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BUSI 600 Case Assignment 2
Case Assignment 2
BUSI 600-D12
Austin Rogers
Liberty University
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BUSI 600 Case Assignment 2
Describe the sampling strategy. How appropriate were the various sampling design
decisions?
When the McMahon Group was hired on to provide the NCR Country Club with a
consultation in regard to strategic planning for the country club’s future, the firm implemented a
wide variety of sampling designs in order to obtain a concise data pool with which to make
consulting decisions. The McMahon Group began conducting their research into how the NCR
Country Club could go about attracting new members and retaining current members in the most
efficient way possible by implementing the use of focus groups.
When utilizing focus groups as a research method, those conducting the research should
be able to “observe the extent and nature of interviewees' agreement and disagreement” and also
to “ask the participants themselves for comparisons among their experiences and views, rather
than aggregating individual data in order to speculate about whether or why the interviewees
differ” (Morgan, 1996). Through the use of these focus groups, the McMahon Group researchers
were able to discover that members of the NCR Country Club, non-members, and even
employees felt that the country club lacked certain amenities and services that other similar
establishments could provide to enhance the member’s experience.
Once the McMahon Group gathered data from each of the focus groups, the consulting
firm then put in place a study in which surveys would be mailed out to each member of the NCR
Country Club in order to estimate the practicality of incorporating new facilities into the country
club. According to an article by Cipriano Forza, the purpose for a group of researchers to utilize
the use of surveys in their research would include “the collection of information from individuals
(through mailed questionnaires, telephone calls, personal interview, etc.) about themselves or
about the social units to which they belong” (2002).
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BUSI 600 Case Assignment 2
The McMahon Group researchers were able to use the surveys to separate the results by
each demographic and therefore gaining a deeper understanding of exactly what issues each
group of people were having, respectively. Through the use of these surveys the researchers at
the McMahon Group were able to ascertain important information that could be utilized to
improve the NCR Country Club, such as age group, gender, membership status, where the
member lives in regard to the country club, and if the member is a current employee of NCR or if
they had been in the past.
The sampling design decisions that the McMahon Group made resulted in invaluable
information with which the NCR Country Club could put toward resolving the issues outlined in
the responses from club members.
What, if any, problems did you find with the questionnaire as a whole? Consider structure,
directions, question order, question phrasing, appropriateness of response strategy chosen,
etc.
In its entirety, the questionnaire that the McMahon Group provided for the members to
respond to was very well constructed. The directions for how to complete the questionnaire were
clear and concise, the questions were ordered and phrased efficiently and provided many
different question types, and the responses yielded answers that the NCR Country Club was
searching for.
One aspect of the questionnaire that could have possibly made the research conducted by
the McMahon Group even more useful is including the addition of pretesting to the
questionnaire. Pretesting in a research questionnaire has been defined by Krosnick as something
that “identifies questions that respondents have difficulty understanding or interpret differently
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BUSI 600 Case Assignment 2
than the researcher intended” (1999). If the researchers at the McMahon Group could have held
a pretesting session in order to attend to any questions that may have been poorly written or that
were confusing to participants, doing so may have resulted in an even more efficient and
verifiable questionnaire.
Considering that the McMahon Group utilized focus groups and questionnaires in their
research, the pretesting could have taken place during the focus group meetings where the
researcher could address any problems in person. Although combining both forms of research
methods can provide researchers with a vast amount of information to incorporate into their
work, doing so can also “raise a complex set of issues, since the two methods produce such
different kinds of data” (Morgan, 1996). Though some issues could arise from incorporating
both surveys and focus groups into the same research project, utilizing quantitative and
qualitative measurement tools is a very practical way to collect various forms of information in
order to put together cohesive and all encompassing research. Overall, the McMahon Group
provided the NCR Country Club with research data that would be extremely relevant in giving
the NCR the tools it needs to determine which actions to take in order to expand membership and
to keep members content.
References
Forza, C. (2002). Survey research in operations management: A process-based perspective.
International Journal of Operations & Production Management. Vol 22, p 152-194.
Retrieved from
https://www-emeraldinsight-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/doi/full/10.1108/014435702104143
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BUSI 600 Case Assignment 2
Krosnick, J. (1999). Survey research. Annual Review of Psychology. Vol 50, p 537-567.
Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/205847042/
fulltextPDF/31A19457A12946E7PQ/1?accountid=12085
Morgan, D. L. (1996). Focus groups. Annual Review of Sociology. Vol 22, p 129-152. Retrieved
from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/199572794?pq-
origsite=summon&accountid=12085
