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Descriptive Statistics
Descriptives
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there are missing observations for every item except for the items burnout10,
itl1 and itl2;
there are illegal codes for items jobchar1 (a 6 has been entered in at least one
cell), burnout3 (again, a 6
has been entered in at least one cell), and itl2 (a 5 has been entered in at least
one cell);
the responses to each individual item have a good spread.
Appropriate actions were taken to correct the illegal entries. A further inspection
of the missing data revealed that every participant answered either all or the
vast majority of the questions. Therefore, no questionnaires were thrown out.
Missing data will be ignored during subsequent analyses.
From here, we can proceed with further detailed analyses to test the goodness of
our data.
Reliability
Because distributive justice, burnout, job enrichment, and intention to leave were
measured with multi-item scales, the consistency of the respondents answers to
the scale items has to be tested for each measure. In Chapter 7, we explained
that Cronbach's alpha is a popular test of interitem consistency. Table 11.3
provides an overview of Cronbach's alpha for the four variables. This table
shows that the alphas were all well above 0.60.
In general, reliabilities less than 0.60 are considered to be poor, those in the 0.70
range, acceptable, and those over 0.80 good. Thus, the internal consistency
reliability of the measures used in this study can be considered to be acceptable
for the job enrichment measure and good for the other measures.
It is important to note that all the negatively worded items in the questionnaire
should first be reversed before the items are submitted for reliability tests.
Unless all the items measuring a variable are in the same direction, the
reliabilities obtained will be incorrect.
A sample of the result obtained for the Cronbach's alpha test for job enrichment,
together with instructions on how it is obtained, is shown in Output 11.3.
Reliability Analysis . . .
Click on Statistics.
Reliability statistics
Cronbach's alpha Number of items 0.715 4
The reliability of the job enrichment measure is presented in the first table in
Output 11.3. The second table provides an overview of the alphas if we take one
of the items out of the measure. For instance, it is shown that if the first item
(Jobchar1) is taken out, Cronbach's alpha of the new three-item measure will be
0.577. This means that the alpha will go down if we take item 1 out of our
measure. On the other hand, if we take out item 3, our alpha will go up and
become 0.851. Note that, in this case, we would not take out item 3 for two
reasons. First, our alpha is above 0.7 so we do not have to take any remedial
actions. Second, if we took item 3 out, the validity of our measure would
probably decrease. We did not include item 3 for nothing in the original measure!
If, however, our Cronbach's alpha was too low (under 0.60) then we could use
this table to find out which of the items would have to be removed from our
measure to increase the interitem consistency. Note that, usually, taking out an
item, although improving the reliability of our measure, affects the validity of our
measure in a negative way.
Now that we have established that the interitem consistency is satisfactory for
perceived equity, job enrichment, burnout, and intention to leave, the scores on
the original questions can be combined into a single score. For instance, a new
perceived equity score can be calculated from the scores on the five individual
perceived equity items (but only after items 1, 2, and 4 have been reverse
coded). Likewise, a new job enrichment score can be calculated from the
scores on the four individual job enrichment items, and so on. We have already
explained that this involves calculating the summed score (per case/participant)
and then dividing it by the number of items.
Validity
Factorial validity can be established by submitting the data for factor analysis.
The results of factor analysis (a multivariate technique) will confirm whether or
not the theorized dimensions emerge. Recall from Chapter 6 that measures are
developed by first delineating the dimensions so as to operationalize the
concept. Factor analysis reveals whether the dimensions are indeed tapped by
the items in the measure, as theorized. Criterion-related validity can be
established by testing for the power of the measure to differentiate individuals
who are known to be different (refer to discussions regarding concurrent and
predictive validity in Chapter 7). Convergent validity can be established when
there is a high degree of correlation between two different sources responding to
the same measure (e.g., both supervisors and subordinates respond similarly to
a perceived reward system measure administered to them). Discriminant
validity can be established when two distinctly different concepts are not
correlated to each other (for example, courage and honesty; leadership and
motivation; attitudes and behavior). Convergent and discriminant validity can be
established through the multitrait multimethod matrix, a full discussion of which
is beyond the scope of this book. The student interested in knowing more about
factor analysis and the multitrait multimethod matrix can refer to books on
those subjects. When well-validated measures are used, there is no need, of
course, to establish their validity again for each study. The reliability of the items
can, however, be tested.
