Research Methods for the Service Sector

This document provides information on research methods for the service sector. It includes a questionnaire design, statistical testing, and descriptive analysis. The document also discusses the significance of health and safety standards in the workplace.

Research Methods for the
Service Sector
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Contents
ASSESSMENT 2: PORTFOLIO: QUANTITATIVE.....................................................................1
The design of a Questionnaire.........................................................................................................1
Statistical testing: Descriptive analysis...........................................................................................2
Variable 1.....................................................................................................................................2
Variable 2.....................................................................................................................................3
Variable 3.....................................................................................................................................4
Variable 4.....................................................................................................................................5
Variable 5.....................................................................................................................................6
Variable 6.....................................................................................................................................7
Variable 7.....................................................................................................................................8
Variable 8.....................................................................................................................................9
Variable 9...................................................................................................................................10
Variable 10.................................................................................................................................11
Statistical Testing: Chi Square Test...............................................................................................12
Test one......................................................................................................................................12
Test two.....................................................................................................................................14
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ASSESSMENT 2: PORTFOLIO: QUANTITATIVE
The design of a Questionnaire
Name _________
Position at workplace __________
Question 1: Specify your age group
a) Below 25
b) 25 to 35
c) 35 to 45
d) 45 and above
Question 2: Select your Gender
a) Male
b) Female
c) Other
Question 3: How many years of experience do you have of working at your current workplace?
a) Less than a year
b) 1 to 5 years
c) 5 to 8 years
d) 8 years and above
Question 4: Are you aware that every workplace has an implication of maintaining health and
safety standards.
a) Yes
b) No
Question 5: Do you think your workplace maintains health and safety standards.
a) Yes
b) No
Question 6: According to you, what all health and safety standards are maintained by your
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organisation.
a) First aid
b) CPR resources
c) Fire exit and fire extinguishers
Question 7: Have your workplace ever experienced any health and safety breakdown due to
noncompliance of health and safety standards?
a) Yes
b) No
Question 8: According to you, what is the significance of health and safety standards at a
workplace?
a) Ensures employees’ safety and welfare at work
b) Reduces workplace stress
c) Retains employees
Question 9: If an organisation fails to comply with health and safety standards then what all
challenges they have to face?
a) Deteriorating employment relationship
b) Legal actions
c) Penalties under health and safety act
Question 10: What are the ways by which challenges raised from non-compliance of health and
safety standards can be mitigated?
a) Ensure maintaining health and safety equipment
b) Introduction of HSC provisions
c) Employing separate staff for maintaining HSC compliances
Statistical testing: Descriptive analysis
Variable 1
Descriptive analysis is an analytical tool which helps in developing familiarity with the
distribution of data in a dataset. This tool helps in analysing common associations in variables
and their values in the data. There are various statistical measures which are ascertained by
descriptive analysis; these measures are mean, mode, median, standard deviation, sum, range,
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variance and more. Using this tool, the data collected by gaining the responses of above
questionnaire has been analysed below.
Statistics
Question 1
N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 2.50
Median 2.00
Mode 2
Std. Deviation .925
Minimum 1
Maximum 4
Sum 375
The above descriptive analysis of variable 1 evaluates the frequency of responses related
to the age group of 150 participants of this study. From the analysis, it can be observed that mode
value is 2 implying most of the participants are aged between 25 to 35 and this leads to the
discussion that most of the participants of this study are young adults.
Variable 2
Statistics
Question 2
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N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 1.47
Median 1.00
Mode 1
Std. Deviation .501
Minimum 1
Maximum 2
Sum 220
The above analysis is for the Gender variable which seeks to ask from participants about
their gender. Despite of having three categories, graph is only showing two as the third category
of “Other” is not adopted by any participant. The above graph shows that 80 respondents of this
study are Male and 70 are Females.
Variable 3
Statistics
Question 3
N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 2.03
Median 2.00
Mode 2
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Std. Deviation .878
Minimum 1
Maximum 4
Sum 305
Similar to age and gender, this variable is also a demographic variable that intends to ask
total experience in years from all 150 participants of this study. The minimum experience
category is less than one year and maximum experience category is 8 years and above. The mean
value of this analysis is 2.03 which implies on an average all participants has experience of 1 to 5
years which is enough for being familiar with health and safety measures used in their
workplace.
Variable 4
Statistics
Question 4
N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 1.10
Median 1.00
Mode 1
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Std. Deviation .301
Minimum 1
Maximum 2
Sum 165
The above variable intends to ask from 150 participants of this study that whether they
are aware from the mandatory implication that every organization requires to maintain and
follow health and safety standards. The above analysis shows that 135 among 150 participants
responded affirmatively stating that they are familiar with policies that every organization needs
to follow health and safety standards. By this, it can be said that as the most people have viable
experience, they are educated and knowledgeable that all organization has certain HSC
implications.
Variable 5
Statistics
Question 5
N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 1.20
Median 1.00
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Mode 1
Std. Deviation .401
Minimum 1
Maximum 2
Sum 180
This particular variable seeks to ask participants that whether their organization follows
all health and safety standards or not. This question is included in the analysis to first understand
the level of numbers which take health and safety standards seriously. The responses of this
variable are analyzed in above descriptive analysis. The mode of the above variable is “1”
implying that most of the employees or participants think that their organization follows all
health and safety standards.
Variable 6
Statistics
Question 6
N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 3.20
Median 4.00
Mode 4
Std. Deviation 1.111
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Minimum 1
Maximum 4
Sum 480
The above question is variable 6 which intends to ask from people that what all health and
safety measures are followed at their workplace. The aim of asking this question from the 150
participants it to fulfil the objective 3 which is to identify different methods through which health
and safety measures can be implemented. The most common answers provided by respondents
are First Aid, CPR resources, fire extinguisher and fire exits. These common answers by
participants fulfil the objective 3 has these responses are the different methods through which
organizations fulfil their health and safety implications.
