FACULTY OF COMMERCE

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

STATISTICS FOR MANAGERS (MBAZ504)

AUGUST 2022, ASSIGNMENT 1

Instructions to candidates
1. Some of the assignment questions require you to use Statistical analysis packages. Use either
Excel, SPSS or JAMOVI. You can download JAMOVI here www.jamovi.org and install it on
your computer. Instructions to install Excel’s Data Analysis ToolPak are provided on Myvista.

2. Data for the assignment is provided on MyVista in a folder titled ‘MBAZ504 Data Bank’.

3. You should attach computer output as part of your solutions to questions marked with an
asterisk (*).

Question One
1.1 A local commercial bank reports that 10% of its credit card holders will default at some
point in their life. A branch of the bank just mailed out 12 new cards today.
a) How many of these new cardholders would you expect to default? What is the standard
deviation? [4 marks]
b) Determine the likelihood that none of the cardholders will default. [4 marks]
1.2 A recent study of the hourly wages of brick layers in the construction industry showed that
the mean hourly salary was $20.00, with a standard deviation of $3.20. Assume the distribution
of hourly wages follows the normal probability distribution. If we select a brick layer at
random, what is the probability that his wage is:
a) less than $19.00 per hour? [3 marks]
b) more than $22.00 per hour? [4 marks]
c) between $22.00 and $24.00 per hour? [5 marks]

Question Two
A Deputy Registrar (Human resources) at a certain University is concerned about employee
absenteeism among academic staff. She believes that organisation commitment is probably the
most significant contributing factor. She selected a random sample of 32 employee files and
noted their level of absenteeism (in days p.a.). She sent a confidential questionnaire to each of

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the selected employees from which an organisation commitment index was derived. The data
is contained in the excel file titled ‘Absenteeism’. You are required to do the following:
2.1 Classify any level of absenteeism less than 15 days p.a. as ‘1 = low’ and greater or equal to
15 days p.a. as ‘2 = high’. State the measurement scale of the new categorised variable ‘level
of absenteeism’. [3 marks]
2.2* For both groups of academics (those with ‘low’ absenteeism and those with ‘high’
absenteeism), obtain the following descriptive statistics pertaining to their level of organisation
commitment: mean, median, standard deviation, range, minimum and maximum values. [3
marks]
2.3* Construct simple box plots to compare the level of commitment between academics who
have ‘low’ absenteeism to those with ‘high’ absenteeism. How do the two groups compare? [3
marks]
2.4* Obtain a 95% confidence interval estimate of the mean difference in level of organisation
commitment. Does the interval estimate suggest a significant difference in level of commitment
between the two groups of academics? Justify your answer. [4 marks]
2.5* Conduct an independent samples t-test to establish whether there is a significant difference
in commitment between academics with ‘low’ absenteeism and those with ‘high’ absenteeism.
a) Is the assumption of homogeneous variance valid? Explain your answer. [2 marks]
b) Write a comprehensive report of the independent samples t-test that was conducted by
stating the null and alternative hypothesis, test statistic, decision criteria, decision, and
conclusion. [5 marks]

Question Three
The Deputy Registrar (in Question Two) is also interested in the possible effect that other
factors such as job tenure (time in months at the organisation), and grade (1 = lecturer, 2 =
senior lecturer, 3 = professor) have on the level of employee absenteeism. Refer to the relevant
data in the excel file titled ‘Absenteeism’. You are required to do the following:
3.1* Obtain a scatter plot of employee absenteeism and organisation commitment. What
preliminary conclusions can be made regarding the relationship between the two variables? [4
marks]
3.2* Run a multiple linear regression of the data with commitment, job tenure and grade as
independent variables. NB: For the variable grade, create two dummy variables with ‘lecturer’
as the reference category.
a) Comment on the statistical significance of the independent variables. [4 marks]
b) Interpret the regression coefficient associated with the variable ‘job tenure’. [2 marks]
c) State the coefficient of multiple determination and comment on its magnitude. [2
marks]
3.3* Test the significance of the regression model at 0.05 level of significance. [5 marks]
3.4 Predict the level of absence of an employee who has a tenure of 10 years and an
organisational commitment index of 50. [3 marks]

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Question Four
As part of her data analysis, the Deputy Registrar (in Question Two) was keen to conduct a
Chi-Square test of association to establish whether or not employee grade and level of
absenteeism were associated.
4.1 State the null and alternative hypotheses. [2 marks]
4.2* Obtain a contingency table of the data including the expected frequencies. [6 marks]
4.3* Conduct a Chi-Square test of association at 5% level of significance. Write a report of the
test stating the test statistic, decision criteria, decision and your conclusion. [12 marks]

Question Five

A supplier of school stationary recorded its quarterly sales figures ($00s) for the years 2009 to
2012. The data is shown in the table below.

Year Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2009 48 52 16 35
2010 50 46 22 40
2011 68 34 26 35
2012 73 56

5.1 Calculate centred 4- point moving averages (MA) for the data. [6 marks]
5.2 Plot the 4-point MA series on the same graph as the original series. [12 marks]
5.3 Comment on the seasonal and trend components of the sales. [2 marks]

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