Asking sensitive questions: the impact of forgiving wording and question context on social desirability bias

Sensitive questions are prone to systematic measurement error due to the respondents?? social desirability concerns. Literature on empirical social research often recommends either positive ??loading?? of sensitive questions, e.g. using ??forgiving?? wording, or manipulating the question context to reduce social desirability bias. We derive theoretical explanations of how manipulations of question wording and context could elicit more socially undesirable answers in sensitive surveys. In an experimental online survey (N?=?1,176), we evaluate the effects of (1) forgiving wording and (2) question context on social desirability bias in different sensitive questions. The empirical evidence on the assumed bias-reducing effects shows inconsistent results. It is indicated however, that the perceived social norm has the strongest and most consistent effect on the respondents?? propensity to self-report socially undesirable behavior.     

Employment,Social Mobility and Neighbourhood Effects: The Case of Sweden

In science and in society at large, there is a big debate going on about the existence and potential impact of ‘neighbourhood effects’. The dominant question is: does the social composition of the neighbourhood have specific positive or negative effects on the career prospects of those who are living there? We seek to contribute to this debate by investigating the relationship between individual social mobility and the social composition of the residential environment. For that purpose we analysed new longitudinal Swedish data, which is available at the individual level. We particularly focused our attention on the employment careers of individuals in relation to the levels of employment or unemployment in their individual environments. Environment effects on social mobility were isolated, controlling for relevant variables that were available at the individual level. We were also able to control for changes in the environments over time. Individual longitudinal data could be used over the period 1991–9. The analyses revealed that their environment appears to have a moderate yet clear impact on the employment prospects of unemployed individuals. The academic relevance of the article is in its contribution to the theoretical underpinnings of the human–environment relationship; the societal relevance is to the area‐based policies and the housing policies aimed at social mixing, which are currently being developed in many places in the Western world.     

Comparing operationalizations of dual commitment and their relationships with turnover intentions

This study evaluates the meaning behind the different approaches to measuring dual commitment in a sample of 2568 unionized South Korean electronics employees. Results show that individuals can be simultaneously committed to both the union and the organization. We then examine the utility of dual commitment by examining its prediction of intention to stay. Analysis of variance provides support that individuals who are dually committed have significantly higher intentions to stay within the organization than those who are uncommitted or unilaterally committed. A new direction to reinvigorate the future of dual commitment research is offered.     

Determinants of social desirability bias in sensitive surveys: a literature review

Survey questions asking about taboo topics such as sexual activities, illegal behaviour such as social fraud, or unsocial attitudes such as racism, often generate inaccurate survey estimates which are distorted by social desirability bias. Due to self-presentation concerns, survey respondents underreport socially undesirable activities and overreport socially desirable ones. This article reviews theoretical explanations of socially motivated misreporting in sensitive surveys and provides an overview of the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of specific survey methods designed to encourage the respondents to answer more honestly. Besides psychological aspects, like a stable need for social approval and the preference for not getting involved into embarrassing social interactions, aspects of the survey design, the interviewer’s characteristics and the survey situation determine the occurrence and the degree of social desirability bias. The review shows that survey designers could generate more valid data by selecting appropriate data collection strategies that reduce respondents’ discomfort when answering to a sensitive question.     

Solving the “Lachmann Problem”: Orientation,Individualism, and the Causal Explanation of Socioeconomic Order

This article examines the question of whether social institutions should be treated as possessing the sui generis causal power to influence people's actions. It does so by means of a case study of the work of the Austrian economist Ludwig Lachmann. Lachmann's account of how social institutions facilitate intentional human agency in the face of uncertainty contains significant ambiguities and tensions, stemming from his reluctance to acknowledge the causal efficacy of social institutions. The conceptual resources required to overcome these problems are to be found in realist social philosophy and social theory. The proposed resolution comes at a price, however, for it calls into question Lachmann's self‐avowed commitment to methodological individualism.     

THE INTERSUBJECTIVITY OF ISSUES AND ISSUES OF INTERSUBJECTIVITY

This paper describes research concerned with assisting groups in organizations handle their complex, ill-structured policy issues in ways which we believe are significantly different from many typical policy analysis projects. It is our belief that many systems research, operational research and management science projects have concentrated on 'objective', usually quantitative data at the expense of losing their clients' interest and commitment. Our work is concerned with taking account of intersubjectivity in policy analysis and evaluation. It is orientated to the construction of models that will be owned by our clients because they recognize as legitimate, and explicitly take account of, the subjective and particular knowledge of individuals within organizations. They also explicitly take account of the interaction of shared and individual knowledge as a group comes to define an intersubjective group issue.     

Heterodox Economics and the Scientist's Role in Society

The present work starts from a simple question: Why should a state pay the salary for an academic researcher in economics? Generally speaking, research should be financed because it is useful for socioeconomic development; knowledge represents a productive input and it increases social welfare. How much does this argument hold for economic knowledge? Is economics helping in improving wealth and well‐being? This article will show how the incentive structure and the internal organization of the discipline prevent a positive answer to such questions. In fact these institutions do not necessarily stimulate researchers to understand economies, and economics completely neglects its role in shaping values because of its pretense of objectivity. Two solutions are proposed: more pluralism and a wider capacity to discuss with the whole society.     

