GOOGLESCHOLAR

Analysis of a survey undertaken on the university sports centre satisfaction: using SPSS

COLLEGE: College of Social Science DEPARTMENT: Finance and Economics UNIT: Research Design and Dissertation LEVEL: M STUDENT NAME: Kang Yulan STUDENT ID: KAN12421305

Evaluation of Questionnaire Design

Questionnaire is widely used in management and business research. It is defined as a general term including all data collection techniques in which a same set of questions is required to be responded to by each person in a predetermined order. If the interviewer is not present, and the interviewees answer the questions, telephone questionnaires and structured interviews should also be included in questionnaire. There are several methods, such as questionnaire, secondary sources examination, observation and interviews, being used to collect data. Questionnaires work best with the questions that will be interpreted with one accord to complete the explanatory or descriptive research. Explanatory research, which is also known as analytical research, is used to explain and examine, in particular, the relationships about cause and effect. Descriptive research is used to describe and identify the variability, taking advantage of questionnaires of attitude, opinion and organizational practices, in different situation. (Mark et al, 2012, 416-467)

There is just one chance being offered for data collection, which requires questions to be prepared precisely in questionnaires. This means that the data to be collected should be planned and analysed. It is crucial to meet the requirements by designing the questionnaire. The main purpose of questions is to describe and compare the characteristics of population at a fixed point or over a period of time. As a sample, questionnaire needs to represent and generalise about the population accurately. (Alan and Emma, 2011, 239-256)

Questionnaires can collect three types of variable, which are opinion, behavior and attribute. The feelings of respondents and the way they thinking will be recorded to the opinion variables. By comparison, behavior variables and attribute variables record the concrete experience of respondents. However, behavior focuses on the things people do. Attributes, including age, marital status, gender, occupation, education and income, contain data on the characteristics of respondents or the things they possess. (Catherine and Gretchen, 2011, 127-131)

The questions design, questionnaire structure and pilot testing pilot rigour influent the internal validity and reliability of collected data and achieved response rate a lot, which requires four stages at least for valid and reliable questions. First, when the researchers designing questions, they should be clear about what data is required. Secondly, when the respondents decoding the questions, they should be clear about the intention of researchers and follow their requirements. Thirdly, the questions are answered by the respondents. Finally, the researchers should decode the answers precisely. Questionnaire design should be included into the second stage. Before the individual questions are designed, assessing validity is required, which including construct validity, criterion-related validity and internal validity. And then, the researchers should test for reliability. Three common approaches, which are alternative form, internal consistency and test re-test, should be outlined to assessing reliability at the stage of questionnaire design. After that, the researchers should design individual questions. It is helpful for comparing the findings and design their own questions to adopt an adapt questions of other questionnaires. There are two kinds of questions, closed ones, such as, list, category, ranking, rating, quantity, matrix and so on, and open ones, which is useful in exploratory research. then the researcher could construct the questionnaires and collect data. (Sheila and Deborah, 2009, 333-358)

The sample selected from an entire target population used for collecting data should be representative. It is important to select the sample. There are six sampling methods. The first one is probability sampling. It is also known as random sampling, in which every element may be selected. It is the method used in this research. The second one is quota sampling. This method requires specified numbers form specified subgroups. The third one is purposive sampling in which units are selected by personal judgment. The others are snowball sampling, volunteer sampling and stratification procedure. (Sara, 2009)

Analysis of survey data

The purpose of this survey is to know the views of people about the service quality and expectant performance of universities sports centre. There are five numbers between 1 and 5 standing different level of satisfactory. 1 means very dissatisfactory and 5 means very satisfactory.

