research methodology in management

Research Methodology

Debdulal Dutta Roy, Ph.D.Psychology Research Unit

INDIAN STATISTICAL INSTITUTEKolkata – 700108

Venue: Indian Institute of Management, CalcuttaApril, 2015

In his book “The Third Wave”, Alvin Toffler warned – Things are going to happen much faster in the future and only those who will keep up with the fast pace will stay alive in the 21st century.

The question arises – how are we going to move with the fast pace? Is it through random fashion or through planned goal setting? . If we want to follow random fashion, social conflict will be high. Therefore, attention should be paid to planned goal setting and stringent control over our movement.

Planned goal setting demands assessment of existing needs, values and attitudes (social cognition) of people in society initially so that planned intervention can be made.

Questionnaire provides in-depth information about social cognition. It gives us knowledge with much consistency about specific dimensions on which individual in society perceives the social change.

Modern enterprise is not limited at the local and state level only, it is now running at the international and transnational market. One potato grower can export potato to other countries without moving here and there. He can do it in the virtual environment or E-market.

Structured

State

International

Transnational

Non virtual

UNPREDICTABILITY

Unstructured

Local

Virtual

Lecture note of D. Dutta Roy on Scale Construction, presented at the Indian Institute of management, Kolkata, 21.4.2015.

One Vice-Chancellor has planned to start dual professorship in semester examination in order to increase depth of knowledge of the students. The intervening components in this planning are belief systems of faculty, rules and regulations, installation of new cell for searching resource persons from other universities and allocation of financial resources

Structure

Technology

Culture

Lecture note of D. Dutta Roy on Scale Construction, presented at the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, 21.4.2015.

Each decision includes several sub decisions. In considering the similar properties of sub decisions, they form certain clusters. The cluster is not as same as decision maker assumes.

Lecture note of D. Dutta Roy on Scale Construction, presented at the Indian Institute of management, Kolkata, 21.4.2015.

Questionnaire is a device that gauges all the factors contributing to management decisions.

It assists managers to explore unpredictable things, to partial out the intervening factors and to group several components of management decisions.

It provides reliable and result oriented data when managers use it in different experimental and survey design of research

Decision Measures

OUTCOME

MEASURE


Scale is the continuum having graded series of numerical values. It has start and end points. Start and end points are determined by researcher.

The changes in the scale are graded series, therefore, it is systematic in nature. It has numerical values so it can be used for measurement. Example is thermometer, weight machine.

Scaling follows principles of maximization and minimization. Maximization principle asserts wide variation of response categories like five or seven point response scales. To understand extent of happiness, researcher can use five point response scales like very happy, happy, undecided, less happy and least happy.

Minimization Principle: Sometimes, respondent can not make discrimination between very happy and happy due to low intelligence, depression etc. In this case, researcher can minimize number of response categories like happy and unhappy..

Definition: It is a system of assigning number symbols for labeling. Discrimination: Assigned numbers should make adequate discrimination between the labels. In EPQ, Items measuring psychoticism do not overlap with items measuring neuroticism. Non-overlapping enhances good discrimination power of the questionnaire. Discrimination principle asserts unequal identity or dissimilar properties in the object or event.

Equality: In Nominal Scale, only rule for assigning numbers is that all members of any class shall have the same number and that no two classes shall be assigned the same numbers. This rule accepts principles of equality. Equality principle asserts that each object or event must have same identity. For example, girls with different heights have common property, i.e. they all are girls. Therefore all girl respondents are assigned ‘2’. INSTRUCTION: Instruction of nominal scale includes how to label the response. For example, put tick mark over 1 if you are boy and over 2 if you are girl.

ITEM STEM: Item stem asks for label. Examples: a) Are you boy or girl? Boy=1, Girl=2. b) What is your religion? Hindu=1, Islam=2, Christian=3.c) What is your Caste? S.T=1, S.C=2, O.B.C=3, General=4.

STATISTICS: Frequency and percentage are common descriptive statistics. Chi-square can be used for drawing inferences. Variables with nominal scale can be used as explanatory or independent variables in t-statistics. By adding frequency of similar response, score can be computed. For example, there are 20 items in the questionnaire, out of them 10 items with 'yes' response measure neuroticism. The questionnaire has been administered to patient suffering from General anxiety disorder. It is noted all the 10 items receive 'yes' response. So the score is 10. Extent of score variation indicates extent of neuroticism. Based on score, distance in traits between individuals can be possible but not between the nominal categories. Distance between Yes, No categories of two items can not be determined.

