CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.2. RESEARCH DESIGN
3.2.3 Data Collection Method
“Secondary data is defined as data collected for some purpose other than the research situation” (Parasuraman, 1991:97). In the study, data for the literature review and research methodology was obtained by reviewing text books, newspaper articles, human resources management, management journals and the internet. This reviewed literature formed the basis for the development of the research instruments and focus of the primary data collection phase. “Primary data are collected specifically for solving the problem at hand” (Martins, Loubser and Van Wyk, 2002:99). A quantitative research design was used to collect data. A questionnaire was used for data collection. “A questionnaire is a written list of questions, the answers to which are recorded by respondents” (Kumar, 1996:110).
The questionnaire comprised of three parts. The first section was the demographics of the target population. The questionnaire was designed to collect demographic data such as respondents‟ age, gender, whether they work in the private or public sector, length of service in current organisation and many other demographic factors. In the second section was the 3- item intention to leave and 3-item propensity to leave scales. The third section of the
questionnaire was designed by the researcher based on the research literature and some of the questions that were used were adopted from a study that was conducted by Kinnear at Wits Business School (1999). This newly devised scale was named the contributing factors to staff turnover (CFST). The third section therefore comprised of 56 questions of the CFST and was divided into 9 sub-components, namely:
CFST Career paths (comprised of 6 items) CFST Management style (comprised of 9 items) CFST Rewards (comprised of 10 items)
CFST Job satisfaction (comprised of 5 items) CFST T & D (comprised of 8 items)
CFST MBA (comprised of 1 item) CFST Work/life (comprised of 8 items) CFST Provinces (comprised of 2 items) CFST Countries (comprised of 7 items)
In designing the questionnaire the researcher also sought input from 3 subject matter experts.
„Subject matter expert number one‟ had a problem with the demographics section as the researcher had abbreviated ICT instead of stating it in full, that is, information and communication technology but the expert was satisfied with the rest of the questionnaire. The
„second subject matter expert‟ advised the researcher to change Section B in the intention to leave scale, question number two from „I often think about quitting‟ to „I often think about quitting my job‟. In Section D (Part A) the first paragraph had grammatical errors and these were changed as advised by the subject matter expert.
Furthermore, one of the subject matter experts recommended changes to be made in Section D table headings, that is, the researcher had put Likert scale headings and number ratings on the first page only and hence they did not appear on the other remaining pages of the questionnaire, that is, (No Influence, Little Influence, Significant Influence and Highly Significant Influence) and the subject matter expert advised that some of the respondents may not remember what rating 1, 2, 3 and 4 represent unless the headings appeared on all the pages with the table. „Subject matter expert three‟ advised the researcher to include a question about the respondents‟ year of study of their MBA in the demographics section as this may help the researcher have a better understanding of the different thinking levels of the targeted population. The subject matter expert also advised the researcher to avoid using qualitative questions in Section C as most respondents might not have time to answer them and only to use quantitative questions. However, the researcher did not remove the qualitative questions
because they „were used with quantitative questions in a previously published study conducted by Kinnear (1999) of Wits Business School.
“When a new measurement instrument is developed, it is useful to „test it out‟ before administering it to the actual sample. This process of testing-out is done by means of a pilot study” (Welman et al., 2005:147). A pilot study was conducted with 11 post-graduate students at the UKZN Pietermaritzburg Campus Post-Graduate Centre to test the face validity and reliability of the questionnaire. The pilot study helped the researcher see whether the questions included in the questionnaire applied to South African managerial-level employees (Kinnear and Sutherland, 1999:66). It was administered to the post-graduate diploma students who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. All the questions in the questionnaire were listed according to the research objectives and questions. Both open and closed ended questions were included in the questionnaire. A Likert scale was used in the questionnaire.
After conducting the pilot study with the post-graduate students, the researcher discovered that the 5 open-ended questions in section C of the original questionnaire were consuming too much of the respondents‟ time and some of the questions were asking almost similar things and they were not part of the main focus of the study. Hence they were deleted from the section in order to reduce the time taken by respondents to fill in the questionnaire. Questions number 1 and 4 were not deleted in section C of the pilot study‟s open-ended questions. The researcher also changed the Likert scales used in the intention to leave scale from 5-point to 4-point scale ratings because those were the scale ratings used by the original developers of the instrument. The response of question 1 in the intention to leave scale was measured by a 4-point scale and for questions number 2 and 3, the 7-point scale was used. In the pilot study questionnaire the researcher used the 5-point Likert scale for all 3 questions of the intention to leave scale and this was changed to 4-point and 7-point scales as used by the scale developers (Cook, Hepworth, Wall and Warr, 1981:95).
“The summated or Likert scale, introduced by Likert (1903 – 1981), is at present the most popular type of scale. A summated attitude scale consists of a collection of statements about the attitudinal object. In respect of each statement, subjects have to indicate the degree to which they agree or disagree with its content” (Welman et al., 2005:156), for instance, five- point scales (for example: strongly differ, differ, undecided, agree, and strongly agree) and seven-point scales (for example: strongly disagree, disagree, slightly disagree, neither agree nor disagree, slightly agree, agree and strongly agree)” (Welman et al., 2005:156). The four- point and seven-point Likert scales measure the levels of intentions and propensity to leave KZN organisations by managerial-level employees.
The 3-item „Propensity to leave scale‟, which was founded by Lyons in 1971, was used in the study. “In Rousseau‟s (1978b) study of 271 employees from several levels of two organisations (65% females) the scale was used as a “measure of an employee‟s affective response to work”, the item wording was presumably modified to avoid reference to this hospital. Coefficient alpha was found to be 0,71 and the test-retest reliability over three months was 0,63. Length of tenure correlated -0,19 with Propensity to Leave and several statistically significant associations with perceived task and role characteristics were observed” (Cook et al., 1981:95). The propensity to leave scale has also been used in South African studies with internal reliabilities ranging from 0,79 to 0,82 (Stroud, 2001 cited in Govender, 2006:57).
Another type of Likert scale used in the study is the „intention to leave or turnover scale‟.
“The Michigan Organisational Assessment Questionnaire contains a number of scales to measure work attitudes and perceptions” (Cook et al., 1981:95). The coefficient alpha of the intention to leave instrument was found to be 0.83 (Cook et al., 1981:95). These include a 3- item index of an employee‟s intention to leave their job. The intention to leave concept has been used in other studies in South Africa. In a study by Maharaj, Ortlepp and Stacey (2008:2), the intention to leave concept was used and the study aimed at exploring whether there was a significant difference in the psychological contract of black and white male managers and the extent to which the perceived influence of employment equity practices was related to the psychological contract and intentions to leave. A sample of 55 respondents from a financial services organisation was used. Black and white males were found to differ significantly on employee balance type of psychological contract. The coefficient alpha was found to be 0.96 (Maharaj, Ortlepp and Stacey, 2008:6). The intention to leave and the propensity to leave items are related constructs. A copy of the questionnaire used in the study is attached in Appendix B.