ABSTRACT
In this chapter we shall be considering what is probably one of the most obvious ways of collecting data in organizations, especially where this data involves collecting data from, or about, people – namely, asking questions. After all, if you want to know, say, how someone feels about some aspect of an organization’s functioning or what problems they encounter, or perhaps what they feel
might be done about something, it makes sense to simply ask them. Asking questions, then, is one of the most direct ways of collecting data and is potentially at least, one of the simplest. However, as we shall see, in fact asking questions can also involve complex techniques and processes especially when it comes to asking questions through the use of, say, questionnaires or when using sampling surveys. In addition, even the apparently simplest questioning exercises involve and require considerable skills and planning on the part of the questioner. We shall be examining these skills and planning elements in addition to considering the range of approaches and techniques for asking questions as a way of collecting data, ranging from highly unstructured open-ended approaches involving what are essentially conversations to the highly structured forms of questioning used in survey-type approaches using questionnaires.
