978-1111826925 Case Running the Numbers Does It Pay

176 Part Seven: Comprehensive Cases

Part Seven

Comprehensive Cases with Computerized

Databases

Case 1

Running the Numbers: Does It Pay?

Database: Students are instructed to download the data sets for this case from the book’s

website or to request them from their instructor.

Objectives: This case allows the student to consider the ethical dimension in business

research, to develop hypotheses, and to test them.

Summary: Dr. William Ray, a research consultant, has received a government grant to

research how aspects of a student’s college experiences relate to his or her job performance.

The grant is the result of Senator B.G. Shot being lobbied by his constituents that employers

are discriminating against people who do not like math by giving them lower salaries. He

hopes the results will support his legislation making discrimination against those people who

do not like math illegal. The research questions that this particular grant proposal include:

RQ1: Does a student’s liking of quantitative coursework in college affect his or her future

earnings?

RQ2: Do people with an affinity for quantitative courses get promoted more quickly than

those who do not?

An e-mail survey was sent to employees of a Fortune 500 firm, and while respondents were

told their responses will be confidential, the e-mail was coded so that the actual respondents

could be identified by both e-mail address and name. Dr. Ray, however, keeps this information

confidential so the company could not identify any particular employee’s response. Questions

from the survey are given in tables.

Questions

1. Does the grant present Dr. Ray with an ethical dilemma(s) in any way?

Yes. Senator Shot wants research to support his point of view so that it will support his

proposed legislation, which will be received positively by his constituents. Recall from

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177 Part Seven: Comprehensive Cases

2. Derive at least one hypothesis for each research question listed above. Provide a sound

rationale or theoretical explanation that leads to the hypotheses.

While students’ hypotheses will differ, possible hypotheses for RQ1 could be:

H1: Attitude toward quantitative coursework is related to future earnings.

or

3. Use the data that corresponds to this case to perform an adequate test of each hypothesis.

Interpret the results.

A summated scale for attitude toward math can be computed. X3 and X5 need to be recoded

prior to creating a summed scale, however.

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach’s

Alpha N of Items

To examine the relationship between attitude toward math and salary, students can examine the

correlation between the two variables:

Correlations

ATTmath SALARY

ATTmath Pearson Correlation 1.000 .200**

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed).

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Case One: Running the Numbers? Does It Pay?

178

Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate

a. Predictors: (Constant), ATTmath

ANOVAb

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression 1.334E9 1 1.334E9 12.358 .001a

a. Predictors: (Constant), ATTmath

b. Dependent Variable: SALARY

Coefficientsa

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients

t Sig.B Std. Error Beta

a. Dependent Variable: SALARY

Group Statistics

prom N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

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179 Part Seven: Comprehensive Cases

Independent Samples Test

Levene’s Test for Equality of

Variances t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Mean

Difference

Std. Error

Difference

95% Confidence Interval of

the Difference

Lower Upper

ATTmath Equal variances

2.295 .131 -1.707 298 .089 -1.06273 .62274 -2.28826 .16279

assumed

Because the cell sizes are unequal, equal variance should not be assumed. While the attitude

4. Is there evidence supporting the discrimination claim? Explain.

5. List another hypothesis (unrelated to the research questions in the grant) that could be

tested with the data.

6. Test the hypothesis.

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Case One: Running the Numbers? Does It Pay?

180

Correlations

ATTmath gpa

ATTmath Pearson Correlation 1.000 .157**

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed).

This hypothesis is supported by the significant positive correlation. It could likewise be tested

7. Considering employees’ attitudes about their college experience, does the amount of fun

that students had in college or the degree to which they thought quantitative classes were a

positive experience relate more strongly to salary?

Either through factor analysis or scale reliability analysis, the student should find that S5 does

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items

Then, a regression model can be estimated predicting salary (dependent variable) with the

previously computed quantitative scale and the fun scale. The results are as follows:

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181 Part Seven: Comprehensive Cases

Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate

a. Predictors: (Constant), ATTmath, Fun

ANOVAb

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

a. Predictors: (Constant), ATTmath, Fun

b. Dependent Variable: SALARY

Coefficientsa

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients

t Sig.B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 29886.160 2085.800 14.328 .000

Fun -44.787 94.538 -.027 -.474 .636

ATTmath 445.023 129.196 .197 3.445 .001

a. Dependent Variable: SALARY

The model F is significant (F = 6.226, p = 0.002). While having fun in college does not have a

8. Would the “problem” that led to the grant be a candidate for ethnographic research?

Explain.

Ethnography represents ways of studying cultures through methods that involve becoming

highly involved within that culture. Participant-observation typifies an ethnographic research

duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.