Business Modelling and Analysis Assignment -
Objectives - In this assignment you are expected to develop a business report that will be presented to a senior manager of a law firm. The report should be informative but concise and follows a specific structure that allows the document to be easily read and understood.
This assignment provides students with opportunity to:
- combine statistical analysis and report writing skills to prepare a concise, non-technical business report,
- draw a random sample to complete statistical analysis,
- develop and enhance computing skills, specifically the use of the built-in functions in MS Excel and MS Word,
- apply statistical techniques to a data set, and
- reinforce taught concepts including descriptive statistics, sampling and estimation, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression.
Background - Margaret is the partner of a law firm in Melbourne. She has recently attended a seminar in which Simon Sinek discussed challenges faced by the new generation of employees. After the seminar, she decided to implement some new strategies in her firm to improve the working environment. She aims to instil collegial spirit among employees, reduce stress and improve productivity.
For that purpose, Margaret asked Jason, a newly appointed research officer, to help with her initiatives. In January 2018, they installed a special software on all computers and devices with internet connection capabilities. The software measured the amount of time each employee spent on different social media during each day. At the end of January, using a questionnaire, Margaret and Jason asked employees to rank their levels of job satisfaction, stress and their perception about the level of support they received from their peers. At the first day of February 2018, the software automatically blocked access to social media on all devises and employees had only half- an-hour during their lunch times to access social media via their mobile phones. Margaret also ordered some social spaces to be built in her company so employees could interact more often while enjoying free tea and coffee. She hoped that this creates a collegial environment where employees feel they belong to a big family. At the end of April 2018, Margaret and Jason again asked employees to answer the same questionnaire and measured their job satisfaction, stress and peer support.
Data are presented in the excel file named FIN60003_Assingment Data.xls. There are seven variables for 810 employees in this data set. Variables are:
GENDER: Gender of employees (F: Females and M: Males)
AGE: Age of employees in years
TIME on SM: Average time spent on social media (hours per day) before the implementation of the new initiatives
PRODUCTIVITY: it is measured by the number of billable hours
JOB SATISFACTION: it is measured using a likert scale questionnaire, where 1 indicates least level of satisfaction and 10 is the highest level of satisfaction
STRESS LEVEL: it is measured using a likert scale questionnaire, where 1 indicates least stress level and 10 is the highest stress level
PEER SUPPORT: it is measured using a likert scale questionnaire, where 1 indicates least peer support and 10 is the highest peer support perceived by employees.
Tasks -
Most of your statistical calculations should be carried out using Excel only and you will use Microsoft Word and Excel to complete this assignment.
1. Select a Random Sample
Select a random sample of size 100 from the given 810 cases (remember that 810 cases constitute the population of interest and you are not allowed to calculate any parameters such as mean and standard deviation). You will use this sample data to complete tasks 2 to 5.
2. Descriptive Statistics
Use appropriate data summary methods to describe the (data name) data in your sample using the (number of) variables. Use an appropriate graphical and/or summary statistical technique, chosen according to the type of variable. These techniques will be chosen from:
Tabular Techniques: e.g. Frequency tables and Grouped (joint) frequency tables.
Graphical Techniques: e.g. Pie chart, Bar graph, Histogram (avoid three dimensional graphs).
Summary Statistics: e.g. Mode, Median, Mean, Standard Deviation, Range, Coefficient of Variation and Interquartile Range.
You will need to choose the most appropriate technique(s) for each variable being analysed.
There are seven variables all together to be analysed. For paired variables (before and after), only analyse before variables.
For a nominal or an ordinal (discrete) variable draw a graph and present a frequency table in percentages.
For a ratio or an interval variable (continuous) draw a graph and a summary statistics table. Try to use variation in drawing graphs e.g. pie chart/ bar chart or histogram as much as possible. Do not draw two different graphs for the same variable.
3. Confidence intervals
Estimate the following quantities, using 95% confidence intervals. Explain the meaning of your confidence intervals.
i. The average age of employees.
ii. The average total time spend on social media.
Compare both intervals with their respective true means.
4. Hypothesis Testing
Margaret has some assumptions about the impact of time spent on social media on employees' wellbeing and wants to check their validity. She also wants to know whether her initiatives have been successful or not. Investigate these contentions by carrying out appropriate hypothesis tests.
i. It is often felt that female employees spend more time on average on social media than male employees do.
ii. After implementation of the new initiatives, employees' stress levels have decreased.
iii. After implementation of the new initiatives, employees feel they receive more support from their peers.
Only report a non-technical explanation of your methodology and your findings in the main section of the report. The computations and output should be placed in an appendix.
5. Correlation and Regression
In this section, first, Jason intends to investigate the relationship between the time spent on social media and employees' productivity. As the second test, he investigates the relationship between the time spent on social media and employees' job satisfaction. For these tests use before data.
Use these variables to develop two regression models and make sure to provide full discussions on each test. You discussions for each test should include:
- a scattergram and full interpretation
- an estimate of the linear regression model
- the coefficients of correlation and determination
- a test of the hypothesis that there is no linear relationship between dependent and independent variables.
Attachment:- Assignment & Data File.rar