Research to order: Dilemmas in the design and control of tenant satisfaction surveys

• Published in: International journal of social research methodology Vol. 2; no. 4; pp. 279 - 296
• Main Author: Gubbay, Jon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 1999
• Subjects: Community Research; Community Satisfaction; Landlord Tenant Relations; Landlords; Methodological Problems; Methodology; Ownership; Public Housing; Research Design; Researcher Subject Relations; Satisfaction; Social housing; Social research; Survey data; Surveys; Tenants; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 1364-5579; 1464-5300
• DOI: 10.1080/136455799294961

There is widespread use of consumer surveys in the welfare field, in particular in social housing, and yet there are considerable conceptual problems about the meaning of satisfaction and how it might be measured. Moreover, such surveys are typically motivated by purposes which conflict with one another and thereby threaten the validity of the research in respect of each or all of those purposes. The analysis draws on the author's experience of conducting tenant satisfaction research, examination of an indicative sample of such studies and interviews with responsible officials of housing associations. Both through theorizing the social and political context of satisfaction surveys and appealing to real life examples, the author attempts to show that the key predicaments derive from the fact that social landlords operate in markets oriented to tenants and markets oriented to creditors and regulators and that they have to combine both roles of trustee and of business. Implications are spelled out with regard to the researcher-landlord relationship, research methods, modes of analysis and publication. It is noted that there are pressures for both landlords and researchers to collude in giving the impression that the researcher is independent, whereas the reality may be somewhat different.