Research Methodology

Internal Assignment – 2022

Semester – 4

1Q. The Indian Army wants to ascertain why young students do not
select the armed forces as a career option in their graduation.
a) How would you formulate a research problem to resolve the
objective?
b) How would be the variables under study?
c) How would you generate descriptive and relational hypothesis for
your study?

ANS -
INTODUCTION - The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of
the Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services:
the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force. Additionally, the Indian
Armed Forces are supported by the Central Armed Police Forces, Assam
Rifles, Indian Coast Guard and Special Frontier Force and various inter-
service commands and institutions such as the Strategic Forces Command,
the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Integrated Defence Staff.
- The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed
Forces but the executive authority and responsibility for national
security is vested in the Prime Minister of India and their
chosen Cabinet Ministers. The Indian Armed Forces are under the
management of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India.
With strength of over 1.4 million active personnel, it is the world's
second-largest military force and has the world's largest volunteer army.
It also has the third-largest defence budget in the world. The Global
Firepower Index report lists it as the fourth most-powerful military.

- It is important to note that the Central Armed Police Forces, which are
referred to as 'Armed Police Forces' are not armed forces. As such they
are headed by civilian officers from the Indian Police Service and are
under the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs, not the Ministry of
Defence.
The Indian Armed Forces or the Indian Army has long been guarding us from
all types of threats. A proud organization, the Indian Army has a highly
impressive history. It has approximately 1,252,090 active personnel as on
date. However, it still faces a shortage of about 8,600 officers. The Indian
Army is in need of young, determined citizens to join them and live a life of
valour.
According to the UNFPA State of the World’s Population report of 2014, India
has the largest youth population in the world. It is surprising therefore, that the
requirement of the Army is still not being met. There is an apparent decline in
the volunteers who are willing to take up the challenge of service to the Indian
Armed Forces.

SUMMARY –
What is the reason for this discrepancy? Why is it that young Indians are
shying away from joining the Indian Army?
1. The Corporate Bug.
2. The Peer Influence
3. Poor Incentives
4. IT’s a Tough Life
5. Lesser Scope for Growth

- Today’s youth is well aware of various industries and organisations.

They know about the inner workings of the Indian Army in detail and are
intelligent enough to judge for themselves. They see meatier prospects
in the corporate world, a trendier lifestyle and good money. The
students who have spent a lot on their education, wish to redeem the
amount by earning more, earning easily, and earning quickly. The
Indian Army in this case, doesn’t seem to meet their requirements.

- Joining the Indian Army means putting your life at stake for the nation,
anytime and anywhere you are commanded to do so. The
compensation or incentives provided to the personnel are not at par in
comparison to the commitment that is being asked of them. The pay
scale is also quite low. The service conditions, job satisfaction and post-
retirement provisions for Indian military officers are also not being
improved in quality, in relation to other comparable forms of
employment.

- Parental pressure and peer pressure are critical aspects on the basis of
which the young citizens hesitate to join the Forces. Parents worry
about their child’s future and safety when thinking of the Indian Army as
 a career option. Hence, they are not too keen on pushing their children
towards a harsher life. Peer pressure, similarly, pushes today’s youth
towards the trendy choices. They end up choosing options which are
more risk free, and in vogue.

- Promotion after a certain point of time in the Forces is a privilege which

very few get. This stagnancy of rank and stature puts off today’s youth.
The work content is constantly under scrutiny, as it is believed
(incorrectly) that the Army has work only during wars. The youths are
thus sceptical of the scope for their intellectual growth and formation of
their skills set. This further makes them question their status in the
professional world, post retirement.

A- Formulate a research problem

Creating a research problem is an important step in the research process and
can help outline the process of your study. There are several types of
research problems to choose from, and understanding how they differ may
help you decide which approach is best for you.
1- Identify a general area of interest –
As you determine an area of study, consider areas that are under-explored or
present challenges within the field. Assess how you might address the area of
concern and whether you can develop a research problem related to this
issue. If your research is action-based or applied, consider reaching out to
those who work in a relevant field to get feedback about problems to address,
or follow up on research that others have already started. Consider these
various aspects when choosing an area of interest:
- Contradictions between two or more theoretical perspectives
- Situations or natural relationships that are not well investigated
2- Learn more about the problem -
Consider learning more about the area of interest, such as its background and
specifics. Ask yourself what you need to know about a particular topic before
you begin your study. Assess who or what it might affect and how your
research could address those relationships. Consider whether other research
groups have already tried to solve the problem you're interested in and how
your approach might differ.
3. Review the context of the information -
Reviewing the context of your research involves defining and testing the
environmental variables in your project, which may help you create a clear
and focused research problem. It may also help you note which variables are
present in the research and how to account for the impact that they may have
on it. By reviewing the context, you may easily estimate the amount of data
your research is likely to deliver.

4. Determine relationships between variables -

After identifying the variables involved in your research, you can learn how
they're related to one another and how these relationships may contribute to
your research problem. Consider generating as many potential perspectives
and variable interactions as possible. Identifying the relationships between
variables may be useful when deciding the degree to which you can control
them in your study and how they might affect potential solutions to the
problem you're addressing.

