Detailed instructions on what to do for Part A: The research scenario is that as part of a…
Detailed instructions on what to do for Part A: The research scenario is that as part of a…
Detailed instructions on what to do for Part A:
The research scenario is that as part of a sustainability programme to produce biogas, a local council is interested in gathering information on householders’ views on recycling food waste. As this is a new initiative, no specific and reliable data is available. You have been given the task to conduct a survey to collect this data (primary data collection) with the help of a questionnaire.
You have learned that prior to producing a good quality questionnaire it is important to write a data requirements table (Saunders et al, 2012, p. 425). Please note that you are NOT required to design a questionnaire.
You are expected to write an essay-style piece of work starting with the scenario, justifying the use of survey strategy with questionnaires as data collection tool for the given scenario. Discuss your population and sampling method and justify your decision. Include the purpose of your research.·
State the type of questionnaire you want to use and justify your choice.·
Justify your wish to produce a data requirements table.·
Then produce and present your data requirements table.·
This should be followed by commentary on and justifications of any choices you have made regarding the information in your table by making good use of/ reference to published sources/ research methods literature and linking it explicitly to the research scenario.·
All choices you make must be justified using Business Research Methods theory.·
Include a list of references formatted in the HBS Harvard Style (See CASE website).·
Minimal essential reading for Part A is Chapter 11 of Saunders, M. et al (2016) but you are expected to also refer to other chapters where appropriate and to do some additional reading.
Detailed instructions on what to do for Part B:
Assignment B is about analysing a given set of quantitative data using IBM SPSS. The data set will be available on the Ref/Def CW submission point and in the Teaching Resources section of the BRM module website. The file you need is: jss.sav
You are expected to write a well-structured & designed report – plus any diagrams and charts you produce and a list of references. It should consist of data analysis, commentary and interpretation and should make good use of published sources to justify your choices.
The directors of a medium sized company have asked you to obtain answers to several HR related questions and write a short report. You have access to a survey of their employees that has recently been carried out (jss.sav). The questions you need to answer are:
1. What is the age distribution of the workforce? (Use, for example, Histogram)
2. What proportion of employees belongs to each ethnic group? (Use, for example, Bar Graph)
3. What is the average income? (Use, for example, Descriptive Statistics, Descriptives)
4. How is number of years worked related to salary, if at all? (Use, for example, Linear Regression)
5. How different are the average salaries of the different skill categories? (Use, for example, One-way ANOVA)
6. Is there a significant difference between the proportion of males and females who attended the firm’s meeting last month? (Use, for example, Chi-Squared)
Use SPSS to carry out appropriate analyses of the data (jss.sav) to answer these questions, and write a report presenting your findings and explanations of what these analyses mean to your directors – who do not know much about statistics.
Hand in your report with a pdf version of the final SPSS Output file.
Detailed procedure
1 Use the SPSS Booklet (SSCU SPSS v22 Booklet ver 2014-11-27.pdf) from the SPSS folder of the Teaching Resources in the BRM module website.
2 Work through the booklet, concentrating on sections 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 13 and 14.
3 Take the data file from the Ref/ Def CW submission point on the BRM module website, download it and save it.
4 Open IBM SPSS. There is SPSS on all computers in the LRC (Start Menu -> All Programs -> Data Analysis and Statistics -> SPSS 23). It is also possible for you to install SPSS on your own computer. The LRC HelpDesk can help you if you want to do this. It is a little complicated, though, as SPSS is a very expensive program and the licencing is well protected. So give yourself some time if you intend to do this.
5 In SPSS, open the File menu, click on Open, then Data. Navigate to the place you saved the data file. Select the data file and click on Open.
6 Work through the questions given.
7 Produce the appropriate analyses.
8 Format the tables and charts well, giving them titles, labelling the axes etc. Right click the charts to edit them.
9 Save a copy of the SPSS output file. Choose Export on the File menu, then “pdf” as document type and Save. You MUST hand this file in with your report.
10 Write a report, including the charts/diagrams & analyses from SPSS, with your comments/interpretations of the analyses, explaining what they mean. Right click the charts etc to copy and paste them into your report. Make sure any graphics are presented well, labelled correctly and explicitly referred to. Use the conventional report format (see CASE website).
11 You should make good use of published sources and refer to any sources you use – textbooks, SPSS manuals etc. in the conventional manner.
12 Include a list of references formatted in the HBS Harvard Style (See CASE website).
