The Likert Scale of Attitude Measurement, Essay Example

Below are some statements that describe how employees might feel about the off shoring activities of the company. For each statement please circle the appropriate number to indicate whether you: 1 – Strongly disagree  2 – Disagree  3 – Neutral  4 – Agree  5 – Strongly agree

Circle one and only one answer to each statement. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. Just give your opinion:

For the above survey, I have chosen the Likert scale of attitude measurement. The topic of the survey is measuring probable employees’ attitude towards the off shoring activities of the company. Respondents are proposed to express their position in regard to 10 questions, all of which identify the influence of off shore activities on the company. The strong agreement is given the score of 5, whereas strong disagreement is identified by the score of 1 with disagreement, neutralism and agreement being associated with the scores of 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The overall aim of the survey is to see how respondents feel about the most common issues or suggestions that most off shore activities tend to raise.

As far as I can judge, non-probability sampling will be the most useful to conduct, taking in consideration the narrow interest area of the questions and prospective results. Such kind of a survey will be only suitable for company’s practicing off shoring activities or for those interested in starting off shore in order to indicate the employees’ attitude toward such an objective. It is important to keep in mind that the results of such sample can not be applied to the general audience and can be used only in that specific area of interest. Though the achieved results cannot be applied to the whole field of off shore as those of the probability sampling, but still they will useful for companies to consider when starting developing objectives in this field.

When observing the respondents, it is important, to my mind, to pay attention to the facial expressions as well as overall body language. If the respondents are well aware of the subject and already have a stated attitude toward it, their behavior will be the best identifier of it: they will be calm and relaxed, not making any unnecessary movements or taking too much time to think of each of the questions, on the contrary to those whose attitudes are not defined yet. Such observations will be useful in concluding the overall level of respondents’ acknowledgement and understanding of the subject discussed in the survey.

Summary on hypothetical findings

The purpose of the conducted report was to identify the employees’ attitudes towards the off shoring activities of the Gaze Company. Gaze is an United States based IT company which opened its office in India last year. Being considered an off shore practicing company, Gaze has conducted a survey to find out the domestic employees’ attitude towards the conducted abroad business as well as to see the overall employees’ perception of off shore related issues.

One hundred employees participated in the survey, which revealed the following results: 95% of respondents agreed that off shoring is an effective way of shifting company’s operations to low-cost countries, however, only 3% agreed that it is inevitable for the IT company. 65% of the respondents agreed that off shoring enabled the lowering of the production costs, whereas 75% disagreed with the fact that it provides work force diversity. The majority of respondents showed neutralism in regard of widened global market coverage and only 15% disagreed with the statement that off shoring provides high revenues by means of lower taxation abroad. In regard to the cut down number of domestic jobs 95% expressed their agreement, when only 10% agreed on the possibility of the bad image creation. 40% of respondents didn’t agree with ethical and religious dilemmas and 85% strongly agreed on the increased amount of paper work and documentation.

Analyzing the achieved results, it is important to point out that the respondents are well aware of the purpose of off shoring activity and are well acknowledged of the financial and operating benefits it provides for the company. The overall impression is built that the respondents are knowledgeable of the subject of off shoring, however, not all consequences of it are clearly understood.

Taking in consideration the results of the survey, the following recommendations will be suitable to fulfill in order to ensure employees’ better informational support on the issue of off shoring. First of all, it can be beneficial to conduct internships to off shore offices in order to provide witness support of the on-going activities there as well as to show the diversity and enlargement of the labor force. Secondly, a good suggestion will be to provide a couple of educational seminars where employees can learn about the contemporary off shoring tendencies as well as have a well-balanced understanding of the threats and opportunities off shore holds for the IT company.

If you ask me, the chapter that I personally find the most appealing and interesting is the one about attitude measurements. Playing a vital role in the individual’s decision-making process, attitude, which can be regarded as an enduring disposition of constantly responding in a given manner to various aspects of the world, is one of the subjects which is being closely studied and researched in the business environment.

In order to better distinguish differences in personal attitudes, researchers have come up with a number of rating scales which require more specific answers that just a simple agreement or disagreement with a given statement. Thus, for example, with the view of enabling the respondent more flexibility with answers, one can use a category scale, which basically expands the response category from simply two options to five or seven. Likert scale, on the other hand, provides the respondent with an opportunity to express one’s attitude towards the given statement by means of identifying how strongly one agrees or disagrees with it. Semantic differential, numerical and staple scales are somewhat similar in the design, while representing a serious of seven-point semantic-spaced rating with bipolar adjectives at the ends of the scale, five- or seven-point numerical rating with bipolar adjectives at the ends and even-numbered numerical values with an adjective in the center respectively. One can also consider a constant-sum scale with the division of a constant sum to measure the relative importance of attitudes or, in order to acknowledge the visual impact, graphic scale or graphic scale with picture response categories.

All of the above-mentioned attitude rating scales have their advantages and disadvantages, so, before choosing to use one of them, one should answer a number of questions which identify the complexity of the topic, the education level of respondents as well as what rating technique is to be used: rating, sorting, ranking or choice technique.