You are a summer research intern for a research consultancy. Your team has been working on a project for a large global financial services organisation called ‘Money Ltd’. Money Ltd is headquartered in London but has offices in many global financial centres (e.g. New York, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Paris, Shanghai, Dubai). Money Ltd are interested in increasing employee engagement across the organisation.

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Scenario 1: National Restaurant Chain

You currently have a part-time job at the headquarters of a national restaurant chain, which has 52 different branches across the country. Your manager has discovered that you study research methods at university and has asked you to look over some research that a former intern carried out for the company.

 

The intern was interested in factors causing the variability in profits across the restaurant’s branches. They thought that perhaps the capabilities of the branch manager (measured by their performance rating) might explain some of the differences.

 

They wrote the following research question:

To what extent does managerial capability impact branch profit?

 

They analysed secondary data from the organisation on the following three variables:

  • NUM_EM: Number of branch employees
  • PERF: 2019 performance rating of branch manager
  • PROFIT: 2019 branch profit

 

These data were collected from all 52 branches.

 

They used correlations to analyse the data, and wrote up their findings as follows:

 

 

Answer Questions 1 – 5 about this scenario.

 

 

 

Scenario 2: Money Ltd

You are a summer research intern for a research consultancy. Your team has been working on a project for a large global financial services organisation called ‘Money Ltd’. Money Ltd is headquartered in London but has offices in many global financial centres (e.g. New York, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Paris, Shanghai, Dubai). Money Ltd are interested in increasing employee engagement across the organisation.

 

Over the last year, your manager, Kayo, designed an intervention to improve employee engagement at Money Ltd. There were multiple parts to this intervention, including: creating an ‘Employee Voice’ forum for anonymous suggestions from employees to the organisation; introducing optional well-being initiatives in the workplace (e.g. massage therapist, weekly yoga class, team socialisation activities); and training managers in creating a positive and supportive culture in their teams. The intervention was implemented in all the Money Ltd branches across Europe.

 

Kayo created an online survey, which was administered to all Money Ltd London employees before (T1) and after (T2) the implementation – a one-year time difference. There are 1,500 Money Ltd employees working in the London office. 1,200 responded to the survey at T1, and 152 of that group responded again to the survey at T2.

 

The survey was designed to answer the following research question:

How effective was the employee engagement intervention in increasing the levels of engagement of Money Ltd employees?

 

The variables measured in this survey are listed below:

  1. PNO This is an anonymous identification number for each respondent
  2. GENDER What is your gender? (Male, coded as 1/Female, coded as 2)
  3. WLB Measure of work-life balance using the single item designed by Kayo: ‘Overall, I believe that my work and non-work life are balanced’, using a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
  4. ENGAGEMENT Measure of employee engagement using the ISA Engagement scale[1], which is a multi-item scale, and was developed based on existing theory and literature. Items in this scale were measured using a 7-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). This variable is a composite measure of the item average for each person.

Variables 2 and 3 were measured at T1 only, whereas variable 4 was measured at both T1 and T2.

 

Kayo has given you access to the research dataset (labelled ‘5QQMN245 Exam MoneyLtd.xlsx’). This contains the cleaned and final data for the 152 employees who completed the survey at T2.

 

Answer Questions 6 – 7 about this scenario.

 

Answer ALL the questions below.

 

 

Answer questions 1 – 5 about Scenario 1.

 

Q1. The intern has forgotten to report their null hypotheses. Write three different null hypotheses for their research project.

[6 marks]

 

Q2. The intern has also forgotten to report important information about each correlation – the direction, size and significance level. Record these in the table below.

 

CorrelationDirectionSizeSignificance level
PERF with PROFIT   
NUM_EM with PROFIT   
NUM_EM with PERF   

 

[9 marks]

 

Q3. The correlation between number of employees and manager performance has a significance of p = 0.020. Explain what this p-value means in the context of this research.

[10 marks]

 

Q4. Do you agree with the intern’s statement that ‘We can therefore say that manager performance causes branch profit’? Explain your answer.

