Hafiz Talal Ahmed Khan Roll No.

15 BSPA 3rd Year (Morning) Department Of Public Administration Research Methods and Report Writing (Assignment) Submitted to : Maam Anila

CONTENT

1) Abstract Of The Work 1 2) Introduction......................................................................................... 1 3) Questionnaires..................................................................................... 2 4) Types of Questionnaire....................................................................... 2 i. Closed or restricted form 2 ii. Open or unrestricted form 2 5) Interviews......................................................................................... 3 i. Merits and Demerits of interviews................................. 4 ii. Unstructured Interview................................................... 4 iii. Structured interview....................................................... 5 iv. Semi Structured Interviews............................................ 5 v. Face to face interviews................................................... 6 vi. Telephone interviews......................................................6 vii. Computer assisted interviewing..................................... 7 6) Significance of interviewing in research.............................................. 8 7) Importance of Interviewing as in Marketing........................................ 8 8) Comparison.......................................................................................... 8 9) Conclusion........................................................................................... 11 10) References........................................................................................... 11

Research Methods and Report writing

ABSTRACT OF THE WORK:
Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method. It can be divided into 2 categories: Questionnaire and Interviews. Questionnaires are usually paper-and-pencil instruments that the respondent completes. Interviews are completed by the interviewer based on the respondent says. Sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference between a questionnaire and an interview. For instance, some people think that questionnaires always ask short closed-ended questions while interviews always ask broad openended ones. But you will see questionnaires with open-ended questions (although they do tend to be shorter than in interviews) and there will often be a series of closed-ended questions asked in an interview. There are computerized kiosks in public places that allow people to ask for input. A whole new variation of group interview has evolved as focus group methodology. Increasingly, survey research is tightly integrated with the delivery of service. Your hotel room has a survey on the desk. Your waiter presents a short customer satisfaction survey with your check. You get a call for an interview several days after your last call to a computer company for technical assistance. You're asked to complete a short survey when you visit a web site.

INTRODUCTION
It's called the Information Age for a good reason: information is the lifeblood of business today, and companies live and die by the stuff. Surveys are one of the primary vehicles for collecting the information businesses need. Done right, surveys can reduce new product and other risk; generate insights about employees, customers, and markets; and align PR, advertising, and other communications programs with target constituencies. Done poorly, they can derail strategy and generate misguided marketing, customer service, and communications plans. Advanced statistical analysis makes surveys enormously powerful and insightful. Once, conducting a survey was so complex and time-consuming that few companies could afford to do it. But increased processing power, new technologies like computer-aided telephone interviewing (CATI), affordable analytical software, and lower communications costs have put the capability to conduct meaningful surveys within the reach of the smallest company or department. Generally, corporate surveys seek to understand markets, relationships, or transactions, says Frederick C. Van Bennekom, author of Customer Surveying: A Guidebook for Service Managers. Market surveys seek opportunities and requirements for offerings. Vincent Vaccarelli, director of the Xerox Business Research Group, a market research service based in El Segundo, California, that conducts research for Xerox and other firms, notes that for most companies it takes 120 key decisions, each with two or more alternatives, to launch a product. That's a lot of opportunities for things to go wrong; surveys can help reduce the risk.

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Two types of surveys which I am going to discuss are:1. Questionnaire 2. Interviews

QUESTIONNAIRE
A questionnaire is a means of eliciting the feelings, beliefs, experiences, perceptions, or attitudes of some sample of individuals. As a data collecting instrument, it could be structured or unstructured. The questionnaire is most frequently a very concise, preplanned set of questions designed to yield specific information to meet a particular need for research information about a pertinent topic. The research information is attained from respondents normally from a related interest area. The dictionary definition gives a clearer definition: A questionnaire is a written or printed form used in gathering information on some subject or subjects consisting of a list of questions to be submitted to one or more persons.

Two types of questionnaires

1. Closed or restricted form - calls for a "yes" or "no" answer, short response, or item checking; is fairly easy to interpret, tabulate, and summarize. 2. Open or unrestricted form - calls for free response from the respondent; allows for greater depth of response; is difficult to interpret, tabulate, and summarize.