Sample composition

Descriptive statistics show an accurately describing way to analysis large datasets easily and quickly. The two most common ways in descriptive statistics are central tendency measures and dispersion measures. The central tendency measures show the mean, mode and median of data. And the dispersion measures show the range, standard error, standard deviation and variance of data. All kinds of descriptive statistics, including central tendency measures, dispersion measures, distribution measures and percentile values measures, are allowed to be analysed by frequencies command. (Hinton and Perry, 2014, 35-50)

The tables and graphs below show the descriptive statistics for “how satisfactory modern sports/gym equipment”, in which the digits in rows are the descriptive statistics. There are 202 answers for this question and 201 of them are valid. The mean, median and mode satisfactory are 3.71, 4.00 and 4 separately. The standard deviation is 0.780, which means that there is just a small spread of score in the satisfactory. 134 people are satisfied with the equipment, which account for 66% of total proportion. 24 among them feel very satisfactory. And nobody feels very dissatisfactory. As shown in the histogram, the people who choose 4 is over 100 and almost nobody choose 1 and 5. (Andy, 2000)

N	Valid	201
	Missing	1
Mean	3.71
Median	4.00
Mode	4
Std. Deviation	.780

Table 1

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	dissatisfactory	16	7.9	8.0	8.0
	neutral	51	25.2	25.4	33.3
	satisfactory	110	54.5	54.7	88.1
	very satisfactory	24	11.9	11.9	100.0
	Total	201	99.5	100.0
Missing	0	1	.5
Total	202	100.0

Table 2

Chart 1

The table 3 shows the descriptive statistics for the gender of the participants and the year at university they are currently in. The words in columns are the variable names, and the digits in rows are the descriptive statistics. The mean, median and mode of the gender are 1.38, 1.00 and 1 separately. And these numbers of the year students currently in are 1.96, 2.00 and 2 separately.

	are you male or female	what year at university are you currently in? 1st /2nd/ 3rd/ 4th/ masters/ other
N	Valid	202	202
	Missing	0	0
Mean	1.38	1.96
Median	1.00	2.00
Mode	1	2
Std. Deviation	.497	.871

Table 3

The tables and pie charts below summarise the frequency information. The table 4 and chart 2 show that the male participants are 126, accounting for 62.4%, and the female participants are 75, accounting for 37.1%, which means that the males is much more than the females. The table 5 and chart 3 show that the cumulative percent of the students in first year and second year is 75.2%. And the proportion of students in the third year is 21.8%. That is to say. Few participants are in the fourth year, master and other.

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	male	126	62.4	62.4	62.4
	female	75	37.1	37.1	99.5
	3	1	.5	.5	100.0
	Total	202	100.0	100.0

Table 4

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1st year	68	33.7	33.7	33.7
	2nd year	84	41.6	41.6	75.2
	3rd year	44	21.8	21.8	97.0
	4th year	4	2.0	2.0	99.0
	masters	1	.5	.5	99.5
	other	1	.5	.5	100.0
	Total	202	100.0	100.0

Table 5

Chart 2

Chart 3

According to the table 4 and 5, it is not hard to find that the sample is composed of 62.4% male, 37.1% female and 0.5% others. It can also be composed of 33.7% first year students, 41.6% second year students, 21.8% third year students, 2.0% fourth year students, 0.5% maters and 0.5% others. Different sampling methods may cause different sample composition. And different sample composition may cause different result. For example, in this case, if the proportion of male changed, it may lead to different satisfactory because female may think in different ways between male when considering the gym satisfactory.

Satisfaction levels analysis

Basic descriptive statistics can be produced in an alternative way, which is called the descriptives command. Unlike the frequencies command, it provides some concise summaries instead of many options. It shows the minimum values, maximum values, mean and standard deviation. The table 6 is the descriptive statistics for this survey. It shows the number of valid data, minimum values, maximum values, mean values and standard deviation, which ranked by the mean value. From this table, the highest mean value is “well mannered and informative staff” of 3.76. In contrast, the lowest mean value is “prompt actions based on customer feedback” of 3.29.

