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Terms In Review, Making Research Decisions, Bringing Research To Life, Concept To Practice And From The Headlines For Chapters 15, 16, And 17. ATTN WAK SOLUTIONS
Answer the Terms in Review, Making Research Decisions, Bringing Research to Life, Concept to Practice and From the Headlines for Chapters 15, 16, and 17. See attachment
I need it no later than 0600am 5 Nov 13 eastern time
Discussion Questions Chapter 15
Terms in Review
| 1 | Define or explain: Coding rules. Spreadsheet data entry. Bar codes. Precoded instruments. Content analysis. Missing data. Optical mark recognition. |
| 2 | How should the researcher handle “don’t know” responses? |
Making Research Decisions
| 3 | A problem facing shoe store managers is that many shoes eventually must be sold at markdown prices. This prompts us to conduct a mail survey of shoe store managers in which we ask, What methods have you found most successful for reducing the problem of high markdowns? We are interested in extracting as much information as possible from these answers to better understand the full range of strategies that store managers use. Establish what you think are category sets to code 500 responses similar to the 14 given here. Try to develop an integrated set of categories that reflects your theory of markdown management. After developing the set, use it to code the 14 responses. Have not found the answer. As long as we buy style shoes, we will have markdowns. We use PMs on slow merchandise, but it does not eliminate markdowns. (PM stands for “push-money”—special item bonuses for selling a particular style of shoe.) Using PMs before too old. Also reducing price during season. Holding meetings with salespeople indicating which shoes to push. By putting PMs on any slow-selling items and promoting same. More careful check of shoes purchased. Keep a close watch on your stock, and mark down when you have to—that is, rather than wait, take a small markdown on a shoe that is not moving at the time. Using the PM method. Less advance buying—more dependence on in-stock shoes. Sales—catch bad guys before it’s too late and close out. Buy as much good merchandise as you can at special prices to help make up some markdowns. Reducing opening buys and depending on fill-in service. PMs for salespeople. Buy more frequently, better buying, PMs on slow-moving merchandise. Careful buying at lowest prices. Cash on the buying line. Buying closeouts, FDs, overstock, “cancellations.” (FD stands for “factory-discontinued” style.) By buying less “chanceable” shoes. Buy only what you need, watch sizes, don’t go overboard on new fads. Buying more staple merchandise. Buying more from fewer lines. Sticking with better nationally advertised merchandise. No successful method with the current style situation. Manufacturers are experimenting, the retailer takes the markdowns—cuts gross profit by about 3 percent—keep your stock at lowest level without losing sales. |
| 4 | Select a small sample of class members, work associates, or friends and ask them to answer the following in a paragraph or two: What are your career aspirations for the next five years? Use one of the four basic units of content analysis to analyze their responses. Describe your findings as frequencies for the unit of analysis selected. |
Bringing Research to Life
| 5 | What data preparation process was Jason doing during data entry? |
| 6 | Data entry followed data collection in the research profiled during the opening vignette. What concerned Jason about this process? |
From Concept to Practice
| 7 | Choose one of the cases from the text website that has an instrument (check the Case Abstracts section for a listing of all cases and an abstract for each). Code the instrument for data entry. |
From the Headlines
| 8 | Your responses to the latest U.S. Census were used for two purposes. First, the Census Bureau tallied each response to produce an official population count. Second, it produced a 1-in-20 sub-sample used for analysis by researchers. For those younger than 65, the estimates from the sample are similar to the full count. For those over age 65, the estimates disagree by as much as 15 percent. The sample data suggest that there are more very old men than very old women. And, the error jumbles the correlation between age and employment, age and marital status, and, possibly, other correlations as well. The Census Bureau has refused to correct the data. Should the data in the 1-in-20 micro-sample be used to study people aged 65 and over? What’s the source of the problem? Programming error, coding error, or manipulating the data to protect the identity of each individual? Discussion Questions Chapter 16 Terms in Review 1 Define or explain: Marginals. Pareto diagram. Nonresistant statistics. Lower control limit. The five-number summary. Making Research Decisions 2 Suppose you were preparing two-way tables of percentages for the following pairs of variables. How would you run the percentages? Age and consumption of breakfast cereal. Family income and confidence about the family’s