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Abstract:
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Interviewers who are less motivated to spend time on the survey because they experience a heavier burden may both administer shorter, faster interviews and put less effort in the contact phase. We examine the effect of interviewer burden on interview speed-as a proxy for interviewers' interviewing behavior-in three rounds of the European Social Survey in Belgium. Assignment and call history paradata allow the construction of a new, fine-grained measurement of workload over the fieldwork period. None of the workload components considered as factors contributing to interviewer burden appear to stimulate behaviors that increase interview speed. Enjoyment of the interaction element of working as an interviewer, on the other hand, is found to decrease interview speed in every round, suggesting that subjective dimensions of interviewer burden may be more relevant to interviewers' behavior than objective workload. We next consider whether interviewers' time spent on interviewing and efforts to persuade respondents to participate are related, suggesting the relevance of interviewers' willingness to spend the required time and effort to perform their different tasks properly.
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