The mode of the above analysis is “4” referring that most of the workplaces has all the
health and safety measures including First Aid, CPR and fire rescue resources.
Variable 7
Statistics
Question 7
N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 1.83
Median 2.00
Mode 2
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Std. Deviation .374
Minimum 1
Maximum 2
Sum 275
Above variable asks the participants of this study that whether their workplace ever
encountered any health and safety breakdown due to noncompliance or not. This variable is
crucial for objective 2 which is to determine the effectiveness of health and safety measures at
the workplace. This variable will help in analysing the effectiveness of HSC measures at
workplaces. The above descriptive statistics shows the mean value of 1.83 and mode value of 2
implying majority and average participants has responded as “No” indicating their organisation
has not encountered any health and safety breakdown due to noncompliance. This analysis has
also fulfilled the objective 2 stating that most of the organization are highly effective when it
comes to maintaining health and safety measures in an organization.
Variable 8
Statistics
Question 8
N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 2.13
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Median 2.00
Mode 3
Std. Deviation .887
Minimum 1
Maximum 3
Sum 320
This variable will help in analyzing the thought process of 150 participants that according
to them what is the major significance of following health and safety standards that can benefit
the organization. The responses of such participants are recorded and analyzed using SPSS and
results of descriptive analysis are attached above. These results shows that mode value is 3
implying that if a workplace fulfills all their health and safety implications then they will be
benefitted by retaining their employees.
Variable 9
Statistics
Question 9
N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 2.40
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Median 3.00
Mode 3
Std. Deviation .714
Minimum 1
Maximum 3
Sum 360
This variable is selected and analyzed to understand the concept of health and safety
measures and too fulfil the objective 1 of the research proposal. In this variable, participants of
this study were asked that what challenge an organization has to face if they do not comply with
health and safety standards. There were three options or categories given to employees
(participants) and each option has a considerable frequency implying all of the options can act as
a challenge if workplace fails to comply with HSC standards. The mean and mode value of
above analysis is 2.40 and 3 implying, penalty which is levied upon an organization due to
noncompliance of HSC standards is the most impacting challenge for workplaces.
Variable 10
Statistics
Question 10
N Valid 150
Missing 0
Mean 2.27
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Median 2.00
Mode 3
Std. Deviation .774
Minimum 1
Maximum 3
Sum 340
This is the last variable of this analysis which is related to variable 9 as in this question,
participants were asked about the ways which can help the workplace to overcome from the
challenges which were caused to noncompliance of HSC standards. The descriptive analysis and
above graph shows that the best way to overcome with the challenges is to employ a separate
staff that can ensure to comply and satisfy all HSC standards.
Statistical Testing: Chi Square Test
Test one
A Chi square test is a statistical measure to determine the differences between two sets of
variables that must be categorical and not continuous. This test is undertaken for checking the
independence of variables and helps to test hypothesis. In the present context, two Chi square
tests are conducted from which one is significant and other one will show insignificant results.
Pearson’s chi square test are undertaken using SPSS.
Question 5 * Question 7 Crosstabulation
Count
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Question 7 Total
Yes No
Question 5 Yes 0 120 120
No 25 5 30
Total 25 125 150
Chi-Square Tests
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-
sided)
Exact Sig. (2-
sided)
Exact Sig. (1-
sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 120.000a 1 .000
Continuity Correctionb 114.075 1 .000
Likelihood Ratio 108.135 1 .000
Fisher's Exact Test .000 .000
Linear-by-Linear Association 119.200 1 .000
N of Valid Cases 150
a. 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 5.00.
b. Computed only for a 2x2 table
The above chi square test is conducted between variable 5 and 7. This chi square is
conducted in order to determine whether the organizations which maintains appropriate health
and safety standards, ever face any health and safety breakdown or not. The cross tabulation
table attached above shows that among 120 workplaces which follow appropriate HSC
standards, not even one workplace has ever experience any HSC breakdown. To validate this
relationship, it is important to analyze whether this relationship is significant or not. The Chi
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square test table shows the p value of .000. As the p value under Pearson Chi-Square is lower
than 0.05, it can be said that this test is significant and all the organizations which follow
appropriate health and safety standards has never encountered any breakdown of health and
safety at their workplace.
Test two
Question 2 * Question 9 Crosstabulation
Count
Question 9 Total
Deteriorating
employment
relationship
Legal actions Penalties under
health and safety
act
Question 2 Male 10 31 39 80
Female 10 19 41 70
Total 20 50 80 150
Chi-Square Tests
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-
sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 2.273a 2 .321
Likelihood Ratio 2.291 2 .318
Linear-by-Linear Association .473 1 .492
N of Valid Cases 150
a. 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count
is 9.33.
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The second chi square test is conducted for variable 2 and 9. This test is conducted to
check that whether gender of the participants or employees impact their thought process
regarding the challenges faced by organization due to noncompliance of health and safety
standards. The bar graph and cross tabulation attached above is for developing an understanding
and familiarity with the data. The cross tabulation table shows that Males are more inclined to
think that legal actions are the most influential challenge and females are more inclined to think
that penalties are most influential challenge.
The table of chi square will help in analyze that whether gender plays any role or does it
impact the thought process regarding the challenges faced by organization. The significance or p
value under Chi square test is .321; as this value is higher than 0.05, it can be implied that gender
does not impact the thought process of participants regarding the challenges faced by
organization due to noncompliance of health and safety standards.
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