5. Select and include important variables -

A clear and manageable research problem typically includes the variables that
are the most relevant to the study. The research team summarizes how they
plan to take these variables into consideration and how they might influence
the results of the study. Selecting the most important variables can help the
reader understand the trajectory of your research and the potential impact of
the solution

Types and formats of Hypothesis

The Hypothesis is formulated based on the estimated relationship between
two or more variables. The format of the hypothesis differs as per the nature
of the relationship of variable. On the basis of formats used in research,
Hypotheses can be classified into different groups, they are given below –

1- Descriptive Hypotheses –
Descriptive hypotheses present the existence, size, type and distribution of
variable, the descriptive hypotheses contain only one variable. so, it does not
present the relationship between or among the variables generally this
hypothesis describes the situation and helps to clear their thinking about the
likely relationships to be found. It also encourages the researcher to think
about the implications of supported or rejected findings.

2. Relational Hypothesis –
The Hypothesis that explains the relationship between two or more two
variables is known as the relational hypothesis, The relational
Hypothesis is divided into two groups which is correlation and
explanatory or casual.
The correlational states that the variables occur together in some
specified manner without implying that one causes the other Such weak
claims are made when enough evidence to claim a stronger linkage.
A hypothesis that is formulated based on the assumption that change in one
variable changes in another variable is known as an explanatory or casual
Hypothesis.

3. Directional and Non – Directional Hypothesis –

A Hypothesis that is formulated using the words more and less likes and
dislikes or comparing two variables is known as a directional
Hypothesis. It is known as Directional because it gives the direction to
the relationship of two variables.
If any hypothesis shows the relationship or differences between
variables but does not direct the relationship such hypothesis is known
as a non- directional hypothesis. In other words, even though the
relationship between various variables can be estimated but their
relationship remains positive or negative that cannot be declared then
such a hypothesis is known as a non- directional hypothesis.

4. Null and alternative Hypothesis –

The Null hypothesis is proposition that states a definite or exact
relationship between two variables. It states that the population
correlation between two variables is equal to zero or that the difference
in the means of sample and population is zero. In general, the null
statement is expressed as no relationship between two variables or no
difference between Ovo groups. The alternative hypothesis is a
statement expressing a relationship between two variable or indicating
differences between groups. It is exactly the opposite of the null
hypothesis. The null Hypothesis is denoted by Ho and the alternative
 hypothesis is denoted by H1, If a researcher wants to test whether
training increases productivity or not them he/she can formulate the
hypotheses as follows –
H0 – Effective training does not increase the productivity of employees.
H1 – Effective training increases the productivity of employees.

In statistics, the null and alternative hypothesis is formulated as follows-

Null hypothesis (H0) = m1 – m2 = 0
Alternative Hypothesis (H1) = m1 – m2 = 0
Where, m1- sample mean
m2 = Population means
There may be two types errors in the use of hypothesis in research they are
given. Below.

Type – I Error – Such error takes place when the researcher rejects the
hypothesis because statistical tools reject it even though it is correct.
Type II – Error – Such error takes place when the researcher accepts a
hypothesis even though it is wrong because statistical tools accept it . Such is
more harmful than the previous error.
The researcher can draw reliable results if he/she minimizes
Type – I and Type - II Errors. Thus, Researcher should try to minimize such
errors.

CONCLUSION - As we formulate research, in Simple words we can say it

cause of Parental Pressure and Peer Pressure are critical aspects on the
basis of which the young citizens hesitate to join the forces. Parents worry
about their child’s future and safety when thinking of the Indian Army as a
Career option. Hence, they are not too keen on pushing their children to words
a harsher life.
2Q. You are the HRD manager with ABB (India). ABB has recently taken
over a major unit in Kolkata You are sent on a posting there and are
given the task of introducing a new operation scheme which your parent
organization feels will improve efficiency. But you perceive during your
stay that there is an underlying dissatisfaction amongst the employees
and it is essential to gauge their view and opinion about the takeover
and their expectations before introducing the scheme. What is the
recommended research design? Justify your selection. What would be
the variables, hypotheses and the population under study?
ANS –
INTRODUTION -

Research Design - Research design is the method that a researcher selects

to organize their research project or study. Research designs can provide
instructions for collecting, analysing and measuring data effectively. Using a
research design is important because:
- It can help you ensure that your research addresses your research
problem.
- It acts as an outline and guide for the entire research project.
- It can help you organize all the different components of your research
project.
You can choose an effective research design by considering your research
problem, which is the specific topic or knowledge gap that your research aims
to address. Usually, researchers include their research question and research
design selection in the introduction of their research paper.
- Research design is the framework of research methods and techniques
chosen by a researcher to conduct a study. The design allows
researchers to sharpen the research methods suitable for the subject
matter and set up their studies for success
There are three main types of designs for research:
- Data collection
- Measurement
- Analysis
The research problem an organization faces will determine the design, not
vice-versa. The design phase of a study determines which tools to use and
how they are used.
SUMMARY -

Research Design Elements -

Impactful research usually creates a minimum bias in data and increases trust
in the accuracy of collected data. A design that produces the slightest margin
of error in experimental research is generally considered the desired outcome.
The essential elements are:
1. Accurate purpose statement
2. Techniques to be implemented for collecting and analysing research
3. The method applied for analysing collected details
4. Type of research methodology
5. Probable objections to research
6. Settings for the research study
7. Timeline
8. Measurement of analysis
Characteristics of Research Design
A proper design sets your study up for success. Successful research studies
provide insights that are accurate and unbiased. You’ll need to create
a survey that meets all of the main characteristics of a design. There are four
key characteristics –

