Assessment of survey data quality: a pragmatic approach focused on interviewer tasks

Within the community of survey researchers there has been an increasing awareness that the total survey error approach has only partially realised its objective of setting up a model to estimate the total of all error components. Insufficient attention has been paid to non-sampling error. In the total quality management (TQM) approach the focus is on the production process. This is a comprehensive attempt to motivate everyone involved in the production of survey data to make permanent improvements to all components of the process. The TQM approach is suitable for organisations producing statistical data. This paper investigates the possibilities of integrating the major components of both approaches of data quality within the context of face-to-face interviews. The conceptual framework of a pragmatic approach is built on the concepts derived from evaluation research, such as process and product evaluation, and on the major tasks of the interviewer. The assessment of data quality should cover the process and output aspects of both the sample obtained and the registered responses. Within each stage of this assessment, a series of procedures has been identified. This is a very useful strategy that can be applied by organisations that attach great importance to the quality of their data. It is important to note that the proposed procedures for data quality assessment by themselves reduce errors.status: publishe