Management 2700B – Fall 2005 Observation Research Observation research – the systematic process of recording the behavioural patterns of people, objects and occurrences without questioning or communicating with them. What can be observed? Human behaviour and physical actions Expressive behaviour Spatial relations and locations Temporal patterns Physical objects Verbal or pictorial records How can these observation be done? People watching people People watching phenomena Machines watching people Machines watching phenomena Natural vs. contrived Visible vs. disguised Direct vs. indirect Advantages: - do rather than say - communication is not necessary - no need to rely on participants memory - nonverbal data can be obtained - combined with other methods - environmental conditions can be recorded Disadvantages: - no feelings, attitudes, intentions - costly and time consuming - interpretation of data may be a problem - possible invasion of privacy From the video, try to document (observe) one of these areas: Human behaviour and physical actions Expressive behaviour Spatial relations and locations Temporal patterns