PRACTICE QUESTIONS RESEARCH METHODS QUESTION ONE Research conducted by Osei Foundation (2016) has indicated a rising rate of labour turnover particularly in the Ghanaian own service companies in the telecommunication and banking sectors. According to the report, about 50 percent of the employees in the service industry have intention of leaving their jobs and this might affect the image of the sector as well as the quality of service provided, leading to decrease in their market shares to foreign own service companies in the sector. Turnover intention can be defined as a conscious and deliberate desire to leave an organization within the near future. The general manager of Osei Foundation wants to investigate how age, gender and educational attainment influence turnover intention of staffs in Osei Foundation. Osei Foundation is structured as follows; Departments Marketing Department Sales Department Operations Department Number of staff 180 200 220 In line with this, you have been appointed by the general Manager of Osei Foundation to work as a team on this project. a. Formulate a research topic and state the dependent and independent variables. b. State the general objective and two specific objectives for this study. c. Based on the specific objectives identified, develop two research questions. d. Identify the type of research approach to be adopted and why? e. What is the population of your proposed study and the sampling technique(s) to be adopted in selecting a sample size of 100? Justify the sampling technique(s) to be adopted. f. What is a questionnaire? Develop a mini questionnaire of which one question each should be nominal and ordinal based research questions developed for the study. QUESTION TWO According to Ghana academy of arts and sciences (2003), Small scale mining businesses are estimated to number over 150,000 in Ghana, of which many operate illegally on concessions belonging to large scale operators, or in restricted areas. This illegal small scale mining is generally known in Ghana as Galamsey. Since galamsey is illegal it is difficult to ensure they operate within code of ethics and even control their activities. This illegal mining has created environmental problems. The principal environmental problems caused by small-scale mining activities are mercury pollution from gold processing and land degradation (World Bank, 1995).Though the risk to life and environment poses by illegal mining is equally high yet small scale mining activities continued in the country. The question that we need to find answer to is why illegal mining activities is increasing despite the government interventions and even the risk it possess to life and environment? Although many researchers have researched in the area of illegal mining, none of the researchers have looked into factors such household size, age of the individual, gender, educational attainment of the individual that influence individuals’ decision to participate in illegal mining. a. Formulate a research topic and state the dependent and independent variables. b. State the general objective and two specific objectives for this study. c. State both the null and alternative hypotheses for each specific objectives d. Indicate source of data you will use for this study. e. Assuming you will have to collect data from the respondents directly, state the data collection instrument you will use and justify why you will use that instrument. f. State one benefit and one disadvantage of the instrument stated in (e) above. QUESTION THREE Frimpong Consult has signed a Credit facility Agreement with UNDP to provide financial support to 2000 small business enterprises (SBEs) in four urban centres: Nkronza, Cape Coast, Twifo Praso and Elmina. Each of the urban centres is having 500 small business enterprises (SBEs).This facility is to assist SBEs to expand their businesses. One urban community is to be selected to benefit from the pilot project. To enable Frimpong Consult make informed decisions as to the course of action to take, the general manager wants to investigate how age of the business, access to credit, gender of the owner, and educational attainment of the owner influence size of business in one of the urban community. In line with this, you have been appointed by the general Manager to work as a team on this project. a. Formulate a research topic and state the dependent and independent variables. b. State the general objective and two specific objectives for this study. c. Based on the specific objectives identified, state two research hypotheses both the null and the alternative d. Identify the type of research approach to be adopted and why? e. What is the population of your proposed study and the sampling technique(s) to be adopted in selecting a sample size of 100? Justify the sampling technique(s) to be used. f. What is a questionnaire? Develop a mini questionnaire of which one question each should be nominal and ordinal based research questions developed for the study.
