Chapter 3 Research Methodology

Transcription

1 Chapter 3 Research Methodology 68

2 Chapter 3 Research Methodology Research Methodology-3.1 In this chapter the theoretical framework and methodology taken in the study has been elaborated. It covers the various dimensions of the study and research objectives and the set of methodologies adapted to accomplish those objectives. It explains in detail the pilot study conducted for identification of an appropriate analysis for the study. Further the procedures followed for the collection of data and selection of the sample of internet accessing respondents has been outlined. It includes explanation about the research design, sample and sampling design, collection of the data describing the statistical tools used for interpretation of the data and other analysis performed. The tools and techniques used for analyzing the data for the study are also deal in this section. To study the pay for performance in different sectors of an economy, the survey has been conducted via face to face interview as well as through e mail also. A total of 550 survey questionnaires had been sent, out of which 500 questionnaires received.each of the responses received has been sent to check for mistakes, missed responses or incomplete questionnaires. The steps were also taken to contact the affected respondents telephonically or through for more clarified and corrected responses. 10% of the responses of the questions in the survey left unticked or not answered correctly have been deleted for the analysis of the data. As well as for those answers that had blank responses and which include Likert scale that is five point interval scaled questions has been put the midpoint scale of 3. 69

3 Objectives of the Study To analyze effectively and efficiently we need to inculcate new ideas in depth by visualize the objectives of the research. The main objectives for the undergone study are as follows: To study the perception of executives about the pay for performance based incentive system. To find out the impact of pay for performance in the context of job satisfaction of executives / employees of banking organizations. To identify the different factors that affect incentive based payment for the human resources. To analyze the policies with respect to pay for performance based incentives. Hypotheses of the Study The following hypotheses has been statistically tested in the present study: There is a no significant difference between the effects of pay for performance on the perception of the bank employees Pay for performance is related with job satisfaction of employees of banking organizations.. There exists a significant difference with respect to factors administering pay for performance in banking sectors. There is significant relation between the policies and the performance based incentives of the bank employees. Scope of the Study The proposed study has been examine the impact of pay for performances on the employee motivation, retention and attrition, employee productivity as well as the creativity and innovation in different sectors of an economy. This research has started to conduct an analysis from the above said objectives and by making the best use of the existing 70

4 resources of data. We have been conducted this research to make a new framework for the performance based system and the relation between work satisfaction and corporate performance through the primary data gathered. It has been enhanced the capabilities of employees and sustain the work pressure as well. There are within country and cross country strategies to enhance the diffusion in the pay for performance that aimed those economic and institutional factors partially affect the strong decisions of firms and workers to select which form of compensation and type of incentive pay have been going to receive according to work done. The scope of this study is wider as it is related to basic human relation approach which is based on pay performance. Significance of the Study Under the proposed study, we examine the pay for performance of different service sectors. Ulas Mogultay evaluated that the different nations around the world leads to the success and failure of the pay for performance, that is largely depend on the extra remuneration what we are giving to the employees. We evaluated the performance of the person by giving him/her monetary and non monetary benefits.i.e. we have to measure the immeasurable things. There are different ingredients like salary, efficiency in work, fringe supervision and coworker relation which are considered as the most important factors contributing to job satisfaction. This has been proved in various researches that the combination of tolerance for early failure and reward for long-term success is the key for the effectiveness in motivating the innovation. They also found that the threat of termination can undermine incentives for innovation, while golden parachutes can alleviate these innovation- reducing effects. So, we have been observed the study of pay for performance for various parameters. 71

