Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

Direct and Indirect Observation 433
those beepers, you can collect spot-observation data from lots of people at
once.
In anthropology, Garry Chick used ES in his study (1994) of a small
machine-tool company in Pennsylvania. Chick wanted to test Marx’s theory
that automation would eliminate the need for skilled labor by turning complex
tasks into a series of routine steps that could be performed by drones. Drones
should find their work boring, unsatisfying, and unimportant.
There were 11 machinists, all men, in the small shop. Four of them worked
on traditional, manually controlled lathes in turning out machine tools. Three
worked only on a newly installed, computer-controlled lathe (you program it
to do a job and then you more-or-less stand by while it executes your instructions).
And four worked on both types of lathes, depending on the job.
Each man was beeped 30 times—six times a day over a 5-day week—and
at each beep, he stopped what he was doing within 10 minutes and filled out
a 2-minute questionnaire. (Each man kept a spiral-bound booklet of questionnaires
handy in the shop.) There should have been 330 questionnaires (11 men
filling out 30 each), but one man was beeped while he was in the bathroom
and one was beeped while he was filling out a questionnaire (having been
beeped two minutes before). That’s what happens when you collect data at
random points, but random means random and no tinkering with it.
For each of the experience samples, workers indicated what they were
doing. If they were operating a machine (or more than one), they indicated
which one(s). Then they answered 14 attitude questions. Here they are:
On a scale from 1–10, where 1 means ‘‘definitely not’’ and 10 means ‘‘definitely
yes,’’ what I was doing:
1. was enjoyable.
2. was interesting.
3. was complex/technical.
4. was fun.
5. was under my control.
6. was monotonous.
7. was machine paced.
8. was tricky.
9. held my attention.
On a scale from 1–10, where 1 means ‘‘definitely not’’ and 10 means ‘‘definitely
yes,’’ at the time I was signaled, I was:
10. pressed for time.
11. working on my own.
12. thinking about things other than work.
13. doing something that I felt was important.
14. doing something that required a lot of skill.