Neutrality- When you set up your study, you may have to make assumptions
about the data you expect to collect. The results projected in
the research should be free from bias and neutral. Understand opinions about
the final evaluated scores and conclusions from multiple individuals and
consider those who agree with the results.
Reliability - With regularly conducted research, the researcher expects similar
results every time. You’ll only be able to reach the desired results if your
design is reliable. Your plan should indicate how to form research questions to
ensure the standard of results.
Validity- There are multiple measuring tools available. However, the only
correct measuring tools are those which help a researcher in gauging results
according to the objective of the research. The questionnaire developed from
this design will then be valid.
Generalization- The outcome of your design should apply to a population and
not just a restricted sample. A generalized method implies that your survey
can be conducted on any part of a population with similar accuracy.
The above factors affect how respondents answer the research questions, so
they should balance all the above characteristics in a good design.
Research Design Types
A researcher must clearly understand the various research design types to
select which model to implement for a study. Like research itself, the design of
your analysis can be broadly classified into quantitative and qualitative.
Qualitative research - It determines relationships between collected data and
observations based on mathematical calculations. Statistical methods can
prove or disprove theories related to a naturally existing phenomenon.
Researchers rely on qualitative research methods that conclude “why” a
particular theory exists and “what” respondents have to say about it.
Quantitative research - It is for cases where statistical conclusions to collect
actionable insights are essential. Numbers provide a better perspective for
making critical business decisions. Quantitative research methods are
necessary for the growth of any organization. Insights drawn from complex
numerical data and analysis prove to be highly effective when making
decisions about the business’s future.
Further break down the types of research design into five categories-
1. Descriptive- In a descriptive composition, a researcher is solely interested
in describing the situation or case under their research study. It is a theory-
based design method created by gathering, analysing, and presenting
collected data. This allows a researcher to provide insights into the why and
how of research. Descriptive design helps others better understand the need
for the research. If the problem statement is not clear, you can conduct
exploratory research.
2. Experimental - Experimental research establishes a relationship between
the cause and effect of a situation. It is a causal design where one observes
the impact caused by the independent variable on the dependent variable. For
example, one monitors the influence of an independent variable such as a
price on a dependent variable such as customer satisfaction or brand loyalty.
It is an efficient research method as it contributes to solving a problem.
The independent variables are manipulated to monitor the change it has on
the dependent variable. Social sciences often use it to observe human
behaviour by analysing two groups. Researchers can have participants
change their actions and study how the people around them react to
understand social psychology better.
3. Correlational research - Correlational research is a non-experimental
research technique. It helps researchers establish a relationship between two
closely connected variables. There is no assumption while evaluating a
relationship between two other variables, and statistical analysis techniques
calculate the relationship between them. This type of research requires two
different groups.
A correlation coefficient determines the correlation between two variables
whose values range between -1 and +1. If the correlation coefficient is
towards +1, it indicates a positive relationship between the variables, and -1
means a negative relationship between the two variables.
4. Diagnostic research- In diagnostic design, the researcher is looking to
evaluate the underlying cause of a specific topic or phenomenon. This method
helps one learn more about the factors that create troublesome situations.
This design has three parts of the research:
- Inception of the issue
- Diagnosis of the issue
- Solution for the issue
5. Explanatory research - Explanatory design uses a researcher’s ideas and
thoughts on a subject to further explore their theories. The study explains
unexplored aspects of a subject and details the research questions’ what,
how, and why.
The process of operations research can be broadly broken down into the
following steps:
- Identifying a problem that needs to be solved.
- Constructing a model around the problem that resembles the real world
and variables.
- Using the model to derive solutions to the problem.
- Testing each solution on the model and analysing its success.
- Implementing the solution to the actual problem.
Disciplines that are similar to, or overlap with, operations research
include statistical analysis, management science, game theory, optimization
theory, artificial intelligence and network analysis. All of these techniques have
the goal of solving complex problems and improving quantitative decisions.
- The concept of operations research arose during World War II by
military planners. After the war, the techniques used in their operations
research were applied to addressing problems in business, the
government and society.
Characteristics of operations research -
There are three primary characteristics of all operations research efforts:
Optimization- The purpose of operations research is to achieve the best
performance under the given circumstances. Optimization also involves
comparing and narrowing down potential options.
Simulation- This involves building models or replications in order to try out
and test solutions before applying them.
Probability and statistics- This includes using mathematical algorithms and
data to uncover helpful insights and risks, make reliable predictions and test
possible solutions.
Importance of operations research -
The field of operations research provides a more powerful approach to
decision making than ordinary software and data analytics tools. Employing
operations research professionals can help companies achieve more
complete datasets, consider all available options, predict all possible
outcomes and estimate risk. Additionally, operations research can be tailored
to specific business processes or use cases to determine which techniques
are most appropriate to solve the problem.
Uses of operations research
- Operations research can be applied to a variety of use cases, including:
- Scheduling and time management.
- Urban and agricultural planning.
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management
(SCM).
- Inventory management.
- Network optimization and engineering.
- Packet routing optimization.
- Risk management.
Research Hypothesis - The hypothesis is a prediction, but it involves more
than a guess. Most of the time, the hypothesis begins with a question which is
then explored through background research. It is only at this point that
researchers begin to develop a testable hypothesis. Unless you are creating
an exploratory study, your hypothesis should always explain what
you expect to happen. In a study exploring the effects of a particular drug, the
hypothesis might be that researchers expect the drug to have some type of
effect on the symptoms of a specific illness. In psychology, the hypothesis
might focus on how a certain aspect of the environment might influence a
particular behaviour.
Remember, a hypothesis does not have to be correct. While the hypothesis
predicts what the researchers expect to see, the goal of the research is to
determine whether this guess is right or wrong. When conducting an
experiment, researchers might explore a number of factors to determine which
ones might contribute to the ultimate outcome.
Formulating a Hypothesis -
In many cases, researchers might draw a hypothesis from a specific theory or
build on previous research. For example, prior research has shown that stress
can impact the immune system. So, a researcher might hypothesize: "People
with high-stress levels will be more likely to contract a common cold after
being exposed to the virus than people who have low-stress levels."
Elements of a Good Hypothesis
So how do you write a good hypothesis? When trying to come up with a
hypothesis for your research or experiments, ask yourself the following
questions:
- Before you come up with a specific hypothesis, spend some time doing
background research. Once you have completed a literature review,
start thinking about potential questions you still have. Pay attention to
the discussion section in the journal articles you read. Many authors will
suggest questions that still need to be explored.
To form a hypothesis, you should take these steps:
- Collect as many observations about a topic or problem as you can.
- Evaluate these observations and look for possible causes of the
problem.
- Create a list of possible explanations that you might want to explore.
- After you have developed some possible hypotheses, think of ways that
you could confirm or disprove each hypothesis through experimentation.
This is known as falsifiability.
CONCLUSION -
A variable is a factor or element that can be changed and manipulated in ways
that are observable and measurable. However, the researcher must also
define how the variable will be manipulated and measured in the study.
For example, a researcher might operationally define the variable "test
anxiety" as the results of a self-report measure of anxiety experienced during
an exam. A "study habits" variable might be defined by the amount of studying
that actually occurs as measured by time.
These precise descriptions are important because many things can be
measured in a number of different ways. One of the basic principles of any
type of scientific research is that the results must be replicable.1 By clearly
detailing the specifics of how the variables were measured and manipulated,
other researchers can better understand the results and repeat the study if
needed.
Some variables are more difficult than others to define. For obvious ethical
reasons, researchers cannot create a situation in which a person behaves
aggressively toward others.
In order to measure this variable, the researcher must devise a measurement
that assesses aggressive behaviour without harming other people. In this
situation, the researcher might utilize a simulated task to measure
aggressiveness.

