Wahongan, Jesica

Paralel B
Making Research Decisions
5. The observer-participant relationship is an important consideration in the design off
observation studies. What kind of relationship would you recommend in each of the
following cases?
a. Observations of professional conduct in the classroom by the student author of a course
evaluation guide.
If the observer is a member of the class then direct observation in which the
observation is concealed is likely, but the observer participates in class activity. If the
observer is a visitor the concealment is hardly possible and participation is unlikely.
b. Observation of retail shoopers by a researcher who is interested in determining customer
purchase time by type of goods purchased.
Maybe Concealment, with this recommend relationship, observation of retail shoopers
by researcher can defined by observation with shield themselves to know who is
interested in determining customer used such as one-way mirrors, hidden camera, or
microphones in the shop.
c. Observation of a focus group interview by a client.
May be direct, concealed, and non-participatory if the client visits the scene of
thefocus group and observes from behind a one way mirror. Also videotape may be
usedand in this case it might be indirect, probably not concealed, and non-
participatory.
d.Effectiveness of individual farmworker organizer in their efforts to organize empolyees of
grape growers.
Maybe Direct Observation, with this recommend relationship, farmworker can
personally monitors how effectiveness of individual farworker organizer in their
efforts to organize of grape growers.






6. Assume you are manufacturer of modular office systems and furniture as well as office
organization elements (desktop and wall orgaanizers, filling system, etc.) your company has
been asked to purpose an observation study to examine the use of office space by white-collar
and managerial workers for a large insurance company. This study will be part of a expected
to involve the redesign of office space and the purchase of new furniture and organization
elements.
a. What are the varieties of information that might be observed?
Student answers might take a variety of forms, so this question is ideal for class
discussion. Students might first suggest following a particular form through the insurance
company (e.g. a claim request form). Students might also suggest that employee movements
could be logged (e.g. when did an employee leave their work space and what did they go to
retrieve; when did another employee enter someone elses work space, and why; what forms
were most used and where were they stored, etc.) Students could also observe how employees
communicated witheach other (e.g. by yelling out questions, or calling a colleague, or leaving
a personal workspace to have a face to face discussion with another employee). Efficiency is
often hampered by the condition of the office, so observations might be made about a
participants work space, its degree of organization, the availability of work vs. storage
spaces, etc. The list of potential observations is fairly extensive. In order to keep the
discussion on track, you might need to periodically remind the class that the company wants
to improve efficiency and paperwork flow.
b. Select a limited number of content areas for study, and operationally define the observation
acts that should be measured.
You might suggest that the class choose between the content areas of inter
office communication or form ABC use and storage or use of reference documentation
or some other personal area of interest. Then in the content area, you should ask for just what
and how the observation should be done. For example, regarding interoffice communication,
students might operationalize the following observations:
I f e mp l o y e s y e l l e d q u e s t i o n s a n d a n s we r s a c r o s s o r
b e t we e n wo r k s p a c e c u b i c l e s , and how of t en t hi s occur ed
dur i ng t he obs er vat i on. They should be required to indicate what they
will observe andwhat and how they will record the observation. For example, will
they recordthe question or the substance area of the question, the time
duration of theconversation, the time of day of the conversation, whether
thequestion was a d e q u a t e l y a n s we r e , t h e n a me s o f t h e p a r t i e s
t h e r e s u l t i n g b e h a v i o r following the conversation, etc.? Students should be
encouraged to develop anobservation checklist to record their observations.

Whet her an empl oyee l ef t hi s / her wor ks pace t o as k ques t i ons of another
employee or deliver answers from previously asked questions, andhow the
employee behaved if the targeted expert was unavailable to answer the question due to
absence or involvement in a phone conversation. In thisarea, besides some of the
elements above, a student might suggest that theyshould record the distance of the
trip, the nature of the question, who was theinstigator, amount of time in the conversation,
whether the work space of thet ar get ed exper t was i nvaded or t he conver s at i on
t ook pl ace at t he door or opening, whether others in the area showed signs of
distraction, whether anadequate answer was received, whether paperwork or
other materials (e.g.office supplies) changed hands, whether the conversation
was extended bynon-work related topics, what was done by each party
immediately after theinteraction, etc. Students should be encouraged to
develop an observationchecklist to record their observations.