BUACC5931- Research and Statistical Methods

Task:

Associations between Quantitative and Qualitative Job Insecurity and Well-being

De Witte et al. (2010) investigated the association of employee’s perception of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity with job satisfaction, and psychological distress in the Belgium banking sector.

Job insecurity is defined as the employees’ concerns about their work-related future. There are two kinds of job insecurities, the quantitative job insecurity and the qualitative job insecurity. The quantitative job insecurity is about the treat to the continuation of the job in the future. The qualitative job insecurity is about threat to the various valued aspects of the job, such as job content or working conditions.

Data collection and respondents

In total, there were 69,000 employees working in the 63 Belgian banks affiliated to the sector’s joint industrial committee in 2001. As questioning all employees would be too expensive, the researchers decided to survey a sample of 15,000 employees (roughly 21%). 

All the 63 banks participated in the survey. About 21% of employees in each bank were invited to participate in the survey. Within each bank, the respondents were selected at random with no particular quota for gender, age or employee level. The survey was based on addresses which had been provided by the banks (name, language, address) and each randomly selected employee received a personalized envelope through regular mail, sent to him/her by the employer. The completed questionnaire needed to be returned (free of charge) through the internal post within each bank. The researchers travelled to each bank to collect the completed survey.

Instructions for answering the questions

Use at least four academic sources in English to answer the questions. The sources can be books or peer reviewed journal articles or a combination of both books and peer reviewed journal articles. The academic sources as well as responding to the questions will be around 2000 words in total.

Q1: Sample size

The sample size for this study is fifteen thousand employees selected from a total of 69,000 bank employees (about 21% of the employees). Is a sample of this size necessary? Give your reasons.

Q2: Sampling method

What is the current method of sampling? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the current sampling method? 

Q3: Measures of variables

Give your comments on the reliability and validity of measures of the variables.

Q4: Collection of data on social demographics

The purpose of this research is to find the associations between quantitative and qualitative job insecurity and well-being. However, data on variables such as gender, age, education level, extra income were also collected. What is the purpose of collecting data on variables such as gender, age, educational level etc.?

Q5: Research design

What research design is used for current research? What are the positive and negative side of the current research design?