Operations Management homework help. Week 4 – Assignment: Describe Conceptual and Operational Definitions of Constructs
In this assignment, you are being given a number of constructs. Conduct scholarly research that has been published within the past five years that measures each on these. Based on this, provide a conceptual and at least one operational definition of each construct listed below. Based on the operational definitions, provide a measurement for the variable and explain the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio) that is generated. Once this is completed, provide a conceptual and operational definition of two constructs you will be measuring in your intended dissertation research.
Rather than present a traditional paper, organize the document by the following construct.
- Attitude toward new technology
- Customer satisfaction
- Self-concept
- Leadership style
- Organizational commitment
- Constructs you intend to measure
Length: Your paper should be between 5-7 pages, not including title and reference page.
References: Include a minimum of eight (8) scholarly sources.
Your presentation should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.
Measurement
Measurement is the process of assigning numbers to represent attributes of objects according to a set of rules. Note that it is the characteristic of the object that is measured, not the object itself. For instance, you may measure the attitude or preference of a person, not the person.
Care is needed when researchers design measurements since the type of data will determine the kinds of analysis that can be used when analyzing data based on the measurement. You need to first consider the properties of the attribute or characteristic (e.g., if you were measuring a person’s gender and assigned a 1 to males and 2 to females). While 1 + 1 = 2, this does not mean that woman is twice men! The rules and assumptions that you typically think of working with numbers do not necessarily apply when you are measuring the characteristics of objects. As you know, there are four scales of measurement used to measure attributes of objects: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. In general, you want to use the highest level of measurement that is appropriate for the concept that you are measuring. In some cases, there may be options. For instance, if you wanted to determine someone’s age and were using a questionnaire, you could leave the question open-ended generating ratio data and allow you to create categories after the data has been collected. Alternatively, you could have age categories that would generate ordinal data.
The level of measurement is dependent on how the construct is defined. As previously stated, this requires an operational definition. It is important that the researcher investigate how other researchers have measured the variable. Depending on the specific objective, the researcher may want to use an existing operational definition or develop their own to meet the needs of their specific study. It is not unusual to have different operational definitions for the same construct that result in alternative ways of measuring it. An excellent example of measuring “student performance” that we can all identify with is provided on the second page of Chapter 13 of the text under “What Do I Measure.” Note the 4 different ways of measuring performance that result in different scales of measurement.
Remember from your statistics course that the level of measurement is one determinant to the statistical procedure you can you when analyzing your data. For instance, nominal or ordinal data requires the use of non-parametric tests.
Be sure to review this week’s resources carefully. You are expected to apply the information from these resources when you prepare your assignments.
Business Research Methods (9th ed.).
Zikmund, W., Babin, B. J., Carr, J., & Griffin, M. (2013). Business research methods (9th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