3. a.
Suppose Jet Airways wants to ascertain the image it has in the minds of
its patrons. Construct a seven-item and semantic differential scale to
measure the perceived image of the airlines. Make sure that the seven
under each format correspond to the same seven dimensions.
ANS –
INTROSUTION -
Semantic Differential Scale –
A semantic differential scale is a survey or questionnaire rating scale that asks
people to rate a product, company, brand, or any 'entity' within the frames of a
multi-point rating option. These survey answering options are grammatically
on opposite adjectives at each end. For example, love-hate, satisfied-
unsatisfied, and likely to return-unlikely to return with intermediate options in
between.
Surveys or questionnaires using the semantic differential question is the most
reliable way to get information on people’s emotional attitude towards a topic
of interest.
Charles Egerton Osgood, a famous American psychologist, invented the
semantic differential scale so that this 'connotative meaning' of emotional
attitude towards entities can be recorded and put to good use.
Osgood conducted this research on an extensive database and found that
three scales were commonly useful, irrespective of race or culture or
difference in language:
- Estimate - Combination similar to good-bad.
- Authority - Pairs on the lines of powerful-weak.
- Activeness- Combos like active-passive.
Researchers can measure a wide variety of subjects using these
combinations, like customers’ outlooks about an upcoming product launch or
employee satisfaction
The ease-of-understanding and the popularity it comes with it makes it
extremely reliable. The data collection is accurate due to the versatility that
these survey questions come with.
Researchers use the semantic differential scale questions to ask respondents
to rate products, organization, or services with multi-point questions with polar
adjectives at the extremes of this scale like likely/ unlikely, happy/sad, loved
the service/ hated the service.

