Establishing personal contact over a widespread demographic area might be challenging, but would be necessary if the research was to be of value: it is likely that the information desired would be part of an academic or business-based study, and thus there would be enough funding for travel. Personal interviews also enable the research to be more thorough and valuable, given that the subjects will usually devote more time, energy, and thought to their responses face-to-face, as opposed to a cursory questionnaire or brief telephone interview. However, interviewers must be well-trained so they know how to probe, ask follow-up questions, and redirect the interviewee to focus on pertinent issues. They must also make the subject feel comfortable and uninhibited. Question D: A survey of financial officers of the Fortune 500 corporations to learn their predictions for the economic outlook in their industries in the next year.

In this case, it might be easier to distill the information, whether positive or negative, into a telephone questionnaire, given that the financial officers might be too busy to sit down for interviews. Also, Fortune 500 companies are more widespread, geographically, than a series of companies in the Eastern United States. It is necessary to have some interaction with the company managers, given that predictions for the economic future cannot be distilled into 'yes or no' questions on a self-directed questionnaire. Telephone interviews still allow follow-up questions, probing, and rephrasing of questions. Telephone interviews of such a...

In this case, it would be likely that presetting a time for the interview would be necessary.
Question E: A study of applicant requirements, job tasks, and performance expectations as part of a job analysis of student work-study jobs on a college campus of 2,000 students, where 1,500 are involved in the work-study program.

Logistically, unless this study was extremely well-funded, conducting personal or even telephone interviews of 1,500 students would not be feasible. The researchers might also want to gather data about the students not involved in the work-study program, as a point of comparison. However, after the initial self-directed questionnaire, the researchers could select individuals for interviews, to illuminate various aspects of their findings. The nature of the research suggests that getting further details would be helpful, given the diversity of impressions of applicant requirements, job tasks, and performance expectations. Interviewing student's employers (which are presumably fewer in number) would also be valuable. The fact that the subjects are likely to be highly motivated to respond, in the interests of improving a work study program that directly affects them, would be an additional argument in favor of beginning with a paper or online self-directed questionnaire, and then using a more time-consuming but less generic format.