Market Research Absorbing Risk: Contrasting Training Policies With Workers' Experience

Abstract

This qualitative enquiry explores the health and safety issues of door-to-door survey workers in New Zealand. Data is drawn from two national organisations fictitiously named OpinionQuest and MarketMatrix. The paper contrasts the formal safety policies and the training given with the workers' actual experience. What do they recognise as risk and how do they deal with it? The research reveals that while many risks are recognised and avoided, the workers absorb others, accepting them as an integral part of their working lives. Organisational training prepares workers for the obvious risks, such as dogs and verbal abuse. It does not address less common events such as physical assault, unwelcome overt sexual overtures - or the road washing away. Recommendations emerging from the research relate to revised training and policies such as the provision of cell phones; systems for tracking the whereabouts of employees working in the field; and adequate coverage, in training, of the full range of risks they may encounter. Survey workers are pivotal to the success of Market Research organisations. Without their risk absorption, the entire process would cease to function.