Research and Statistical Methods for Business Assignment Sample

A Critical Analysis of Research Methodology: Sample Size, Sampling Methods, Research Design, and Data Collection Procedures for a Job Satisfaction Study in the Belgian Banking Sector

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A systematic process of investigation on a particular topic to conclude new facts and results can be stated as a research. This report is based on the parts of a research which plays a significant role to get objectives. Around 69000 employees are working in the Belgium banks and a research has been made on the job satisfaction on bankers. This report will focus on parts of research which has been conducted on them. It will discuss on pros and cons of sample size and factors which has to be consider before taking a decision on it by a researcher. Sampling methods will be discuss in this project which has been taken by the researcher to identify job satisfaction. After this, research design will be discussed in this and it's advantages and disadvantages will be discuss which are used in the research. Many problems faced by the researching teams which will be define in the report and solution will be given on it.

Q1. Sample Size

As Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has been selected to conduct a research to find out that employees which are working in the banking sector ion the Belgium are satisfied with their job or not (Harhay & et. al., 2014). Around 69,000 employees are currently working in this sector so it was a crucial thing for them to take a decision to determine the sample size of the research which can help to them to get the best results on their research topic. As they have selected 15,000 employees for this research which is 21% of the bankers working Belgium banks. This sample size has brought some advantages and disadvantages for them which are;

Advantages

Average Findings against objectives: It helps to the researcher organisation to find out an average results on their objectives, each employees has an issue related to his which makes him dissatisfied with his job so by this large sample size they has been taken a review of 21% of people working in the banking sector which can help to them to reach on average views of employees on research topic.

Segmentation: Large sample size helped them to make a proper segmentation in between the different people like Dutch and French which helped them to identify the causes which making them satisfied or dissatisfied with their job.

Disadvantages

Data collection: This is another thing which occur in research on big sample size because researcher has to sent questionnaire to all of these people and after it they have to get back also which is a big disadvantage. Because it increase cost and also puts a pressure on the researcher.

Analysis: Bigger sample size has created problems for the research organisation to make a proper analysis of the data which they had collected. Also it needs a huge accuracy either values can be get worst as per collected data.

It is essential for the researcher to take an appropriate number of candidates in the research, some of the factors are here which has to be consider when determining the sample size:

Number of people: As in Belgium banking industry, around 69,000 people are working in this sector so they have to use around 20% which can help to get an exact result.

Significance of informations: If research topic has a huge importance so researcher can conduct on large people, as in this research has based on banking sector so it is essential for them to identify what are the issue are generating dissatisfaction regarding to their job.

Q2. Sampling Method

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has used random sampling methods in which they have select all banks which are participate in this survey and they have used Simple Random Sampling Method. It is a simplest method of sampling in which not any criteria and quota has used by researcher to take participants in this research (Riordan, 2014). Simple Random Sampling Methods are having some advantages and disadvantages which are here;

Advantages

• This is the method which needs a minimum information of group of people on which research will be conducted. In this research they have used most of the bankers which are not generally working in the bank.
• It helps to brings out to common sized data and information from the sample size which are used by this sampling method.
• It does not have a need to get data on gender, occupation, other relevant informations of the sample size to make a classification to distribute questionnaire in between them.

Disadvantage

• Errors are the main issue which is found in this type of research because most of the people does not take interest in these types of surveys which is having a general information.
• This methods ignored to informations and knowledge which is available in to the sample size.
• Direct communication is not possible in this because researcher is not having much information about the persons which are involved in to this type of research survey.

This research can be improve if researcher will use Stratified Sampling in which they can make partition in their samples which can help to them to make a better research on the different age group of people. As by this research researcher wants to know that how many employees are dissatisfied with their job and what are the cause which are making them dissatisfied.

