New Unobtrusive Methods: Leveraging Technology to Advance Organizational Research

1. New Unobtrusive Methods:Leveraging Technology to Advance Organizational Research PDW Sponsored by the Research Methods Division

2. "Today, the dominant mass of social science research is based upon interviews and questionnaires. We lament this overdependence upon a single, fallible method. Interviews and questionnaires intrude as a foreign element into the social setting they would describe, they create as well as measure attitudes, they elicit atypical roles and responses, they are limited to those who are accessible and will cooperate, and the responses obtained are produced in part by dimensions of individual differences irrelevant to the topic at hand." Webb, Campbell, Schwartz, & Sechrest(1966)

3. Unobtrusive methods

4. Webb et al. were ahead of their time… Barriers to using Webb et al.’s approaches • Time-intensive methods • Data collection • Data processing • Difficult to scale to for organizational research Technological barrier busters in recent decades • Digital revolution • Networked infrastructure • Exponentially increasing PC capabilities • Miniaturization of computing • Advances in statistical modeling + machine learning

5. Unobtrusive methods: Old & new

6. Interactive Introductions • Stand up (if you choose ) • Form a group of three or four and introduce yourselves • Quick brainstormand plan to share your idea:Identify a way to unobtrusively measure the conscientiousness of members of different AOM divisions? (e.g., How conscientious are OB vs. BPS vs. OMT members?)Assume an unlimited budget. Take some scientific liberties, and be creative!

7. Goals of Today’s Session • Heighten awareness of the value and potential applications of novel unobtrusive methods for organizational research. • Promote critical thinking about the costs and benefits, as well as the limitations of novel unobtrusive methods. • Increase understanding of how to get started using four specific unobtrusive methods in your research. • Connect researchers who have used and/or are planning to use novel unobtrusive methods in their work.

8. Plan for the afternoon 1. Didactic presentations (11:30 to 12:45) • Email data, Adam Kleinbaum • Computer-assisted video coding, Kristin Smith-Crowe • Digital trace data, Brad Staats • Wearable sensors, Karren Watkins 2. Discussion (12:55 to 1:40) • Panel discussion + Q&A, All presenters and attendees • Through the eyes of an editor, Stuart Bunderson 3. Breakout roundtables (1:40 to 2:10) • Presenters will facilitate focused roundtables • Time to ask nuanced and detailed questions (get in the weeds) 4. Closing & next steps (Knight)

9. Next Steps Access materials and resources from this session, as well as contribute your own materials and resources: Research Methods Division’s new website http://rmdiv.org

10. Call for Abstracts • Alternative research methods track @ the 7th Biennial POS Research Conference • June 23-24, 2015, Lake Buena Vista, FL • Abstract submission between Sep, 2014 and Dec 1, 2014 • Submit abstracts to illuminatingresearch@umich.edu • See http://posresearchconference.com

11. Adam Kleinbaum Kristin Smith-Crowe Karren Watkins Jaime Potter Andrew Knight Bradley Staats Stuart Bunderson SigalBarsade