Business Research Methodology

This document discusses the methodology of business research and its impact on work-life balance and organizational support. It explores the role of regions in identifying work-life balance and provides statistical analysis and conclusions.

Running head: Business research Methodology
Business research Methodology
Name of student
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Business research Methodology
Table of Contents
2. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
3. A description of the sample....................................................................................................4
4. Your research questions and answers....................................................................................4
5. A conclusion.........................................................................................................................10
Reference list............................................................................................................................11

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Business research Methodology
1. An Executive summary
Sample of 257 respondents has been selected working consultancy firms in New
Zealand. Among which 153 are female and they are having mean age of 38. The number of
male employees are 104 and the mean age of the male employees are also 38. Respondents
from the Lower North Island and Central and Upper South Island reported having similar
work-life balance scores, of 2.99 and 3.02 respectively with employees in the Upper North
Island reporting the lowest work-life balance score of 2.56. Central North Island and Upper
North Island (p = .00), Lower North Island and Upper North Island (p = .00), and the Central
and Upper South Island (p = .00) and lower north is having (p=0.980). Region is one of the
significant factor that is actually having work life balance and it is important or the
organisation to bring in intensives and other aspects to grow their employee work life
balance. The mean work-life balance score reported by males in the sample is 2.95, with a
standard deviation of .62.
2. Introduction
A study by O’Driscoll and Randall (1999) has examined organisational support on
employee’s commitment towards role and company. It has been seen that companies giving
more support to the employees is having more committed employees. Work life balance was
also considered as an important variables. Some of the other variables in the form work life
balance, organisation support, organisation commitment, task quality control, task completion
control, goal clarity and many more has been taken into question. Through all these variables,
the regression has been formed that will identify the regression and will determine the
ANOVA and post hoc test to identify the stability.

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Business research Methodology
3. A description of the sample
Sample of 257 respondents has been selected working consultancy firms in New
Zealand. Among which 153 are female and they are having mean age of 38. The number of
male employees are 104 and the mean age of the male employees are also 38.
Figure 1: regions of respondents
22.96% of the respondents have come from the central and upper south island and that
is followed by 19.84% of respondents came from upper north island and lower island. The
smallest number of respondents who came is about 17.90% from central north island.
4. Your research questions and answers
In order to successfully analyse the events of that are being identified as important
variables for the purpose of this study some research questions are being framed along with
the null and alternative hypothesis will help in the development of policies that will mainly
answer the validity of the questions. The questions are as follows. Each question is following
null and alternative hypothesis and they are given as H0 and H1.

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Business research Methodology
1) Is regions playing significant role in identifying the work life balance?
In various regions the work life balance will obviously matter and the firms will be
able to identify the amount of resources that will be required to increase work life balance.
Figure 2: mean region and mean WLB
Respondents from the Lower South Island reported having the best mean work-life
balance, of 3.25. Respondents from the Central North Island then reported having the best
work-life balance, with a mean response of 3.17. Respondents from the Lower North Island
and Central and Upper South Island reported having similar work-life balance scores, of 2.99
and 3.02 respectively with employees in the Upper North Island reporting the lowest work-
life balance score of 2.56.
From the ANOVA analysis, various significant values of various regions. The Post-
Hoc analysis is claiming the fact that lower south island is having 0.980 level of significant p
value with the central north island region. The level of alpha is P= 0.05. Lower South Island
and Lower North Island is having distribution of about 0.166 and it is way below the standard

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Business research Methodology
level of alpha. The Central north island is having significant level of p-value equalling to 0.0.
This is important fact in the sense for the managers within company.
2) Is gender playing a crucial role behind the work life balance?
In order to highlight the importance of existence of work life balance among male and
females are results of an independent sample T-test which found that the mean work-life
balance for females is 3.03, with a standard deviation of .61. The mean work-life balance
score reported by males in the sample is 2.95, with a standard deviation of .62. This
difference was not found to be statistically significant (t = .98, p = .33, LLCI = -0.07, ULCI =
.23).
Figure 3: Mean work-life balance scores reported by males and females throughout the
Company
When the equal variances are not being assumed then the t distribution is showing the value
(t=0.982, P= 0.327, LLCI = -0.07, ULCI = 0.23).This is an important thing for consideration
because of the fact that irrespective of gender, the work life balance is important for every
employees. Through the maintenance of work life balance, the employees will be able to
increase their commitment level.

