Journal article

Publication year: 2007

Pages: 49-59

Journal: Journal of Personnel Psychology

Volume number: 6

Issue number: 2

ISSN: 1617-6391

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1026/1617-6391.6.2.49

Publisher: Hogrefe

Abstract: 
Utilizing free comments in employee surveys has become ever more popular in recent years, because online methods have made such comments cheap to collect and ready for immediate data analysis. However, little is known about such comments, regarding both the content and method. Here we report what kinds of comments are given by what persons on what topics for two employee surveys. Some of the findings are: some 40% of the respondents provide comments; most comments are negative ones; negative comments are much wordier than positive ones; persons who write comments are comparatively more dissatisfied and have a lower affective commitment to the organization than noncomment writers. Moreover, there is no relationship between the number of comments on a topic and the respondents' ratings on the topic's importance. Further, most comment elaborate on topics previously assessed by closed items. Completely new topics are the exception. Finally, it is shown that the proportion of positive to negative comments are quite different in different countries, but positive comments are never more frequent than negative ones. Since one sample comprised some 40000 comments, a dictionary for computer-assisted content analysis is being developed that can be used for similar analyses in other employee surveys.

Harvard Citation style: Borg, I., Zuell, C. and Beckstette, C. (2007) Comments in employee surveys:: Who comments how on what?, Journal of Personnel Psychology, 6(2), pp. 49-59. https://doi.org/10.1026/1617-6391.6.2.49

APA Citation style: Borg, I., Zuell, C., & Beckstette, C. (2007). Comments in employee surveys:: Who comments how on what?. Journal of Personnel Psychology. 6(2), 49-59. https://doi.org/10.1026/1617-6391.6.2.49