Because of the difficulty of obtaining or giving additional clarification and information, careful questionnaire development is essential to ensure that questions will elicit all the required information, and that the questions are clear and unambiguous. In particular, it is essential that the auditor examine closely the audit objectives to clarify what specific items of information are required that can be reasonably obtained through a questionnaire approach. Furthermore, development of a quality questionnaire requires knowledge of the area being questioned and of the capability of respondents to provide the information required. It also requires that the auditor have enough understanding of the respondents to word questions so that they will be understood. The amount of advance knowledge is greater to the extent that close-ended questions (yes-no, check off the option or rating scale) will be used as compared to open-ended questions (fill in the blank, short answer or paragraph answers). The effective use of close-ended questions also requires that the range of possible answers can be correctly anticipated. If respondents do not have the requisite knowledge and if terminology is not clearly understood or defined, there is a heightened risk of incorrect answers. Page 2

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On the other hand, close-ended questions are more readily tallied and analyzed than open-ended ones. Sorting through a large number of answers to open-ended questions in which respondents will have used widely divergent terminology and may have nearly illegible writing is both technically challenging and time consuming. Many questionnaires will try to strive for a balance between the two types of questions.

INTERVIEWS
Interviewing is one of the most common methods for collecting data in research. Interviews allow participants to provide rich, contextual descriptions of events. They are a flexible method of obtaining information. The process of interviewing is time-consuming, and the quality of data often is dependent on the ability of the interviewer. Interviewing is a technique that is primarily used to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons and motivations for peoples attitudes, preferences or behavior. Interviews can be undertaken on a personal one-to-one basis or in a group. They can be conducted at work, at home, in the street or in a shopping centre, or some other agreed locations. Interviews are frequently the method of choice, because they enable the researcher to achieve multiple objectives. These objectives may include gaining an insight into the respondent experiences. This is one of the most effective ways to learn about peoples thoughts, concerning issues, their experiences, and their perception about a particular setting. Researchers also sometimes ask people to self report about their behavior. While the responses may not be accurate or relevant, but asking people is often the easiest way to collect such data. Interviews are efficient and effective; they avoid investment of time money complications that often occur with other ways. Interviews can also extract information about issues that are easily missed by the other methods. Interviews are best used when a large response and an unbiased sample are important because the refusal rate of interview is much less than that for questionnaires. Interviews also allow for the portions of the population such as children and illiterate, who would otherwise be omitted by the use of questionnaires, to participate in the study. An interview can clarify and maintain the order of question for all participants. Interviews yield great quantities of information that can be difficult to manage and analyze. The following questions will assist the researcher in keeping the interviewing on track: Have I done my homework? Am I talking to the best possible person, or would someone else be able to offer a more accurate account of the situation? Am I getting straight information? How do the responses of different people compare? What is the main message this person is giving? Is it important? Have I recorded many of the actual words of the respondent? Page 3

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*this text (questions only) was copied from the book named Analysis for Improving Performance by Richard A. Swanson. These researcher usually tries to interview more and more people as to gather more data, which is important also, because if there would be data in massive amount so then the evaluation of the solution through this would be increase which will help counter the issues. Interviews are of various kinds and can be conducted through various methods, it could be structured, unstructured, face to face, on telephone, may be computer assisted. A brief account on the kinds of interviews is as follows.

Merits and Demerits of Interviews:

Permit face-to-face contact with respondents. It provides opportunity to explore topics in depth. Also allow interviewer to explain or help clarify questions, increasing the probability of useful responses. These are some of the merits of interview on the other hand the demerits could be that Interviewer can influence the responses. Interviewee may deform information through recall error, selective perceptions, desire to please interviewer. Interviewer clarifications can result in inconsistencies. Volume of information very large; may be difficult to record and reduce data.