Once the new scores for perceived equity, job enrichment, burnout, and intention
to leave have been calculated, we are ready to further analyze the data.
Descriptive statistics such as maximum, minimum, means, standard deviations,
and variance can now be obtained for the multi-item, interval-scaled
independent and dependent variables. What's more, a correlation matrix can
also be obtained to examine how the variables in our model are related to each
other.
What are the relationships between perceived equity, burnout, job enrichment,
job satisfaction, and
intention to leave?
From the results, it may be seen that the mean on perceived equity is rather low
(2.32 on a five-point scale), as is the mean on experienced burnout (2.55). Job
satisfaction is about average (3.22 on a five-point scale), and the job is
perceived as somewhat enriched (3.40). The mean of 2.21 on a four-point scale
for ITL indicates that most of the respondents are neither bent on leaving nor
staying. The minimum of 1 indicates that there are some who do not intend to
leave at all, and the maximum of 4 indicates that some are seriously considering
leaving. Table 11.5 provides a more detailed account of employees' intentions to
leave. This table shows that a large group of employees seriously considers
leaving Excelsior Enterprises! Testing our hypotheses will improve our
understanding of why employees consider leaving Excelsior Enterprises and will
provide us with useful tools to reduce employees' intentions to leave the
company.
In sum, the perceived equity is rather low, not much burnout is experienced, the
job is perceived to be fairly enriched, there is average job satisfaction, and there
is neither a strong intention to stay with the organization nor to leave it. The
variance for all the variables is rather high, indicating that participants answers
are not always very close to the mean on all the variables.
The Pearson correlation matrix obtained for the five interval-scaled variables is
shown in Table 11.6.
After we have obtained descriptive statistics for the independent and dependent
variables in our study, we can test our hypotheses. Hypothesis testing is
discussed in the next chapter.
Summary
In this chapter we covered the initial steps of the procedure for analyzing data
once they are collected. Through the example of the research on Excelsior
Enterprises, we saw the steps necessary to get the data ready for analysis
editing, coding, and categorizing. We also obtained descriptive statistics for the
variables in the Excelsior Enterprises case. Finally we tested the goodness of
data using Cronbach's alpha.
Discussion Questions
1. What activities are involved in getting the data ready for analysis?
2. What does coding the data involve?
3. Data editing deals with detecting and correcting illogical, inconsistent, or
illegal data in the information returned by the participants of the study. Explain
the difference between illogical, inconsistent, and illegal data.
4. How would you deal with missing data?
5. What is reverse scoring and when is reverse scoring necessary?
6. There are three measures of central tendency: the mean, the median, and the
mode. Measures of dispersion include the range, the standard deviation, and the
variance (where the measure of central tendency is the mean), and the
interquartile range (where the measure of central tendency is the median).
Describe these measures and explain which of these measures you would use to
provide an overview of (a) nominal, (b) ordinal and (c) interval data?
7. A researcher wants to provide an overview of the gender of the respondents in
his sample. The gender is measured like this: What is your gender? Male
Female. What is the best way to provide an overview of the gender of the
respondents?
8. Consider the following reliability analysis for the variable customer
differentiation. What could you conclude from it?
Exercise 11.1
a. Enter the data in SPSS. Save the file to your USB flashdrive. Name the file
resmethassignment1.
b. Provide appropriate variable labels, value labels, and scaling indications to the
variables.
2. Descriptives
e. Make a scatter plot with IQ on the x-axis and exam grade on the y-axis. What
do you conclude?
f. Recode the sex variable such that it is 1 for females and 0 for males.
g. Make a scatter plot with sex on the x-axis and IQ on the y-axis. What do you
conclude?