Launching the Aircrew Stress Study
I'm so thoroughly 'Web 2.0' these days, that it amazes me to think that four or five years ago I actually considered distributing the survey for what would become the Aircrew Stress Study as a paper questionnaire, but I did -- briefly. A few considerations made me change my mind about that.
Most of those considerations can be summarized under the terms 'costs' and 'logistics.'
There were several kinds of costs to consider. First, of course, was the monetary cost. This study was, and is, an independent research project. As such it is self-funded -- no grant, no corporate sponsorship -- thus I had a limited budget.
Another cost to consider: labor. Using a paper questionnaire, as opposed to an electronic one, is a labor intensive undertaking. 'Responses' on questionnaires have to be converted to machine-readable 'data' so that they can be analyzed. So, the responses on a paper questionnaire have to be coded by hand -- a tedious process that is very time-consuming and also prone to error. Then the coded data have to be entered into a computer file in a form that analysis software can read. More labor. More possibilities for error.
Still another cost: time. All of those questionnaire coding and data entry tasks eat up valuable time that could be used for other tasks.
Then there were the logistical problems. I had relied on some family members and a few of their colleagues to distribute the 100 paper questionnaires that made up the field test. But how could I impose on them to distribute 500 -- maybe even 1000 -- questionnaires? I couldn't and wouldn't.
I had run earlier surveys elsewhere that were automated, but all of those were on stand-alone computers that were parked somewhere. Participants had to show up where the computers were in order to do the survey. The good part of that method was that the computer automatically collected the data, eliminating the need for hand-coding and data entry. The bad part, for the present case, was that there was no logical place (or handful of places) where I could set up such computers and hope to get the kind of sample I was hoping for.
Then I had one of those 'light bulb moments' like you see in cartoons. Why not go a step further and put the survey on line? I spent a few days sifting and searching around the Web for an appropriate solution, and I found it: SurveyMonkey.com. (Short unpaid plug here: I've used this service ever since, for multiple surveys, and I've been consistently happy with it.)
Fast forward to: The survey questionnaire is live on line. Now all I need are pilots and flight attendants who are willing to sit at their computers for 20 or 30 minutes and answer the questions.
Since the survey was on line, I decided to try to recruit participants on line as well. I set about searching for aviation-related websites and forums. Fortunately there are a gazillion of those to choose from! When I found a likely-looking site, I'd contact the owner, administrator, or forum moderator, tell them about the Aircrew Stress Study -- and about me -- and ask if I could post a notice with a link to the survey. In the end I contacted 30 different websites, and only one turned me down. (No, I'm not going to tell you which one.)
And then the responses started to come in. No, let me correct that: responses came pouring in. In all my years of survey research -- both commercial and academic -- I'd never seen anything like it. The participants' enthusiasm blew me away. Clearly, I had touched a nerve.
I began to receive heaps of emails from survey participants. Many actually thanked me for paying attention to the issues the survey addressed. Some volunteered to help recruit participants where they worked. So, I made up a one-page blurb about the survey that I could send to them to print and use as a handout or to post on a bulletin board.
Another thing that emerged from that flurry of emails was the first inkling that, although I had listened for a long time to the tales of my flying relatives, and although I had interviewed a number of pilots and cabin crew and had been bold enough to develop a questionnaire about 'aircrew stress,' I really didn't know squat about people who fly for a living!
Next: Some things I didn't know that I didn't know...
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