Unstructured Interview:
These are generally informal interviews. This is a method of interviews where questions can be changed or adapted to meet the respondent's intelligence, understanding or belief. Unlike a structured interview they do not offer a limited, pre-set range of answers for a respondent to choose, but instead support listening to how each individual person responds to the question. This type of interview are not usually enter the phase of interview, because the interviewer does not enter the interview setting with a planned sequence of questions to be asked of the respondent. The method to gather information using this technique is fairly limited, for example most surveys that are carried out through telephone or even in person tend to follow a structured method. The motive of this method if interview could be that researcher wants to bring some preliminary issues to the surface so that the researcher can decide that which issue wants further or in depth attention. In unstructured interviews the questions are asked are usually open ended to reach the depth of the situation. But the type and nature of the questions asked of the individual might vary according to the individual, because individual vary in their behavioral and personal settings. For example if the researcher is doing research from within the organization, the researcher may ask more direct questions about their perception of the problem or top situation from the level and middle level managers. And from the lower staff or employees researcher would apply a different approach. In this the interviewer talk without any preset format so this can also be called as an in-depth interview. The interview may cover large amount of subject, different people may be asked different questions. The interviewer may begin by asking a general question, and then encourages the respondent to talk freely. The interviewer uses an unstructured format, the following direction of the interview being determined by the respondents initial reply. The interviewer then investigates for elaboration, Why do you say that? or, Thats interesting, tells me more or, would you like to add anything else? these are the typically asked questions for digging in the issue. The interviewer required for the unstructured interviews should be skilled full and should be a professional, because the data which is collected through this method is in great Page 4

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quantity and to handle this data a skilled full person is required. That is why it is rather a time consuming and an expensive method of the research.

Structured Interview:
The structured interview is rather a more formal interview method. Generally, structured interviews are conducted with a well-designed form already established. Forms are filled in by researchers, instead of respondents, and in that it differs from questionnaires. These are structured on carefully worded interview schedule, a structured interview also known as a standardized interview or a researcher-administered survey is a research method commonly employed in survey research. The aim of this approach is to ensure that each interview is presented with exactly the same questions in the same order. This ensures that answers can be reliably aggregated and that comparisons can be made with confidence between respondent. Structuring an interview is about focus and control as well as depth. Structured interviews produce more standardized data which is shorter and focused. Collecting data for a statistical survey, this method is useful. In this case, the data is collected by an interviewer rather than through a self-administered questionnaire. Interviewers read the questions exactly as they appear on the survey questionnaire. The choice of answers to the questions is often fixed because the questions asked are close-ended question. If required, open-ended questions can also be included within a structured interview. A structured interview also standardizes the order in which questions are asked of respondents, so the questions are always answered within the same situation. This is important for minimizing the impact of context effects, where the answers given to a survey question can depend on the nature of preceding questions. In this type of interview research method, usually closed ended questions are used; because it is easier to compare the data got by the different individuals and researcher have a clear viewpoint of what the respondent is saying. For structured interviews, it is usually necessary for researchers to develop an interview schedule which lists the wording and sequencing of questions. Interview schedules are sometimes considered a means by which researchers can increase the reliability and credibility of research data. These are comparatively easy to handle because the information got through this is precise and in a proper manner. The nature of the data influence the process of analyzing it, the more the standardized form of data the easier is to analyze. Structured interviews are so design to get only the needed information. But its not necessary for the researcher to ask only the close ended questions. A good researcher might take a lead from a respondents answer and ask other relevant question and link them to the issue. In structured interviews researcher might use materials like cards, drawings, and pictures to help his research. These are called visual aids; the appropriate visuals are shown to the interviewees, who then indicate their responses to the questions asked.

Semi Structured Interviews:

The interview is focused by asking certain questions but with scope for the respondent to express him or herself at length. In this interviewer ask a handful of broad, general questions and a mixer of open ended and closed ended questions. When a researcher is not sure what to ask so he uses Page 5

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this approach. Complex topics and process are covered through this method. A semistructured interview is flexible, allowing new questions to be brought up during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says. The interviewer in a semi-structured interview generally has a framework of themes to be explored. However, the specific topic or topics that the interviewer wants to explore during the interview should usually be thought about well in advance.