Justice and organizational citizenship: A commentary on the state of the science

The present article discusses the state of the science regarding the connection between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as reflected by the articles included in this issue. The research described in these articles reaches a conclusion in need of further elaboration—namely, that people will behave altruistically toward the oroganizations in which they work when they believe those organizations have treated them fairly. Various conceptual issues are discussed. These include: the willingness of people to express inequity distress by withholding OCB, the relative importance of procedural justice compared to distributive justice as a determinant of OCB (especially the social aspects of procedural justice), and the extent to which a reduction in OCB may reflect a desire to influence another individual, or the organization in general. A variety of methodological issues are also discussed. In this connection, it is suggested that correlational, questionnaire measures be supplemented by open-ended interview studies as well as laboratory investigations. Moreover, if questionnaires continue to be used, then it is recommended that attempts be made to improve the validity of both measures of justice and OCB.     

The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research

Recent years have seen an extraordinary resurgence of interest in the process of gentrification, accompanied by a surge of articles published on the topic. This article looks at some recent literature — both scholarly and popular — and considers the reasons why the often highly critical perspectives on gentrification that we saw in earlier decades have dwindled. Whilst a number of reasons could be put forward, three in particular are discussed. First, the resilience of theoretical and ideological squabbles over the causes of gentrification, at the expense of examining its effects; second, the demise of displacement as a defining feature of the process and as a research question; and third, the pervasive influence of neoliberal urban policies of ‘social mix’ in central city neighbourhoods. It is argued that the ‘eviction’ of critical perspectives from a field in which they were once plentiful has serious implications for those at risk from gentrification, and that reclaiming the term from those who have sugarcoated what was not so long ago a ‘dirty word’ ( Smith, 1996 ) is essential if political challenges to the process can be effective.     

Unpacking Commitment: Multiple Loyalties and Employee Behaviour*

abstract We present findings from three UK studies on the nature and consequences of employees’ multiple commitments in the workplace, with samples drawn from private manufacturing, private services and the public sector. Co‐workers, the union, the union representative, customers, and the immediate boss emerge as separate foci of commitment, distinct from ‘global’ commitment to the organization as a whole. Consistent with social exchange theory, attitudinal and behavioural outcomes are predicted by commitment to those foci that might be expected to benefit from the outcome in question. There is evidence that global organizational commitment mediates the relationship between foci‐specific commitments and organization‐related outcomes, but there is no mediation in the case of those foci and outcomes that are more cognitively distant from the organization. A comparison of the studies suggests that the pattern and outcomes of commitment are influenced by the nature of the job and of the work context.     

Considering grievance mediation

This article uses a public sector case study and a review of the social science literature on disputing processes to question assumptions made by labor relations advocates of grievance mediation. The author argues that labor policy on alternative grievance resolution processes cannot be adequately made without consideration of the specific labor-management relationship within its social context. A model is proposed to assist parties considering grievance mediation by making the social context more explicit.     

The trouble with HRM

The legitimacy of HRM is threatened by challenges to the impact of its core research programme and the centrality of its practices and function. If HRM is in crisis, what are the sources and perceived solutions? This article addresses the question of what a critical approach to HRM can contribute to the discussion of its troubles. That territory has often been occupied by adherents of critical management studies. However, such perspectives have shared with normative models the mistaken assertion that HRM is primarily a cultural construct that focuses on the creation of employee commitment. This article makes a case for a political economy approach that situates HR troubles within the constraints of the accumulation regimes of financialised capitalism. Among the outcomes is a strengthening of market discipline rather than commitment as a driver of high performance. While challenging the assumption that HRM is a distinctive mode of managing the employment relationship, it seeks to identify some common grounds for dialogue between mainstream and critical approaches.     

The consequences of dual and unilateral commitment to the organisation and union

This article examines the pattern and consequences of commitment to organisation and union amongst union members in a UK National Health Service Trust. Those who perceived the industrial relations climate as positive were more likely to be dually committed to both organisation and union. As anticipated, union commitment predicted union citizenship behaviours and intent to quit the union. However, organisational commitment predicted intent to quit the organisation but not organisational citizenship behaviour, which was predicted by union commitment. Findings suggest that those with a unilateral commitment to the union are more likely than the dually committed to engage in citizenship behaviours aimed at helping fellow members and colleagues, perhaps because they feel unconstrained by any strong loyalty to the organisation.     

The European sectoral social dialogue: questions of representation and membership

In the debates on the European social dialogue as a potential level of supranational industrial relations, the key questions of representations and mandates are often neglected. To what extent can the European sectoral social dialogue act for national constituencies across 27 Member States in the perspective of collective action by European associations? This article addresses this question by the means of three dimensions: the representation of heterogeneous members, the various degrees of national players' commitment in the European committees and finally, the definition of a common agenda among members.     

