Questionnaire Survey

The Questionnaire Survey sheet was constructed on the basis of the analysis of comprehensive Literature Review and Pilot Study. The respondents for the questionnaire survey were graduates working in virtual project team either as team members or project managers of various construction companies in the Middle East. The mailing lists of virtual team project communities were obtained from the online directories of construction companies such as www.gulfconstructionworldwide.com and www.constructionweekonline.com along with various other sources such as Emirates Oil and Gas directory, Middle East Building and Construction Directory, The Blue Book Building and Construction Network and LinkedIn Construction groups. The questionnaire survey was web based and the participants were sent a link to online questionnaire instrument. There was a consent form as a first page of the questionnaire which clearly stated the purpose of data collection; the process of data collection; how will the data be used; what measures are in place to ensure data security; when will the data be destroyed; the scenario of them changing their minds and deciding to withdraw from this study. It has clearly been stated in the consent letter that if they choose to withdraw then the data in the electronic form will be destroyed immediately. Only when the participants accept the consent form, they were directed to the questionnaire. Their responses are automatically recorded in the software tool (Survey Monkey) being used for making online questionnaire. The respondents who responded become self-sampled population. This data was fed in the SPSS for further processing that refined the researcher’s theoretical model of trust constructed in chapter 4.

The types of questions used in the questionnaire were mainly of the closed ended question types which enable the respondents to give answers to fit into categories that have been established in advance by the researcher. A 5-point Likert scale was employed to enable the respondents to rank the importance of each factor from a minimum of “strongly disagree” to a maximum of “strongly agree”. In this questionnaire, the open

Chapter 6: Data Collection, Analysis and Research Results

134

ended question design is only dedicated to get information on respondent’s profile and their work description. The questionnaire was divided into three sections. Section 1 was on demographic information of respondents along with their experience on virtual projects, Section 2 seeks information about the organizational culture and leadership skills of the superior and Section 3 deals with information about the dynamics and communication of Virtual Project Team dealing with the internal working of the team along with the characteristics of team members. Section 4 has items dealing with trust development.

There was a reference table being prepared for each item included in the questionnaire which clearly stated the purpose of that particular item and its importance by seeing its relevance in the reference column. It included section 2, 3 and 4 of the questionnaire as section 1 was demographic information. The Appendix X which shows the questionnaire reference table, gave the researcher, a strong belief that the research is going in the right direction.

6.2.2.1 Data Tabulation

Data was collected from 403 professionals from Construction sector of the Middle East through a web based questionnaire. This web based questionnaire was refined from the outcomes of pilot study and is shown in Appendix VIII. This was being prepared with the help of online tool – SURVEY MONKEY. The snapshot of the total number of responses is as shown in figure 6.2.

Chapter 6: Data Collection, Analysis and Research Results

135

This online tool automatically preserves the data collected in the tabulated format. The tabulate is as shown in figure 6.3.

Figure 6.3: Snapshot of data collected using Online tool Survey Monkey

As we can see from the tabulated data,the software automaticaly allocates a respondent Id for each participant response. There are five collectors available in Survey Monkey as shown in figure 6.4 . The researcher used two kinds of collectors: Web Link and Email Invitation. That’s the reason, there are two different numbers in Collector id column in figure 6.3.

Chapter 6: Data Collection, Analysis and Research Results

136

Thereafter, the start and end date of the response was recorded. The survey options were being set in such a way to make survey anonymous which is shown in figure 6.5.

Figure 6.5: Options for each collector id in Survey Monkey

In column E of figure 6.3, the consent form information is recorded. It is one (1) if the respondent has agreed to fill the questionnaire voluntarily after understanding the research and zero (0) otherwise. After column E, in all other columns, the information of respective responses for the questionnaire is stored. We can see S. No. 120 has not completed the questionnaire and left in between. This is what we call one category of invalid response and can be found using MS-Excel by using formulae to find and delete such kind of responses.

6.2.2.2 Data Analysis using SPSS

Statistical Analysis software – Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to aid the analytic process in this research. Tabulated data was exported to the SPSS and analyzed using statistical research methods, as explained below.

Chapter 6: Data Collection, Analysis and Research Results

137