Step-by-step guide to testing validity and reliability of information
1. The business organizations can face major problems in their operations which can affect the profitability and revenues of the company. The issues however need to be solved in a swift manner so that the business is not affected to a huge extent. The most appropriate way by which the problem in the business organizations can be solved is based on a 5 step process. The steps which are involved in solving business problems are as follows,
- Understanding the problem – The main part of entire problem solving process is based on the understanding the actual issue that has occurred. This will further help the company to devise successful strategies that can help in solving the issues effectively.
- The next step of this process involves the ways by which the root cause of the problem can be defined. After the identification of the issue the reason behind the issue needs to be found out.
- The third step is further based on the identification of the possible solutions of the issue.
- The fourth step is further related to the implementation of the solution that has been selected from all the possible options which have been selected.
- The last step is based on defining the results of the entire problem solving process that has been undertaken. The monitoring of the results of the process is also a part of the last step of problem solving (Conrado et al. 2016).
2. The business organizations have to analyse huge amounts of information on a daily basis which is required for its proper operations. The information that is made available to the company however needs to be tested for its reliability. This can be done with the help of following steps that can further lead to ways by which the correct and reliable data can be gathered.
- The first step in this process is based on reviewing of the questions that have been used for gathering the information.
- The information that has been collected further needs to be organized so that the relevant parts can be sorted.
- The ways by which the information will be analysed needs to be decided in this step which will help in selecting the appropriate method.
- The information that has been analysed is then integrated in the different parts of the organizational processes (Hannan et al. 2017).
3. The validity of the information that has been gathered by various methods can be tested by analysing the reliability of the data. The reliability of the sources from where the information is gathered can further be helpful in deciding the whether it is valid. The process of collecting information is also an important part of the process by which the validity can be tested in an effective manner.
4. The feedback that is provided by staff of an organization can be collected with the help of questionnaires. The complaint cards are also considered to be a process by which the company is able to collect the feedback of staff. The questionnaires are first used for collecting the feedback that is provided by the staff of the company. After the feedback is received from all the employees following steps are involved to analyse the information,
- The comments that have been provided by the staff needs to be read carefully and divide them into appropriate categories.
- After the development of categories, the comments are then reviewed again and a “tick mark” is used for the different areas.
- Each of the comments are then divided into different parts with the help of tick marks.
- The positive and the negative comments are noticed and divided in this step.
- The categories of the feedback and the employees are divided in an effective manner (Heeringa, West and Berglund 2017).
5. The huge amounts of information or data has been a major problem for the various business organizations. The company thereby needs to sort this data so that the relevant amount of information can be used. This process of statistical data analysis is based on the following steps,
- The first step is to begin with the right questions which are measurable in nature so that the information or data that is collected is concise and clear. This needs to provide solutions to the issues that are faced by the company.
- The priorities need to be set by the company based on the ways by which the data needs to be measured or the amount of data which needs to be measured will also be decided by the company in this step.
- The data is then collected with the help of the processes that have been decided by the company.
- The fourth step is thereby based on the analysis of data that has been collected in the previous steps.
- The fifth step involves the interpretation of the results that have been collected with the help of previous steps (Heyler et al. 2016).
6. The sensitivity analysis or uncertainty analysis can be performed with the help of different processes. A common method that is used for the sensitivity analysis is related to sampling based process. The sampling based sensitivity method is the type of model which helps in the repeated execution of the combination of the values that are sampled from distribution. The following steps are involved in the process of sensitivity analysis,
- Specification of the target function and the selection of the input of interest.
- Assigning the distribution based functions to selected factors.
- Generation of matrix based on inputs with the distribution with the help of an appropriate design.
- Evaluation of the model and computation of the distribution of target function.
- Selection of the method that can be used for the assessment of the influence or the relative importance of each of the input factors on target functions (Malterud, Siersma and Guassora2016).
