Hi, Mary,
One approach is to cultivate relationships with people who are
scholar-practitioners in Org Behavior in addition to traditional academics.
You need bridges into the business community, because busy executives don't
hand out their email addresses, or even read email from people they don't
know. A purposive snowball sampling process could be used, i.e., having some
contacts introduce you to other contacts.
I'm a Senior Staff Organization Development analyst at Lockheed Martin and
also a PhD candidate at Fielding Graduate University. I know some people who
care both about research and academics as well as about business
applications of the knowledge you will be developing in your dissertation
project, i.e., the topic is of interest to them.
I will help you access some people that I can personally send an email to
with your study request, asking them to pass it along to others in their
network. This may generate some participants for you.
You can reach me at
patricia.a.millar@lmco.com
There is a local chapter of the Organization Development Network in San
Francisco and they have regular meetings. You could contact people on the
leadership team and ask for assistance. There are people in ODN who are also
studying for their PhD or who already have earned it who may be willing to
help. Many people are in high level jobs in industry and have access to
executives who would be willing to complete a survey such as you describe.
Patti Millar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:39:03 -0800
From: Mary Francis <
maryfrancis@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Please help!!! How do I gain access to executives for my
dissertation research?
Hello,
Please help! I am losing sleep at night trying to figure out my research
dilemma.
I am in the early stage of my dissertation writing and haven't yet
determined how to gain access to my target population. My topic is social
exchange relationships and executive turnover. I am hoping to email the
link to a short web survey (20 Likert scale questions) to at least 200
executives which I am defining as Directors and above.
How would you suggest I go about finding and gaining access to executives
for my research? I am currently putting together a two page "selling"
document that I hope to show a few local companies in the San Francisco
area. I keep thinking that there has to be a few other ways that I am not
thinking of.
I welcome your advice and thank you in advance!
Regards,
Mary
maryfrancis@gmail.com
Doctoral Candidate
University of San Francisco (USF)