Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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would not be possible, potential participants may have been mistrustful due to the information coming from
management rather than an external independent body, and far too much information was given at the beginning
of the process.
Finally the financial climate was a clear potential negative of taking part in the original AR study. First of all it
was believed that an applied piece of research which assess ‘daily hassles’ would be unlikely to be a dent on the
more acute major event stressors which may go along with the financial issues of working in a public-sector
organisation. Similarly the AR process was not completely anonymous in nature (although confidentiality was
assured). Therefore respondents felt that should they take part they may be putting their jobs at risk by speaking
out (in a negative manner as would be the case with much of the AR process, which looks at the problems rather
than positives within an organisation) against organisational and management systems.
Lessons were learnt therefore from each of the reflections of the AR process. When describing the new
proposal to participants, the explanations were made step-by-step rather than all at once. For example, the survey
was presented and distributed to potential participants before the participants were introduced to the daily log
phase. Also all information and invitations to take part were made by the lead researcher, rather than any
management within the organisation. The whole process was also designed so that less time was required from
participants. For example only two questionnaires were included as part of the overall survey rather than three,
the daily log phase was designed to take just a few minutes at the end of each work day, the semi-structured
interviews were designed to take on average 30 minutes, and each individual was invited to take part in just one
focus group (rather than one focus group per month as in the AR process), both of which were limited to just one
and a half hours long each. Also the whole of the process (as far as was possible) was made completely