Apply a Quantitative Experimental Design to a Research Problem
Consider the following excerpt from a research project:
Purpose statement:
The purpose of the quantitative descriptive study is to describe IT professionals’ current uses of and attitudes toward social media in the workplace, and to determine if current work-related uses of and attitudes toward social media vary according to generational cohorts. A generational cohort is defined as a group of individuals who were born in the same period (table adapted from www.ache.org):
Generation
Year of birth
Baby Boomers
1943-1960
Generation X
1961-1981
Millennials
1982-2005
Research Questions and Hypotheses:
RQ1. What are the different uses of social media among IT professionals?
RQ2. To what extent does the use of social media differ across IT professionals’ generation cohort membership (Baby Boomer, Generation X, Millennials)?
H20: There is no difference in generational cohort use of social media in the workplace among IT professionals.
H21: Millennial IT professionals are more likely to use social media in the workplace than Generation X and Baby Boomer IT professionals.
RQ3. To what extent do attitudes toward social media use in the workplace differ across IT professionals’ generation cohort membership (Baby Boomer, Generation X, Millennials)?
H30: There is no difference in IT professionals’ generational cohort membership and attitudes toward social media adoption and use in the workplace.
H31: IT professional Millennial cohort members have more positive attitudes toward social media adoption and use in the workplace than Generation X and Baby Boomer cohort member IT professionals.
You will need to design a survey you can use to collect data to answer the above research questions and test the hypotheses. Remember, the main quality criteria for quantitative research instruments are “validity and reliability. Validity refers to the extent to which a data collection instrument measures what it is intended to measure” (University of Bradford). Reliability of a quantitative data collection instrument refers to “a statistical measure of how reproducible a survey instrument’s data are” (Litwin, 1995, p. 6). A reliable survey produces similar results every time it is used.
You may use MS Word or Excel, or a free survey tool to design your survey. Write a paper in which you address the following issues:
What are the variables in this study and how can they be measured?
What are the key design considerations and best practices when developing a survey instrument and how did those considerations affect your own survey design?
How will you ensure validity and reliability of your survey instrument?
How many valid survey answers will you need to obtain a 95% statistical confidence level, assuming your population of IT professional in City X consists of approximately 40,000 individuals?
How will you recruit participants to ensure the necessary sample size? What are the pros and cons of your chosen strategy?
Once you have designed your survey instrument and planned your data collection phase, explain how you will test the hypotheses to answer the research questions. Which statistical tests are appropriate, and why? How will you present analyzed data and how will results from the data analysis inform your conclusions?
Length: 5-7 pages, not including title page, survey, and references. Attach your survey instrument as an appendix.
Support your paper with at least five scholarly resources.