future. Marital status and sports participation. Crime rate and unemployment rate. 3 You study the attrition of entering college freshmen (those students who enter college as freshmen but don’t stay to graduate). You find the following relationships between attrition, aid, and distance of home from college. What is your interpretation? Consider all variables and relationships. Aid Home Near Receiving Aid Home Far Receiving Aid Yes (%) No (%) Yes (%) No (%) Yes (%) No (%) Drop Out 25 20 5 15 30 40 Stay 75 80 95 85 70 60 4 A local health agency is experimenting with two appeal letters, A and B, with which to raise funds. It sends out 400 of the A appeal and 400 of the B appeal (each subsample is divided equally among working-class and middle-class neighborhoods). The agency secures the results shown in the following table. Which appeal is the best? Which class responded better to which letter? Is appeal or social class a more powerful independent variable? Appeal A Appeal B Middle Class (%) Working Class (%) Middle Class (%) Working Class (%) Contribution 20 40 15 30 No Contribution 80 60 85 70 100 100 100 100 5 Assume you have collected data on sales associates of a large retail organization in a major metropolitan area. You analyze the data by type of work classification, education level, and whether the workers were raised in a rural or urban setting. The results are shown here. How would you interpret them? Annual Retail Employee Turnover per 100 Employees High Education Low Education Salaried Hourly Wage Salaried Hourly Wage Salaried Hourly Wage Rural 8 16 6 14 18 18 Urban 12 16 10 12 19 20 Bringing Research to Life 6 Identify the variables being cross-tabulated by Sammye. Identify some plausible reasons why such an exploration would be a good idea. From Concept to Practice 7 Use the data in Exhibit 16-5 to construct a stem-and-leaf display. Where do you find the main body of the distribution? How many values reside outside the inner fence(s)? From the Headlines 8 Asustek, the Taiwanese manufacturer that basically invented the netbook category, has been researching more radical design ideas, including a classy wrist-top computer, the Waveface Ultra. It is made from a bendable display that can connect to the Internet, make phone calls, and crunch data. Essentially, it’s a bracelet that acts like a smartphone. How might you use such a device to display stimuli for respondents? What is the interactive data exchange potential for researchers? |
Discussion Questions Chapter 17
Terms in Review
| 1 | Distinguish between the following: Parametric tests and nonparametric tests. Type I error and Type II error. Null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis. Acceptance region and rejection region. One-tailed tests and two-tailed tests. Type II error and the power of the test. |
| 2 | Summarize the steps of hypothesis testing. What is the virtue of this procedure? |
| 3 | In analysis of variance, what is the purpose of the mean square between and the mean square within? If the null hypothesis is accepted, what do these quantities look like? |
| 4 | Describe the assumptions for ANOVA, and explain how they may be diagnosed. |
Making Research Decisions
| 5 | Suggest situations where the researcher should be more concerned with Type II error than with Type I error. How can the probability of a Type I error be reduced? A Type II error? How does practical significance differ from statistical significance? Suppose you interview all the members of the freshman and senior classes and find that 65 percent of the freshmen and 62 percent of the seniors favor a proposal to send Help Centers offshore. Is this difference significant? |
| 6 | What hypothesis testing procedure would you use in the following situations? A test classifies applicants as accepted or rejected. On the basis of data on 200 applicants, we test the hypothesis that ad placement success is not related to gender. A company manufactures and markets automobiles in two different countries. We want to know if the gas mileage is the same for vehicles from both facilities. There are samples of 45 units from each facility. A company has three categories of marketing analysts: (1) with professional qualifications but without work experience, (2) with professional qualifications and with work experience, and (3) without professional qualifications but with work experience. A study exists that measures each analyst’s motivation level (classified as high, normal, and low). A hypothesis of no relation between analyst category and motivation is to be tested. A company has 24 salespersons. The test must evaluate whether their sales performance is unchanged or has improved after a training program. A company has to evaluate whether it should attribute increased sales to product quality, advertising, or an interaction of product quality and advertising. |
| 7 | You conduct a survey of a sample of 25 members of this year’s graduating marketing students and find that the average GPA is 3.2. The standard deviation of the sample is 0.4. Over the last 10 years, the average GPA has been 3.0. Is the GPA of this year’s students significantly different from the long-run average? At what alpha level would it be significant? |
