Statistics

Statistics Pg. 2

Introduction

American Intellectual Union has undertaken a study to assess job satisfaction of employees. The job satisfaction is measured through four parameters ЁC overall job satisfaction, intrinsic job satisfaction, extrinsic job satisfaction and benefits. In order to assess the satisfaction a sample of 29 employees has been chosen. Each employee has been asked to rate his satisfaction for the four parameters on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 indicating least satisfaction and 7 indicating most satisfaction. Certain basic details of each employee have also been recorded so that a profile of satisfied employees and that of unsatisfied employees could be prepared.

The four data sets of the job satisfaction parameters are quantitative data sets. Whereas the data sets for gender, age, department, position and tenure are qualitative data sets. Quantitative data sets are numerical values that answer the questions how much or how many. Qualitative data sets are labels used to identify attributes. (Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, 2001) For the selected quantitative data set, measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode) and variability (standard deviation and variance) will be calculated. Measures of central tendency provide a value that is representative of the entire data set. Measures of variability indicate how adequately the measure of central tendency represents the data set. If the measure of variability is large, then the measure of central tendency does not adequately represent the data set. (Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, 2001) For the selected qualitative variable only the mode will be calculated. Because qualitative variables represent attributes and not quantities, one cannot calculate mean, median, standard deviation and variance. Finally an appropriate chart will be

Statistics Pg. 3

drawn for both the selected data sets. It is difficult to interpret data from the mass of numbers. Graphs and charts process the data and present them in a manner that one can easily visualize the patterns and interrelationships in the data. (Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, 2001)

Quantitative Data Set ЁC Overall Job Satisfaction

For this exercise the quantitative data set that has been selected is Overall Job Satisfaction. This is the most important parameter since it takes all aspects of job in consideration. The data set is given in Table 1.

Table 1: Quantitative Data Set

Overall Job Satisfaction

2.8

4.6

5.3

4.8

1.8

4

4

2.2

3.2

5

7

5

4

5.5

6

3.2

6

3

4.6

4.6

4.8

4.4

6

3.8

2

5.8

4.6

5.8

6.2

Measure of central tendency

Mean 4.5

Median 4.6

Mode 4.6

Since the three measures are very close to each other, it would appear that the representative level of satisfaction is about 4.5. Since the mean is lower than the other two measures, there will be a negative skewness in the data set, but since the difference is very small the skewness is expected to be marginal. (Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, 2001)

Measures of variability

Standard deviation 1.34

Variance 1.79

The low value of standard deviation indicates that most of the observations are close to the mean and the mean is truly representative of the data set.

Chart

For the purpose of further evaluating the overall job satisfaction, the employees were divided into classes and the observed frequency in each class determined. This information is shown in Table 2.

Statistics Pg. 5

Table 2: Analysis of Job Satisfaction

Class Intervals for Job Satisfaction X Frequency

X ЎЬ2 2

2 < X ЎЬ 3 3

3 < X ЎЬ 4 6

4 < X ЎЬ 5 9

5 < X ЎЬ 6 7

6 < X 2

The data from Table 2 is represented as a histogram in Figure 1.

The histogram immediately shows that the measure of central tendency is between 4 and 5. The expected slight negative skewness is also clearly visible.

Qualitative Data Set ЁC Department

The qualitative data set that has been selected is Department. This is to get an idea