Forum Post #1 - Statistics
What results in your departments seem to be correlated or related (either causal or not) to other activities? How could you verify this? What are the managerial implications of a correlation?
The only example that I can think of is comparing the number of years that each employee has been with the company and their job titles. This would allow you to view multiple samples and I would say that in my company as the number of years increase our job titles and pay increase as well. From a managerial experience, they could easily look to see how long an employee has been with the company and assign them an additional workload if necessary.
Forum Post #2 - Statistics
What results in your departments seem to be correlated or related (either causal or not) to other activities? How could you verify this?
Correlation is a value, ranging from -1 to +1, that indicates the strength of the relationship between variables (Tanner & Youssef-Morgan, 2013). The association between variables and how they may relate to one another.
At my husband's company, an area that is related to another would be in the manufacturing production time and delivery of goods. Customers rely on receiving goods in a reasonable time frame. This can affect their business with their customers and our business as owners with our customers. How effective we are in getting product manufactured in a timely manner can affect and influence the shipment of goods. It is important when quoting a delivery date for product that it is in line with the manufacturing of a product. As we see how manufacturing can relate to delivery, it can also move down to how it can affect sales.
Another area or correlation would be in the employees work performance. Every year we complete an appraisal about ourselves relating to all aspects of our current job. That appraisal is then evaluated by our direct reports and rated. How effective we are in our position, affects the performance grade we receive and percentage of merit increase.
What are the managerial implications of a correlation between these variables?
Managers are able to look at the relationship between both variables and how they affect one another. If certain performances or results are not meeting expectation, adjustments and changes can be made where necessary.
Forum Post #3 - Statistics
At times we can generate a regression equation to explain outcomes. For example, an employee's salary can often be explained by their pay grade, appraisal rating, education level, etc. What variables might explain or predict an outcome in your department or life? If you generated a regression equation, how would you interpret it and the residuals from it?
Regression allows us to understand the impact of different variables on a particular outcome. I would say that an example of regression would be in our sales department. If our company is constantly changing the price of our conference and video calls, then we could record the amount the product sells for each time the price is changed. The amount sold would be the dependent variable and price they are sold for would be the explanatory variable.
Forum Post #4 - Statistics
Regression allows a precise mathematical prediction of the value of one variable from the value of another with which it is correlated (Tanner & Youssef-Morgan, 2013). Regression shows how one variable is affected by other predictor variables. An example would be whether the amount of activities outside of school contributes to a child's final course grade. Some variables in this situation would be the number of hours per day spent with a tutor, doing homework, and participating in afterschool sports. All of these variables contribute to the outcome of the letter grade received on a child's report card. In my regression equation, the "Y" variable, or dependent variable, would be the final course grade. The "X" variable, or independent variable, would be either the number of hours per week with a tutor, doing homework, or at soccer practice. The regression equation would tell me how strong the relationship is between meeting with a tutor and the grade received for that course, or is 6 hours a week of soccer practice affecting grades. We can determine if there is a correlation between the variables, and how each of the variables can impact the outcome.