Bus 642 Week 3

BUS642 Week 3 Assignments

Q1 - Complete Making Research Decisions

One of the problems in developing rating scales is the choice of response terms to use. Below are samples of some widely used scaling codes. Do you see any problem with them?

a) Yes—Depends—No

These choices may be criticized because there is no way for a participant to express an "undecided" response or a "don't know" response.

b) Excellent—Good—Fair—Poor

A widely used set of response choices and generally acceptable. One problem is the operational definition of the various terms. What is "fair" to one may be "good" to another when both are actually making the same judgment.

c) Excellent—Good—Average—Fair—Poor

This assumes that the average must fall between good and fair, while it might be that average should be elsewhere.

d) Strongly Approve—Approve—Uncertain—Disapprove—Strongly Disapprove

The central choice of "neither agree nor disagree" does not adequately reflect the situation that might be called "uncertain" or "indifferent."

Q2 - Complete Terms in Review

Terms in Review

1. Explain how each of the five evaluation factors for a secondary source influences its management decision-making value: (a) Purpose, (b) Scope, (c) Authority, (d) Audience, (e) Format

a. A source's purpose indicates the likely bias of the material provided by the source. It the source advocates a specific position (enlightenment), it is likely to be biased in the direction of that position. Sources designed for entertainment take poetic license with their material to insure the material is entertaining. Serious information would be suspect if it comes form a clearly biased or solely entertaining source.

b. A source's scope indicates the time frame and range of material presented by the site. A site designed to provide current highlights would not provide the detail needed by many exploratory searches designed to enlighten the researcher. But, such a source might be a portal to other richer and more...