Case Study On Work Sampling

Adams approach for determining the time spent by the workers at the water coolers and what do they converse at cooler could be an effective approach. Adams approach is a kind of continuous sampling. With this kind of work sampling not only the time spent by the workers could be identified but also, those workers would be identified who spend a lot of time at water coolers. But, in this type of work sampling, additional effort will be required to analyze the time of occurrence of non-productive activity ( i.e.; time spent at water coolers). Also, use of the microphone would be against the ethical values of workplace, in case if any worker discusses his personal details at water cooler, his information will no more remain confidential. Additionally, this approach will not provide complete information about the worker such as name, designation, etc..
The work sampling can be done differently by continuous sampling. The sampling could be done for a specific interval of time. If I were at Adams place, I would set a time interval of 2 weeks for work sampling. This method of work sampling would identify the fact that certain workers spend a large part of their time at water coolers or doing gossips. I would suggest the use of Fingerprint Time Clock ID Card Reader. This device will read the pin of ID card and display the information of the worker with the time between signing out and signing in. Whenever a worker would leave his place of work for either lunch or anything else, he would have to enter his fingerprints and punch his ID card in the system so that the system may read the information on the worker. In this way, ID card reader will record the time spent by the worker in non-productive activity (time spent at water coolers). 2 weeks contain twelve working days and 96 working hours. So that the time spent at water coolers would be divided by the total working hours to get the non-productive time.

References

Dimotakis, N., Scott, B. A., & Koopman, J. (2011). An experience sampling investigation of workplace interactions, affective states, and employee well‐being. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(4), 572-588.