	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
well mannered and informative staff	202	1	5	3.76	.848
How satisfactory modern sports/gym equipment	201	2	5	3.71	.780
providing a reliable service that is promised	200	1	5	3.70	.821
willingness to help facility users	199	1	5	3.69	.842
visually appealing facilities	200	1	5	3.67	.827
modern changing facilities	200	1	5	3.67	.778
service carried out as promised first time	198	1	5	3.66	.891
informing customer of new and changing schedule / timetables	200	1	5	3.65	.820
service performed at promised time	200	1	5	3.64	.881
prompt service to facility users	201	1	5	3.62	.870
staff with good customer service	199	1	5	3.60	.875
secure transactions e.g. membership payments and booking facilities	201	1	5	3.60	.939
smart , professionally appearing staff	202	1	5	3.57	.815
readiness to respond to user request	198	1	5	3.56	.851
convenient hours of operation	202	1	5	3.54	.947
knowledgeable and reliable staff	198	1	5	3.53	.865
attending to the needs of every customer e.g. on a personal one to one basis	197	1	5	3.48	.843
highly motivated staff for example encouraging gym staff	199	1	5	3.48	.858
informative, relevant and appealing documentation such as gym and class timetables and opening times	200	1	5	3.44	.928
dealing with customer complaints	191	1	5	3.31	.743
prompt actions based on customer feedback	191	1	5	3.29	.766
Valid N (listwise)	177

Table 6

Cross tabulation is a table summering the categorical or nominal data associated between variables. The tables and chart below show the satisfaction level of service carried out as promised first time varied depending on whether the participant is a member or not. In table 7, there are 37 members feeling satisfactory. However, the number of people who are satisfied with the service carried out as promised fist time increase to 48. On the contrary, the percent of people who are satisfied with the service very much decrease from 23% to 8% if the participant paying each time rather than being a member.

	are you a member or do you pay each time	Total
	member	pay each time
service carried out as promised first time	very dissatisfactory	Count	1	0	1
		% within are you a member or do you pay each time	1.1%	.0%	.5%
	dissatisfactory	Count	12	8	20
		% within are you a member or do you pay each time	12.8%	8.7%	10.8%
	neutral	Count	21	28	49
		% within are you a member or do you pay each time	22.3%	30.4%	26.3%
	satisfactory	Count	37	48	85
		% within are you a member or do you pay each time	39.4%	52.2%	45.7%
	very satisfactory	Count	23	8	31
		% within are you a member or do you pay each time	24.5%	8.7%	16.7%
Total	Count	94	92	186
	% within are you a member or do you pay each time	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Table 7

	Value	df	Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square	11.461a	4	.022
Likelihood Ratio	12.173	4	.016
Linear-by-Linear Association	.907	1	.341
N of Valid Cases	186
a. 2 cells (20.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .49.

Table 8

Chart 4

The importance of different service quality dimensions

The table 9 below describes the descriptive statistics of performance dimensions of service quality. The participants give a score between 0 and 100 to describe the dimensions. This table shows that the number of valid data is 202 for each question. The minimum is 0 appearing at question of the attention to details when dealing with a customer on a one to one basis, which means that at least one participant is not satisfied with that very much. The maximum is 96. The number shows that at least one participant is very satisfied with the appearance, physical facilities and changing rooms of the sports centre. The highest and lowest mean is 25.34 and 17.26, which belongs to the appearance of sports centre and the knowledge and manners of the staff respectively. And so does the standard deviation.

	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
the appearance of the sports centre, physical facilities such as staff, gym equipment, the sports hall, and changing rooms.	202	5	96	25.34	11.399
the attention to detail given when dealing with a customer on a one to one basis , though being caring and sympathetic to any problems that may have arisen.	202	0	51	20.95	10.101
the sports centre's willingness to help users and provide a prompt and friendly service.	202	1	60	18.29	8.075
the ability of the sports centre and its staff to implement the service promised reliably and accurately.	202	1	60	18.25	7.425
the knowledge and manners of the sports centre's staff, and their ability to supply and maintain confidence and trust within its customer.	202	1	41	17.26	7.133
Valid N (listwise)	202

Table 9

The table 10 shows the ranked weighted variables of the questionnaire. The highest mean is 95.4378, the weighted equipment rating. And the lowest one is 60.0578, the weighted highly motivated staff.

