Case Study - Correlational Research, Causation, Practical Use of Results

AIU has compiled a large database of survey responses from 288
individuals which contains the following information:  (1) Gender (2)
Age (3) Department (4) Position (5) Tenure (6) Overall Job Satisfaction
(7) Intrinsic Job Satisfaction - Satisfaction with the actual
performance of the job (8) Extrinsic Job Satisfaction- Things external
to the job, e.g., office location, your work colleagues, your own office
(cubicle/hard walled office, etc), etc. Using this database

, (which will be used in the unit 3
individual project) compose an email to the head of the American
Intellectual Union which discusses the following: How you would use the
concept of probabilities to apply to profiles for hiring more satisfied
individuals and other ways that probability is used in business (Use the
Business Source Elite Database in the Cybrary, research how probability
is used in business).  Begin your email to AIU by first providing an
overview of the database, i.e., a story. Include the following pieces of
information. 

Part I

What is the gender distribution (%females and %males)?

What is the "tenure with company" distribution by gender?

What % of the survey participants are in each department?

What is the mean overall satisfaction by gender?  

There are 168 females (58%) and 120 males (42%).

Male: Less than 2 years - 79

2 to 5 years – 26

5 or more years - 15

Female: Less than 2 years – 91

2 to 5 years – 46

5 or more years - 37

Human Resources – 11 (0.03%)

Information Technology – 100 (35%)

Administration – 177 (61%)

Mean overall satisfaction by gender –

Male: 4.430833

Female: 4.258333

Part II Keeping in mind that in this email you are going to try to apply
probabilities to profile hiring more satisfied individuals, discuss the
following in your email. 

If we choose a person at random from this database:

What is the probability that this person will be female?

168/288= 7/12

What is the probability that this person will be between 22 and 49 years
old? 288 x .67= 192 192/288 = 32/43

What is the probability that their overall job satisfaction is 4.7 or
lower?   172/288 = 86/144 = 43/72

If we choose a person at random from this database:

What is the probability that this person will be a male in the
information technology department? 27/288 = 9/96 = 3/32

What is the probability that this person will be an hourly employee
whose intrinsic satisfaction is 6 or more?   65/288

We think that employees who are 21 years old and younger are
"inexperienced" because they haven't worked for that long. We also think
that employees who have been with the company for less than 2 years are
"inexperienced" because they aren't familiar with how the company does
things.

If we choose a person at random from this database, what is the
probability that this person is "inexperienced"? 127/188.

If we think that employees who are either 50 or older, or who have more
than 5 years with the company are "experienced", then what is the
probability that a random person chosen from this database is
"experienced"? 69/288 = 23/96

Calculate the correlation between age and tenure with the company.
Explain your results.  The correlation between age and tenure is
0.001319. That would make the correlation 0, which would mean there is
no correlation between age and tenure.

Less than 2 years/21 and under – 20

2-5 years/21 and under – 26

Over 5 years/21 and under – 2

Less than 2 years/22-49 – 121

2-5 years/22-49 – 37

Over 5 years/22-49 – 36

Less than 2 years/50 and over – 29

2-5 years/50 and over – 5

Over 5/50 and over - 12

Given that our employee chosen at random is an hourly employee,

What is the chance that this person is in administration? 72/288 = 24/96
= 8/32 = 4/8 = 1/4

What is the chance that this person is either female or has an extrinsic
job satisfaction of 4 or less? 14/288 = 7/144

Part III In your email you need to also address other ways that
probability is used in business Submit your email to your

instructor via the drop box. 

AIU has compiled a large database of survey responses from 288
individuals which contains the following information:  (1) Gender (2)
Age (3) Department (4) Position (5) Tenure (6) Overall Job Satisfaction
(7) Intrinsic Job Satisfaction - Satisfaction with the actual
performance of the job (8) Extrinsic Job Satisfaction- Things external
to the job, e.g., office location, your work colleagues, your own office
(cubicle/hard walled office, etc), etc. How can we use the concept of
probabilities to apply to profiles for hiring more satisfied
individuals?

The survey responses are as listed above.

If we are going to try to apply probabilities to profile hiring more
satisfied individuals, the survey shows that a female between 22 and 49
years of age would most likely have a higher job satisfaction level.
Choosing randomly, there is an approximately 1 in 3 chance that the
person will be a male hired for an IT position, with an approximately 1
in 4 chance of being hourly and having an intrinsic satisfaction of 6 or
more. Chances are greater that a random choice will not have
experience, either due to age or time spent with the company. There is
an almost 1 in 3 chance that the person chosen would be older (50+) or
having been with the company more than 5 years. Also, there was no
correlation between age and tenure. There is a 1 in 4 chance that the
person will be in administration and a very small chance (7/144) that
the extrinsic job satisfaction is 4 or less.

This shows that, overall, our employees are satisfied with their job
both extrinsic and intrinsic. We have more female employees than male.
More males work in IT and more females work in Administration.

Not only can statistics be used when dealing with employees, but
business statistics is the science of “good” decision making when
faced with uncertainty and can be used in financial analysis,
econometrics, auditing, production and operations, and marketing
research. It can provide knowledge and skills to interpret and use
statistical techniques in a variety of business applications.
Statistics are vital for any stage of business planning, providing
information on existing and potential markets, measuring industry
performance and indicating social and economic trends. So, by gathering
the pertinent data and figuring the probabilities, there can be a good
understanding of what is happening to business in a region, which will
improve planning and marketing.