CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the design and procedures undertaken during the conduct
of the study. It presented the research methods used, respondents of the study, instruments
used, validation of instruments, data gathering procedures and statistical treatment of
data.

Research Method Used

This study made used of descriptive research method which is designed for the
researchers to gather information about present existing conditions needed in the chosen
field of study. This method entitles the researchers to interpret the theoretical meaning of
the findings and hypothesis development for further studies.
Descriptive research describes and interprets what is. It is concerned with
conditions of relationships that exist; practices that prevail; beliefs; processes
that are going on; effects that are being felt, or trends that are developing. The
process of descriptive research goes beyond mere gathering and tabulation of
data. It involves the elements or interpretation of the meaning or significance of
what is described. Thus description is often combined with comparison and
contrast involving measurements, classifications, interpretation and evaluation.
(Cited in Calderon & Gonzales, 2007, p.61)
Descriptive method encompasses all the data gathered useful in adjusting or
meeting the existing phenomenon. Survey study was employed to measure the existing

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event without inquiring into why it exists. In this study, this method involved determined
information about industries rather than individuals.
As used in this research, gathered and treated, are data on the profile of
respondents such as age, sex, civil status, educational attainment, employment status,
number of years in the company, present designation/position and their Environmental
Management System (EMS) requirements and their development measures.

Respondents of the Study

The respondents of the study were the middle and top management of
SPI/Semicon Asia, Inc., Dasmarinas, Cavite. To date, there are 37 existing employees of
SPI/Semicon Asia, Inc., composed of middle and top management. The researchers
disseminated 37 copies of questionnaires, 31 of which were retrieved and patiently
answered.

Instruments Used
In this study, the instruments used are questionnaires, which are necessary for
descriptive method of research. The content of the part 1 and part 3 of the questionnaire
were based on existing references, documents and information materials. The content of
part 2 was adopted from the International Organization for Standardization ISO, which
developed the ISO 14001- the Environmental Management System (EMS) standard.
The questionnaires are divided into three parts. The first part concentrated on the
profile of the respondents. The second part pertained to the compliance of these industries
to the Environmental Management System (EMS) standard. The third part dealt with the

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developmental measures performed by the company. Likert scale was used to modify the
answers of the respondents considering five options with the corresponding scale. The
options are: Always; Often; Sometimes; Rarely; Never. Respondents are requested to
check the space provided for each option.

Validation of the Instrument

Validity is defined as the best available approximation to the truth of falsity of a
given inference, proposition or conclusion. It deals with the relationship of the data
obtained to the nature of variables being studied. (Salvador, Baysa & Geronimo, 2008,
p.166) For the validity of the instruments used, the researchers used the content validity
which includes documentary analysis, consulting experts and persons knowledgeable on
the subject matter.
The questionnaire was presented to their previous English professor who
reviewed the grammar and suggested use of the appropriate words and phrases, to assure
that no misinterpretation of the EMS standard occurred.

Data Gathering Procedure

The researchers had a great deal of time in developing their questionnaire so as to
serve its intended respondents. They have consulted their previous professor
knowledgeable in quality control and in Productions and Operations Management, who
provided them some supplements related with ISO 14001 Environmental Management
Systems (EMS). With regards to data gathering, the researchers personally went to the
premises of the SPI/Semicon Asia, Inc. to conduct ocular visit and survey. The company

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officers were too busy thereby delegating to their representatives the responsibility of
touring the researchers to the factory premises and explaining production processes. They
have accommodated the request of the researchers with the notion that the exercise is for
research purposes only. They however recognized that the study could assess the
environmental consciousness of the company and may allow some improvement of their
operation in terms of standard practices and procedures particularly on Environmental
Management System (EMS). The respondents were given ample time to answer the
questionnaire for understanding and appreciation. Other respondents were given a lot of
time so they can answer the instrument with full understanding.

The result will be

tallied and tabulated according to the frequency of items checked by the participants.
Thereafter, data tabulation results will be interpreted using various statistical tools. The
results of which will serve in coming up with the conclusion and recommendations.

Statistical Treatment of Data

The data collected in this study were subjected to certain statistical treatments.
The data were coded, tallied and tabulated for better presentation and interpretation of the
results. The statistical methods used are the following:
1. Frequency and Percentage
The percentage and frequency distributions will be used to classify the
respondents according to their age, sex, civil status, educational attainment, employment
status, present designation/position, number of years in the company. The frequency will
also present the actual response of the respondents to a specific question or item in the
questionnaires.

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The percentage of each item is computed by dividing it with the sample total
number of respondents who answered the survey. The formula used in the application of
this technique is:
% = (f/n) x 100
where:
% = percentage
f = frequency
n = number of cases or total sample
2. Ranking
This is a descriptive method to describe numerical data in addition to percentage.
Ranking will be used in the study for comparative purpose and for sharing the importance
of items analyzed.
3. Weighted Mean
Another statistical technique that will be used by the researchers is the weighted
mean. It will be used to determine the average responses of the different options provided
in the various pats of the survey questionnaire to be used. It was solved by the formula:
x = fx / n
where:
x = weighted mean
fx = the sum of all the products of f and x, f being the
frequency of each weight and x as the weight of each
operation
n = total number of respondents

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4. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

This was used to determine the significance of the differences between categories
beyond two levels, the ANOVA sat at .05 probability was used. An F-test is any statistical
test in which the test statistic has an F-distribution under the null hypothesis. It is most
often used when comparing statistical models that have been fit to a data set, in order to
identify the model that best fits the population from which the data were sampled.
The formula for the one-way ANOVA F-test statistic is

or

The "explained variance", or "between-group variability" is

where

denotes the sample mean in the ith group, ni is the number of observations in the

ith group, and

denotes the overall mean of the data.

The "unexplained variance", or "within-group variability" is

where Yij is the jth observation in the ith out of K groups and N is the overall sample size.
This F-statistic follows the F-distribution with K 1, N K degrees of freedom
under the null hypothesis. The statistic will be large if the between-group variability is
large relative to the within-group variability, which is unlikely to happen if the population
means of the groups all have the same value.
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A t-test is any statistical hypothesis test in which the test statistic follows a
Student's t distribution if the null hypothesis is true.
Unequal sample sizes, unequal variance:
This test is used only when the two sample sizes are unequal and the variance is
assumed to be different. See also Welch's t-test.
The t statistic to test whether the means are different can be calculated as follows:

Where:

Where s2 is the unbiased estimator of the variance of the two samples, n = number of
participants, 1 = group one, 2 = group two.
5.Likert Scale
The Likert scale method (Emory, 1993) of Summated Ratings was used in the
study. The Likert Scaling Technique assigns one scale value of each of the different
responses. To analyze responses to a Likert Scale, each category is assigned to a
numerical value such as Always which is equal to 5 and Never which is equal to 1. The
total assigned value will be determined by using the weighted mean. The scoring system
for each item must be such a high score consistently reflects favorable response and a low
score reflects an unfavorable response.
The consolidated points from the respondents answers to each item over a five point
scale were as follows:
WEGHTED MEAN
4.51 5.0

SCALE
5

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VERBAL INTERPRETATION
Always

3.51 4.5

Often

2.51 3.5

Sometimes

1.51 2.5

Rarely

1.0 1.5

Never

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