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Missing Data in Research

Nonresponse and the missing data that it produces are ubiquitous in survey research, but they are also present in archival and other forms of research. Nonresponse and missing data can be especially problematic in organizational contexts where the risks of providing personal or organizational data might be perceived as (or actually) greater than in public opinion contexts. Moreover, nonresponse and missing data are presenting new challenges with the advent of online and mobile survey technology. When observational units (e.g., individuals, teams, organizations) do not provide some or all of the information sought by a researcher and the reasons for nonresponse are systematically related to the survey topic, nonresponse bias can result and the research community may draw faulty conclusions. Due to concerns about nonresponse bias, scholars have spent several decades seeking to understand why participants choose not to respond to certain items and entire surveys, and how best to avoid nonresponse through actions such as improved study design, the use of incentives, and follow-up initiatives. At the same time, researchers recognize that it is virtually impossible to avoid nonresponse and missing data altogether, and as such, in any given study there will likely be a need to diagnose patterns of missingness and their potential for bias. There will likewise be a need to statistically deal with missing data by employing post hoc mechanisms that maximize the sample available for hypothesis testing and minimize the extent to which missing data obscures the underlying true characteristics of the dataset. In this connection, a large body of programmatic research supports maximum likelihood (ML) and multiple imputation (MI) as useful data replacement procedures; although in some situations, it might be reasonable to use simpler procedures instead. Despite strong support for these statistical techniques, organizational scholars have yet to embrace them. Instead they tend to rely on approaches such as listwise deletion that do not preserve underlying data characteristics, reduce the sample available for statistical analysis, and in some cases, actually exacerbate the potential problems associated with missing data. Although there are certainly remaining questions that can be addressed about missing data techniques, these techniques are also well understood and validated. There remains, however, a strong need for exploration into the nature, causes, and extent of nonresponse in various organizational contexts, such when using online and mobile surveys. Such research could play a useful role in helping researchers avoid nonresponse in organizational settings, as well as extend insight about how best and when to apply validated missing data techniques.