Introduction

In the contemporary business environment, profit-oriented companies use data to make evidence-

based decisions. As result of increasing competition, firms take advantage of regular surveys as

means to establishing their strengths and weaknesses, which in turn inform their decision-making

(Cao et al., 2019). Many enterprises across the world leverage statistical tools and techniques to

establish their performance trends and patterns (Batistic & Van Der Laken, 2019). To have a

holistic understanding of performance, companies use inferential statistics, such as t-test and

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), to establish whether the trends and patterns from descriptive

statistics are statistically significant or spurious (Mukasa et al., 2021). Thus, inferential statistics

provide nuanced measures that enables firms to gauge their actual performance. In this paper, the

goal of independent t-test, as an inferential statistic, is to test the null hypothesis (H 0): there is not

a statistically significant difference between full-time and part-time employees’ commitment to

the company.

Use of the T-Test in Hypothesis Testing

The t-test statistic indicates whether there are significant differences in the mean for two

sets of data. There are three types of t-test: one sample t-test, paired sample t-test, and

independent sample t-test. A one sample t-test uses an assumed mean to test whether it is

different from the mean of a single group, while a paired t-test compares the ‘before and after’

means of the same group. In contrast, an independent t-test compares means of two groups.

Depending on the nature of the data, firms employ different types of t-test to undertake statistical

computations (Batistic & Van Der Laken, 2019). Making inferences from the present case study,

the company applied an independent t-test to establish whether there were significant differences

in the mean for two sets of employees (fulltime and parttime employees). Depending on the level
of significance as indicated by the probability level, the null hypothesis can be rejected or fail to

reject.

In this paper, attention is drawn to the significance level, which will inform whether the

null hypothesis will be rejected or otherwise. The p value makes it possible for statisticians to

avoid spurious correlations, which may arise from descriptive statistics, such as mean and

standard deviation (Mukasa et al., 2021). It is instructive to note that failing to reject the null

hypothesis means that there are no statistically significant differences between full-time and part-

time employees in relation to their commitment to the company. Conversely, rejecting the null

hypothesis means that there is a statistically significant difference in the means of the two

groups. Rejecting or failing to reject the null hypothesis correctly will increase the statistical

power of the results, thus enhance the validity of the findings and the conclusions reached.

Result Interpretation

Computation of an independent t-test statistic applied SPSS version 24.0. The results of

the data from the SPSS output are presented in Table 1 (descriptive group statistics) and Table 2

(independent samples test). Table 1 indicates the group statistics in terms of the frequency (N),

mean, standard deviation and standard error mean.

Table 1: Group Statistics

Full or part time N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error

Mean

Full-time employee 30 3.6750 .83343 .15216

Level of commitment to
the firm
Part-time employee 30 3.7583 .81071 .14802
Source: Statistics (2013).
 Table 1 illustrates the descriptive statistics on organizational commitment by part-time

and full-time employees. Analysis of the data indicates that 60 employees were sampled from the

larger population to represent employees of the company. There were 30 part-time and 30 full-

time employees, signifying that the equal samples were drawn from the population parameters.

From the results, it is evident that there are subtle differences in the mean as indicated by a mean

of 3.6750 for full-time employees and 3.7583 for part-time employees. The standard deviation of

0.83343 and 0.81071 indicate little deviation of the data points from their respective means as

reinforced by standard error means of 0.15216 and 0.14802 respectively. To this end, it is not

feasible to conclude whether the difference in commitment between the part-time and full-time

employees are statistically significant or not. This necessitates the need to interpret the

independent sample test visualized in Table 2.

Table 2: Independent Samples Test

Levene’s t-test for Equality of Means
Test for
Equality of
Variances
F Sig. t df Sig. Mean Std. 95%
(2- Differe Error Confidence
taile nce Differen Interval of the
d) ce Difference
Lower Upper
Equal
Level of variances .582 .449 -.393 58 .696 -.08333 .21228 -.50826 .34159
commitm assumed
ent to the Equal
firm variances not -.393 57.956 .696 -.08333 .21228 -.50826 .34160
assumed
Source: Statistics (2013).

Table 2 illustrates the results on the interplay between the status of employment (part-

time or full-time employees) and organizational commitment as measured by emotional

attachment to the firm. Levene’s test is applied to establish the assumption of homogeneity of
variance, which means that there should be equality of variances in the part-time and full-time

employee’s groups. The F statistic on the Levene’s test offers information which aids decision-

making about the assumption of homogeneity of variance. Thus, from the Levene’s test, it is

evident that the assumption of homogeneity of variance has not been violated since the p value is

below 0.05 (p=0.449). Since the assumption of equal variance holds; the proceeding test statistic

is computed.

Using the t-statistic, degree of freedom (df), and significance level value, the company

can make a statistical decision on whether the there is no statistically significant difference

between part-time and full-time employees in terms of the groups’ commitment to the company.

From a t-statistic and df, there are is no statistically significant difference between part-time and

full-time employees t(58)=-0.393, p=0.696. This, therefore, signifies that the null hypothesis is

not rejected on the basis that the p value is greater than the fixed significance level. The results

indicates that the level of part-time and full-time employees’ commitment does not differ in the

company given that their scores are not statistically significant judging from the means of the

two groups, signifying that organizational citizenship behavior is independent of the status of the

employment. Thus, companies can achieve their goals by either employing part-time or full-time

workforce (Joung et al., 2018). This seems to suggest that part-time employees could be,

possibly, putting in more work to achieve full-time employment status.

Conclusion

Statistical analysis of the data on the case study offers compelling lessons and insights

that can be applied in the day-to-day management of organizations with a diverse workforce. As

globalization increases at unprecedented levels, companies are looking to exploit virtual

workspaces that requires a mix of full-time and part-time employees. Notably, the paper
establishes that data is the new engine that organizations can leverage to remain afloat in the

contemporary and liberalized market.

 References

Batistic, S., & Van Der Laken, P. (2019). History, evolution and future of big data and analytics:

a bibliometric analysis of its relationship to performance in organizations. British Journal

of Management, 30(2), 229-251.

Cao, G., Duan, Y., & El Banna, A. (2019). A dynamic capability view of marketing analytics:

Evidence from UK firms. Industrial Marketing Management, 76, 72-83.

Joung, H. W., Choi, E. K. C., & Taylor, J. J. (2018). Investigating differences in job-related

attitudes between full-time and part-time employees in the foodservice

industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(2), 817-

835.

Mukasa, E. S., Christospher, W., Ivan, B., & Kizito, M. (2021). The Effects of Parametric, Non-

Parametric Tests and Processes in Inferential Statistics for Business Decision Making—A

Case of 7 Selected Small Business Enterprises in Uganda. Open Journal of Business and

Management, 9(3), 1510-1526.

Statistics, I. S. (2013). IBM Corp. Released 2013. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version

22.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp. Google Search.