Q3. Research Design

Cross Sectional Design is used in this research, this is a research design tool which helps in to gather information from targeted people with in a specific time period. This is a research design in which researcher has start gathering information from all type of sections of participants. It focuses to gather information in a particular time period which can help to get an exact feeling or review on that time frame (Palinkas & et. al., 2015). As in the research which has conducted on the bankers to analyse their satisfaction with their job, they are having different sections in their participants which are classified in to age, gender and education. Advantages and disadvantages of this research design are here;

Advantages

• It helps in to proving or disproving an assumption which are taken by the rexsearcher for their research.
• It is time saving design which can help to researcher to save time and as well as it is very cost effective process.
• It supports to get all data and information in a particular time frame which can help to them to get an reviews of different participants in a particular time frame.

Disadvantages

• It has a main issue that it is not useful to get cause by whuich bankers are not satisfied with their job.
• Also this research design is ineffective to analyse what effects this can make on the banking industry.
• As all research is conducted in to a particular time frame so time factors leads on it and which can affect on the results and findings.

Q4. Procedure of data collection

As the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has to make a research on the large number of people which are working in the banking sector so they have used questionnaire survey by which they have get data from their participates employees. Some of the major problems are here which are faced by the researcher organisation in this research;

Language: This is the biggest issue which they have faced in this data collection process. Employees which are working in the banking sector of the Belgium are mainly used two different languages which are French and Dutch. So this is a major issue that they have to provide a right questionnaire to each of their candidates by which they can answer of these questions to get an exact informations.

Logistics: This is another issue which they have faced in this research the they have to provide all sample to each of the employees working in the Belgium. So they have to provide all questionnaire papers to at same time as per their research design which has created a huge problem in their work.

Some of the possible solutions are here which can be used in future research by the researcher;

Use of information technology: They have to use IT which can help to them to deliver all survey forms through the mails to each of the participants. By this they can resolve the issue of logistical and it can also helps to them to decrease the cost of the survey (Palinkas & et. al., 2015). Most of the organisation are conducting surveys through mails which can help to them to get a personal information and by this they can resolve queries of the participants also. It can help to the researcher to decrease errors in their research methods which can help to them to make a better change in their future research which cost effective, time saving and accurate.

Q5. Secondary Data

As the research organisation wants to explore that employees working in the banking sector are satisfied with their job or not. So they have conduct a research on large sample size. They have used primary research on this topic to get an exact data from their sample size which are the representative of all bankers working in the Belgium. Total 69,000 employees are working in the Belgium banking sector and the researcher has used 15,000 emplo0yees as a representative of these employees. They have used simple random sampling which helps them to select participants in the research. Many researches are conducted previously on this topic which can be used by the researcher to evaluate their research effectiveness. Secondary data set can be used by the organisation which can help to them to evaluate collected data from the secondary data which can help to them to analyse relevance and representativeness of data from main population size.

Secondary data can be used by the researcher in which they can take secondary data and evaluate it with current data. By this they can get relevance of data collected from sample size which is effective or not with secondary data. Participants are different in both researches so this can help to the researcher to identify that secondary researches data is having a similarity or not with data primary data. So this can help to them to make an evaluation that all participants has give an exact information on the research topic which can help to them to identify that research is is having a relevancy with research topic.

Conclusion

The above presented report has been concluded about the significance of sample size in the research, sample size has to equivalent which can help to the researcher to get an exact data which represent the whole population.

Refrences

Books and Journals

• Harhay, M. O & et. al., (2014). Outcomes and statistical power in adult critical care randomized trials. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine. 189(12). 1469-1478.
• Palinkas, L. A & et. al., (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research. 42(5). 533-544.
• Riordan, J. P. (2014). Techniques, tactics and strategies for conceptual change in school science (Doctoral dissertation, Canterbury Christ Church University).

Online

Research Methods in the Social Sciences. 2017. [Online]. Available Through: <http://lynn-library.libguides.com/c.php?g=549455&p=3771802>. [Accessed on 22 August 2017].