Data collection is useful in strategy development for any organization operating in any industry. For example, the information gathered from different stakeholders of a given institution could inform on the managerial decisions that suit specific situations. The healthcare sector is not left behind since information is required for the formulation of policies that would improve the quality of services provided. Questionnaires are among the tools of data collection used in such processes. They are a valuable method of surveying a specific segment of respondents that organizations may deem useful for their strategy development. This paper focuses the use of questionnaires in the healthcare industry. It draws relevance from a sample questionnaire developed by Anytown Health Center, USA and adapted by Rose Dunn in Dunn (2002, pp. 548). The work identifies the target respondents, the purpose of the questionnaire and how information collected would be of importance to the organization among other issues.
According to the type of questions contained in the questionnaire in Dunn (2002) and the objective of the survey, only employees of Anytown Health Center would receive and fill the questionnaire. The questions and objective of the survey also indicate that people in senior management positions may not be issued with the questionnaire. This conclusion draws credence from the fact that the questionnaire was to be administered by an employer at the institution. This analysis considers employer to be either the owner of the facility should it be a private one or a state, local, or federal government in the case of a public organization. The employees in this case would be any individual that works under the identified authorities. For the scenario of a private institution, all managers would be issued with the questionnaire. However, should the institution be a public entity, then senior managers would be excluded from the category of employees.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The health center administered the questionnaire to obtain the opinions of employees concerning their work (Dun, 2002). In this regard, the company management wanted to find how the employees reacted to different elements of their job. In broad terms, the questionnaire can be described as one that would help the management to study employee rates of satisfaction with their duties and operations of the company at large. The questionnaire was a valid method of data collection since the questions were designed to capture the specifics of the job elements of the respondents. For this reason, the employees who were issued with the questionnaires would relate the items on them with their real working conditions, which prompted them to give honest replies. However, the questionnaire would also be hampered by the fact that it does not allow the respondents to give their opinions since the questions are close-ended. This means, that the person administering the questionnaire would miss out on important information related to the work perceptions among the respondents.
The responses given for the questions can be interpreted with ease because the survey is not long and complicated (Dun, 2002). In addition, there is a code for the choice of that respondents make, which makes it easy for one to analyze the responses by checking the code against a key. However, since the outcome of the survey are meant to remain with the person who administered the questionnaire, there is no key provided in the questionnaire. This means that it might have been left for confidential usage only. It is easy to see what the scores for each respondent mean to their perception of work and responsibilities bestowed on them through comparing such scores against the interpretations on the key. Therefore, there is little difficulty in analyzing the results of the questionnaire.
The answers submitted would provide critical information concerning the manner in which the workforce perceives their duties. In other terms, the survey would provide an important tool in assessing issues such as employee job satisfaction and the ways of improving such satisfaction, the polices of administration that have the best outcomes on the workforce, and others. The information collected, therefore, provides a foundation for sound decision making in the area of human resources management. For example, the employer will have an idea concerning which activities most motivate their workforce, which ones demotivate them, and which ones they would to have. Nevertheless, the questionnaire used in this work does not provide a clue on the answers that the respondents submitted. This fact could be related to the person administering the questionnaire sought to keep such information confidential. This element is reported in literature as one of the factors that promote honesty and freedom to respond to the questions on a questionnaire (Mitchel et al., 2007). In fact, this issue is one of the elements of the ethics of research, which requires that researchers ensure that personal information and opinions be kept confidential.
The collected information collected from the questionnaires is likely to affect the organizational culture of the institution in the future. This argument draws from the fact that the results could be interpreted in terms of employee job satisfaction. Literature is sufficient in explaining the role of employee job satisfaction in the improvement of their job outcomes. For instance, most of such literature report that job satisfaction raises the morale of workers, leading to the minimization of turnover and other negative aspects of their productivity. In this regard, the information collected might affect the company in different ways from the managerial point of view. For example, the results could result in a managerial restructuring since management styles have a significant effect on employee levels of job satisfaction as Van Ho (2013) reports. In this case, such restricting would be a way of adopting positive changes meant to improve their satisfaction and committed with their work. In addition, the outcome of the survey would change the work schedules for nurses at the institution or other employees whose perceptions to work were measured. For instance, nurses and doctors could be unsatisfied with the shifts on which they report. This means that a managerial decision to reorganize them might be necessary. The outcome of the survey is also likely to affect organizational culture. To understand this concept, it is necessary to consider a scenario in which the outcome would indicate a high rate of employee dissatisfaction with their work. In this scenario, the management of the health center may be required to change the way things are done at the institution. In this regard, the change will constitute a change in organizational culture. Overall, such changes are likely to change the effectiveness of management at the healthcare institution, improving it for future productivity.
It has been mentioned that as much as the questionnaire may prove an effective way of surveying, it is likely that not all the views of clients might be captured. To address this issue, it would be necessary that the person administering the questionnaire varies their questions to include a series of open-ended questions. In this way, the questionnaire would be interactive, allowing the respondents to report on issues that would not be attainable through the close-ended questionnaire approach (Reja et al., 2003). The fact that the questionnaire required employees to be honest in their responses implies that they should have been allowed to write their opinions that would not be provided for in the options given for the close-ended questionnaires.
In conclusion, questionnaires are effective ways of data collection since the questions are customizable according to the requirements a specific organization in addition to their ability to prompt honest responses. The management at Anytown Health Center on the opinions of employees on their work designed the questionnaire used in this work. The questions are designed to fit the objective of the survey since they address the specifics of working conditions of the employees. in addition, it is easy for one to analyze the results of the questionnaire since the person surveying used a key and code method in designing the choices made by the respondents. However, the effectiveness of the questionnaire might be reduced because of the use of close-ended questions. Questions of this type do not prompt respondents to give honest opinions in the same way open-ended questions do. Therefore, it is suggested that the questions be restructured to include open-ended ones to address this issue. However, the findings of the survey may still be useful in the improvement of managerial effectiveness at the organizations. For instance, the information collected might point the need for managerial reorganization so that as to affect employee satisfaction with their work in a positive way. As demonstrated in the work, the results may also be used in stimulating a change in organizational culture so as to improve employee job satisfaction. Whatever the change that may be effected, it is notable that the perception of employees of their work is likely to improve. This factor is of critical importance since it is associated with positive employee outcomes.
References
Dunn, R. (2002). Haimann's healthcare management . Health Administration Press.
Mitchell, K., Wellings, K., Elam, G., Erens, B., Fenton, K., & Johnson, A. (2007). How can we facilitate reliable reporting in surveys of sexual behaviour? Evidence from qualitative research. Culture, Health & Sexuality , 9 (5), 519-531.
Reja, U., Manfreda, K. L., Hlebec, V., & Vehovar, V. (2003). Open-ended vs. close-ended questions in web questionnaires. Developments in applied statistics , 19 (1), 159-177.
Van Ho, T. (2013). Relationship between leadership styles and employee job satisfaction at local companies in Vietnam . Northcentral University.