| 8 | You are curious about whether the professors and students at your school are of different political persuasions, so you take a sample of 20 professors and 20 students drawn randomly from each population. You find that 10 professors say they are conservative and 6 students say they are conservative. Is this a statistically significant difference? |
| 9 | You contact a random sample of 36 graduates of Western University and learn that their starting salaries averaged $28,000 last year. You then contact a random sample of 40 graduates from Eastern University and find that their average starting salary was $28,800. In each case, the standard deviation of the sample was $1,000. Test the null hypothesis that there is no difference between average salaries received by the graduates of the two schools. What assumptions are necessary for this test? |
| 10 | A random sample of students is interviewed to determine if there is an association between class and attitude toward corporations. With the following results, test the hypothesis that there is no difference among students on this attitude. Favorable Neutral Unfavorable Freshmen 100 50 70 Sophomores 80 60 70 Juniors 50 50 80 Seniors 40 60 90 |
| 11 | You do a survey of marketing students and liberal arts school students to find out how many times a week they read a daily newspaper. In each case, you interview 100 students. You find the following: m = 4.5 times per week Sm = 1.5 la = 5.6 times per week Sla = 2.0 Test the hypothesis that there is no significant difference between these two samples. |
| 12 | One-Koat Paint Company has developed a new type of porch paint that it hopes will be the most durable on the market. The R&D group tests the new product against the two leading competing products by using a machine that scrubs until it wears through the coating. One-Koat runs five trials with each product and secures the following results (in thousands of scrubs): Trial One-Koat Competitor A Competitor B 1 37 34 24 2 30 19 25 3 34 22 23 4 28 31 20 5 29 27 20 Test the hypothesis that there are no differences between the means of these products (a 5 .05). |
| 13 | A computer manufacturer is introducing a new product specifically targeted at the home market and wishes to compare the effectiveness of three sales strategies: computer stores, home electronics stores, and department stores. Numbers of sales by 15 salespeople are recorded here: Electronics store: 5, 4, 3, 3, 3 Department store: 9, 7, 8, 6, 5 Computer store: 7, 4, 8, 4, 3 Test the hypothesis that there is no difference between the means of the retailers (α = .05). Select a multiple comparison test, if necessary, to determine which groups differ in mean sales (α = .05). |
From the Headlines
| 14 | Researchers at the University of Aberdeen found that when people were asked to recall past events or imagine future ones, the participants’ bodies subliminally acted out the metaphors we commonly conceptualized with the flow of time. With past years, the participants leaned backward, while when imagining the future, they leaned forward. The leanings were small, but the directionality was clear and dependable. Using this research as a base, if you have two groups (group A holds a cup of hot coffee, and group B holds iced coffee), what statistical hypothesis would you propose to test the groups’ perceptions of the personality of an imaginary individual holding coffee based on its temperature? |
Test 3 HRMD 610
Part A. –Multiple Choice.
3. Jason could not develop the phone app for the customer because he never finished the training classes. Jason is an example of which type of problem employee?
a. Lacks motivation
b. Lacks ability
c. Rule breaker
d. Has problems
4. Steven was fired from his job after three years of good performance. His boss simply said that the organization was changing and did not need Steven’s work any longer. This type of firing is likely acceptable under the doctrine of __________.
a. employment variability
b. workplace monitoring
c. employment-at-will
d. orientation period
8. Allison found several job duties that were listed on her subordinate’s job description which are no longer part of the job. Also, the company recently updated its strategic plan. Based on the new plan, Allison will add some related job duties to her subordinate’s job and communicate with her subordinate about the changes. Allison is engaged in ________.
a. performance appraisal
b. performance management
c. performance monitoring
d. performance planning
9. Top salesperson Carl noticed that the new salesperson, Brandon, was struggling to make sales. Carl told Brandon that learning sales was a process and made some suggestions for how Brandon could improve his sales techniques. Together, Carl and Brandon practiced the techniques and Brandon said he would start trying them out on clients. The two made an appointment to follow up on how the techniques were working in two weeks. Carl provided _________ to Brandon.
