of the study, then the workflow interdependencies and the coordination
aspects will need more attention. The main idea in gathering information on val-
ues, structures, and processes (instead of merely dealing with the manifest symp-
toms), is that these might often reveal the root of the real problem. These
distinctions are elaborated later in this chapter. For now, as an illustration, many
companies are introducing employee stock ownership plans (ESOP). Not all
employees are necessarily excited about this. Rather than immediately working
toward making the package more attractive through cosmetic changes, talking to
individuals might reveal that the employees perceive ESOP merely as a tool to
deter takeovers and save taxes, and as providing no true opportunities for
employee involvement and participation. The understanding so gained helps the
manager to attack the real issues (in this case, the concern and fear of the
employees), rather than work on the surface symptoms (making cosmetic
changes in the package to make it more attractive).
As another example, a manager might think that refining the just-in-time (JIT)
system will help reduce inventory and production costs, whereas the real prob-
lem could be with the type of machinery used in the production process. It is
for reasons such as these that conversing with people at different levels helps
the researcher to understand what some of their concerns are. Spending 2 or
3 days interviewing individuals at different levels in the system should gener-
ally suffice to get a grasp of the establishment and understand the culture of
the organization.