Reminders May Increase Response Rates, but Is There a Cost? the Effects of Survey Reminders on Suboptimal Response Behavior

Organizational survey researchers and practitioners must be thoughtful about the methods used to encourage potential survey participants to complete organizational surveys. One of the most common tools used is the survey reminder, which is effective in improving response rates. However, little research has considered whether the responses gained after reminders have been distributed are of comparable quality to those obtained after initial survey invites were sent. Drawing on suboptimal response and nonresponse theories, I examine whether reminders lead survey participants to respond suboptimally, including through insufficient effort response and socially desirable response, as well as if reminders lead to lower survey data quality. Using survey responses from 5,900 respondents to an organizational safety survey, results from measurement and structural invariance tests and concurrent t-test analyses show that reminders are not significantly associated with response distortion or measurement variance, indicating that survey reminders do not contribute to lower survey data quality.