Face to Face Interviews:

An interview is used to obtain information from one person about particular situations, problems or topics. The interview can be structured or semi-structured. The structured interview is designed to draw specific responses to specific questions. Responses to a structured interview will normally be easier to quantify and interpret since uniform questions tend to yield a narrower range of responses. The semi-structured interview uses open-ended questions to explore broad issues in a nondirective, non-threatening manner. Face to face interviews have a distinct advantage of enabling the researcher to establish link with potential participants and therefore gain their cooperation. These interviews yield highest response rates in survey research. They also allow the researcher to clarify ambiguous answers and when appropriate, seek follow up information. The main advantage of face-t-face or direct interviews is that the researcher can adapt the questions as necessary, clarify doubt and ensure that the responses are properly understood, by repeating or rephrasing the questions. The researcher can also pick up nonverbal cues from the respondent. Any discomfort, stress and problems that the respondent experiences can be detected through frowns, nervous taping and other body language, unconsciously exhibited by any person. This would be impossible to detect in a telephone interview. So face-to-face helps the interviewee to get the desired results and help them the expression of the person to whom they are interviewing. By reading the facial expression of the respondent the interviewer can easily understand what the respondent want to tell them about anything. The main disadvantages of face-to-face interviews are the geographically limitations they may impose on the surveys and the vast resources needed if such surveys need to be done nationally or internationally. The costs of training interviewers to minimize interviewer's biases for example differences in questioning methods, interpretation of response are also high. Another drawback is that respondents might feel uneasy about their responses when they interact face to face for the interviews.

Telephone Interviews:
Telephone interviews are best suited when information is to be obtained from a large number of respondent and they are spread on a large geographical area, and has to be conducted quickly. Telephone interviews are like face to face interviews in that they are a one-on-one method for gathering information. They are used often in highly structured surveys to gather non-sensitive responses to questions that require specific, tightly focused questions. They can also be used to validate information gathered by written surveys and questionnaires and for follow-up to focus groups and face-to-face interviews. Telephone interviews are less time consuming and less expensive and the researcher has ready access to anyone on the planet that has Page 6

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a telephone. Disadvantages are that the response rate is not as high as the face-to- face interview as but considerably higher than the mailed questionnaire. The sample may be biased to the extent that people without phones are part of the population about whom the researcher wants to draw inferences. Telephone interview require several unique steps. According to Lavarakas (1987, pp. 18-19), they involve a ten step process: 1. Deciding on a sampling design, including the method of respondent selection with a sampling unit 2. Developing and formatting a draft questionnaire 3. Choosing a method to generate the pool of telephone numbers that will be used in sampling 4. Producing a call sheet for each number that will be used in sampling 5. Developing a draft introduction/selection sheet and fall back statements for use by interviewers 6. Hiring interviewers and supervisors, and scheduling interviewing sessions 7. Pilot testing and revising survey instruments 8. Printing final questionnaires and other forms 9. Training interviewers and supervisors 10. Conducting fully supervised interviews *these points are copied from the book Analysis for improving performance by Richard A. Swanson, pp 111 The benefits of telephone interview includes that the researcher can approach maximum number of person relatively in shorter time period. From the view point of the respondent, the respondent can answer without any discomfort which they can face in face to face interviews; also they can easily disclose the personal information over the phone. The main disadvantage of the telephone interview would be that if the interviewee is not willing to respond or can leave the interview in between without any explanation. Another disadvantage could be that the researcher cannot read the nonverbal communication.

Computer Assisted Interviewing:

In this era researcher usually uses computer for the research. Computer assisted interviews are now commonly used method as now most people can be reach through internet. Computer Assisted Interviewing is a form of personal interviewing, but instead of completing a questionnaire, the interviewer may bring along a laptop or hand-held computer to enter the information directly into the database or can reach through mails. This method saves time involved in processing the data, as well as saving the interviewer from carrying around hundreds of questionnaires. However, this type of data collection method can be expensive to set up and requires that interviewers have computer and typing skills. There are two types of computer assisted interview programs, one is CATI that is computer assisted telephone interviewing and other is CAPI that is computer assisted personal interviewing. In CATI, computer is attached to telephone system to which can obtain information by self dialing and gather data by computer programming. CAPI are self administered computing programs, any person using their computer can respond to the interview. It is very useful technology as it diminishes the error of recording the data. The example of this technology is that now the media Page 7

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channels are using public pole through the internet, like they can raise a question regarding any political situation and the viewer can answer that through their cell phone and also can use their computers. These questions are generally closed ended that you get only two to three options usually Yes and No.

