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Attitudes of demographic item non-respondents in employee surveys
[journal article]
Abstract The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the participants in an employee survey who do not answer one or more demographic items differ systematically from those who fill out all demographic items. Logistic regression, with affective commitment, job satisfaction, and attitude towards le... view more
The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the participants in an employee survey who do not answer one or more demographic items differ systematically from those who fill out all demographic items. Logistic regression, with affective commitment, job satisfaction, and attitude towards leadership as predictors of responding to demographic items is used to analyze the data of an employee survey in a German company. Survey participants with low commitment, poor job satisfaction, and negative attitudes towards leadership are more likely not to provide demographic information, while highly committed participants tend to answer all demographic items. Non-respondents are also more concerned that their skills become obsolete, and they feel that employees do not have enough say. The paper does not distinguish among demographic item non-respondents on the basis of how many and which items are omitted. Future research should take a closer look at the different sensitivity of the demographic items. Managers should be aware that it is likely that the results of an employee survey for their organizational subunits tend to be biased and show a picture that is too optimistic as compared to company-wide results. The value of the paper lies in demonstrating a systematic and practically important bias in employee survey statistics that has been overlooked so far. (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
sample; demographic factors; quantitative method; survey; sampling error; work satisfaction; Federal Republic of Germany; response behavior; survey research; data capture; co-worker
Classification
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
Applied Psychology
Document language
English
Publication Year
2008
Page/Pages
p. 146-160
Journal
International Journal of Manpower, 29 (2008) 2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720810872703
ISSN
0143-7720
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications
With the permission of the rights owner, this publication is under open access due to a (DFG-/German Research Foundation-funded) national or Alliance license.