Advantages:a) Nominal scale is useful for classification or categorization. b) It is more flexible. According to hypothesis, numerical values can be assigned.c) Nominal scale is used as explanatory variable.

Disadvantages:a) Nominal scale has no metric properties therefore many parametric statistics requiring continuous distribution can not be determined through nominal scale.b) It requires different statistical conversation techniques to make it continuous.

Nominal scale can not order the events. It can label the event but can not estimate successive occurrence of events.

Ordinal Scale assigns numerals or rank value following principles of successive categories. These principles make discrimination among the set of objects in terms of preference. A set of students can be ordered in terms of academic performance. A set of sportsmen can be ordered in terms of sports performance.

Order can be made in the form of ascending like first, second, third or descending order like third, second and first.

When two students get same marks, their orders will be same. It is called paired order or tied. Tied orders are averaged and next order occurs after the last order. For example, 3 events possess equal ranks say 3. Then each event will get 3, 4, 5 ranks and the average will be 4. Next event will start from 6.

Ordinal scale does not assume equal distance between orders. Distance between 1st and 2nd is not equal to distance between 3rd and 4th. This is the disadvantage of the ordinal scale.

Advantage of the ordinal scale is it's flexibility. One can follow both ascending and descending orders.

Instruction: Instruction of ordinal scale includes how to arrange the events in ascending or descending order.

Item stem : Item stem includes the issue or event and it's operational definition. Statistics : When data are arranged in order, frequency, percentage statistics

are used like nominal scale. One can estimate which event has received first or second rank by analysis of frequency. One can use median when data are arranged with rank values. Most of the non-parametric statistics follow ordinal scale or ranks. Rank order correlation is widely used statistics when one is interested to determine coefficient of correlation in small sample distribution.

Advantages:a) Ordinal scale is useful to arrange the objects in ascending or descending order.b) Median value can be estimated through ordinal scale. c) Relative preference of the object can be determined with ordinal scale.d) Several non-parametric statistics use ordinal scale.

Disadvantages:a) Like, nominal scale, it has limited use in statistics as it does not follow equidistant.b) It can not be scored.

In ordinal scale one can not make any subtraction or addition to classify the person, object or event. For example, second rank student can not be subtracted from first rank student to find out difference in performance between two ranked persons.

Another problem in rank order scale, equidistance assumption can not be made. We can not assume rank difference between 1 and 2 is equal to same between 2 and 3.

But interval scale assumes equidistant points between each of the scale elements. The widely used summated rating scale or Likert type rating scale is interval scale.

It has properties of metric scale in terms of the extent of differences in response. It is assumed that response difference is equidistant. Some researchers call it as quassi continuous scale as middle response category appears to be neutral.

Some researchers argue that this is categorical scale as they merely consider the numerical values. Therefore, we can interpret differences in the distance along the scale.

We contrast this to an ordinal scale where we can only talk about differences in order, not differences in the degree of order. Any parametric statistics are useful to analyze the item data.

Instruction: Instruction of ordinal scale includes how to rank. But interval scale includes how to rate the response categories. Interval scale follows maximization principles. Response categories are more and equidistant. Numerals are assigned to different ratings. Widely used ratings are strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree.

Item-stem : It can be both affirmative and interrogative. To assess one's happiness, item stem may be how much happy are you ? Or I feel happy always. It must be remembered that response categories should not be in the item stem. In earlier example on 'I feel happy always', response categories should not include the text 'always' rather it can be strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree. Item stem and response categories will be framed in such a manner so that data distribution will not be skewed.

Statistics: Interval scale follows equidistant principles, so any parametric statistics can be used.

Advantages:a) Interval scale follows equidistant principles, so any parametric statistics can be used.b) It can be scored.c) it can be classified into groups by cut-off points.

Disadvantages:a) Interval scale has undecided point. This violates continuity.b) It does not have neutral point like ratio scale.

Interval scale measures single dimension of variable across graded series. One's feeling of both happiness and unhappiness can be assessed by interval scale using two separate scales measuring happiness and unhappiness separately.

