Data Analysis and Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Data Analysis and Research - Essay Example 1978).  Several software have been developed (Hahn,G.J. and Meeker, W.Q. 1991), to help analyze data this include Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Stata, R, Minitab, SAS and many more. Data analysis in mixed methods research consists of analyzing the qualitative data using qualitative methods and the quantitative data using quantitative methods; therefore, knowing the steps in both forms of analysis is necessary in mixed research methods (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). For both forms of analysis, researchers go through the following similar set of steps: preparing the data for analysis, exploring the data, analyzing the data, representing the analysis, and validating the data. These procedures in quantitative research and qualitative research are different from each other as stated by Creswell and Plano Clark, (2007). In this project, to prove or rather to disapprove the hypothesis in an effort to answer the set of questions SPSS has been used to analyze the given se t of data. The answers to the questions are thus given in the preceding paragraphs; Question A Hypothesis to be tested; a) H0: There is no significant difference in the salary earned by male and female employees b) H1: There is significant difference in the salary earned by male and female employees Since we have two groups (male and female) to compare their means and whose sample is less than 30 (a sample of 25 in this case), T-Test would be an appropriate test to use. T-Test is appropriate to be used to conduct the test since it assesses whether the means of two groups are statistically different from each other. From table 1 below, it can clearly be observed that the mean earning for the male employees is higher than that of the female employees. On average the male employees earn ? 24005 while the female employees earn 20319. Table 1: Report How much did you earn (?) last year Gender Mean N Std. Deviation Male 24005 13 3931.393 Female 20319 12 2370.797 Total 22236 25 3719.652 Th e difference can further be shown in the boxplot below; To answer part A of the questions i.e. whether there is any evidence that male and female employees differ in their salaries an independent samples test had to be conducted. From table 2 (Independent Samples Test), it can be observed that the p-value=0.010 (that is when the equal variances are assumed) which is less than the significance level (5%), we thus reject the null hypothesis and conclude that indeed there is a significant difference in the salaries earned by the male employees and the female employees. The male employees earn more than the female employees. Similar decision rule is made when unequal variances is assumed (p-value=0.10). Table 2: 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 How much did you earn (?) last year Equal variances assumed 2.710 .113 2.808E0 23 .010 3.686E3 1.313E3 970.142 6.401E3 Equal variances not assumed 2.863E0 1.994E1 .010 3.686E3 1.287E3 999.698 6.371E3 Question B Hypothesis to be tested; H0: There is no significant difference in the likelihood of raising a safety issue with the company’