Semantic differential scale

1. Slider rating scale- Questions that feature a graphical slider give the
respondent a more interactive way to answer the semantic differential
scale question.
2. non-slider rating scale - The non-slider question uses typical radio
buttons for a more traditional survey look and feel. Respondents are
more used to answering.
3. Open-ended questions- These questions give the users ample
freedom to express their emotions about your organization, products, or
services.
4. Ordering - The ordering questions offer the scope to rate the
parameters that the respondents feel are best or worst according to
their personal experiences.
Advantages of semantic differential
- The semantic differential has outdone the other scales like the Likert
scale in vitality, rationality, or authenticity.
- It has an advantage in terms of language too. There are two polar
adjectives for the factor to be measured and a scale connecting both
these polar.
- It is more advantageous than a Likert scale. The researcher declares a
statement and expects respondents to either agree or disagree with
that.
- Respondents can express their opinions about the matter in hand more
accurately and entirely due to the polar options provided in the semantic
differential.
- In other question types like the Likert scale, respondents have to
indicate the level of agreement or disagreement with the mentioned
topic. The semantic differential scale offers extremely opposite
adjectives on each end of the range. The respondents can precisely
explain their feedback that researchers use for making accurate
judgments from the survey.
- Researchers can gain perception of concepts, attitudes, and opinions
using the verbally different terms as a measuring tool using the
semantic differential scale
Semantic differential vs. other types of survey scales
Semantic differential scale is just one of the scales used in surveys and
questionnaires, of course. To help decide on the right one, here’s a short
overview of different types of scales commonly used in surveys.
Likert scale
Likert scale is one of the most commonly used ways of measuring
perceptions, attitudes, and opinions. It enables survey respondents to express
their attitude by choosing one of the given answer options.
Similarly, to semantic differential questions, which offer two answer options
with several grading levels in between, Likert scale questions are
characterized by a wide range of options to choose from, usually ranging from
one extreme (e.g. ‘strongly agree’) to another (e.g. ‘strongly disagree’).
Even though Likert and semantic differential scales seem very similar, one of
the main differences is that with Likert scales you rate a specific statement
that refers to a particular topic, while semantic differential lets you rate the
topic itself. And then you can pick from a range of options that vary in degree,
such as “strongly agree”, “very much agree”, “not sure”, “pretty much
disagree”, and “strongly disagree”.
The main issue with Likert scales is that they could lead to acquiescence
response bias, where survey respondents would agree with a statement more
often than disagree, whatever their true attitude or opinion.
This could be avoided either by structuring questions as real questions and
not statements. Or by using a semantic differential scale. In a survey based on
the semantic differential scale, you would have a topic “survey scales” and
would be able to choose from a scale of polar adjectives that starts and ends
with “like” and “dislike”. This way, there’s much less room for bias in research.
Thurstone Scale
Thurstone scale was one of the first scales ever used to measure attitudes on
different topics and issues. This scale contains a set of statements about a
certain topic along with a numerical value depicting how favorable or
unfavourable it is deemed to be.
In such surveys, the respondents only tick those statements they agree with.
After that, the researcher calculates the mean score that shows the
respondent’s attitude on the issue in question. If you want to find out exactly
how to make, score, and analyse surveys based on this scale, you can read
more about the Thurstone scale.
Thurstone scale vs. semantic differential scale? Well, due to its complexity
and advanced math behind it, Thurstone scale isn’t used that often in surveys
anymore. In fact, the Likert scale was derived from the Thurstone scale,
exactly due to the need to simplify the original scale. That being said, you’re
much more likely to see the semantic differential scale used in research
nowadays.
Guttman scale
The Guttman scale (also commonly referred to as the cumulative scale),
measures the strength of the respondents’ opinion. It’s not just used to obtain
an attitude; it assesses how positive or negative that attitude is considered to
be.
In a way, it is similar to the semantic differential scale used to measure
potency. Guttman scale rests upon a series of tightly related questions which
increase in specificity. In most cases, those are ‘yes/no’ questions that can tell
us how strongly a person approves or disapproves of a certain attitude or
opinion. we have a somewhat more practical scale, where the respondents
have to check all the statements they agree with (instead of answering 6
individual questions with “yes” or “no”). Here’s a more detailed guide on
the Guttman scale, if you’re looking to learn more about how to incorporate it
into your surveys and whether you should opt for it or decide on the semantic
differential scale.
CONCLUSION - After the questionnaire is completed, each item may be
analysed separately or in some cases item responses may be summed to
create a score for a group of items. Hence, Likert scales are often called
summative scales.
Whether individual Likert items can be considered as interval-level data, or
whether they should be treated as ordered-categorical data is the subject of
considerable disagreement in the literature, with strong convictions on what
are the most applicable methods. This disagreement can be traced back, in
many respects, to the extent to which Likert items are interpreted as
being ordinal data.
The second, and possibly more important point, is whether the "distance"
between each successive item category is equivalent, which is inferred
traditionally.
For example, in the above five-point Likert item, the inference is that the
‘distance’ between category 1 and 2 is the same as between category 3 and
4.In terms of good research practice, an equidistant presentation by the
researcher is important; otherwise, a bias in the analysis may result. For
example, a four-point Likert item with categories "Poor", "Average", "Good",
and "Very Good" is unlikely to have all equidistant categories since there is
only one category that can receive a below-average rating. This would
arguably bias any result in favour of a positive outcome. On the other hand,
even if a researcher presents what he or she believes are equidistant
categories, it may not be interpreted as such by the respondent.
A good Likert scale, as above, will present a symmetry of categories about a
midpoint with clearly defined linguistic qualifiers. In such symmetric scaling,
equidistant attributes will typically be more clearly observed or, at least,
inferred. It is when a Likert scale is symmetric and equidistant that it will
behave more like an interval-level measurement. So, while a Likert scale is
indeed ordinal, if well presented it may nevertheless approximate an interval-
level measurement. This can be beneficial since, if it was treated just as an
ordinal scale, then some valuable information could be lost if the ‘distance’
between Likert items were not available for consideration. The important idea
here is that the appropriate type of analysis is dependent on how the Likert
scale has been presented.