a. coaching
b. counseling
c. conduct training
d. discipline
12. Morgan is working on the compensation package for bank tellers. Bank customers like to see the same faces in the bank when they come in to talk about their money. Therefore, Morgan needs to find a way to reduce turnover among the tellers. Adopting a(n) _________ organizational philosophy on compensation might be a good idea.
a. below-the-market
b. at-the-market
c. pay for longevity
d. wage compression
13. If companies hire replacement workers:
a. it is illegal during any strike action.
b. during an economic strike, the company doesn’t have to lay off replacement workers to give the strikers their jobs back.
c. it’s OK any time, but the striking worker always has to be given their job back after the strike.
d. during an unfair labor practices strike, the company doesn’t have to lay off replacement workers to give the strikers their jobs back
e. during any strike, all employees can be permanently replaced.
16. At the beginning of the quarter, Marcus sat down with his manager and set three goals for the next three months. The achievement of each goal will depend on Marcus. No one else in his work group can affect the work toward the goal. Which advantage of individual incentives does this illustrate?
a. easy to evaluate employee’s effect on team
b. ability to match rewards to employee desires
c. promotes the link between performance and results
d. may motivate less productive employees to work harder
17. Mallory would like to attract better workers and enhance her organization’s employment brand. Adopting a(n) ________ organizational philosophy on compensation could help her achieve her goals.
a. at-the-market
b. above-the-market
c. pay for longevity
d. pay secrecy
18. One reason for re-evaluating social security is because
a. there have been changes in the lifespan of the retiree population.
b. congress did not intend the law to cover both men and women since men were primarily the wage earners when the law first passed in 1935.
c. the law was written to have a re-evaluation in the new millennium.
d. the global economy affected the value of the retirement dollar.
20. Under OSHA employees have a right to all of the following except:
A. to refuse to be interviewed by an inspector.
B. to have a company representative present during any interview.
C. to have working conditions free from unnecessary hazards.
D. to file a complaint about hazardous working conditions.
E. to report hazardous conditions to their supervisor.
Part B. – Short Answer. Each question is worth 5 points. Please do not exceed the sentence maximum response limits.
1. You are writing an employee handbook for a manufacturing company with 50 employees. The company says it does not need any SDS forms or policies. What do you say? 6 sentence maximum response.
2. Discuss two differences between an HMO and a PPO? 6 sentence maximum response.
3. Name two common problems with performance evaluations and provide one potential solution to each problem you identified? 6 sentence maximum response.
4. Explain why an employer can limit an employee’s speech in the workplace. 5 sentence maximum response.
5. What is the difference between a lockout and a strike? 5 sentence maximum response.
6. You lost your job. Why would COBRA help you? 4 sentence maximum response.
Part C – Paragraph Short Answer. This section is worth 30% of the test grade. This section must be cited by APA style
Amazon.com, originally started as the biggest online bookstore, has become a household name by expanding rapidly in the retail market offering millions of movies, games, and music, electronics and other general merchandise categories, including apparel and accessories, auto parts, home furnishings, health and beauty aids, toys, and groceries. Shoppers can also download e-books, games, MP3s, and films to their computers or handheld devices, including Amazon’s own portable e-reader, the Kindle. Amazon also offers products and services, such as self-publishing, online advertising, e-commerce platform, hosting, and a co-branded credit card.
To keep this megastore running at a fast pace, Amazon hired 115,000 employees who generated $74 billion in 2013. Target and Home Depot made a combined income of close to $74 billion in the same year yet employed more than 340,000 people between them in their retail stores. Why does it take only one third of its competitors’ labor force to produce same the revenue? Like the other mega retailer Wal-Mart, Amazon has delivered creative business solutions to their own processes in order to continuously increase their operating effectiveness. However, their strategy focuses on enhancing the customer shopping experience and providing excellent customer service rather than providing the lowest priced products. In order to meet their customers’ needs, Amazon must deliver more speed and efficiency in its giant warehouse. They use more automated work-processes which reduce the company’s operational costs, as well increase labor efficiency and employee safety.
Quality of their warehouse labor has become the critical issue in the firm’s success and hence hiring and retaining the best, most suitable candidates for their manual labor positions is a key success factor. That being said, Amazon’s turnover rate at these lowest ranked positions in the organization is high since Amazon lets go of its lowest-performing employees to make room for new, more appropriate candidates while promoting the very best. To detect the lowest and top performing employees, Amazon initiated a performance evaluation system called the Organization and Leadership Review (OLR).
