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I have another question: How to handle local publicity of the research project I mentioned earlier with a city government.

The city manager is very excited about it, and I just got a call from his PR director saying they would like to publicize it to build enthusiasm both among the staff and in the community (and thereby, the city council as well).  There's already been some buzz among employees due to a meeting with department heads and a round of exploratory interviews we did yesterday.  So the cat's already out of the bag.

The city manager would like to put out a press release, talk about it on his weekly radio show, and mention it in an internal employee newsletter.  We had already decided in initial meetings that the messaging to employees would be that they've been chosen as the only site for this ground-breaking research we're working on, the city will receive valuable feedback on employee attitudes that otherwise would cost tens of thousands of dollars, etc.  This would mainly be taking that message to a wider audience.

On the one hand, broader publicity could generate enthusiasm and may increase employees' response to our survey.  

On the other hand, I'm concerned about potential ways that the publicity might bias our research outcomes.  It might create some social desirability effects, for example, or else if too closely identified as a project of the powers-that-be, might lead employees who don't like the management to be less than forthcoming or even resistant.  

Any thoughts on how to handle publicity of the project?

Max Freund

Claremont Graduate University