Ch.13 | Complete Test Bank – - Quantitative Research Using

Chapter 13 - Quantitative research using naturally occurring data

Test Bank

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 01

01) Which of the following is not a way structured data are collected?

1. chronology record: described activity patterns, noting the time, nature, and duration of the activity;
2. mail record: described each piece of incoming/outgoing mail and the action that was taken in order to respond to it;
3. contact record: described each verbal contact, noting the participants and where it took place.

a. Chronology record

b. Archival record

c. Mail record

d. Contact record

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 02

02) For structured observation, the researcher’s ability to generate a probability sample is curtailed.

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 03

03) Which of the following is not a type of sampling in structured observation?

• ‘ad libitum sampling’, whereby the observer records whatever is happening at the time;
• ‘focal sampling’, in which a specific individual is observed for a set period of time; the observer records all examples of whatever forms of behaviour are of interest in terms of a schedule;
• ‘scan sampling’, whereby an entire group of individuals is scanned at regular intervals and the behaviour of all of them is recorded at that time; this sampling strategy allows only one or two types of behaviour to be observed and recorded; and
• ‘behaviour sampling’, whereby an entire group is watched and the observer records who was involved in a particular kind of behaviour.

a. Ad hominem sampling

b. Ad libitum sampling

c. Focal sampling

d. Behavioural sampling

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 04

04) ___________ is the degree to which to or more observers of the same behaviour agree in terms of their coding of that behaviour on the observation schedule.

Feedback: Practitioners of structured observation have been concerned with the degree to which two or more observers of the same behaviour agree in terms of their coding of that behaviour on the observation schedule—that is, inter-observer consistency.

Section reference: 13.3 Sampling for structured observation

a. Inter-observer consistency

b. Inter-observer reliability

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 05

05) Cohen’s Kappa measures the divergence over the coding of items between two people.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 06

06) Measurement validity relates to how well the measure corresponds to all aspects of social science.

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 07

07) Which of the following is not a criticism of structured observation?

Because it concentrates upon directly observable behaviour, structured observation is rarely able to get at intentions behind behaviour. Sometimes, when intentions are of concern, they are imputed by observers. Thus, in Mintzberg’s basic activity categories of managerial behaviour, it is not entirely clear what the difference is between an ‘unscheduled meeting’ and a ‘tour’ that involves a chance meeting. Essentially, the problem is that structured observation does not readily allow the observer to get a grasp of the meaning of behaviour.

There is a tendency for structured observation to generate lots of bits of data. The problem here can be one of trying to piece them together to produce an overall picture, or one of trying to find general themes that link the fragments of data together. It becomes difficult, in other words, to see a bigger picture that lies behind the segments of behaviour that structured observation typically uncovers. It has been suggested, for example, that the tendency for structured observation studies of managers at work to find little evidence of planning in their everyday work (e.g. Mintzberg 1973) is due to the tendency for the method to fragment a manager’s activities into discrete parts. As a result, something like planning, which may be an element in many managerial activities, becomes obscured from view (Snyder and Glueck 1980).

It is often suggested that structured observation neglects the context within which behaviour takes place. For example, Martinko and Gardner (1990) found that some of Mintzberg’s categories of basic activity were represented differently among school principals, rather than general managers, and, in particular, the amount of time spent on unscheduled meetings was much greater. Of course, were data collected about the context in which behaviour takes place, this criticism would have little weight, but the tendency of structured observation researchers to concentrate on overt behaviour tends to engender this kind of criticism.

Section Reference: 13.4 Limitations of structured observation

a. There is a risk it’s inappropriate or irrelevant to the setting being observed.

b. It is rarely able to get at the intentions behind the behaviour

c. It is grossly unethical to those observed

d. It tends to generate lots of bits of data

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 08

08) Newspapers are an appropriate publication on which to conduct content analysis.

a. True

•  When did news items on this topic first begin to appear?
•  Which newspapers were fastest in generating an interest in the topic?
•  Which newspapers have shown the greatest interest in the topic?
•  At what point did media interest begin to wane?
• Have journalists’ stances on the topic changed, for example, in terms of their support for business accountants and consultants, such as Arthur Andersen, or in calling for increased government regulation of corporate behaviour?

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 09

09) Content analysis is most closely associated with a qualitative research strategy

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 10

10) Semiotics is concerned with the study and science of signs, an approach to the analysis of documents and other phenomena that emphasizes the importance of seeking out the deeper meaning of those data.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 11

11) It is not necessary to have a research question at the beginning of a content analytical study.

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 12

12) Which of the following would be sampled in a content analytical study? Please select all that apply.

