Читать книгу Handbook of Web Surveys - Jelke Bethlehem - Страница 46

The Italcementi Group is a large Italian company. The following data are about the situation when the study took place. With an annual production capacity of approximately 75 million tons of cement, it is the world's fifth largest cement producer. The group had companies in 22 countries around the world. Italcementi regularly monitors, by means of a mixed‐mode survey, the working conditions and working climate in the company. As regards the survey data is collected part by web and part by paper questionnaire forms.

The target population consists of all employees of all companies belonging to the Italcementi Group around the globe. With no sample selection, all employees are invited to participate in the survey. Thus, in principle it is a census and not a survey. There are no inference issues. Statistics computation is simply from the data.

Nonresponse can be a problem in surveys. Some people may fail to complete the survey questionnaire because they could not be contacted (despite several attempts), they refused to cooperate, or they were not able to answer the questions. This may lead to biased estimates of population characteristics. Nonresponse is not a big problem in the Italcementi survey. In many countries, almost everyone participates. See also Table 2.1.

The first step in the survey process is the design of the questionnaire. In fact, there are two questionnaires: one for blue‐collar employees and one for white‐collar employees. Italcementi Group as a whole, the company to which the employee belongs, and the specific location of the company cover the three main sections of the questionnaire. In addition, a section with questions about personal characteristics is included. The paper questionnaire for white‐collar employees is 8 pages long, while that for blue‐collar employees is 6 pages.

Table 2.1 Response rates of the Italcementi survey by country

Country	Overall response rate (%)	White‐collar response rate (%)	Blue‐collar response rate (%)
Albania	91.9	—	—
Bulgaria	51.9	59.8	46.9
Dubai	100.0	—	—
Egypt	48.9	66.1	50.4
France/Belgium	44.7 (F) 51.7 (B)	65.6	38.1
Gambia	90.7	—	—
Greece	52.3	79.7	31.2
India	94.1	94.3	94.0
Italia	48.6	65.2	30.5
Kazakhstan	66.7	61.8	68.2
Morocco	64.4	67.4	62.9
Mauritania	98.7	—	—
North America	43.3	76.3	21.9
Singapore	75.0	—	—
Spain	53.7	66.2	45.1
Sri Lanka	65.5	—	—
Thailand	78.2	84.1	72.7
Turkey	78.6	79.6	77.9
Total	54.7	—	—

The management committee of the enterprise group discusses at first the new survey. Next, by means of cognitive interviews, the questionnaire is tested. After approval of the questionnaire, fieldwork can start. A letter on the intranet announces the survey. The Enterprise Group CEO signs it. The letter distribution is also as part of pay packets. Moreover, the survey is announced on the company notice boards.

It is a mixed‐mode survey including both a web mode and a paper mode. To complete the questionnaire on the web, invitation is to everyone with an e‐mail address. Those without Internet can complete the paper questionnaire.

The enterprise has companies in many different countries. Thus, employees speak different languages. By translating the two questionnaires into the languages spoken in the countries in which the companies are located, language problems are overpassed. For individuals with literacy problems, data collection is via the collaboration of a private voluntary organization.

For the 2007 survey (the starting year of the survey), 22,276 employees were eligible for the survey. In countries with a large number of employees (France, Belgium, Italy, Egypt, Thailand, Morocco), two‐thirds of the white‐collar employees were invited to complete the questionnaire on the web, and one‐third were asked to complete the paper questionnaire. In all remaining countries, all white‐collar employees received a paper questionnaire. For all blue‐collar workers, invitation and completion was paper mode. An exception was France, where blue‐collar workers were receiving an Internet questionnaire.

Online data collection took place in the period from June to September. Data collection in the field ended in October. The results diffusion was in December. The total number of respondents was equal to 12,183. This comes down to a response rate of 54.7%. The response rate of the white‐collar workers (71.5%) was much higher than the response rate of the blue‐collar workers (45%). The response rate of the web respondents was higher than the response rate of the paper questionnaire respondents. Table 2.1 shows the response rates by country.

In 2007, the first survey was conducted. This survey is run in the subsequent years in a similar way. The survey turned out to be very informative with respect to the attitudes of employees about their jobs and the company they belong to.

Some examples of (translated) questions in the Italcementi survey are shown below. Figure 2.1 contains two questions that use a so‐called Likert scale. They both use a 4‐point scale. When responding to a Likert scale question, respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement. The scale name is after its inventor, the psychologist Rensis Likert.

Figure 2.2 shows a so‐called matrix question. Such a question combines a number of single question all with the same type of answer.

Figure 2.1 Questions with Likert scales

Figure 2.2 A matrix question