[10 marks]

 

Q5. List three things that you would change about the design of this research project, in order to answer the research question more effectively. Explain your choices.

[10 marks]

 

 

Answer questions 6 – 7 about Scenario 2.

 

Q6. Answer Kayo’s research question by carrying out the relevant statistical analysis (using Excel) and fully report your findings.

[25 marks]

 

Q7. Evaluate the strengths and limitations of the research that Kayo has carried out.

[30 marks]

 

 

 

[1] Soane, E., Truss, C., Alfes, K., Shantz, A., Rees, C. & Gatenby, M. (2012) Development and application of a new measure of employee engagement: the ISA Engagement Scale, Human Resource Development International, 15:5, 529-547, DOI: 10.1080/13678868.2012.726542

Policy issue is relevant today and connects to course content and materials Clearly identifies a need, problem or opportunity that can be addressed through policy change and presents an innovative or unique policy solution or a set of solutions

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Presentations must convey the following:

  • Policy issue is relevant today and connects to course content and materials
  • Clearly identifies a need, problem or opportunity that can be addressed through policy change and presents an innovative or unique policy solution or a set of solutions
  • Reflects a strong grasp of the background and context of a particular policy problem & current policies in this field
  • Clearly justifies why a particular policy is an appropriate response to a particular problem, discussing the relative strengths and weaknesses of existing and alternative solutions and identifying and addressing potential counter-arguments
  • Presents arguments that are justified by evidence and citations to appropriate sources
  • Provides a clear overview of the steps that should be followed for the implementation
  • Features indicators, metrics, or approaches that can be used to measure policy impact
  • Describes potential impact and reflects an underlying theory of change or a nuanced understanding of the different pathways though which this policy initiative may impact stakeholders
  • Includes a preliminary set of plausible projections about expected costs and resource implications

Summarize your primary learning from the course. Limit to 3 main things that you learnt. – Suggest 3 ways you will use the learning from this class in your personal and professional lives. – Suggest 2-3 content items or assignment ideas that could be included in this course.

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Summarize your primary learning from the course. Limit to 3 main things that you learnt.
– Suggest 3 ways you will use the learning from this class in your personal and professional lives.
– Suggest 2-3 content items or assignment ideas that could be included in this course.

Start a New Thread

For this Introduction to Quantitative Analysis Assignment, you will explore how to visually display data for optimal use.

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 In this week’s Discussion, you determined the benefits of visually displaying your data. You also learned that different types of data require different visual displays to adequately “tell the story” of the phenomena. Although the Discussion was difficult, what is even more difficult and challenging will be deciding on how best to display the data for presentation purposes. As you move further along in your dissertation or doctoral study, you will find that displaying data will be critical component in presenting a robust and clear capstone project.

 

For this Introduction to Quantitative Analysis Assignment, you will explore how to visually display data for optimal use.

To prepare for this Assignment:

  • Review this week’s Learning Resources and consider visual displays of data.
  • For additional support, review the Skill Builder: Unit of Analysis and the Skill Builder: Levels of Measurement, which you can find by navigating back to your Blackboard Course Home Page. From there, locate the Skill Builder link in the left navigation pane.
  • Using the SPSS software, open the Afrobarometer dataset or the High School Longitudinal Study dataset (whichever you choose) found in this week’s Learning Resources.
  • From the dataset you chose, choose one categorical and one continuous variable and perform the appropriate visual display for each variable.
  • Once you visually display each variable, review Chapter 11 of the Wagner text to understand how to copy and paste your output into your Word document.

For this Assignment:

Write a 2- to 3-paragraph analysis of your results and include a copy and paste of the appropriate visual display of the data into your document.

Based on the results of your data, provide a brief explanation of what the implications for social change might be. Early in your Assignment, when you relate which dataset you analyzed, please include the mean of the following variables. If you are using the Afrobarometer Dataset, report the mean of Q1 (Age). If you are using the HS Long Survey Dataset, report the mean of X1SES.

Use appropriate APA format. Refer to the APA manual for appropriate citation.