Steps for sensitivity analysis and risk management
7. The decisions of a business are made under huge rates of uncertainty which does not always involve high levels of confidence for the decision makers. The quantitative data analysis models can be used for making proper decisions from the information that is available for the managers or the decision makers. The quantitative methods are used for project management based purposes by the decision makers. The techniques that are used for the optimization of the allocation of machines, manpower and materials. The projects are also scheduled with the help of these quantitative methods. The planning of production and further scheduling is also based on the quantitative methods of data analysis. These techniques are helpful for the evaluation of multiple types of proposals like, timing, location and costs. The inventory and purchasing based activities of the company are also based on the usage of quantitative data analysis based techniques (Mertler and Reinhart 2016). The decisions that are made for marketing related activities of the company can be made with the assistance of quantitative techniques. The finance based decisions are made by the organizations and the managers are assisted by the quantitative data analysis method. The development and research based decisions that are made by the decision makers are helped by the quantitative data analysis methods. The quantitative data analysis based methods are thereby used by the organizations and the different departments for taking decisions that are based on different processes (Ngulube2015).
8. The risk management plans that are used in different areas of the business organization are developed for the purpose of creating plans for internal and external things like, social, cultural, regional and political issues. The other factors include, technology, economic, competitive trends, the government laws and the policies, business strategies, business policies and business aims. The high quality risk management plans are able to help in the creation of a stable business which is related to the preparation of unexpected events. The organizations need to link the business aims with the risk management based plans. The plan needs to be described clearly to the members of business organization (Palinkas et al. 2015).
9. The employees and the managers are involved and consulted while making decisions that are related to the different organizational processes. The decisions in a business organization are made with the help of opinions that are provided by the employees and the other stakeholders of the company. The managers play an important role in deciding the best alternative that is related to the decisions that are taken for organizational purposes. The main reason behind the inclusion of these groups in the decision making process is that they are affected to the highest levels by the decisions that are made in the organizations.
Using quantitative data analysis methods in decision-making
10. The maintenance of corporate knowledge is important for the purpose of creating removing the communication barriers that are present within the organizations. The sharing of knowledge within an organization is essential for ensuring the prosperity of business in the industry. The sharing of knowledge mainly takes place between the employees and the members of the management so that they are able to help each other and promote a learn9ng based culture within the company (Shepherd and Rudd 2014).
11. The emerging technologies that might be utilized by the organizations for the proper management of the knowledge and intelligence are Big Data and cloud computing, which helps organizations in securing the data from different risks of threats. It also helps the organizations in the smooth functioning of the processes of the business.
12. The statistical analysis that might be undertaken by the researcher while undertaking a quantitative research study are correlation, regression, mean, median, mode and Hypothesis testing which will be helping the researcher in culminating into an unbiased research outcome. The different outcomes will be justified through the proper functioning of the statistical analysis that is undertaken by the researcher, which will be contributing to the different functioning of the systems of the study.
13. The information system of the organization helps in the proper circulation of knowledge among the different units of the business. It helps in maintaining the smooth functioning of the processes as per the objectives of the same.
References:
Conrado, S.P., Neville, K., Woodworth, S. and O’Riordan, S., 2016. Managing social media uncertainty to support the decision making process during emergencies. Journal of Decision Systems, 25(sup1), pp.171-181.
Hannan, R.L., McPhee, G.P., Newman, A.H. and Tafkov, I., 2017. Designing a Performance Feedback System in a Multi-Task Environment: Relative Performance Information Detail Level and Temporal Aggregation in a Multi-Task Environment.
Heeringa, S.G., West, B.T. and Berglund, P.A., 2017. Applied survey data analysis. Chapman and Hall/CRC.
Heyler, S.G., Armenakis, A.A., Walker, A.G. and Collier, D.Y., 2016. A qualitative study investigating the ethical decision making process: A proposed model. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(5), pp.788-801.
Malterud, K., Siersma, V.D. and Guassora, A.D., 2016. Sample size in qualitative interview studies: guided by information power. Qualitative health research, 26(13), pp.1753-1760.
Mertler, C.A. and Reinhart, R.V., 2016. Advanced and multivariate statistical methods: Practical application and interpretation. Routledge.
Ngulube, P., 2015. Qualitative data analysis and interpretation: systematic search for meaning. Addressing research challenges: making headway for developing researchers, pp.131-156.
Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, J.P., Duan, N. and Hoagwood, K., 2015. Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), pp.533-544.
Shepherd, N.G. and Rudd, J.M., 2014. The influence of context on the strategic decision?making process: A review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(3), pp.340-364.