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Business research Methodology
3) How task control is being different from goal clarity?
Results of a correlational analysis between goal clarity and task completion control
showed a Pearson correlation of .52. This was found to be statistically significant at 0.01
level at p = .00. An ANOVA analysis showed that the relationship between variables was a
weak, positive relationship and was statistically significant (R2 = .27, F = 94.51, p = .00). A
linear regression analysis was then performed which showed that for every one unit increase
in goal clarity, task competition control score increases by .49. All else held constant. There
is no evidence against the alternative hypothesis as this result was statistically significant (t =
9.72, p = .00).
Correlations
goalclarit
y
taskqualityco
ntrol
taskcompletio
ncontrol
goalclarity
Pearson
Correlation
1 .418** .522**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000
N 256 256 255
taskqualitycontrol
Pearson
Correlation
.418** 1 .545**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000
N 256 257 256
taskcompletioncontr
ol
Pearson
Correlation
.522** .545** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000

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Business research Methodology
N 255 256 256
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
4) Strongest predictor of organisation commitment?
A bivariate correlational analysis showed the correlations between all variables was
significant at the 0.05 level, except engagement and task quality control which did not have a
statistically significant Pearson correlation, of 0.03 at p = .58. Table 1 shows the correlation
and significant level between all other variables that were found to be statistically significant
at p = 0.05
Correlations
goalcl
arity
taskquality
control
taskcompletio
ncontrol
Orgsup
port
Enage
ment
OrgCo
mmit
rolec
larity
goalclarity
Pearso
n
Correl
ation
1 .418** .522** -.434** -.154* -.246**
-.553
**
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
.000 .000 .000 .014 .000 .000
N 256 256 255 256 256 256 256
taskqualityco
ntrol
Pearso
n
Correl
ation
.418** 1 .545** -.140* -.034 -.022 -.202
**

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Business research Methodology
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
.000 .000 .025 .584 .729 .001
N 256 257 256 257 257 257 257
taskcompletio
ncontrol
Pearso
n
Correl
ation
.522** .545** 1 -.253** -.089 -.121
-.376
**
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
.000 .000 .000 .157 .053 .000
N 255 256 256 256 256 256 256
Orgsupport
Pearso
n
Correl
ation
-.434** -.140* -.253** 1 .268** .415**
.734*
*
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
.000 .025 .000 .000 .000 .000
N 256 257 256 257 257 257 257
Enagement Pearso
n
Correl
ation
-.154* -.034 -.089 .268** 1 .451** .307*
*

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Business research Methodology
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
.014 .584 .157 .000 .000 .000
N 256 257 256 257 257 257 257
OrgCommit
Pearso
n
Correl
ation
-.246** -.022 -.121 .415** .451** 1
.464*
*
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
.000 .729 .053 .000 .000 .000
N 256 257 256 257 257 257 257
roleclarity
Pearso
n
Correl
ation
-.553** -.202** -.376** .734** .307** .464** 1
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
.000 .001 .000 .000 .000 .000
N 256 257 256 257 257 257 257
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

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Business research Methodology
Correlations
OrgCommi
t
Orgsupport goalclarit
y
taskqualityco
ntrol
Pearson
Correlation
OrgCommit 1.000 .412 -.246 -.019
Orgsupport .412 1.000 -.434 -.138
goalclarity -.246 -.434 1.000 .418
taskqualitycontr
ol
-.019 -.138 .418 1.000
Sig. (1-tailed)
OrgCommit . .000 .000 .379
Orgsupport .000 . .000 .013
goalclarity .000 .000 . .000
taskqualitycontr
ol
.379 .013 .000 .
N
OrgCommit 256 256 256 256
Orgsupport 256 256 256 256
goalclarity 256 256 256 256
taskqualitycontr
ol
256 256 256 256
Organisation commitments is the dependent variable and the model formation is Y=
α+β1X1+β2X2+β3X3+ c and putting the value of the model are as follows Y=1.879 +0.428
Organisational support -0.162 goal clarity + 0.119 task clarity + c.