.
3. b. Find a technical and business report from your library or on the
internet and examine the contents of the reports against what has been
discussed in the chapter. What deviations did you find from the stated
structure? What you think could have been the reason for this?
ANS –
INTRODUCTION –
BUSINESS REPORT - A business report is a set of data that provides historical
information related to a company’s operations, production, specific
department’s insights, and creates a base for future decision-making
processes or factual insights needed to organize business functions.
To understand the best uses for business reports it’s essential to properly
define these kinds of reports.
According to authors Lesikar and Pettit, “A business-style report is an orderly,
objective communication of factual information that serves some business
purpose”.
It organizes information for a specific business purpose. While some reports
will go into a more detailed approach to analysing the functionality and
strategies of a specific department, other examples of business reports will be
more concentrated on the bigger picture of business management, for
example, investor relations. That’s where the magic of these kinds of reports
truly shines: no matter for which business goal you need, their usage can be
various and, at the same time, effective.

SUMMARY -
Types Of Business Reports
Before creating your business reports it is important to consider your business
goals and objectives, this way you will be able to pick the right type of report
for each situation. Here we present you with 5 common types of visual
business reports that you can use for different analytical purposes.
1. Analytical reports
Analytical reports are business reporting tools that use qualitative and
quantitative data to analyse the performance of a business strategy or as
support when a company needs to make important decisions. A modern
analytical dashboard created with a report tool can include statistics, historical
data, as well as forecasts, and real-time information. Let’s look into it with a
sales example.
This visually appealing business analysis report is full of relevant sales KPIs to
measure performance such as the average revenue per unit, the customer
lifetime value, acquisition costs, as well as some sales targets to be met. The
value of this analytical report lies in the fact that you get a lot of relevant data
in one single dashboard. The data can be filtered and explored on different
time frames such as daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the
discussion that it needs to support.
With this kind of business report sample in hand, managers can quickly
understand if they are meeting their targets, find improvement opportunities,
get a bigger picture into business sales performance, and find efficient ways to
proceed with new strategies.
2. Research reports
Next in our types of business reports that we will discuss is a research report.
Businesses often use these kinds of reports to test the viability of a new
product, study a new geographical area to sell, or understand their customer’s
perception of their brand image. To generate this type of business report,
managers often contact market research agencies to gather all the relevant
information related to the studied topic. This brand analysis dashboard is a
great example.

The image above is a business report template of a brand analysis. Here we

can see the results of a survey that was conducted to understand the brand’s
public perception on different topics. The value of this market research
dashboard lies in its interactivity. Often, research reports are depicted in long
and static PowerPoint presentations. With a modern market research
dashboard like this one, all the data can be filtered upon need and the whole
presentation of results can be done on one screen. For example, if you want
to know the brand awareness of a specific region or age group, you just have
to click on the graphs and the entire dashboard will be filtered based on this
information. Like this, the analysis process is fast, interactive, and efficient.
3. Industry reports
Following on the research topic, our next type of business report is an industry
report. Benchmarks and targets are an excellent way to measure a business's
performance and success. But these targets need to be based on realistic
values, especially considering how crowded and competitive today’s markets
are. For this purpose, is that companies perform industry reports, by getting a
clear picture of the average industry numbers such as the competitive
landscape, industry size, economic indicators, and trends they can plan smart
strategies and create realistic targets for performance Let's take this
industry report by Technavio about the Global Ice Cream Market as an
example. Here we can see relevant numbers concerning the ice cream
market, how it was impacted by COVID-19, and what is expected to happen
between the years 2020-2024. For example, the business report sample
shows that the ice cream market has actually been positively impacted by the
pandemic and that it grew 4.33% during 2020. The report also shows that
there is increasing popularity of plant-based ice cream and that this trend is
driving the market growth. This is invaluable information for an ice cream
company as they have an opportunity to invest in new products with almost
certain success.

4. Progress reports
Next, we have progress reports. Unlike our other examples, this type of
business report is not necessarily based on deep research or advanced
analytics, but rather focuses on delivering a clear picture into the performance
of a specific area or business goal. The visual nature of these business
reports makes them the perfect tool to support meetings or business
discussions as they provide a glance into the status of different metrics. A
common use of progress reports is with KPI scorecards. The goal here is to
quickly understand the performance of metrics related to 4 key business
areas: financial, customers, learning and growth, and internal objectives. Each
of these metrics is displayed in a current value and compared to a set target.
Paired to this, the business report template has 5 colours for the performance
status. This allows anyone who uses this report to quickly understand just by
looking at the colours if the target is being met.
5. By business function
Getting a bigger picture into a company’s performance is a great benefit from
modern business reports. But, apart from helping the company as a whole, the
real value of these reports lies in the fact that they empower specific
departments to leverage the power of data analysis for their decision-making
process. Rather is the sales department, human resources, or logistics, your
entire organization will be data-driven. Let’s look at it with a business report
example by function on marketing.
Examples for business reports –

1- Visual financial business - This first example focuses on one of the

most important and data-driven departments of any company: finance. It
gathers the most important financial KPIs a manager needs to have at
his fingertips to make an informed decision: gross profit margin,
operational expenses ratio (OPEX), both earning before interests (EBIT)
and net profit margins, and the income statement. Next to these are the
revenue evolution over a year compared to its target predefined, the
annual evolution of operational expenses for various business
departments as well as the evolution of the EBIT compared to its target.

