CHAPTER THREE
3.5 Research Design and Methods
3.5.1 Description and purpose
A questionnaire is the researchers‟ pre-written set of questions to which respondents record/rate their responses from a pre selected list of alternatives (Sekaran and Bougie, 2010).
The researcher then codes the responses and subjects it to data analysis and interpretation.
This is done in an attempt to provide answers to the research questions, meet the study objectives or test the authenticity of the null/alternate hypotheses and hence solve the research problem (Bryman and Cramer, 1997).
Questionnaires containing closed and open ended questions can be administered personally, via mail or electronically (Ritchey, 1997). Personally administered questionnaires have a high response rate since the researcher is able to collect completed responses within a short time period and clarifications on issues is easily done on the spot (Bouma and Ling, 2005; Sekaran and Bougie, 2010). Mail questionnaires can cover a wide geographical area and respondents can complete them at their convenience. On the contrary, their main disadvantage is their low response rate and clarifications on issues respondents may not understand is not possible.
Sekaran and Bougie (2010) suggests a 30% response rate as being adequate for mail surveys.
To improve on the response rate, the researcher can give prior notice to respondents of the forthcoming survey to minimise the questionnaire being termed as an unsolicited email, send follow-up letters or keep the questionnaire brief. Electronic questionnaires on the other hand being global in scope are relatively inexpensive, easy to administer and respondents can give their responses at their own leisure. A disadvantage of the electronic questionnaire is that respondents must have the willingness to complete the questionnaire to ensure the credibility and generalizability of the data (Bouma and Ling, 2005). For online surveys to achieve their purpose, the researcher must have access to a list of contacts/ email addresses of people to act
60 as respondents for the research. For this research, the electronic questionnaire powered by Question Pro was chosen.
3.5.1.1 Construction of the Instrument
The construction stage of the questionnaire is the operationalization stage of the study concepts. According to Bryman and Cramer (1997), operationalization is the process of specifying the methods that will enable the researcher to identify the differences between the units of analysis in respect of the concepts of concern in a study: where the study concepts are translated into variables. Sekaran and Bougie (2010) concur with Bryman and Cramers‟
(1997) definition and add that operationalization involves translating abstract concepts into observable and measurable elements using a questionnaire.
The questionnaire was designed to analyse the perceptions/opinions of female managers as regards the glass ceiling phenomenon using both closed and open ended questions. The questionnaire constructs used were adapted from Bergman and Hallberg (2002 as cited in Mok Kim Man et al., 2009). According to Sekaran and Bougie (2010), closed and open ended questions are meant to enable the researcher to gain insights into the topic of study from the respondents. Closed ended questions accord the researcher ease in coding responses and new issues cannot be raised by respondents hence respondents answer the questionnaire in a predetermined structured way (Gillham, 2000). To the respondent, the questions are easy and faster to answer. To the researcher, closed questions are easy to analyse and standardise;
hence less error and no interviewer bias (Gillham, 2000). For this study, majority of questions were closed ended and were intended to make the respondents choose one answer among several alternatives. One open ended question allowed respondents to voice their opinions and offer recommendations regarding the glass ceiling phenomenon that the researcher may have not addressed in the course of carrying out this research.
The questionnaire was divided into two sections:
i) Section A included the demographic section where respondents were expected to input their personal information by marking one response per question from the choices given. This section comprised 9 questions.
ii) Section B the glass ceiling section consisted of 25 Likert scale questions that required the respondents to rate their level of disagreement and agreement to the glass ceiling perceptions that the researcher was interested in studying.
61 For this study, the 5 point Likert scale with end-points anchored by „strongly disagree‟ and
„strongly agree‟ were used to operationalize the perceptions female managers had with regard to the glass ceiling. The ordinal rating scale was numbered 1-5 with 1- denoting strongly disagree and 5- denoting strongly agree) meaning that each number between 1 to 5 denoted some level of disagreement or agreement. The respondents in turn were expected to differ in their perceptions of the glass ceiling, with some respondents being in agreement and vice versa.
According to Gillham (2000), on the positive side, scaled questions are quick and easy to answer. On the contrary, weaknesses of scaled questions are that respondents in most cases do not use the whole scale, may give a positive rating even when this is not the case and reasons why a particular response is chosen is difficult to explain On the other hand, scaled questions are easy to answer. For this study, Likert scale questions that sought to rate the responses of respondents with regard to their level of disagreement and agreement to issues related to the glass ceiling phenomenon formed the majority of questions as shown below:
Objective 1 had a total of 6 questions that attempted to answer the question whether work place barriers contributed to creating the glass ceiling.
Objective 2 with 7 questions attempted to find out the factors that hindered vertical progression of females in organisations.
Objective 3 with a total of 4 questions attempted to provide insight into why fewer women applied for promotions.
Objective 4 with 2 questions was aimed at finding out whether women in top leadership helped to promote other women holding lower positions in their organisation.
Objective 5 which attempted to delineate the personal characteristics needed by women for top leadership had 6 questions making a total of 25 closed ended questions in the questionnaire.
Objective 6 being a comment question was supported by one open ended question that sought to find out what the respondents viewed as challenges that women in management faced that may have not been covered by the researcher and had the potential to add value to the recommendation portion of this research.
The responses from the Likert scale were then coded to ensure objectivity and ease during data analysis. Since ordinal scales are not inherently numerical in nature, coding helps to
62 ensure that such responses are transformed into numbers/quantities for ease in data analysis (Hardy and Bryman, 2009; Morgan et al., 2007). Pre-coded questions thus include categories from which respondents select responses that have a code attached to them.
Participation in this survey by respondents was purely on a voluntary basis with no assurances of monetary gain. However, an assurance of confidentiality of information was guaranteed and this was contained in the consent page that was attached to the questionnaire.
The questionnaire and consent letter used for this study are attached in the Appendix.
For any research instrument that has a scale, the reliability and validity of the same must be assessed for results obtained thereof to be deemed credible, consistent, stable and factual.