Advantage of ratio scale is to assess both feeling of happiness and unhappiness simultaneously. For example, watching black cloud, farmers sometimes feel pleasant and sometimes feel unpleasant.

Ratio scale is composed of two bi-polar adjectives. One adjective will be extremely opposite of another. For example, strong and weak, good and bad, active and lazy. This scale is often called as semantic differential scale as meaning of object or event is differentiated semantically with opposite adjectives. As per hypothesis, rating value is assigned to the adjective. Strong, good and active are assigned +3 and weak, bad and lazy are given -3 rating. So two opposite adjectives are located at two opposite poles of neutral point or 0. Other grades like -1,-2 are located between 0 and -3. Similarly, +1 and +2 are located between 0 and 3. So, final scale to assess strong and weak dimension will be +3, +2, +1, 0,-1,-2,-3. So, there are two interval scales ranging from +1 to +3 and from -1 to -3. Respondent assumes +3 as very strong, +2 as strong. Likewise, -3 as very weak, -2 as weak. And 0 is conceived as neutral. Here zero stands for neither more nor less than none of the property represented by the scale.

Instruction: Instruction includes systematic rating from 0 to -3 or from 0 to +3. As there is no label from 0 to +3 or from 0 to -3, respondent can assign own label following direction of adjectives. For example, instead of very strong, respondent can think of very much strong.

Item-stem: Bi-polar adjectives Scoring: Before scoring, researcher first assumes meaning of high score. For example, +3 is highest

score and -3 is lowest. Then +3 will be replaced by 7 and -3 will be replaced by 1. 0 will be replaced by 4. So, highest score will be 7 and lowest score will be 1. Statistics: Like interval scale, any parametric and non-parametric statistics can be used with ratio scale.

Advantages:a) Ratio scale can assess one object with bi-polar adjectives simultaneously. b) Like normal probability curve, ratio scale assumes bi-polarity. It has zero like normal probability distribution. And the successive gradation from 0 to +3 or -3 is equidistant. Therefore, it can be used in any parametric statistics.c) It is less time consuming for data collection. d) It can assess different dimensions of one object simultaneously. Osgood has noted three opposite dimensions using ratio scale.

Disadvantages: a)Theoretically, one can not say that attributes of satisfaction are opposite of dissatisfaction. Herzberg has proved that attributes of job satisfaction is not opposite of the same for assessing job dissatisfaction. Therefore, use of bi-polar adjectives for assessing one event can not provide sufficient information. b) It is complex to score as rating values during data collection are replaced by another value during scoring.c) No event can be neutral, therefore considering 0 value as neutral is not meaningful.

Control measures depend on demographic, psychological and situational conditions of the respondents.

Demographics: Age, Education;

Psychological : Cognitive functions (attention, Comprehension, attitude);

Situational: Time, Place.


1. Do you feel same like before? (R)2. Do you get no time for leisure ? (R)3. Do you get nothing in your life ? 4. Do you feel happy like before ? ( R )5. Do you feel meaningless feeling in life

? 6. Do you feel tasteless ?7. Do you feel no burden in other’s life ?

( R )8. Do you have no disturbances in

sleep ? (R )9. Do you pray to the God for relief ?10. Do you feel alone ?11. Do you feel pleasant with others ?

(R )12. Do you feel restless ?13. Do you feel that you are always with

others ? ( R )14. Do you feel that this period is best in

life ? ( R )15. Do you want to die ?

Uni-Dimensional ; Reverse items; High individual

differences; High internal

consistency.

Instruction: This questionnaire measures what is important in your life or values. Below are the 2 sets of values. Each set consists 14 values in life. The values are in alphabetical order. Each value is accompanied by a short description and a blank space. Your goal is to rank each value in its order of importance to you for each of the two sets. Study each set and think of how much each value may act as a guiding principle in your life.

To begin, select the value that is of most importance to you. Write the number 1 in the blank space next to that value. Next, choose the value is of second in importance to you and write the number 2 in the blank next to it. Work your way through the list until you have ranked all 14 values of first set. The value that is of least importance to you should appear in Box 14.

When you have finished ranking all 14 values, go to 2nd list and rank the next 14 values in the same way. Please do each set separately.