PLEASE USE APA STYLE

TURN IT IN REQUIRED

Theoretical framework: the use of constructs and propositions a recognized theory (or theories) to a research problem, purpose, and question. Examples: Social Influence theory, transformational leadership theory, game theory

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The language of qualitative research can be confusing. The words sound like regular English, but they have very particular meanings. To make the language even more complicated, the definitions can vary across different qualitative methodological scholars.

 

For the purpose of this course, distinctions between two important concepts should be considered:

  1. Theoretical framework: the use of constructs and propositions a recognized theory (or theories) to a research problem, purpose, and question.
    • Examples: Social Influence theory, transformational leadership theory, game theory
  2. Conceptual framework: the construction of ideas, assumptions, and beliefs sourced in both the literature and one’s own experience, which identify the main concepts that guide the formulation of the research problem, purpose, and question.
    • Examples: Concepts from positive psychology, mindfulness meditation, language development models

To prepare for this Discussion:

  • Review the Learning Resources related to the use of a theoretical or conceptual framework to guide the examination of a research problem in qualitative research.

ASSIGNMENT:

Post an explanation of the role of a theoretical or conceptual framework in qualitative research and provide examples from the resources you read. Use proper APA format and citations to support your post.

 

Required Readings

Ravitch, S. M., & Carl, N. M. (2016). Qualitative research: Bridging the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Chapter 2, “Using Conceptual Frameworks in Research” (pp. 33–63)
Chapter 3, “Critical Qualitative Research Design” (pp. 65–110) (focus on pp. 85–89)

Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2012). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Chapter 1, “Listening, Hearing, and Sharing” (pp. 1–11)
Chapter 2, “Research Philosophy and Qualitative Interviews” (pp. 13–24)

Walden University Writing Center. (2015). Common course assignments: Annotated bibliographies. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/annotatedbibliographies

Use this website to help you as you create your Annotated Bibliography for your Major Assignment 1.

Walden University. (n.d.). How do I write an annotated bibliography? Retrieved from http://academicanswers.waldenu.edu/faq/72682

Use this website to help you as you create your Annotated Bibliography for your Major Assignment 1.

Walden University Writing Center. (2012, October 30). Weathering the storm…of problem statements [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://waldenwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2012/10/weathering-storm-of-problem-statements.html

Use this website to help you as you write your problem statement for your Major Assignment 1.

Walden University Library. (n.d.). Course guide and assignment help for RSCH 8310. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/rsch8310

 

Theoretical Lens

Conroy, N.E.(2013). Rethinking adolescent peer sexual harassment: Contributions of feminist theory. Journal of School Violence, 12, 340-356.

Cleaver, D., & Ballantyne, J. (2014). Teachers’ views of constructivist theory: A qualitative study illuminating relationships between epistemological understanding and music teaching practice. International Journal of Music Education, 32(2), 228-241.

Stahl, B., Doherty, N., Shaw, M., & Janicke, H. (2014). Critical Theory as an Approach to the Ethics of Information Security. Science & Engineering Ethics, 20(3), 675-699.

Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks

Grant, C., & Osanloo, A. (2014). Understanding, Selecting, and Integrating a Theoretical Framework in Dissertation Research: Creating the Blueprint for Your “House”. Administrative Issues Journal: Education, Practice, And Research, 4(2), 12-26.

Describe one of the safety committees your organization uses and how it reduces risk within your organization. Who are the general members of the group, how often do they meet, and is there a regulatory requirement that they report or publish notes? Is this a good use of the staff’s time or would another method that still addresses the safety goal of this group be more efficient?

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Describe one of the safety committees your organization uses and how it reduces risk within your organization. Who are the general members of the group, how often do they meet, and is there a regulatory requirement that they report or publish notes? Is this a good use of the staff’s time or would another method that still addresses the safety goal of this group be more efficient?

Post an explanation of how Grant and Osanloo (2014) describe the differences between conceptual and a theoretical framework. Support your explanation with examples from the article as well as from your texts.

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After reading and considering the differences and similarities between theoretical and conceptual frameworks from different sources, the next step is to consider what type of theoretical or conceptual framework would be appropriate for your topic of interest.

