Early versus Later Respondents in Intranet-based, Organizational Surveys

Differences between waves of respondents (earlier versus later) has been assessed in past survey results to detect possible bias in relationships between attitutes and response time. The measurement of response time was imprecise in these mail surveys. This paper investigates differences of earlier and later respondents using two cross-cultural employee surveys with an on-line administration mode that provides a precise measure of time. We find that return time is unrelated to scale values of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and other survey items. However, some regional or cultural differences in responding earlier or later to an employee survey are observed.