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Research Methodology

Lecture No : 9

 (Measurement of Variables/Operational Definition)

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Recap

• Research Design elements

• Study setting

•  Time Horizon

• Unit of analysis

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Measurement of Variables

• In order to nd answers to our questionand in order to test our hyothesis weneed measure our !aria"les of concern#

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Why the need for measuring

•  To test the hyothesis the !aria"les need tomeasured#

• %inding the answers to our questions is

ossi"le when we ha!e some statistics&num"ers #

• Some !aria"les are easily measura"le e#g#Height' salary' hours wor(ed#

• Some are not so easily measuredmoti!ation le!el' success le!el of ro)ects'satisfaction' loyalty etc#

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• +uestions li(e

1#How long ha!e you "een wor(ing in thisorganization,

2#-hat is your marital status ,$#How much is your salary ,

*#-hat was the cost of last ro)ect ,

• .ut some !aria"les are a"stract andsu")ecti!e e#g# satisfaction' hainess'achie!ement moti!ation' e/ecti!eness of theorganization#

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• ne cannot simly as( what is theachie!ement moti!ation le!el of youremloyees#

• .ut "efore we start measuring the !aria"lesits a"stractness needs to "e addressed#

•  There are ways to in which the a"stractnessof the notion could "e simlied intoo"ser!a"le characteristics#

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• %or instance 4Thirst5 cannot "e seen "ut wee6ect that a thirsty erson would consume lotsof liquid#

• Hence the "eha!ior of the thirsty erson is thathe would drin( 7uids#

• If se!eral indi!iduals say they are thirsty we canmeasure thirst "y measuring their consumtionof liquid' although the concet itself is a"stract#

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• Reducing a"stract concets so they aremeasura"le is called oerationalizing#

• erationally dening a concet so that it

"ecomes measura"le is achie!ed "yloo(ing at the "eha!ioral dimensions'facets ' or roerties reresent "y theconcet#

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Steps to Operationalization

• one needs the dene comonent of theconcet#

• Under each concet ossi"le quantitati!e

measura"le elements need to identied#• :gainst each de!eloed concets secic

questions could "e formulated# The

questions could "e suorted "ysecondary data' o"ser!ation or selfreort

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Operational Denition

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•  The oerational denition of =earningcould "e stated as 4The a"ility to recall thelesson' it is also the a"ility aly the

lesson learned to ractical situation andnally it is the understanding of a lesson5#

• >!en though these dimension ha!e to ane6tent reduced some of the am"iguity "ut

we still need to further classify what ismeant "y understanding' alication sothat we can measure learning as a whole#

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• -ith some e/ort we can dene what is meant "yunderstanding ' i#e# the a"ility to answer questionscorrectly and gi!e aroriate answers# -e alsodene what is alication' which is the a"ility to

sol!e ro"lem "y alying the lesson learned andintegrate it with other rele!ant material#

• ?ow we are in "etter osition to measure theconcet learning#

• :t this stage we can de!elo questions whichaddress the synthesized concets and o"tain dataon them#

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• -e oerationally dene concets and as(questions that are li(ely to measure theconcet#

• So for a"stract concets we need to denethe su")ecti!e feelings and attitudes#

• %or straight forward !aria"les ' o")ecti!e datais used such as salary' num"er of tee shirts#

• : num"er of su")ecti!e concets ha!e "eenoertionalized "y the su")ect e6erts and wecan use them for research#

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Recap

• @easurement is necessary to gi!e answers orto the research question ' or to test ourhyotheses#

•  The oeationalizing of certain su")ecti!e!aria"les are necessary for measurement#

•  The a"stract concets are "ro(en down todimensions and its elements#

• +uestions are formulated on them• ?ot to confuse dimensions with antecedents

 

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