Diary Studies in Organizational Research: An Introduction and Some Practical Recommendations

In recent years, researchers in work and organizational psychology have increasingly become interested in short-term processes and everyday experiences of working individuals. Diaries provide the necessary means to examine these processes. Although diary studies have become more popular in recent years, researchers not familiar with this method still find it difficult to get access to the required knowledge. In this paper, we provide an introduction to this method of data collection. Using two diary study examples, we discuss methodological issues researchers face when planning a diary study, examine recent methodological developments, and give practical recommendations. Topics covered include different types of diary studies, the research questions to be examined, compliance and the issue of missing data, sample size, and issues of analyses.