OLR actually has two main goals: first, is to find the future leaders and prepare them to be able to face the most challenging tasks presented in a fast paced work environment; and second, to determine the 10% of the employees who are the least effective and take necessary corrective action. OLRs take place twice a year to grant promotions and find the least effective employees. Only the top-level managers attend this meeting where there could be two reasons why an employee’s name may be mentioned in them. Either the employee is being considered for a promotion the employee has asked for or the employee’s job at Amazon might be at stake.
OLRs start with the attendees reading the agenda of the meeting. Then supervisors suggest the most deserving subordinate’s name to be considered for the promotion. All executives in the room evaluate these suggestions which are then followed by a debate. Promotions are given at the end. During the process, instead of using hard data, executives tend to bring personal experiences by using anecdotes to evaluate the employees’ performance. Anyone in the meeting may deny a promotion therefore ambitious employees seeking a promotion should also be very friendly with their boss’ peers as well. If an employee’s supervisor cannot present him or her well enough, another’s favorite subordinate will get the promotion.
In terms of promotion, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos expects the managers to set the performance bar quite high in order to allow only the most exceptional talent to progress. Promotions are protected by well-written promotion guidelines which focus on delivery, and impact, not on internal politics. People spend less time campaigning for their own promotions and top performers are heavily compensated based upon the quality of their work. Therefore only a few promotions are available each year and receiving positive feedback from an employee’s supervisor is quite rare. The approval the employee gets from his or her supervisor is not enough from the OLR to get a promotion; he/she will still have to ‘fight’ for the promotion and even if granted the promotion may not occur immediately.
1. How might rater bias, stereotyping and traits appraisal impact the accuracy of OLR? Could this be corrected? If so, how?
2. Given the differing appraisal systems described in this chapter, which appraisal systems mostly closely resembles OLR? Specifically discuss your response.
3. Discuss at least one advantage and one disadvantages of having performance reviews like OLR, versus MBO, that are single way communication?
Fall of Humanity – Then and Now Worksheet
Part One: The Fall – Then
Read the assigned readings in Topic 3 (textbook chapter 4, Lecture 3, “The Mystery of Original Sin” article, and Bible passages) and address the following questions with a total word count (including questions) of 500-750 words.
Cite all of the resources used with in-text citations, using at least two sources from the Topic 3 readings. These will be included in the list of references at the end of the assignment.
Write your paragraph response directly below each question:
1. What is revealed about human nature (from Gen 1-2)?
2. What are the consequences of the Fall for human nature (from Gen 3)?
3. What is revealed about human purpose from the readings? What does it mean for humans to flourish, in other words to achieve spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being?
4. How might the answer to these questions differ according to different worldviews?
Part Two: The Fall – Now
Consider how the Fall and humanity’s exposure to good and evil are seen in the way some people treat themselves and others in dehumanizing ways today (for example, abuse, addiction, bullying, domestic violence, eating disorders, human trafficking, pornography, poverty, racism, vandalism, etc.).
Choose one act of dehumanization and write a short TV public service announcement in 350-500 words. Use at least two different sources from the GCU eLibrary, cited in the text and listed below in the list of references. Include the following:
- Highlight how the act of dehumanization is evident in the world today.
- Provide solid ideas for prevention.
- Include statistics, causes, and impact on people (victim, perpetrator, others as appropriate).
- Discuss how a God-centered worldview (as discussed in the “The Mystery of Original Sin” article) might provide a solution.
· Within the script, include notes about the images and video that would be included when shooting the commercial.
Two examples of a public service announcement:
Write your paper below:
References
List at least two references below for each part of the assignment above, for a minimum of four references. Prepare these references according to the guidelines found in the GCU Style Guide located in the Student Success Center (found under RESOURCES > Student Success Center > The Writing Center > Style Guides). Include the Permalink for the GCU Library sources used.
Example reference:
Shuster , M. (2013). The Mystery of Original Sin: We don’t know why God permitted the Fall, but we know all too well the evil and sin that still plague us. Christianity Today, 57(3), 38-41. http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0001935909&site=eds-live&scope=site
List references below: