Methods of Collection

Methods of Collection
When I first began this project, I had envisioned using surveys, observation, emails and in person interviews. I have found that the surveys were all answered in a positive way with hardly any real in depth information. This was especially disconcerting, as I was hoping for a more detailed account and honest account. After doing much thinking, and after to speaking to three individual technicians, I realized that most were afraid that I would be showing these to other technicians and the senior upper management. It also did not help that although the survey was given as an attachment in an email, it was in truth still connected to an email - hence the trepidation of the technicians to be honest due to it wasn’t a truly “anonymous” survey. Another hindrance to this is the fact that I happen to be married to one of the technicians, and fear of my husband reading the surveys and then reporting upwards in the company of what was being said. In the end, I decided not to place too much emphasis on the survey.
Observation of daily life of the technician was an easier route and my most relied on method. To accomplish this, I rode along with Frank on several occasions observing his mannerisms, conversations with other technicians, management, the on call center, vendors and even the client. I was able to ride along on several change outs, during which I was able to observe how he related to different members of the team. This also gave me some insight to how the company worked from within, and how the clients reacted with him. I also gained an appreciation for the long hours he puts in, how difficult it can be for a company to run a business when it’s all done via phone and email, and the difficulties of trying to line everything up so that a change out goes smoothly. I found that observation was the best method for researching this field.
Emails proved to be difficult in getting prompt replies, understandably, the technicians work long hours, have tons of paperwork and when they have free time, they really did not want to talk about “work” related topics. While the emails from upper management were answered in a timely manner, I knew I was taking them away from their normal job and that my questions were low on the totem pole of relevant necessity. I felt like I was getting a canned response when it finally came. I do know that there are many changes going on inside the company and protocol has changed several times in the last six weeks, this would probably explain the canned responses.
In person interviews were going to be a challenge from the start given that the company headquarters is located in central Florida, and the technicians are scattered across the lower southeastern division. There are three technicians in Tennessee, two in Alabama, one in Kentucky and one in North Carolina that I have personally met.
The physical locations of the technicians made it almost impossible to interview separately or be able to observe separately like I had wanted to. This created a problem in that I had to base my research on one technician whom I happen to be married to. I have tried to be unbiased in understanding my findings, and not take anything personal when it came to hearing about other technicians and their shortcomings - according to Frank. I tried to rely on conversations that I had the privilege to be privy to and the emails between the technicians, carefully deciphering the information and placing it into the research.