A plan for the collection of data
The plan should include pre, during and post research activities outlining the following:
Background- name of organisation and nature of business, who authorised the research and what is the research problem.
State the objectives of the research
Types of data- identify the type of data you will collect for this research (i.e. quantitative vs. qualitative, primary v secondary, ordinal v nominal data etc.)
Research techniques- primary or secondary; quantitative or qualitative research techniques to be used in the research
Primary research- surveys (face to face interviews, postal, online,), focus groups, observation etc. State the methods you think will be best for the research.
Secondary research- internal or external sources or both
Sampling methods – random sampling (simple, stratified or cluster), non-random sampling (convenience, quota, judgement). State the most ideal method(s) for the research bearing in mind the size of the population and sample size.
Select a sampling frame and sample size.
Include a budget for the research process. This should include the number of personnel, equipment and finance required to carry out the research.
Be emphatic about your plan as the management wishes to use your plan to carry out the research.
Survey methodology and justification
Provide the justification for each method you recommended for your research. Evaluate the proposed research and survey techniques and sampling method(s) in your plan in 1.1 in line with the business context
Here explain either primary or secondary research methods outlined in 1.1 and explain why you think the chosen method is ideal for the research (remember the purpose of the research and the case scenario).
Justify the sampling frame and sampling size chosen in 1.1
Questionnaire design
Define a questionnaire
State the purpose of a questionnaire (i.e. usually, to collect data)
Type of questions (open and closed) you will use in the research and why
Prepare a set of questions (guided number 20 questions) you need to ask your target respondents in order to obtain data relevant to your research explained above.
The questions should be closed ended using the Likert scale, semantic differential, rating scale, intention to buy or stay type questions and dichotomous questions.
Include at least 3 open ended questions.
Comment on the relevance of some of the questions to the purpose of the research.
3.1 Averages
Give a brief introduction- meaning, types and significance (in your word document)
Now open an excel work book.
Enter the data on output of the 20 employees in the Excel workbook you have just opened.
It will appear as shown below:
Type the words Mean, Median, and Mode in the cells immediately below the last cell containing the data.
Click on the formulas ribbon either go to more functions, and then statistical to find the Mean, Mode and Median or enter in the formula bar each function and the range of data to find the relevant average. Remember each formula starts with an = sign.
E.g. =median (A3:D7) and press enter will calculate the median for the set of data in the range A3: D7.
Follow the same steps to calculate the mean, median and mode for the sales and profit data.
Copy and paste the sheet to your word document
Analyse the results
Histogram
Meaning and use of a histogram (in your word document)
Now open a new excel workbook.
Copy and paste the data on weekly output of employees
Enter an output column using relevant range- it will appear as
Go to the formulas ribbon and now calculate the frequencies using the FREQUENCY function. The format is = Frequency (DATA RANGE, BIN) where BIN is the required range to be used for the x axis (the output range).
To enter the FREQUENCY formula, first select the data range and enter the required formula and hold down the CTRL and SHIFT keys as you press enter.
Now use the Chart Wizard to produce a HISTOGRAM from the