GM599 Unit 7 Capstone Data Collection Plan Example

Nothing Gathered Until It Is Settled: A Unit 7 Data Collection Plan for a Transit Capstone

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

GM599: Applied Research Project

Unit 7 Data Collection Plan

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Wexmoor Regional Transit, its staff and every date are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.

Permissions

Each source has written authorization, reproduced in the appendix.

The study itself. Authorized by the general manager of Wexmoor Regional Transit, who approved the project on condition that no individual employee is identified in any report.

Posting records, 2019 to the present. Authorized by the human resources director, released with applicant names removed and replaced by a code.

Banded earnings. Authorized by the payroll manager after legal review, released only as grouped earnings ranges, with small groups withheld.

Announcement of the survey. Agreed by the president of the union local, who will announce it at garage meetings as a neutral study. The union has not endorsed the survey and will not see individual responses.

Interviews. Each interviewee gives their own consent; no manager's permission is needed or sought, so that no supervisor knows who took part.

How Operators Will Learn About the Study

Operators will hear about the study three ways: from the union president at the garage meeting before each run pick, from a one-page notice in every eligible operator's mailbox, and from a poster in each garage's operator lounge. All three say the same things: what the study asks, that taking part is voluntary, that answers are anonymous and that the writer is a scheduling analyst with no role in promotions or discipline.

Consent

Taking part is voluntary. For the survey, consent is given by completing it, and the introduction says so. For interviews, the writer reads a consent script at the start, and the operator agrees aloud; the agreement is noted without the operator's name. Interviewees can withdraw at any time until analysis begins, two weeks after their interview, by telling the writer or the instructor.

Michael Quinn Patton stresses that informed consent in interviews depends on people understanding what will happen to what they say, not only on a signature (Patton, 2015). The consent script explains how quotations will be used and that pseudonyms will replace names from the first note.

The survey asks tenure band but not garage, because in a group of 141 the two together could point to a single person.

Confidentiality

Survey. The online version uses an anonymous link with no login and does not record internet addresses. Paper copies go in plain envelopes to a locked box in each garage, collected by the writer. The survey asks tenure band but not garage, age or job assignment.

Payroll data. Only banded figures are received; the writer never sees an individual's pay.

Posting records. Applicant codes replace names, and no code is ever matched to a person.

Interviews. Pseudonyms are assigned before the first note is written. Recordings are transcribed within a week and then deleted. Any detail in a quotation that could identify someone, such as a specific route or incident, is changed or removed.

Teresa Brannick and David Coghlan note that insider researchers carry special responsibility for confidentiality, because they will keep working alongside the people they study after the project ends (Brannick & Coghlan, 2007).

If Something Goes Wrong

Three situations have a plan in advance. If a manager asks to see survey responses or interview notes, the writer will refuse and remind them of the general manager's condition that no individual is identified. If an operator discloses something during an interview that suggests a safety violation, the writer will tell the operator that the matter falls outside the study's confidentiality and can be reported through the agency's safety hotline, and will not record it in the interview notes. And if fewer than 40 operators respond by the end of week five, the writer will report the low response honestly and lean more on the interviews rather than extend the survey into the interview weeks.

Storage and Destruction

All files are kept on an encrypted drive that only the writer can open, not on the agency's network. Paper surveys are kept in a locked cabinet at home and shredded after their answers are entered. Every file, including transcripts and the survey data set, is deleted at the end of the term, after the final paper is graded. Only the final paper, which contains no identifying information, is kept.

Collection Calendar

Collection is timed around the garages' run pick days, when operators choose their work for the next service period and attend garage meetings. The first two weeks go to gathering records. The survey opens at the run pick meetings in week three and closes at the end of week five, with reminders in weeks four and five, following Don Dillman and colleagues' advice that multiple contacts raise response rates (Dillman et al., 2014). Supervisor interviews take place in weeks three and four. The operator interviews follow in weeks six through eight, once early survey patterns are visible.

Appendices

Appendix A holds the interview consent script. Appendix B holds the survey introduction and mailbox notice. Appendix C holds the collection calendar with garage meeting dates.

References

Brannick, T., & Coghlan, D. (2007). In defense of being "native": The case for insider academic research. Organizational Research Methods, 10(1), 59-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428106289253

Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., & Christian, L. M. (2014). Internet, phone, mail, and mixed-mode surveys: The tailored design method (4th ed.). Wiley.

Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (4th ed.). Sage.