MSQ171 BusinessData Analysis Assignment Two, Trimester 2 2011 1
MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY In association with
DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
MSQ171 Business Data Analysis
Assignment Two
Marks: 20%
Due Date: 1:00 pm, Monday 26th September 2011
(Submitted electronically to the Portal AND in identical hardcopy to your lecturer’s locker on
Level 4, Building la, Burwood Campus)
Background
This assignment requires you to analyse a data set, interpret and draw conclusions from your analysis and then convey your conclusions in a written memorandum to a person with little or no knowledge of data analysis.
The assignment may be completed individually or as a group of two or three students. There are learning advantages to working as a group, though these exist only when each member of the group contributes. Your group should meet, or communicate with one another, to discuss what analysis is required and also to review the memorandum before submitting. Groups must comprise students from the same class; that is, members must have the same lecturer AND the same class time). Submit ONLY ONE COPY per group for marking.
The assignment uses the same SPSS data file as Assignment One, “Workplace.sav”, which can be downloaded from the MIBT Portal (MSQ171). To download the file, right‐click on the file name and choose the ‘Save’ option; do not choose ‘Open’, as this may permit only viewing of the file.
If you are using a Deakin/MIBT computer: After downloading the file, make sure you first open SPSS, and then open the file from within SPSS. Otherwise you will not be able to open the file.
Scenario
Your analytical consultancy firm has now been asked by State Government to provide summaries on a variety of questions that have been raised as a consequence of various lobby groups making claims regarding discrimination in the workplace. You are Jessica Taylor, the senior analyst at the firm, who will again respond to this request from the Minister for Labour and Workplace Safety, the right honourable Delilah Dickson. The correspondence from the Minister and all details regarding your tasks can be found from page 3 onwards.
MSQ171 Business Data Analysis Assignment Two, Trimester 2 2011 2
Assignment submission
The Assignment must be submitted both electronically and in identical hardcopy by the due date. Students must COMPLETE the Assignment COVER SHEET (obtainable from the MIBT Student Portal), attach it to their assignment and then place the completed assignment (STAPLED TOGETHER! LOOSE PAPER IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.) in their lecturer’s locker. Additionally, the assignment must also be submitted electronically to the Portal. (Assignments will not be accepted at MIBT Reception).
Students must maintain ‘backup’ copies of all their assignment work. Electronic loss of data is common, but is NOT a satisfactory excuse for an extension of the submission date.#p#分頁標題#e#
For group submissions, submit only one copy of your assignment. It is up to the group to nominate a person to submit on their behalf. Note that each group member should be clearly named on a single Assignment attachment sheet that is submitted with the assignment, thus conforming to all the requirements regarding plagiarism and collusion. ANY PERSON NOT NAMED ON A COVER SHEET WILL NOT RECEIVE ANY MARKS.
Your submission will comprise two parts. Part 1 will be the Data Analysis (the SPSS output, max. 8 pages). Part 2 will be your written Memorandum (max. 2 pages). Your hardcopy submission must also include the Assignment cover sheet. Failure to separate the content of the two parts will be penalised (i.e. the memorandum and the data analysis should not be mixed together).
Late submission of assignments
Extension for medical reasons
If your work is late due to medical reasons, you will not need to seek the prior approval from your lecturer. However, you must attach a Doctor’s certificate to your assignment with a note that the work is late for medical reasons. Please note that, in these circumstances, the medical certificate must cover the entire period of the extension, from the time the assignment was due until the time it is submitted.
Penalties for late submissions
Assignments received late and without prior approval, will be penalised. A penalty of 5% of the available marks will be deducted for every day the assignment is late. Assignments received after a week, and without an approved extension, will not be marked.
MSQ171 Business Data Analysis Assignment Two, Trimester 2 2011 3
For Attention: Jessica Taylor, Senior Analyst 05/09/2011
From: Delilah Dickson, MP House of Representatives
Regarding: The workplace
Dear Jessica,
Thanks for your earlier response on the Workplace data; however, the committee would like some further information. There is an increasing need to show that there is no difference in the treatment of workers for a variety of reasons. In order for us to consider some of the concerns raised by various stakeholders, we require a report on the following:
1. (a) Could you please provide an estimate of the average salary of ALL employees?
(b) Could you please also provide an estimate of the average salary for both, ALL males and ALL females?
2. Is there a difference in average salary between ALL employees working in country areas and ALL employees working in the city?
3. Could you please provide an estimate of the proportion of ALL employees, who indicate that they have at least one child?
4. It has been suggested that the proportion of young workers is less than 20% of ALL employees. Can you confirm this claim?
5. (a) What size sample would need to be taken in order to be able to estimate the average salary of ALL employees to within $1,000?
(b) What size sample would be required to find the true proportion of single employees to within 2%?
6. Please also comment on a suitable sampling strategy for such a survey (as in question 5 (a) and (b)).#p#分頁標題#e#澳洲dissertation網-商務數據分析essay寫作需求
I look forward to your response.
Please present your conclusions in the form of a (no more than 2 page) word document, with an appendix containing (no more than 8 pages) the results of your analysis, by no later than the 26th of September 2011 at 1 pm.
Sincerely,
The Hon. Delilah Dickson
MP Standing Committee on Discrimination and Workplace Safety
House of Representatives
MSQ171 Business Data Analysis Assignment Two, Trimester 2 2011 4
Part 1: Data Analysis (= Output from SPSS)
In order to prepare a reply, as you did in assignment 1, you will need to examine and analyse the database, Workplace.sav, thoroughly.
The analysis required for this assignment involves inferential statistics (confidence intervals and hypothesis tests) which are covered in topics 8, 9 and 10. For all questions in the memorandum you can assume that a 95% confidence level is appropriate for confidence intervals and a 5% level of significance (α) is appropriate for any hypothesis tests.