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Business research Methodology
5) Is there a difference in perceived organisational support between respondents from
different regions?
Employees in the Upper North Island had the highest perceived organisational support
mean of 2.85, with a standard deviation of .81. Employees located in the Lower North Island
and Central North Island had similar organisational support means of 2.56 and 2.54, with a
standard deviation of .92 and .81. Respondents from the Lower South Island and Central and
Upper South Island had the lowest organisational support means of 2.26 and 2.19, with a
standard deviation of .83 and .77.
Figure 4. Graph of the mean perceived organisational support scores of employees from
different regions
5. A conclusion
The study is showing the fact that work life balance is important and in order to
identify the gaps companies will have to identify the resources and will have to minimise the
gaps. Specifically, new initiatives should be taken on, or existing systems should be
enhanced, to improve the work-life balance and perceived organisational support of
employees from different regions.

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Business research Methodology
Appendix
Question 1: Is regions playing significant role in identifying the work life balance?
Null hypothesis H0: there is no significant role played by region in increasing work life
balance
Alternative hypothesis H1: there is significant impact of region on work life balance
Statistical test used: One way ANOVA and Post Hoc test
ANOVA
WLB
Sum of
Squares
df Mean Square F Sig.
Between
Groups 14.204 4 3.551 10.932 .000
Within Groups 81.853 252 .325
Total 96.056 256
Multiple Comparisons
Dependent Variable: WLB
Tukey HSD
(I) Region (J) Region Mean
Difference
(I-J)
Std.
Error
Sig. 95% Confidence
Interval
Lower
Bound
Upper
Bound
lower south island
central north
island .06565 .11644 .980 -.2543 .3856
lower north .25480 .11342 .166 -.0568 .5665
Central & Upper
South Island .22805 .10955 .231 -.0730 .5291
Upper North
Island .68127* .11342 .000 .3696 .9929
central north
island
lower south island -.06565 .11644 .980 -.3856 .2543
lower north .18915 .11589 .478 -.1293 .5076
Central & Upper
South Island
.16240 .11210 .597 -.1456 .4704

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Business research Methodology
Upper North
Island .61562* .11589 .000 .2972 .9340
lower north
lower south island -.25480 .11342 .166 -.5665 .0568
central north
island -.18915 .11589 .478 -.5076 .1293
Central & Upper
South Island -.02675 .10897 .999 -.3262 .2727
Upper North
Island .42647* .11286 .002 .1164 .7366
Central & Upper
South Island
lower south island -.22805 .10955 .231 -.5291 .0730
central north
island -.16240 .11210 .597 -.4704 .1456
lower north .02675 .10897 .999 -.2727 .3262
Upper North
Island .45322* .10897 .000 .1538 .7526
Upper North
Island
lower south island -.68127* .11342 .000 -.9929 -.3696
central north
island -.61562* .11589 .000 -.9340 -.2972
lower north -.42647* .11286 .002 -.7366 -.1164
Central & Upper
South Island -.45322* .10897 .000 -.7526 -.1538
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
We are rejecting the null hypothesis as the p value is less than 0.05.
Question 2: Is gender playing a crucial role behind the work life balance?
H0: Gender is not playing role in work life balance
H1: work balance is impacting gender
Statistical Test Used: Independent Samples T-test.

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Business research Methodology
Independent Samples Test
Levene's
Test for
Equality
of
Variance
s
t-test for Equality of Means
F Sig. t df Sig.
(2-
tailed)
Mean
Differen
ce
Std.
Error
Differe
nce
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Lowe
r
Upper
WL
B
Equal
variances
assumed
.34
2
.55
9 .984 255 .326 .07662 .07785 -.076
69 .22994
Equal
variances
not
assumed
.982 219.
256 .327 .07662 .07806 -.077
22 .23047

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Business research Methodology
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