Question

Olivia Trent is a newly hired systems analyst with your group. Olivia has always felt that questionnaires are a waste. Now that you will be doing a systems project for Ground Ride Sharing (GRS), a national ride sharing firm with branches and employees in 130 cities, you want to use a questionnaire to elicit some opinions about the current and proposed systems.

a. Based on what you know about Olivia and GRS, list three persuasive reasons Olivia should use a survey for this study.
b. Given your careful arguments, Olivia has agreed to use a questionnaire but strongly urges that all questions be open-ended so as not to constrain the respondents. In a paragraph, persuade Olivia that closed questions are useful as well. Be sure to point out trade-offs involved with each question type.
c. In developing the interview protocol for a few senior management executives, state whether you would use the funnel or pyramid method for the interview design. For either of the choices you make, explain why you feel it is the better approach for interviewing senior management executives.

Answer 1

Surveys reach a vast audience, offer anonymity, and collect significant data, making them suitable for GRS. A balance of open and closed questions leverages the benefits of qualitative and quantitative data.

Step-by-step explanation:

Questionnaires are a valuable tool in gathering data from a wide audience such as Ground Ride Sharing (GRS), with employees in 130 cities. First, using a questionnaire will provide a high response rate due to its ease of distribution and completion. This is particularly useful given the geographical spread of GRS. Second, questionnaires offer the ability to collect a large quantity of data quickly, which is beneficial for a national company where trends and opinions may vary widely. Third, they provide anonymity, which can lead to more honest and unguarded responses, crucial for sensitive or personal topics.

Answering Olivia's concern, it is essential to acknowledge that while open-ended questions are useful for gaining in-depth qualitative data, closed questions have their advantages. Closed questions can provide quantitative data that is easy to analyze and compare. Applying a mix of open and closed questions could offer both detailed insights and standardized data that are easier to generalize across the company's wide employee base.

For interviewing senior management executives, I would choose the funnel method. This approach starts with more general questions and narrows down to specifics, helping establish rapport and context before delving into potentially complex areas. It is suitable for executives because it respects their time by starting broadly and efficiently focusing on the key information needed from the interviews.