The different sets of visual representations of data can clearly point out
specific trends or actions that need to be taken in order to stay on the financial
track of a company. All your financial analysis can be integrated into a single
visual. When the presentation becomes interactive, clicks will provide even
deeper insights into your financial KPIs, findings, and desired outcomes to
make a company healthy in its financial operations. The importance of
this finance dashboard lays within the fact that every finance manager can
easily track and measure the whole financial overview of a specific company
while gaining insights into the most valuable KPIs and metrics. Empowering a
steadfast and operation-sensitive plan is one of the most important goals a
business can have, and finance is right in the middle of this process.
Thanks to all this information displayed on a single dashboard, your report is
greatly enhanced and backed with accurate information for you to make sound
decisions. It becomes easier to implement a solid and operation-sensitive
management plan.

2- Visual investors business

As mentioned earlier, holding account of your activity, performance, and
organization’s assets is important for people outside of the company to
understand how it works. When these people are investors, it is all the more
critical to have a clean and up-to-date report for them to know how successful
is the company they invest in, and for you to increase your chances to have
more funds. This example business report provides just that: an exact
overview of the most important findings and specific values in a particular time
frame.
Calculating and communicating KPIs about the overall company situation is
what this investors’ relationship dashboard tries to focus on. You learn about
the return on equity and return on asset, the debt-equity ratio, working capital
ratio, but also see the evolution of a share price over time. Each of these
metrics is crucial for a potential shareholder, and if they are not monitored on
a regular basis and kept under control, it is easy to lose investors’ interest.
Tracking them and visualizing them through a modern dashboard is a
competitive advantage for your investors’ reports. You can even see on this
visual a clear set of data, so you don’t have to dig through numerous amounts
of spreadsheets, but clearly see the specific development over time, the
percentage gained or lost, ratios, and returns on investments. Not to be limited
just to these data, you can always customize and make sample business
reports for your specific needs.

3- Visual management business

The management KPIs presented above in an example of a report focuses on
the revenue and customer overview seen through a specified quarter of a
year. With just a click you can easily change your specific date range and
make an overview of different months or years.
When analysing insights on a more specific level, you can easily spot if the
revenue is approaching your target value, compare it to the previous year and
see how much of the target you still need to work on. The average number of
your revenue per customer compared to your targets can also identify on a
more specific level how much do you need to adjust your strategy based on
your customers’ value. If you see your values have exceeded your goals, you
can concentrate on KPIs that haven’t yet reached your target achievement.
On this specific example, we have gained insights on how to present your
management data, compare them, and evaluate your findings to make better
decisions.
This clear overview of data can set apart the success of your management
strategy since it is not possible to omit vital information. By gathering all your
findings into one single CEO dashboard, the information presented is clear
and specific to the management’s needs. The best part of this example report
is seen through its interactivity: the more you click, the more data you can
present and the more specific conclusions you can look for.
These report templates that we have analysed and presented in this article
can be a roadmap to effectively create your own report, or customize your
own data to tailor your needs and findings.

BENEFITS
1- Risk assessment & opportunity: With business reports samples, you
can increase the understanding of risks and opportunities within your
company. Sample reports accentuate the link between financial and
non-financial performance: they streamline processes, reduce costs,
and improve overall cohesion in an informed, commercially ‘safe’ way.

2- Trends & connections: Business report samples can help you

compare your performance to other business units or companies in the
same sector. On a more specific level, a report template can help you
dig thoroughly into operational metrics, details, and discover
correlations that would be otherwise overlooked. In today’s hyper-
connected digital age, gaining a deeper insight into your data will
empower you to formulate strategies that will accelerate key areas of
your business growth through trend identification. This fact alone
highlights the importance of a business analysis report.

3- Business intelligence (BI): If used correctly, the best BI tools will

provide the answer to an important question: ‘Will I survive on the
market?’ By creating a business report of a company built to improve
 your BI activities and answer essential organizational questions, you will
gain the ability to tackle deeper into specific insights that can bring
operational value and control the overall expenditures. By knowing how
to set up such a report with specific examples and templates, you will
be able to provide building blocks to establish a successful business
intelligence strategy.

4- Buy-in: While there are many different types of business reports for a
company, they all have one common trait: gathering data and tracking
the business activities related to something specific. By working with the
right reports, users can perform in-depth visual analyses of many key
business areas or functions and provide informed recommendations
that will ultimately improve efficiency and encourage innovation.
Regardless of how good or beneficial an idea might be, getting buy-in
from senior executives or external partners is often a major roadblock to
progress. However, a good report template presents a level of depth
and presentation that is both factual, convincing, and will encourage
buy-in from the people with the power to sign off on new strategies,
initiatives, or ideas.

5- Operational efficiency: The more factual the report is, the clearer the
data. When your data is well organized and crystal clear, it’s possible to
interpret your business activities in a cost-effective way, reducing the
time required to analyse findings while saving countless working hours
sifting through metrics for actionable insights. A good template for
business reports presents an in-depth analysis where the writers show
how they have interpreted their findings. For example, a marketing
report can reduce the time needed to analyse a specific campaign,
while an HR report can provide insights into the recruiting process and
evaluate, for example, why did the cost per hire increase.

