Diary studies, a double‐edged sword? An experimental exploration of possible distortions due to daily reporting of social interactions

Abstract

Summary Diary studies on social interactions are increasingly common in management research. Yet due to the high demands involved, participants may experience burden and respond by showing insufficient effort responding (IER). Moreover, repeated reflection on the variables of interest may change individuals' perceptions of their work, thereby compromising the benefits of diary studies. We investigated these two effects in a sample of 444 participants in an exploratory experiment on different diary‐writing conditions. Perceptions and evaluation of the work environment were assessed before and after a 2‐week diary‐writing period in which participants reported on daily interactions at work. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five conditions differing in length and affective valence of the required report or to a control group without a diary. Results show that IER increases over time, especially when participants report negative (vs. positive) interactions at work. Changes in work‐related perceptions only occurred in team‐member‐exchange as a result of reporting negative work interactions. We discuss reasons for the absence of effects for the other outcomes. Finally, we provide implications for designing and conducting diary research and suggestions for future studies examining diary methodology.

Leader–member exchange (LMX) quality and follower well-being: A daily diary study.

“…Importantly, there was no difference in either morning well-being measures, and thus people's well-being did not affect the initiation or avoidance of leader-follower interaction. However, LMX quality was significantly higher on days when they interacted with their manager and this further attests to the face validity of the data, because simply asking about LMX quality daily did not increase/decrease their reported level, consistent with Gochmann et al (2022). In the absence of further data, it is difficult to interpret why leader interaction was beneficial to their relationship quality.…”

“…The underlying feature of ESM or similar designs is the use of self-report assessments that require reporting cognitive, affective, behavioral, and situational experiences with recall periods varying from 0 min (momentary) to 24 hr (daily), and even weekly (see Beal & Gabriel, 2019, for a review). Such methods are most appropriate to address within-person effects (see McCormick et al, 2020), although the methodology can introduce biases (Gochmann et al, 2022).…”

“…and even weekly (see Beal & Gabriel, 2019, for a review). Such methods are most appropriate to address within-person effects (see McCormick et al, 2020), although the methodology can introduce biases (Gochmann et al, 2022).…”

Modeling social interaction dynamics measured with smartphone sensors: An ambulatory assessment study on social interactions and loneliness

“…The development of research questions and theories on causes and consequences of social interactions in daily life has gone hand-in-hand with new technological advancements in measuring the complete set of social interactions that individuals experience in their day-to-day life. For this, scholars have used a variety of methods, ranging from event-contingent experience sampling (e.g., Reis & Wheeler, 1991 ), diary methods (e.g., Gochmann et al, 2022 ), electronically activated recorders ( Mehl et al, 2001 ), to sensors worn as a nametag ( Elmer et al, 2019 ). Recently, also the measurement of social interactions via a participant’s smartphone has been proposed – with the key advantage that these assessments do not need any active input from the participant, which provides a low burden for participants and, as such, allows researchers to record interactions over more extended periods of time ( Bachmann, 2015 ; Fulford et al, 2021 ).…”

Modeling social interaction dynamics measured with smartphone sensors: An ambulatory assessment study on social interactions and loneliness

“…The development of research questions and theories on causes and consequences of social interactions in daily life has gone hand-in-hand with new technological advancements in measuring the complete set of social interactions that individuals experience in their day-today life. For this, scholars have used a variety of methods, ranging from event-contingent experience sampling (e.g., Reis & Wheeler, 1991), diary methods (e.g., Gochmann et al, 2022), electronically activated recorders (Mehl et al, 2001), to sensors worn as a nametag (Elmer et al, 2019). Recently, also the measurement of social interactions via a participant's smartphone has been proposedwith the key advantage that these assessments do not need any active input from the participant, which provides a low burden for participants and, as such, allows researchers to record interactions over more extended periods of time (Bachmann, 2015;Fulford et al, 2021).…”