Typically, researchers will opt for one or possibly two of the mass media and may sample within that type or types. In the research described in Research in focus 13.2, Harris (2001) chose to focus on just four broadsheet newspapers over one year, 1996, which is just as well, since the author was able to locate a large number of appropriate items (news items containing one or more of the words ‘courage’, ‘courageous’, or ‘courageously’)—610 in total. However, the study also incorporated a cross-cultural element by sampling one newspaper each from Australia, the UK, the USA, and China. Other media that typically have a smaller, more carefully selected audience can also form the focus for content analysis. For example, Barley, Meyer, and Gash (1988) conducted content analysis on items from business and management journals. Although

these periodicals cannot be classified as mass media in the conventional sense, as the average peer-reviewed journal article is read by only a handful of people, these journals do represent a highly influential medium for the subcultural groups that Barley and his colleagues were concerned to investigate.

Sampling dates: Sometimes, the decision about dates is more or less dictated by the occurrence of a phenomenon. For example, the timing of representation of the Enron scandal will have been more or less dictated by the speed of the US government investigation into the company’s downfall and its accounting practices. One could hardly examine the is- sue fully prior to this investigation, though there may be an important consideration in deciding at what point the content analysis should cease, since discussions about Enron and what it means for other businesses could continue for some time after the cessation of the investigation and may entail a reappraisal as a result of subsequent events, such as the demise of Andersen Consulting.

a. Media

b. Commentators

c. Experts

d. Dates

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 13

13) Which of the following would not be counted in a content analytical study?

Significant actors: Particularly in the context of mass media news reporting, the main figures in any news item and their characteristics are often important items to code. These considerations are likely to result in the following questions being asked in the course of a content analysis:

•  What kind of person has produced the item (for example, general or specialist news reporter)?
•  Who is or are the main focus of the item (for example, senior executive of an organization, manager, politician, or employee representative)?

Who provides alternative voices (for example, consumer representative, official from a professional association, or employee)?

What was the context for the item (for example, publication of financial results, major organizational event, or disaster)?

In the case of the content analysis of managerial courage (see Research in focus 13.2), the significant actors and their characteristics included:

• the courage event or events described in the newspaper story;
• the type of newspaper item (for example, long or short general article, biography or obituary, book review, etc.) in which the courage event was reported;
• the details of the actor associated with the courageous act or action in the item (for example, personal details, status, and the kinds of obstacles he or she faced and the tools he or she used to help him or her to take courageous action).

The chief objective in recording such details is to map the main protagonists in news reporting in an area and to begin to reveal some of the mechanics involved in the production of information for public consumption.

Words: While it may seem a dull and time-consuming activity, counting the frequency with which certain words occur is sometimes undertaken in content analysis. Deciding what the unit of analysis will be, whether word, phrase, or sentence, is an important consideration in content analysis research. It would be di cult to contemplate using manual analysis for such a large sample, and so researchers tend to use computer-aided content analysis (see Re- search in focus 13.3). Gephart (1993; see Research in focus 23.4) also used data analysis software to assist his qualitative study of accounts of a pipeline disaster, taking the phrase, rather than the word, to be the unit of analysis. In Bettman and Weitz’s (1983) study of corporate annual reports, the unit of analysis was defined as a phrase or sentence in which there is some sort of causal reasoning about a performance outcome. The use of some words rather than others can often be of some significance because they have the potential to reveal the interpretative frameworks used by different subcultural groupings. For example, Barley, Meyer, and Gash (1988) proposed that practitioner-oriented papers on organizational culture would use words associated with rational organizing strategies. In order to test their proposition, they calculated the percentage of a paper’s paragraphs that contained words associated with bureaucracy, such as ‘hierarchy’, and words associated with structural differentiation, such as ‘departments’ or ‘divisions’. Similarly, they suggested practitioner-oriented papers would make more references to external forces and environmental un- certainty that posed a threat to corporate performance. Words associated with this discourse included ‘changing technology’, ‘foreign competition’, ‘fluctuating interests’, and ‘Japanese management’.

Subjects and themes: Frequently in a content analysis the researcher will want to code text in terms of certain subjects and themes. Essentially, what is being sought is a categorization of the phenomenon or phenomena of interest. In the study by Barley, Meyer, and Gash (1988), the researchers further posited that academically orientated articles would exhibit a number of key themes. In addition, words associated with the causal framework employed in the papers that were written for a practitioner audience would be ‘conspicuously absent’. While categorizations of specific words are often relatively straightforward, when the process of coding is thematic a more interpretative approach needs to be taken. At this point, the analyst is searching not just for manifest content but for latent content as well. It becomes necessary to probe beneath the surface in order to ask deeper questions about what is happening.

a. Significant actors

b. Images

c. Subjects and themes

d. Historical dates

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 14

14) Outline two advantages of content analysis. Please select all that apply.

Content analysis is a very transparent research method. The coding scheme and the sampling procedures can be clearly set out so that replications and follow-up studies are feasible. It is this transparency that often causes content analysis to be referred to as an objective method of analysis.