What about theory? The consequences on a widened perspective of social theory

One of the leading debates in social sciences concerns research design. However, in comparative politics, the predominant way conducting research misses out crucial aspects that are central to social theory. This article shows how method and empirical research are highly dependent on the definition of theory. Arguing that theory should not only give an explanation of the social phenomena in question but should also show how this relationship is constructed, this article outlines the consequence of such a perspective, namely that the collection of data should reflect both macro and micro perspectives and the analyses of data should be carried out using mixed methods. In conclusion, such an integrated framework is the most appropriate way to give valuable theoretical feedback, either by examination and revision of already established theories or by a contribution to the construction of new theory in the social sciences. It is important, though, that such a framework is applied in a systematized way.     

An application of co-word analysis and bibliometric maps for detecting the most highlighting themes in the consumer behaviour research from a longitudinal perspective

This article presents an application of a bibliometric and visual study of the research carried out on a social science subfield, concretely the consumer behaviour research (CBR), from a longitudinal perspective (period 1966–2008). The study combines performance analysis and science mapping for detecting and visualizing conceptual subdomains. Quantitative and qualitative measures are used in order to identify the most prominent themes. Quantitative data are used to put together very related concepts (themes or clusters of topics), while qualitative indicators (as those based on citations) are used to measure the quality and/or impact of the detected themes. The study also uses bibliometric maps to show in a visual way the associations between the main concepts treated by the CBR community. The maps provide insight into the structure of the CBR, visualize the division of the field into several subfields, and indicate the relationships between these subfields. Co-word analysis is the bibliometric technique used to identify the main themes. All this allows us to quantify and visualize the thematic evolution of the CBR. It also helps to both experts and novices to understand the current state of the art of the CBR and to predict where future research could lead.     

Organisational communication and supportive employees

The importance of the social dimension of organisations is currently a strong focus of emphasis in the literature. From a managerial perspective, however, it is important that the community spirit within an organisation falls in line with its strategic direction. The study discussed in this article shows that high quality internal communication may be important in encouraging such a supportive attitude. What is considered ‘good’ internal communication does not directly engender more support for the organisation's strategic direction. However, evidence from research in five organisations (with 791 respondents distributed across 19 work units) suggests that there are two ways to foster support. One is to create a sense of commitment within the organisation; the other is to establish trust in the management. Both approaches appear to have a positive relationship with good internal communication. The quality of task‐related communication is important in creating commitment. What is vital in creating trust, however, is the quality of non‐task‐related communication. The study at the focus of this article addresses the following question: does organisational communication help foster a positive attitude towards the strategic direction of an organisation?     

Contextual content analysis

This article suggests one way to systematically code textual data for research. The approach utilizes computer content analysis to examine patterns of emphasized ideas in text as well as the social context or underlying perspective reflected in the text. A conceptual dictionary is used to organize word meanings. An extensive profile of word meanings is used to characterize and discriminate social contexts. Social contexts are analyzed in relation to four reference dimensions (traditional, practical, emotional and analytic) which are used in the social science literature. The approach is illustrated with five widely varying texts, analyzed with selected comparative data. This approach has been useful in many social science investigations to system-atically score open-ended textual information. Scores can be incorporated into quantitative analysis with other data, used as a guide to qualitative studies, and to help integrate strengths of quantitative and qualitative approaches to research.     

Operationalization,a superfluous concept

This paper discusses a number of issues in the methodology of social and behavioral sciences which concern how concepts are defined and related to observations, how theories are constructed, and how we proceed in actual research. Examples are mainly taken from experimental psychology, and from social psychology, but the problems and answers apply to the whole of behavioral and social sciences. These issues are related to philosophy of science. They are, however, presented from the point of view of a researcher who asks himself how to proceed in actual research, and who is critical about the present status of social and behavioral science. The main point is a pledge for a renewed empiricism. This is close to what can be called logical empiricism but should not be identified with any particular-ism. Some issues raised by critics of logical empiricism are addressed in the final section. The first problem deals with how to clarify concepts in behavioral and social science. This will show an unresolvable circularity in operationalization of theoretical constructs. The position and role of measurement is discussed in relation to the objectives of behavioral and social research. Subsequently, it is pointed out that a clear distinction between empirical concepts and theoretical constructs solves many, if not all of the problems of defining and clarifying concepts, thereby obviating the need for a so-called operationalization. It should, however, be very clear from the beginning that we cannot do without operational definitions of theoretical concepts, and that to some extent we must return to the original spirit of operationism, although in a manner which is different from current practice. An important element of the advocated approach is the definition of the empirical domain of a theory in terms of observational categories. Guttman's facet design can be a useful tool to define domains, especially for non-experimental research.     

Urban Laboratories: Experiments in Reworking Cities

The notion of the ‘urban laboratory’ is increasingly striking a chord with actors involved in urban change. Is this term simply a metaphor for urban development or does it suggest urbanization by substantially different means? To answer this question, we review the work of science and technology studies (STS) scholars who have empirically investigated laboratories and practices of experimentation over the past three decades to understand the significance of these spaces of experimentation in urban contexts. Based on this overview of laboratory studies, we argue that urban laboratories and experimentation involve three key achievements — situatedness, change‐orientation and contingency — that are useful for evaluating and critiquing those practices that claim to be urban laboratories. We conclude by considering some future directions of research on urban laboratories.