Experience sampling methodology

In the last few years, traditional between-person studies in organizational research have been increasingly complemented by an emerging stream of research that seeks to examine and explain within-person variations1 in variables of interest (Ilies, Schwind, & Heller, 2007). This line of research, focusing on experienced states, episodic conceptualizations of work, and dynamic and fluctuating factors, investigates research questions that cannot be adequately addressed with between-individual approaches (Alliger & Williams, 1993; Sheldon, Ryan, & Reis, 1996). Because betweenindividual designs consider variations across time as transient error, they either ignore temporal variations, or consign these within-individual relationships to measurement error. In order to best understand a phenom - enon, however, both between-and within-individual conceptualizations and measurements are needed, because each approach leaves considerable variance “on the table” (unexplained by the design). Moreover, a phenomenon can have different manifestations within people compared with between people; see Figure 10.1 for a rather extreme case of crosslevel divergence. Thus, within-person designs can provide unique and invaluable insights that stand to make a valuable contribution to the literature.