Significance of Interviewing In Research:

Among the various methods of data collection process, interviewing is one of the most useful and frequently used methods. Because it provide a researcher wide range of information and ease of doing the job. Interviewer can select any of the interviewing technique according to the need of time. Interviews provide in depth information behind the issue.

Importance of Interviewing As In Marketing:

The importance of research through the method of interviewing in the field of Marketing is very significant. As Marketing is a very huge field and involves various steps and methods to the get the end product, it includes from the question that what product to make? , where to make? , when to make? , how to make? , it includes from the sourcing that from where to get the raw material to financing, budgeting and getting the product to the final customer. In all these steps a manager may find huge amount of issues to which there should be an immediate action, so to counter this type situation manager can hire a researcher from within the organization and also can contact the research firms. The problem may arise that what new product should be made according to the organizational portfolio, so marketing manager can conduct a research and can interview the employees of the organization or can go directly to the consumers and might ask them that what is lacking in their daily routine. To fill in the gap of customers needs, manager can design the interview according to the need. He can design structured or unstructured interviews to gather the data. Like Warid telecom industry, when they were deciding to launch their product they conducted a survey through interviews. They interviewed people that what they are feeling about their connections and what is missing, if they are satisfied with their connections or not.

COMPARISON
When most people think of questionnaires, they think of the mail survey. There are many advantages to mail surveys. They are relatively inexpensive to administer. You can send the exact same instrument to a wide number of people. They allow the respondent to fill it out at their own convenience. But there are some disadvantages as well. Response rates from mail surveys are often very low. And, mail questionnaires are not the best vehicles for asking for detailed written responses. The central advantage of questionnaires over interviews is that they allow for the collection of information from a large number of individuals relatively inexpensively. The savings result from the reduced need for staff and, possibly, travel expenses. The savings are most important where a large sample is needed. Page 8

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Another advantage of questionnaires in comparison to interviews is that they contribute to reliability by promoting greater consistency. This is achieved through eliminating the variation in questioning that can occur when a number of different interviewers are used. They also reduce the introduction of bias by eliminating the ability of interviewers to influence answers either intentionally or inadvertently. Questionnaires often seem a logical and easy option as a way of collecting information from people. They are actually rather difficult to design and because of the frequency of their use in all contexts in the modern world, the response rate is nearly always going to be a problem (low) unless you have ways of making people complete them and hand them in on the spot (and this of course limits your sample, how long the questionnaire can be and the kinds of questions asked). As with interviews, you can decide to use closed or open questions, and can also offer respondents multiple choice questions from which to choose the statement which most nearly describes their response to a statement or item. Their layout is an art form in itself because in poorly laid out questionnaires respondents tend, for example, to repeat their ticking of boxes in the same pattern. If given a choice of response on a scale 1-5, they will usually opt for the middle point, and often tend to miss out subsections to questions. You need to take expert advice in setting up a questionnaire, ensure that all the information about the respondents which you need is included and filled in, and ensure that you actually get them returned. Expecting people to pay to return postal questionnaires is sheer folly, and drawing up a really lengthy questionnaire will also inhibit response rates. You will need to ensure that questions are clear, and that you have reliable ways of collecting and managing the data. Setting up a questionnaire that can be read by an optical mark reader is an excellent idea if you wish to collect large numbers of responses and analyze them statistically rather than reading each questionnaire and entering data manually. Unlike survey interviews, questionnaires do not provide an opportunity for the auditor to clarify questions, verify that answers are understood, seek clarification or elaboration of answers or ensure that the respondent answers all questions on the form. There may not be an opportunity to go back to respondents if all the information needed to support a conclusion was not asked for or provided, or if it becomes evident that questions were not clear. Nor is it possible in most instances to seek corroboration of answers. In general, the same depth of information is not available from a questionnaire as through interviews. In addition, the respondents being surveyed must have the requisite literacy skills. Interviews are a far more personal form of research than questionnaires. In the personal interview, the interviewer works directly with the respondent. Unlike with mail surveys, the interviewer has the opportunity to probe or ask follow-up questions. And, interviews are generally easier for the respondent, especially if what is sought is opinion or impressions. A major advantage is that they allow more opportunity to assess the respondent's understanding and interpretation of the questions and to clarify any confusion that arises about the meaning of the question or the response. Face-to-face interviews can be useful in dealing with certain situations that pose challenges for mail-out questionnaires. They are generally better suited than mail or electronic questionnaires with respondents whose reading and writing skills may not be adequate for the questions being asked. They may also be helpful when sensitive information is being sought. Interviewers may be able to establish a relationship of trust with the respondent and be better able to solicit answers to questions which respondents may otherwise be reluctant to answer or to Page 9

