MEASURING EMOTION IN OPEN-ENDED SURVEY RESPONSES - AN APPLICATION OF TEXTUAL DATA-ANALYSIS

The present study illustrates the use of a qualitative research techni que, textual data analysis, in assessing the emotional content of open -ended survey responses. The Dictionary of Affect in Language (DAL), o ne of many acceptable routes to the measurement of emotion, provided t he basis for scoring open-ended responses collected in a study of the organizational transformation efforts of a Fortune 100 firm based in t he midwestern United States. Managers and corporate executives were su rveyed with an in-depth questionnaire that included quantitative measu res of several work-related perceptions and attitudes as well as open- ended questions regarding two major events that occurred during the tr ansformation. Dimension scores produced from the DAL and direct rating s of open-ended responses correlated with the quantitative measures in expected and consistent ways. The use of textual data analytic approa ches is discussed, and advantages and disadvantages of such approaches are broadly addressed.