6- Specificity: When you create a business report, you are giving yourself
a key opportunity to address specific issues and are often used when
decisions need to be made. As author Alan Thomson says, “a company
report conveys information to assist in business decision-making. [It] is
the medium in which to present this information.” They have several
purposes: some record information to plan for the future, some record
past information to understand a situation, and others present a solution
to a business problem. Some executive dashboards are for daily usage,
while a monthly business report template will help you pinpoint your
activities on a more gradual, incremental basis. They all are essential
to business success, as they bring clarity to complex analysis. As
mentioned earlier, the clearer the data, the more cost-effective results
 will be, so keeping in mind the exact data to incorporate into this kind of
report should be essential in deciding what kind of report to generate.
You can find multiple key performance indicator examples in different
industries, which should be considered when creating that kind of
report. You can also generate an interdepartmental report or between
businesses to compare industry values and see how your company
stands on the market.

7- Accuracy & consistency: In the Age of Information, data is a vast

landscape, and if you want to use it to your advantage, aiming for
consistency as well as accuracy is key. If your data is off or presents
findings that are hit and miss, it could cost your business in the long
run. Working with an online dashboard tool to produce your reports is
an incredible advantage for the easiness of use, the time saved but
most importantly, the accuracy of the information you will use. As you
work with real-time data, everything on your report will be up-to-date
and the decisions you will take will be backed with the latest info.
Business reporting examples are significantly helpful when you need to
explore your data and perform data analyses to extract actionable
insights. They will deliver an important added value to your report
thanks to the visualization of your findings, bringing more clarity and
comprehension to the analyses, which is the primary purpose of
business reporting examples.

8- Engagement: As intuitive, digestible, and visual tools, business-centric

reporting tools are easier to understand and tell a story that is far more
likely to resonate with your audience. While exploring your data, with
deeper insights generated with just a few clicks, the report doesn’t have
to be dull, boring, and lost in hundreds of pages or spreadsheets of
data. If you create a report that is clean and customized, you will bring
more value than by printing or searching through a spreadsheet.
Achieving a design like this is simple with the right KPI dashboard
software. Imagine yourself in a meeting, with 200 pages of analysis
from the last 5 years of business management. One participant asks
you a specific question regarding your operational costs dating 3 years
back. And you’re sitting there, trying to find that specific piece of
information that can make or break your business meeting.
With business dashboards, you cannot go wrong, all the information you
need is generated with a click, within a click, within a click.

9- Benchmarking: If you know how to set up a business-centric report

with efficiency, you will gain the ability to set defined, accurate
benchmarks. By frequently setting targets based on your most important
 business goals and working with visual reporting tools, you will keep
your organization flowing while catalysing your overall growth and
productivity levels

CONCLUSION -
So how do we setup business report the primary importance of a business-
centric report lies in gaining confidence and clarity. Before starting writing your
report, it’s vital to establish the goals and the audience. Knowing who you
want to direct it to is key in its elaboration, from the tone, vocabulary/jargon
you choose to the data you will focus on. A report to external stakeholders, to
the CEOs, or to the technical engineers’ team will be drastically different from
one another.
Likewise, the scope varies according to the objective of the report. State
beforehand the needs and goals, to direct you on the right path. It should be
impartial, objective, with a planned presentation or dashboard reporting
tool which enables an interactive flow of data and immediate access to every
piece of information needed to generate clear findings.
- Defining your goals according to the needs of your audience is
important. As we said, a report usually assists in decision-making and
addresses certain issues. You can state them at the beginning of the
report. The clearer and more specific the goal, the better will be the
content. You won’t lose time adjusting information when you present
your purpose in a clear and well-defined manner.

- The purpose and scope are clearly defined, you can start gathering the
data under any form needed that can address the issue. Thanks to that
information you will carry out data analysis to understand what lies
beneath and to extract valuable insights. These findings need to be
balanced and justifiable – what significance they have to the purpose of
the report. Identifying key performance indicators for a specific
business, organizing, comparing, and evaluating them on the needed
level, can be one of the most important parts of creating this kind of
report. Example of a business report that shows how to extract and
define your analysis can be found above in the article, where we
presented our visuals.

- Answer to the original issue by detailing the action to take to overcome

it, and provide recommendations leading to a better decision-making
process. A best practice to present the insights you have drawn out is
the use of dashboards that communicate data visually in a very efficient
way. A dashboard software like data pines can precisely answer that
 need, while at the same time help you with data exploration, which is
crucial part. When you click on a specific part of the dashboard, you can
easily access your data in a more in-depth approach. Comparing your
findings is also one of the features you can use if you are asking
yourself what has changed in relation to a specific period. When you
assess these datasets in just a few clicks on your monitor, the whole
reporting process, and measurement of your business strategy can be
done in minutes, not days. Evaluating findings in today’s digital world
has become one of the main focuses of businesses wanting to stay
competitive in the market. The faster you can do that, the more
information you gain, the more successful in your actions you become.
While modern reporting dashboards are dynamic and interactive in equal
measures, it’s important that you also remain robust and responsive when
writing a business-based report. What does this mean, exactly? It means that
in the digital age, the landscape is always changing. As such, if you want to
get the most from your reports or dashboards, you must commit to editing and
updating them according to the changes around you. In an informational
context, what is relevant today may be redundant tomorrow, so to remain
powerful and relevant, your reports must always be optimized for success.
When you write a business-style report, you should understand that, to some
extent, you will need to rewrite it again and again. Keep this in mind, commit
to regularly assessing your reports, and success will be yours for the taking.
You can easily find a sample of a business report on the Internet, but not all of
them fit your needs. Make sure, at any moment, that the report you want to
create is accurate, objective, and complete. It should be well-written, in a way
that holds the reader’s attention and meets their expectations, with a clear
structure.