Please note that this is not always easy or obvious, as it is a rare event to find a theory or concept paper that exactly mirrors your topic. Consult with the Walden Library to be creative with keywords and search strategies that will generate a scholarly article (or articles) appropriate to your topic.

For this Discussion, you will examine the theoretical and conceptual frameworks in qualitative research.

To prepare for this Discussion:

  • Review the Grant and Osanloo article related to conceptual and theoretical frameworks found in the Learning Resources and consider how a conceptual framework differs from a theoretical framework.
  • Use the Course Guide and Assignment Help to help you search for a research article on your topic of interest that uses a theoretical or conceptual framework. (Note: This can be the same article as the one you will use for your Annotated Bibliography in this week’s Assignment.)

ASSIGNMENT 

 

Post an explanation of how Grant and Osanloo (2014) describe the differences between conceptual and a theoretical framework. Support your explanation with examples from the article as well as from your texts.

Be sure to support your main post and response post with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA style.

 

Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks

Grant, C., & Osanloo, A. (2014). Understanding, Selecting, and Integrating a Theoretical Framework in Dissertation Research: Creating the Blueprint for Your “House”. Administrative Issues Journal: Education, Practice, And Research, 4(2), 12-26.

MY TOPIC IS POLICE BRUTALITY 

4) The chart has sales data on 15 employees of a small firm. If the firm pays a bonus of 0.5% on sales above $400,000, 1% on sales above $600,000, 1.5% on sales above $800,000, and 2% on sales above $1,000,000, calculate each employee’s bonus for this year in the yellow cells.

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AGEC 4213 2020 Final Exam

Download the spreadsheet AGEC4213__Final_2020.xlxs and save as FL42132020_Final to use to complete the exam, where FL is your initials. Do all your calculations in the spreadsheet and place the spreadsheet in the assignment box.  You may use your notes and homework to complete the exam along with any other sources, except you may not discuss the exam with anyone else including your classmates. If you need clarification, send me an e-mail or WeChat and I will supply an answer. Upload your completed spreadsheet with your answers to the assignment box before 11:59 a.m. on December 9.

First thing you need to do is you must put your CWID in the red cells on the Bonus tab. Some of the calculations are dependent upon those cells. Also place your name in the red box where showed to agree that all work is your own.

Do not add any tabs to the worksheet except as needed for problem 4.

