Survey Question Miswording

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What you don’t know will hurt you!

Example: “I can always talk to my supervisor about work-related problems.”

Problem: Terms such as “always” and “never” will bias the response in the opposite direction.
Result: Data will be skewed.

Example: “Training and career planning are available to me.”

Problem: Double-barrel: training and career planning. Respondents may need to agree with one and not the other. Researcher cannot make assumptions about which part of the question respondents were rating.
Result: Data is useless.

Example: “Communication at work is good.”

Problem: Question is too broad. If score is less than 100% positive, researcher still does not know what aspect of communication needs improvement.
Result: Data is of little or no usefulness.

Example: “The pace at our Company is hectic.”

Problem: The question is negative, and broadcasts a bad message about the Company.
Result: Data will be skewed, and the climate may be negatively impacted.