5 Operational Definitions The main variables used in the research are: 1. Pay: pay is a payment periodically from an employer to an employee of an organization, which is explained in an employment contract. It is the cost of inherent human resources for pursuing basic tasks in an organization. Pay for the purpose of this research means any wage and salary earned at work with specified job description. 2. Performance: For the purpose of this study the definition of performance is actually the employee perceived performance. Performance may be defined as the activity of an employee to accomplish an intended task objective. Performance requires the application of spirit, passion, skills, knowledge, aptitude, attitudes and competencies etc. Performance of an employee could be dependent on various internal, external, social or environmental factors. One of those factors is the compensation policy, such as variable pay. In the study, we intend to measure, what are the factors that affect the pay based incentives in an organization. RESEARCH DESIGN Research design is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted. It constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data. It involves the various steps ranging from the definition of the information needed, specifying the measurement and scaling procedures, constructing the questionnaire, specifying the sampling process and size to developing a plan for data analysis. The focus of present research work is on employees perceptions towards the pay for performance. In the present study, research design is exploratory and descriptive in nature. The descriptive research describes the characteristics of the respondents and the degree of association between the variables being studied. The exploratory research describes the working of hypothesis from an operation point of view. It involves developing the objective of the study and plans the future course of action. 72

6 3.2 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE For the data collection, the study makes use of primary data. Primary data has been collected with the help of self structured questionnaire. The questionnaire has been developed with the help of available literature. The questionnaire included the items related to customers demographic, employee perceptions towards pay for performance, Employees factors affecting the pay for performance, various policies of the banks being compared within three banks. For collecting the data about the customer s perceptions a five point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree has been employed. Likert scale technique has been used because it is easy to understand and the respondents can promptly select those options which capture the intensity of their attitude. Due to the time constraint 500 respondents of Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Ahmadabad and Gurgaon and has been taken for the collection of data. The questionnaire has been filled from the employees of different service sector and the banking executives. To make the questionnaire reliable pilot survey has been undertaken. The purpose of the pilot survey has been conducted to evaluate statistical variability in an attempt to predict an appropriate sample size and improve the study design prior to performance of full research project PILOT SURVEY A pilot survey was conducted prior to the final distribution of questionnaire to the target group. The purpose of the pilot survey was to evaluate clarity and appropriateness of the questions contained in the questionnaire. Pilot survey was valuable to identify unclear items/ statements in the questionnaire. The goal of the pilot study is to provide information which can contribute to the success of research work as a whole. Moreover, the pilot study allowed us to examine the reliability of the instruments. In the present study, for the pilot survey 50 respondents or the employees of different banks has been taken. We ran reliability test using SPSS 16.0 version. 73

7 3.2.2 TESTING OF RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY Testing reliability and validity is the important step in the scale development process. We have conducted pilot survey for statistical variability of the scale. The collected data in the pilot survey was presented and analyzed using reliability test to identify the uni-dimensionality of the item used in the scale. In the present study, analysis has been performed to retain and delete scale items for developing a refined reliable scale. Inter-item correlation and Cronbach s alpha used in the study. Inter- item correlation produce extent to which an item is correlated to another point of the set under consideration and items with small inter-item correlation are considered for deletion (Netemeyer et al., 2003). Cronbach s alpha is the most commonly used measure of reliability. (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994) and Garson, (2002). The value of Cronbach s alpha greather than 0.7 is considered reliable (Nunnally, 1978) RELIABILITY: It refers to the extent, to which a scale produces consistent results if repeated measurements are made (Sinha P., 2000). It is concerned with consistency among multiple measures of variability. Reliability represents the systematic variance of the constructs (Olery and Vokurk,a, 1998). The extent to which results are consistent over time and an accurate representation of the total population under study is referred to as reliability and if the results of a study can be reproduced under a similar methodology, then the research instrument to be reliable (Joppe, 2000). There are several methods to compute the reliability some of them are: Alternate or Parallel forms, Test- Retest (Repetition), Split-half technique and rational Equivalence. Nevertheless, the single method is not perfect so in the present study we had relied on a series of diagnostic criteria to assess internal consistency (Hair et al., 2009). In pilot survey, Cronbach Alpha has been used to check the reliability. The value of Cronbach s Alpha greather than 0.7 is considered reliable (Nunnally, VALIDITY: Validity is the degree to which a measure accurately represents what it is supposed to (Hair at al., 1998). It refereed the validity in quantitative research as construct validity (Wainer and Braun, 1998). The construct is the initial concept, notion, question or hypothesis that determines which data is to be collected and how it is to be collected. According to Nunnaly 74