  1. (20) On the Bonus tab, you will calculate bonuses for a firm’s employees. You may add extra columns as needed, but do not move columns A-E.
    1. (4) The chart has sales data on 15 employees of a small firm. If the firm pays a bonus of 0.5% on sales above $400,000, 1% on sales above $600,000, 1.5% on sales above $800,000, and 2% on sales above $1,000,000, calculate each employee’s bonus for this year in the yellow cells.
    2. (8) If the firm introduces no new products and you assume that the sales will stay the same next year, how high can the commissions on sales be, if you want to maintain the 0.5% difference between each sales category and you want to give a total bonus of $100,000 to all employees combined? Calculate each employee’s bonus for next year in the green cells and put the bonus percentage for the lowest sales group in the green cell.
    3. (8) If you expect the sales to increase by 10% on average for each employee, how high can the commission on sales be if you want to maintain the 0.5% difference between each sales category and you want to give out a total bonus of $125,000 to all employees combined? Calculate each employee’s bonus for next year in the blue cells and put the bonus percentage for the lowest sales group in the blue cell.
  2. (20) On the break-even tab I have supplied data for an acre of corn production including sales of grain and pasture from the acre. If your profits before taxes are greater than zero, you pay taxes otherwise you pay no taxes. Harvesting cost consists of three charges, a per acre charge of $30, hauling cost of $0.25 per bushel, and an extra charge of $0.25 per bushel on yield above 200 bushels per acre. For example, if yield is 250 bushels per acre, the total cost of harvest charge would be 30+ 0.25*250+0.25*(250-200).
    1. (4) Calculate the profit after taxes per acre in the dark green cell using the orange cells to calculate the revenues, costs, and taxes for the given values.
    2. (4) Calculate the break-even yield at a $5.00 per bushel corn price in the light green cell (have net income =0).
    3. (4) Calculate the break-even price at a 250-bushel corn yield in the blue cell (have net income=0).
    4. (4) The selling price per bushel and yield per acre are highly variable. What combinations of selling price per unit and yield per acre are profitable for the firm? Fill in the profit per acre in the yellow cells for various combinations of selling price and yield.
    5. (4) Have Microsoft Excel fill in an orange color instead of yellow for the various combinations of selling price per unit and yield per acre that are profitable, net income >=$0.00.
    6. Make sure what you save has the 250 bushels and $5.00 per bushel price in cells C2 and C4.
  3. (25) Fancy Hats produces three kinds of hats using three types of labor and two kinds of material. I have supplied the prices and requirements for each item in the Mix spreadsheet. Find the production that maximizes profit and the allocation of the resources. Fill out the orange cells.
  4. (35) Use the tab oats to perform the following calculations. The variables include: Oats measured in bushels of oats per acre, nitrogen applied measured in pounds per acre, phosphate (P2O5) applied measured in pounds per acre, and potash (K2O) applied measured in pounds per acre. You calculate the other variables from these variables. You may answer all the questions in the spreadsheet if you make sure you label your answers, so I know what they are.
    1. (10) Estimate oats yields as a function of nitrogen, phosphate, potash, the square of each fertilizer, and all combinations of the three fertilizers except do not include the combination of the three fertilizers. You should have nine variables. You may place the regression on a new tab.
    2. (10) Discuss the significance of each variable in the regression result and the meaning of the coefficients for each variable. Since there are nine variables, you should have at least eighteen statements.
    3. (10) Assume all the coefficients have acceptable significant. Assume phosphate application and potash application are both 100 pounds per acre. From the estimated equation calculated in a, build a table showing the oat yield for nitrogen levels from 0 to 240 pounds in increments of 10 pounds. Also, calculate the marginal physical productivity (MPP) of nitrogen for each nitrogen level. Use calculus to calculate the MPP. It is the derivate of the equation estimated in a with respect to nitrogen. In the table, you must refer to the cells from the regression. Do not round the coefficients and type them in your equations you use for calculations.
    4. (5) Using your equations, assume the price of oats is $9.00 per bushel and the price of nitrogen is $0.60 per pound, calculate the amount of nitrogen to the nearest tenth (or smaller if you want) of a pound per acre that you should apply to maximize profits if your phosphate application and potash application are both 100 pounds per acre.

 

Again, you may use your notes and homework to complete the exam along with any other sources, except discussing the exam with anyone one else including your classmates. You may consult agricultural economics, economics, or statistic textbooks. Exam is due in assignment box by 11:59 a.m. December 7.

Review the Topic 4 Case Study and the evaluation data above to help Professor Independent assess his pedagogy and curriculum by answering the following prompts: use the graph and teh worksheet provided to answer the prompts.

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Review the Topic 4 Case Study and the evaluation data above to help Professor Independent assess his pedagogy and curriculum by answering the following prompts: use the graph and teh worksheet provided to answer the prompts. 

  • attachment

    SOC-520.T7.EvaluationReport.docx

What was the “Oregon Trail”? What particularly struck you about the experiences of the settlers who traveled on it?

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Read the following essay on the famous “Oregon Trail”:
https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-oregon-trail

This visit this site, and read some of the documents left by individuals who traveled west along the “Oregon Trail” in the 19th century:

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/expref/oregtral/

Then post a response of at least 300 of your own words to this material on the forum. What was the “Oregon Trail”? What particularly struck you about the experiences of the settlers who traveled on it? Refer to at least two of the specific settlers whose letters or diaries you read, and compare and contrast their experiences. In what ways were they similar, or different? Be specific in your analysis.

After posting, read some of your classmates’ posts and respond to at least two of them. Make sure that these response posts discuss the substance of your classmates’ posts and advance the discussion.