General Guidelines:
• Before doing any analysis, classify your data as numerical or categorical.
• Most questions will require you to complete a confidence interval or hypothesis test. For each question asked by the Minister, decide which technique is the most appropriate.
• When conducting a hypothesis test, you can either do it entirely by hand, or use SPSS for the calculations; in that case however, you will still need to write down certain parts manually:
If using SPSS for a hypothesis test MAKE SURE you include your Null and Alternative Hypotheses in SYMBOLS AND WORDS and the direction of the test in the analysis section.
• Some questions might require that you recode or split variables, as you had to do in Assignment 1. See tutorials for examples of recoding (Tutorial Week 2) and splitting (Tutorial Week 3) performed in SPSS.
• The analysis section you submit should be no more than 8 pages of computer output. You might produce much more than this initially, but you should trim it down to only show the most relevant results.
• When satisfied, you can keep it in your SPSS Viewer file, or Copy and Paste your analysis output into a Word document. Whichever way you prefer, your analysis should be presented in the same sequence that the questions have been asked by the Minister, and be clearly labelled and grouped around each question.
• Also, make sure, no table or graph “breaks” across two pages. (To check in SPSS: File -> Print Preview. If there are any broken tables or graphs, use Insert -> Page Break where you want a new page to start in your Viewer file, then check Print Preview again.) Poorly presented or unorganised analysis or excessive output (more than 8 pages) will be penalised.
• Save your computer analysis frequently!
Hints for Questions:
1. An estimate of salary overall (a), and estimates for males and females separately (b).
HINT: Topic 8, including the corresponding tutorial, will be helpful.#p#分頁標題#e#澳洲dissertation網-商務數據分析essay寫作需求
2. Analysis of the difference of the average salary in the country and the average salary in the city.
Here you should test for the difference. Refer to the tutorial for the SPSS commands.
HINT: Topic 10, including the corresponding tutorial, will be helpful.
MSQ171 Business Data Analysis Assignment Two, Trimester 2 2011 5
3. An estimate of the proportion of employees having one or more children.
Recoding a certain variable might be helpful here.
HINT: Topic 8, including the corresponding tutorial, will be helpful.
4. Analysing a claim about the proportion of young employees.
HINT: Topic 9, including the corresponding tutorial, will be helpful.
5. Calculations of required sample sizes ( (a) and (b) ).
You need to calculate the sample sizes that satisfy the criteria for both estimates. In your memorandum (part 2) though, it would be sensible to respond with one sample size suitable to achieve both estimates of error).
HINT: Topic 8, including the corresponding tutorial, will be helpful.
6. Recommending a sampling strategy.
No analysis is required for this question. Only address this question in the memorandum (part 2).
HINT: Topic 7 (lecture) will be helpful.
Part 2: Memorandum (= Your Reply to the Minister’s Memorandum)
You are required to reply to the Minister by memorandum, detailing essential information and conclusions from your data analysis. You are allowed no more than two pages to convey your written conclusions.
Keep the English simple and the explanations brief. Avoid the use of technical statistical jargon. That is, do not use terms such as ‘confidence interval’ or ‘hypothesis test’. Your reader will not necessarily understand even simple statistical terms, thus your task is to convert your analysis into plain, understandable language.
General instructions:
• The memorandum is to be written as a separate document (assume the Minister will only read your memorandum, and not look at your analysis output). Thus, you should not have any direct references to your analysis in your memorandum.
• When composing your reply, make sure that you actually answer the questions raised in the Minister’s memorandum.
• Do not include computer output tables and charts in your response memorandum.
• Number your answers in your memorandum 1, 2 a, … etc., to match the sequence of the Minister’s questions.
• Include an introduction at the start of the memo and a summary/conclusion at the end.
Marks will be deducted for the use of technical terms, poor grammar, awkward sentence structure, poor spelling and punctuation, irrelevant material, poor presentation/organisation and memos that are over two pages long.
When you have completed the memorandum, it is a useful exercise to leave it for a day, return to it and re‐read it as if you knew nothing about the analysis. Does it flow easily? Does it make sense? Can someone without prior knowledge follow your written conclusions? Often on re‐reading, you become aware that you have made some points in a clumsy manner and you find that you can re‐phrase them much more clearly. Good luck!#p#分頁標題#e#
MSQ171 Business Data Analysis Assignment Two, Trimester 2 2011 6
BEFORE YOU FINISH: Assignment Checklist
Part 1 (Data Analysis)
1. Have you applied the correct analysis techniques (see HINTS)?
2. Is the analysis in the same order as the Minister’s questions?
3. Is every table and every graph clearly labelled?
4. Are there tables or graphs that are broken across 2 pages? (To check in SPSS: File -> Print Preview. If yes, make sure you change that.)
5. Is the printed SPSS output no more than 8 pages long?
Part 2 (Memorandum)
1. Is your memorandum written in simple English?
2. Is it free of grammar and spelling mistakes?
3. Is it free of technical language?
4. Is it free of SPSS output (tables, graphs)?
5. Are the answers numbered and in the same order as the Minister’s questions?
6. Is the memo no more than 2 pages long?
SUBMISSION
1. Are the files (i.e. 1 SPSS Viewer file, 1 Word file; or 1 Word file including the SPSS analysis) identical with the printed assignment?
2. Have you / each group member printed and completed an Assignment Cover Sheet? (MIBT Portal: Students -> Forms -> Forms -> Assignment Cover Sheet.pdf)
3. Is the entire assignment, with the completed cover sheet(s) on top, stapled together?
4. Did you submit…
a. … your files online in the MIBT portal, using the link under “Week 12”?
b. … an identical hardcopy (including cover sheet(s)) to your lecturer’s locker?