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answer truthfully. Interviews can be very time consuming and they are resource intensive. The interviewer is considered a part of the measurement instrument and interviewers have to be well trained in how to respond to any contingency. Almost everyone is familiar with the telephone interview. Telephone interviews enable a researcher to gather information rapidly. Most of the major public opinion polls that are reported were based on telephone interviews. Like personal interviews, they allow for some personal contact between the interviewer and the respondent. And, they allow the interviewer to ask followup questions. But they also have some major disadvantages. Many people don't have publiclylisted telephone numbers. Some don't have telephones. People often don't like the intrusion of a call to their homes. And, telephone interviews have to be relatively short or people will feel imposed upon. Interviews enable face to face discussion with human subjects. If you are going to use interviews you will have to decide whether you will take notes (distracting), tape the interview (accurate but time consuming) rely on your memory (foolish) or write in their answers (can lead to closed questioning for times sake). If you decide to interview you will need to draw up an interview schedule of questions which can be either closed or open questions, or a mixture of these. Closed questions tend to be used for asking for and receiving answers about fixed facts such as name, numbers, and so on. They do not require speculation and they tend to produce short answers. With closed questions you could even give your interviewees a small selection of possible answers from which to choose. If you do this you will be able to manage the data and quantify the responses quite easily. The Household Survey and Census ask closed questions, and often market researchers who stop you in the street do too. You might ask them to indicate how true for them a certain statement was felt to be, and this too can provide both a closed response, and one which can be quantified (30% of those asked said they never ate rice, while 45% said they did so regularly at least once a week... and so on). The problem with closed questions is that they limit the response the interviewee can give and do not enable them to think deeply or test their real feelings or values. If you ask open questions such as what do you think about the increase in traffic? you could elicit an almost endless number of responses. This would give you a very good idea of the variety of ideas and feelings people have, it would enable them to think and talk for longer and so show their feelings and views more fully. But it is very difficult to quantify these results. You will find that you will need to read all the comments through and to categorize them after you have received them, or merely report them in their diversity and make general statements, or pick out particular comments if they seem to fit your purpose.

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CONCLUSION Survey research is important in research because it helps in gathering information from the users about the design and development of the interface/product. In this text, we described two forms of surveys that are very commonly used for these purposes; namely questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires usually provide quantitative data whereas interviews provide qualitative data. For this reason, questionnaires are more appropriate for making statistical analysis. On the other hand, interviews establish a rather warm atmosphere for the users so the users become more enthusiastic about using/testing the interface/product. Since a questionnaire provides quantitative data, there may be situations in which it must be supported by interviews to get qualitative data about the users such as their mood, their willingness to participate to the research, external factors such as the environment in which users live, etc. Understanding user's psychology can be helpful for interpreting the statistical results correctly. For this purpose, even ethnographic methods can be used provided that the researcher can set up the necessary environment. All of the techniques described in this text are quite general; the reader has to re-interpret and tailor each survey-research method to suit the kind of activity that he/she is doing.

REFERENCES:
Uma Sekaran Research methods for business. Korth, S. March 10, 1997. Handout for Executive Human Resource Development Master of Education Class, Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH. Google Books include: Research Methods for Public Administrators, By Gail Johnson The SAGE handbook of organizational research methods, By David A. Buchanan, Alan Bryman Analysis for Improving Performance, By Richard A. Swanson Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology, By Harry T. Reis, Charles M. Judd

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