CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This section explains the overall approach to the research process. It gives the details on various
steps that will generally employed by the researcher in investigating employees and
organizational performance. This chapter consists of research design/plan, research type/method,
sources of data and data collection methods which will includes questionnaire, interview and
observation. It further include research instruments, target population, sampling technique,
ethical consideration, reliability and validity and data presentation and analysis.

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

Punch,(2005) explained research design as the overall strategy that you can choose to integrate
the different components of the study in a coherent and logical way, thereby ensuring you will
effectively address the research problem. It constitutes of the blueprint for the collection,
measurement and data analysis. The researcher is going to use a research design as a guide for
the purpose of obtaining data to enable the researcher answer the research questions through the
use of survey research method and by questionnaires. The researcher will then distribute
questionnaire papers to employees and management of Sefalana cash and Carry. This overview
of survey and questionnaires clarified the place of questionnaires as a data collection tool in
quantitative research design. The questions in survey instruments are typically arranged into self-
administered questionnaires that respondents complete on his or her paper that will be
distributed.

3.3 RESEARCH APPROACH

These are plans and the procedures for research that span the steps from broad assumptions to
detailed methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation. This plan involves several
decisions, and they need not be taken in the order in which they make sense to me and the order
of their presentation here. The overall decision involves which approach should be used to study
a topic

Quantitative method; according to, Lincoln (2008) is the process of gathering observable data to
answer a research question using statistical computational or mathematical techniques. It is often
seen as more accurate or valuable than quantitative research which focuses on gathering non-
numerical data. Quantitative method can be tested and checked. Quantitative research requires
careful experimental design and the ability for anyone to replicate both the test and the results.
This makes data you gather more reliable and less open to arguments. Quantitative research can
be limited in its pursuit of concrete, statistical relationships which can lead to researchers
overlooking broader themes and relationship. By focusing solely on numbers you can run the
risk of missing surprising or big-picture information that can benefit your business, Aliaga
(2000). Most of the questions in the questionnaire are going to be structured in order to link the
responses of the respondents to the research questions of the study and contain both open and
close-ended questions. The reason for using this method is because it gives an accurate means of
accessing characteristics features and opinion of the large population. The researcher is going to
use quantitative method

3.4 AREA OF STUDY

The research population consisted of employees and management of Sefalana cash and carry.
The employees and management were invited to participate in the research survey by filling the
questionnaire that was provided to them.

3.5 STUDY POPULATION

Study population is the operational definition of target population (Henry, Bickman 1998).
Researchers are seldom in a position to study the entire target population, which is not always
readily accessible. Hungler (1999) refer to the population as an aggregate or totality of all the
objects, subjects or members that conform to a set of specifications. The population of study
consists of workers and customer who buy in Sefalana retailer in Mogoditshane. The sample of
this study will cover a group of 20 people from Sefalana Retailer in Mogoditshane of which 10
will be employees and 10 will be the management.

3.6 SAMPLING DESIGN AND PROCEDURE

Hungler (1995) explained sampling technique as the name or identification or other identification
of the specific process by which the entire of the sample have been selected. Random sampling is
done when there is very large population and it is difficult to identify every member of the
population

Haber 1998 also defines sampling as the process of selecting a portion of the population to
represent the entire population. A number of employees and management of Sefalana cash and
carry who requested were selected. Time and money was saved by selecting a sample to be
studied rather than attempting to study the entire population of Sefalana cash and carry
employees and management.

Random sampling will be nominated for sampling for the reason that it allows all the parts in the
population to have an equal chance of being selected.

Sefalana cash& carry Respondents NO

Management 10
Employees 10
TOTAL 20
3.7 DATA COLLECTION METHODS

The researcher was applying both primary and secondary data collection techniques. These
techniques were employed by the researcher to get in-depth information on the employees and
management participation of Sefalana cash and carry.

3.8 PRIMARY DATA

Primary data will be collected using questionnaires which will be carried by the researcher in
person. The questionnaires presented planned questions that provide quantitative data for
statically analysis. It improves confidentiality. Interview as a method to collect primary data is
not going to be used. This is because it is time consuming, due to covid 19 protocols and it is
difficult to explore qualitative data.

3.9 INTERVIEW

Interviews are considered the most intricate and effective, especially if done face-to-face. This
method involves a series of questions that the respondents answer either in person or over a
communication channel such as email, telephone or video call.

3.10 QUESTIONNAIRES

Questionnaires are sets of questions that may or may not be open-ended. Respondents have to
answer based on their experiences and knowledge related to the issue at hand.

3.11 DATA VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY

(Murphy, 2003) Reliability and validity are ways of demonstrating and communicating the rigor
of research processes and the trustworthiness of research findings. If the research finding is to be
helpful, it should avoid misleading those who use it. Reliability is explained as probably the
simpler to understand and demonstrate. Reliability describes how far a particular test, procedure
or tool such as questionnaire, will produce similar results in different circumstances, assuming
nothing else has changed. Validity is a subtler concept. It is about the closeness of what we
believe we are measuring to what we intended to measure. Validity pertains to the connection
between the purpose of the research and which data the researcher chooses to quantify that
purpose, Joppe (2001).

The literature review will be acquired from articles with proper references and cross checked
against other researchers to ensure validity and reliability. The questionnaire will be straight to
the point with valid language and tenses, having reliable content.

3.12 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION

The research is going to be conducted with fair-minded by eliminating all potential conflict.
Permission to conduct the research is going to be required from Mogoditshane retailer and the
individual involved. Person involved is going to let to excise their rights to either choose to
participate or not. Confidentiality and anonymity of respondents and information obtained is
going to be considered.

3.13 DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

Presenting data involves the use of a variety of different graphical techniques to visually show
the reader the relationship between different data sets, to emphasize the nature of a particular
aspect of the data or to geographically place data appropriately on a map, Teddlie (2003).
Therefore data can be presented using tabulation, charts and diagrams, bar charts, histogram and
line diagram. Data analysis is defined as a process of cleaning, transforming and modeling data
to discover useful information for business decision making. The purpose of data analysis is to
extract useful information from data and taking the decision based upon the data analysis. It
helps the researchers straightforwardly interpret the data so that researchers don't leave anything
out that could help them derive insights from it.

3.14 CHAPTER SUMMARY

This chapter covered the research design and research methods that are going to be used to
collect data .Also the processes of data collection methods and research instruments. The
selection has also covered target population, sampling technique, ethical consideration, reliability
and validity as well as data presentation and analysis .Questionnaire will be used to collect data.