Research in the Social Sciences Methods

Methods
Preferring to use a quantitative approach to provide the business community with numerical data it can use to transform organizational practices and increase employee retention, I will be using a survey as the primary instrument of data collection. Pennsylvania State University (2006) defines a survey as “a research method for collecting information from a selected group of people using standardized questionnaires or interviews,” (p. 1). While the central component of the survey method is a questionnaire, the survey methodology also includes the selection of the population sample, designing reliable and valid survey instruments that accurately measure the target variables, and using the most robust methods of data analysis. Performing surveys is a critical component of social science research, and it is important to ensure survey method validity and reliability.
Surveys are not necessarily easy or simple. The most common methods of collecting survey data is by using in-person questionnaires, telephone interviews, paper questionnaires, or online surveys (Pew Research Center, 2017). As Kelley, Clark, Brown & Sitzia (2013) also point out, there are three main functions of survey research including descriptive, analytic, and evaluative. Descriptive research gathers data to “examine a situation by describing important factors,” (Kelley, Clark, Brown & Sitzia, 2013, p. 261). When conducting a survey on employee retention, for example, I could be looking at the causes of employee turnover by surveying former employees of the same organization, or I could look at the perceptions of a workplace environment and organizational culture among employees who have remained loyal to the same firm for more than five years. Using a mixed methods approach, the researcher would be able to describe the most important factors relevant to why some employees leave, and why others choose to stay with an organization. It would be important to measure both internal/personal variables such as health status, family situations, or other issues not related to the workplace environment, as well as external/organizational level variables such as the quality of the workplace environment, leadership, organizational culture, and job satisfaction.
In addition to describing demographic data, the researcher would also be measuring attitudes, perceptions, or beliefs in a quantitative way via a survey that uses numerical rating systems like a Likert scale or multiple choice (Ponto, 2015). Survey questions would therefore include a wide range of topics including how long the person remained with the current organization, and also their perceptions of factors like workplace comfort and safety, employee supportiveness, perceptions of toxicity or abuse, leadership and management, pay scale, opportunities for advancement or career mapping, and perceptions of ethics. Questions should be designed to most accurately target the key variables, so that data analysis can compare the dependent variables (such as retention rate) with independent variables such as the personal or organizational motivators for remaining with a company.
Ideally, a sample will include “individuals who reflect the intended population in terms of all characteristics of the population,” (Ponto, 2015, p. 168). In the proposed research, I would attract participants by using LinkedIn, because the website is a social media portal specifically designed for networking and business. Using LinkedIn, I would be able to survey a broad population sample from different organizations. A realistic sample size would be about 1500 participants. I would assure all participants of anonymity and privacy by asking them to log into a secure online survey where they would not divulge their names or the names of their employer. A unique user access ID would prevent duplicate survey entries. The survey would be designed to take about 20 minutes of each participant’s time, which is estimated to be enough to ask all pertinent questions but not too much time that it reduced the population sample size.





References

Kelley, K., Clark, B., Brown, V. & Sitzia, J. (2003). Good practice in the conduct and reporting of survey research. International Journal for Quality in Health Care 15(3): 261-266.
Pennsylvania State University (2006). Using surveys for data collection in continuous improvement. Innovation Insights 14. Retrieved online: http://www.virginia.edu/processsimplification/resources/PennState%20Surveys.pdf
Pew Research Center (2017). Collecting survey data. Retrieved online: http://www.pewresearch.org/methodology/u-s-survey-research/collecting-survey-data/
Ponto, J. (2015). Understanding and evaluating survey research. Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology 6(2): 168-171.