Lecture 9 Collecting primary data through observation Mukhametzhan

Lecture 9: Collecting primary data through observation Mukhametzhan Seitzhapparuly seitzhapparuly 1@gmail. com Research Methods

Introduction • If your research question(s) and objectives are concerned with what people do, an obvious way in which to discover this is to watch them do it. • This is essentially what observation involves: the systematic observation, recording, description, analysis and interpretation of people’s behaviour. • The two types of observation examined in this chapter are very different. 1. Participant observation is qualitative and its emphasis is on discovering the meanings that people attach to their actions. 2. Structured observation is quantitative and is more concerned with the frequency of those actions.

Participant Observation (PO) • Participant observation has been used much less in management and business research. However, this does not mean to say that it has limited value for management and business researchers. • PO means ‘Where the researcher attempts to participate fully in the lives and actions of subjects, enabling them to not merely observe what is happening but also feeling it’.

Participant observation: researcher roles Gill and Johnson (2002) develop a fourfold categorisation of the role the participant observer can adopt. The roles are: • complete participant; • complete observer; Concealing your identity • observer as participant; • participant as observer. Revealing your purpose

Complete participant For example, you may be interested to know the extent of lunchtime drinking in a particular work setting. You would probably be keen to discover which particular employees drink at lunchtimes, what they drink, how much they drink, and how they explain their drinking. Whom they want to cooperate during lunchtime drinking. This example raises questions of ethics. You are in a position where you are ‘spying’ on people who have probably become your friends as well as colleagues. They may have learned to trust you with information that they would not share were they to know your true purpose. On these grounds alone you may agree with us that this is a role that the researcher should not adopt.

Complete observer • Here too you would not reveal the purpose of your activity to those you were observing. • However, unlike the complete participant role, you do not take part in the activities of the group. • For example, the complete observer role may be used in studying consumer behaviour in supermarkets. • Your research question may concern your wish to observe consumers at the checkout. • Which checkouts do they choose? How much interaction is there with fellow shoppers and the cashier? How do they appear to be influenced by the attitude of the cashier? What level of impatience is displayed when delays are experienced?

Observer as participant • You might adopt the role of observer as participant in an outward-bound course to assist team building if you were attending to observe without taking part in the activities in the same way as the ‘real’ candidates. In other words, you would be a ‘spectator’. • However, your identity as a researcher would be clear to all concerned. They would know your purpose, as would the trainers running the course. • This would present the advantage of you being able to focus on your researcher role. For example, you would be able to jot down insights as they occurred to you. You would be able to concentrate on your discussions with the participants.

Participant as observer • In the role of participant as observer you reveal your purpose as a researcher. Both you and the subjects are aware of the fact that it is a fieldwork relationship. • You are particularly interested to gain the trust of the group. This was the role adopted by the sociologist Punch (1993) in his study of police work in Amsterdam. Because of the trust developed by Punch with police officers whom he was researching he was able to gain admission to activities that otherwise would have been ‘out of bounds’ to him. • Because his identity as researcher was clear he could ask questions of his subjects to enhance his understanding. • Robson (2002) argues that this leads to another advantage of this role. This is that key informants are likely to adopt a perspective of analytic reflection on the processes in which they are involved.

Factors that will determine the choice of participant observer role • The purpose of your research • The time you have to devote to your research • Organisational access • Ethical considerations • The degree to which you feel suited to participant observation • F. e the case of participant as observer: A certain amount of personal flexibility is also needed. As the participant observer you have to be ‘all things to all people’. Your own personality must be suppressed to a greater extent.

Participant observation: data collection and analysis ‘Where the researcher attempts to participate fully in the lives and actions of subjects, enabling them to not merely observe what is happening but also feeling it’ Delbridge and Kirkpatrick (1994) categorise the types of data generated by participant observation as ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘experiential’. 1. Primary observations are those where you would note what happened or what was said at the time. Keeping a diary is a good way of doing this. 2. Secondary observations are statements by observers of what happened or was said. This necessarily involves those observers’ interpretations. 3. Experiential data are those data on your perceptions and feelings as you experience the process you are researching. Keeping a diary of these perceptions proves a valuable source of data when the time comes to write up your research. This may also include notes on how you feel that your values have intervened, or changed, over the research process.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Participant Observer

Structured observation is systematic and has a high level of predetermined structure. Your concern would be in quantifying behaviour. As such, structured observation may form only a part of your data collection approach because its function is to tell you how often things. happen rather than why they happen.

F. E for Structured. Delighting the customer

Advantages and Disadvantages of Structured Observation

Reading Materials Read Chapter 9. Collecting Primary Data Through Observation, 288 -317 pages. Book: M. Saunders, P. Lewis, and A. Thornhill, 2009, Research methods for business students, 5 th ed. , Harlow: Pearson Education Limited