When ranking, take your time and think carefully. Feel free to go back and change your order should you have second thoughts about any of your answers. When you have completed the ranking of both sets of values, the result should represent an accurate picture of how you really feel about what’s important in your life.

SET - I1. SELF-AWAKENING ( Imagining positive power

or energy )______ 2. EMOTIONAL CONTROL(Controlling unwanted

emotion) ______ 3. SYSTEMATIC (Following planned step) ______4. SELF-INSULTING LESS (Not offending to self)

______5. FEARLESS (Feeling of overcoming fear) ______6. CLEANLINESS (Neat and tidy) ______7. NO WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT (Maintaining

balance between family and work demand) ______

8. NISKAM PRINCIPLE (Working without expectation of reward ) ______

9. CHALLENGING (Competing against one) ______

10. SELF-UNDERSTANDING- (Feedback to self about own success and failure) ______

11. DOUBTLESS (Free from uncertainty in belief) ______

12. FREE FROM FEAR OF FAILURE (Free from anticipated failure) ______

13. RESOLUTE (Determined in purpose) ______14. ACTIVE (Avoiding laziness) ______

Graphic Rating Scale

Graphic Rating Scales

12-23

Itemized rating scale:The itemized rating scale(also known as

numerical scale) presents a series of statements from which a respondent selects one as best reflecting his evaluation.

Suppose we wish to inquire as to how well does a worker get along with his fellow workers?

In such a situation we may ask the respondent to select one, to express his opinion, from the following:

He is almost always involved in some friction with a fellow worker.

He is often at odds with one or more of his fellow workers.

He sometimes gets involved in friction.He infrequently becomes involved in friction

with others.He almost never gets involved in friction with

fellow workers.

Selected Itemized Rating Scales

PURCHASE INTENT

Definitely Probably Probably will Definitely will will buy will buy not buy not buy

LEVEL OF AGREEMENTStrongly Somewhat Neither Somewhat Stronglyagree agree agree disagree

disagree nor disagree

QUALITYVery Good Neither good Fair

PoorGood nor bad DEPENDABILITYCompletely Somewhat Not very Not

dependableDependable dependable dependable at all STYLEVery Somewhat Not very Completely stylish stylish stylish unstylish

SATISFACTIONCompletely Somewhat Neither satisfied Somewhat

Completely Satisfied satisfied nor dissatisfied dissatisfied

dissatisfied

COSTExtremely Expensive Neither expensive Slightly VeryExpensive nor inexpensive inexpensive

inexpensive

EASE OF USE

Very easy Somewhat Not very easy Difficult to use

to use easy to use to use

COLOR BRIGHTNESSExtremely Very Somewhat Slightly

Not bright Bright bright bright bright

at all

MODERNITYVery Somewhat Neither Somewhat

Very Modern modern modern old-fashioned old-

fashioned nor old-fashioned

Ranking Scales:There are two generally used approaches of

ranking scales viz., Method of paired comparisons Method of rank orderMethod of paired comparisons: Under it the respondent can express his

attitude by making a choice between two objects, say between a new flavour of soft drinks and an established brand of drink.

But when there are more than two stimuli to judge, the number of judgements required in a paired comparison is given by the formula:

N= n(n-1) 2Where N=number of judgements

n=number of stimuli or objects to be judged.

Obtaining Shampoo Preferences Using Paired Comparisons

Instructions: We are going to present you with ten pairs of shampoo brands. For each pair, please indicate which one of the two brands of shampoo you would prefer for personal use. Recording Form:

Jhirmack Finesse Vidal Sassoon

Head & Shoulders

Pert

Jhirmack 0 0 1 0 Finesse 1a 0 1 0 Vidal Sassoon 1 1 1 1 Head & Shoulders 0 0 0 0 Pert 1 1 0 1 Number of Times Preferredb

3 2 0 4 1

aA 1 in a particular box means that the brand in that column was preferred over the brand in the corresponding row. A 0 means that the row brand was preferred over the column brand. bThe number of times a brand was preferred is obtained by summing the 1s in each column.

Brand Rank Order1. Crest _________ 2. Colgate _________ 3. Aim _________ 4. Gleem _________ 5. Macleans _________

6. Ultra Brite _________ 7. Close Up _________ 8. Pepsodent _________ 9. Plus White _________ 10. Stripe _________

Preference for Toothpaste Brands Using Rank Order Scaling

Form

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