It can allow a certain amount of longitudinal analysis with relative ease. Several of the studies referred to above allow the researcher to track changes in frequency over time (Barley, Meyer, and Gash 1988; Chen and Meindl 1991; Kabano, Waldersee, and Cohen 1995; Todd, McKeen, and Gallupe 1995). For example, Kabano et al.’s (1995) research entailed an analysis of organizational values over a four-year time period, Todd et al. (1995) examined information systems job advertisements over a twenty-year period (see Research in focus 13.5), while Research in focus 13.7 gives an example of a content analysis that spanned an even longer time period. Similarly, in the example of employment tribunal hearings concerning sex, race, or disability discrimination, a temporal analysis could be introduced through comparison of employment tribunal reporting in newspapers during two different time periods, such as the 1960s and the 1990s. Changes in emphasis could thus be examined.

Content analysis is often referred to favourably as an unobtrusive method, a term devised by Webb et al. (1966) to refer to a method that does not entail participants in a study having to take the researcher into account (see Key concept 14.12). It is therefore a non-reactive method (see Key concept 12.8). However, this point has to be treated with a little caution. It is certainly the case that, when the focus of a content analysis is upon things such as newspaper articles or television programmes, there is no reactive effect. Newspaper articles are obviously not written in the knowledge that a content analysis may one day be carried out on them. Hence Harris (2001) suggests that the content analysis of secondary data such as newspaper articles is particularly useful when researching sensitive issues such as the ethical behaviour of man- agers, because the method overcomes the problematic tendency of individuals to deny socially undesirable traits and only to admit to socially desirable ones (see Chapter 9 on social desirability as a source of error). On the other hand, if the content analysis is being con- ducted on documents, such as interview transcripts or ethnographies (e.g. Hodson 1996; see Research in focus 13.8), while the process of content analysis does not itself introduce a reactive effect, the documents may have been at least partly influenced by such an effect.

It is a highly flexible method. It can be applied to a wide variety of kinds of unstructured information. While content analysis in the social sciences is primarily associated with the analysis of mass-media outputs, in business and management research it has a much broader applicability than this, including content analysis of websites. Research in focus 13.8 presents an illustration of a rather unusual application of content analysis.

Content analysis can allow information to be generated about social groups that are difficult to gain access to. For example, most of our knowledge of the social backgrounds of elite groups, such as company directors, derives from content analyses of such publications as Who’s Who and Burke’s Peerage (Bryman 1974).

Section Reference: 13.10 Advantages and disadvantages of content analysis

a. It is easier than discourse analysis

b. It is a transparent method

c. It is a flexible method

d. It is objective and therefore not as partial to researcher bias

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 13 - Question 15

15) Outline two disadvantages of content analysis. Please select all that apply.

A content analysis can only be as good as the documents on which the practitioner works. John Scott (1990) recommends assessing documents in terms of such criteria as: authenticity (that the document is what it purports to be); credibility (whether there are grounds for thinking that the contents of the document have been or are distorted in some way); and representativeness (whether or not the documents examined are representative of all possible relevant documents, as, if certain kinds of document are unavailable or no longer exist, generalizability will be jeopardized). These kinds of consideration will be especially important to bear in mind when a content analysis is being conducted on documents such as company reports or internal memoranda. These issues will be explored in further detail in Chapter 23.

It is almost impossible to devise coding manuals that do not entail some interpretation on the part of coders. Coders must draw upon their everyday knowledge as participants in a common culture in order to be able to code the material with which they are confronted (Cicourel 1964; Garfinkel 1967). To the extent that this occurs, it is questionable whether or not it is justifiable to assume a correspondence of interpretation between the persons responsible for producing the documents being analysed and the coders (Beardsworth 1980).

Particular problems are likely to arise when the aim is to impute latent rather than manifest content. In searching for traditional markers of organizational leadership, as in Chen and Meindl’s study (1991), the potential for invalid inference being made is magnified. It is difficult to ascertain the answers to ‘Why?’ questions through content analysis. For example, Barley, Meyer, and Gash (1988) found that over the course of nearly a decade academically oriented papers on the subject of organizational culture gradually adopted or accommodated practitioners’ concerns. Why? Although the authors provide a number of speculative answers to these questions, content analysis alone can- not provide the answers. As they claim, ‘the convergence may have resulted because academics were subtly influenced to adopt a more managerial agenda in order to secure valued resources and a larger audience for their work, but given the nature of the data, other explanations are equally plausible’ (1988: 55). Hence, the authors claim that to establish the motives for the convergence would require interviewing the paper authors ‘and studying networks of citations to determine who influenced whom’ (1988: 55). Similarly, although Rosén (2014) was able to trace the increasing level of professionalization in job advertisements for strategic communication experts in Sweden, she was unable to explain in any detail why this had occurred (see Research in focus 13.9).

Section Reference: 13.10 Advantages and disadvantages of content analysis

a. It is only as good as the documents on which it is conducted

b. It is sometimes regarded as being over-theoretical

c. It’s excellent at “why” questions but not so good at “what” questions

d. It is impossible to devise coding manuals that do not entail some interpretation on the part of the coders