8 (1978), there are three types of validity that can be assessed: content validity, predictive vaidity and construc validity. Hair et al. (1998) suggest that the best way in which to ensure content validity is to subject the instrument to judgmental validation by exerts in the field. Content validity is the assessment of the correspondence between the individual items and the concept (Hair et al., 2008). 3.3 SAMPLING DESIGN AND SIZE Sampling design is a plan for obtaining a sample from a given population. It refers to the technique and the procedure the researcher would adopt in selecting items for the sample. Sample design is determined before data are collected. Since, the sample is designed to know the perceptions employees towards pay for performance. The present study is based on convenience sampling (non-probability sampling) to collect data for the analysis of study. An optimum sample is one that fulfills the requirements of efficiency, reliability and flexibility. For the purpose of the study only 500 respondents from large population of Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Ahmadabad and Gurgaon and has been taken for the collection of data were selected, especially for the bank employees. In the present study, those individuals had been included who were getting salaries according to the performance they gave in the organization. Due care has been taken during the sampling process to ensure sufficient representation of respondents from different gender, age, education, occupation and income groups. The data collected from the survey have been analyzed with the help of various statistical tools such as factor analysis, chi square and cluster analysis using SPSS software 16.0 version. 3.4 DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES The data obtained from the survey have been coded and fed into the computer SPSS package. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 is used for analysis of collected and tabulated data. In this, various statistical tools and tests have been used. Statistical tools like Chi square, factor analysis and cluster analysis has been applied. These statistical techniques have been used for the analysis of data. A brief description of these techniques is as follows: 75

9 Chi Square Test: Chi square is a statistical measure that can be used to test whether observed data differ significantly from theoretical expectations. It is a non-parametric test and can be used to determine if categorical data shows dependency or independent. Chi square test can be applicable to test the goodness of fit or to test the level of significance of the attributes association. It is mandatory that the observed as well as theoretical or expected frequencies must be grouped in the same manner and the theoretical distribution must be inculcated to give the same total frequency as find in case of observed distribution. If the calculated value of χ 2 is less than table value at a certain level of significance for given degree of freedom it means that the attributes are not associated. The χ 2 is calculated as follows: Here, Oi = Observed frequencies Ei = Expected frequencies Degree of Freedom: It means the number of classes to which the values can be assigned arbitrarily or at without the violating the restrictions or limitations placed. It plays an important part in using the chi square distribution. Degree of freedom can be determined by using following formula: d.f = (c - 1) (r - 1) Here, c = number of columns r = number of rows In the present study, the chi square technique is used whether the respondents are having any association with their attributes of gender and income. 76

10 Factor Analysis: Factor analysis also called exploratory factor analysis is mainly used for reducing and summarizing data to identify a small number of factors that explain most of the variance observed in a much larger number of manifest variables. There can be one or more factors, depending upon the nature of the study and the number of variables involved in it. The factors are extracted in a way that the first factor represents highest variance in the data, second the next highest and so on. Factor analysis is based on matrix of correlation between variables. The diagonal of correlation matrix consists of unities and full variance is brought into factor matrix. Two main techniques of factor analysis are principal component analysis and common factor analysis. Prior to performing the PCA the suitability of factor analysis was assessed. PCA determines minimum number of principal component (factors) that will account for maximum variance in the data. In the present study, we used principal component analysis (PCA). In the study, Factor analysis technique is used to study the perceptions of employees towards pay for performance, factors that affect pay for performance as well as the job satisfaction of the employees with respect to pay based incentives. 77