Behavior in a nonexperiment: The effects of behavioral field research on the work performance of factory employees

Abstract

To determine whether a field research process itself has an influence on employee productivity which might become confounded with the influence of more legitimate independent variables, 73 male workers in 1 department of a factory were studied. Field research operations, consisting of observational and survey techniques, were employed during the middle 2 wk. of the 6-wk "before," "during," and "after" experimental design. Research effects on the total department and the 8 work groups were negligible. Hypothesized moderator influences for age, authoritarianism, rural-urban background and union activity level, although small, were found thus demonstrating that research operations can affect different people in different ways on a productivity criterion. (19 ref.) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)