	N	Mean	Std. Deviation
Equipment Rating Weighted	201	95.4378	51.10232
Appearance Weighted	200	94.4850	52.34568
Changing Facilituies Weighted	200	93.8000	51.14547
Smart staff weighted	202	91.9554	53.12112
Convenience weighted	202	89.2624	48.78010
information weighted	200	87.6250	50.05800
Staff with good customer care weighted	199	73.0251	36.84111
Attending to needs of every customer weighted	197	70.8376	36.25356
Reliable Serice weighted	200	67.4650	31.25288
readiness to respond to user requests weighted	199	67.2915	33.01401
Informing Customers pf changes weighted	200	66.7500	32.74736
willingness to help users weighted	201	66.7214	33.83285
Service carried out 1st time weighted	198	66.3485	31.58109
Service provided as promised weighted	200	66.1100	32.25196
dealing with customer complaints weighted	198	65.7551	35.55195
well mannered and informative staff weighted	202	65.1832	32.41078
secure transactions weighted	201	63.2289	32.59459
knowledgeable and reliable staff weighted	198	60.8763	28.91632
prompt service to users weighted	191	60.7199	32.42134
prompt actions on customer feedback weighted	191	60.5471	31.46946
highly motivated staff weighted	199	60.0578	28.65315
Valid N (listwise)	177

Table 10

The table 11 shows the difference between weighted orders and original unweighted results. The weighted case is helpful for entering the frequency counts along with scores combination.

	Weighted Order	Unweighted Order	Change
Equipment Rating Weighted	1	2	+1
Appearance Weighted	2	5	+3
Changing Facilituies Weighted	3	6	+3
Smart staff weighted	4	13	+9
Convenience weighted	5	15	+10
information weighted	6	19	+13
Staff with good customer care weighted	7	11	+4
Attending to needs of every customer weighted	8	17	+9
Reliable Serice weighted	9	3	-6
readiness to respond to user requests weighted	10	14	-4
Informing Customers pf changes weighted	11	8	-3
willingness to help users weighted	12	4	-8
Service carried out 1st time weighted	13	7	-6
Service provided as promised weighted	14	9	-5
dealing with customer complaints weighted	15	20	+5
well mannered and informative staff weighted	16	1	-15
secure transactions weighted	17	12	-5
knowledgeable and reliable staff weighted	18	16	-2
prompt service to users weighted	19	10	-9
prompt actions on customer feedback weighted	20	21	+1
highly motivated staff weighted	21	18	-3
Valid N (listwise)	177

Table 11

Summary and conclusion

According to the questionnaire, there are 202 people who offering the valid data participating in the survey. In which, 62.4% of them are male, and 37.1% of them are female. The male participants are 24.7% more than the females. Most of them are undergraduate students in first and second year. The attitude of participants to the university sports centre is between neutral and satisfactory. A large number of people may be satisfied with the appearance, physical facilities and changing rooms of the sports centre. They are also satisfied with the willingness to help users and the knowledge and manners to supply and maintain confidence. However, comparing with the equipment, it seems that people feel a little disappointed with the staff there, including the attitude they dealing with customer complaints, prompt actions based on customer feedback. However, these may be changed in different sample composition. For example the percentage of satisfaction may be different according to whether the participant is a member or not. Female and male may have different opinions on the same question.

The questionnaire may be helpful for improving the quality of university sports centre. It displays the aspects people may not satisfy with. It may be better for them to be patient when dealing with customer complaints and take measures to deal with the customer feedback. It is also a effective method to maintain competitive advantages the customers satisfying with.

Recommendation

As there is just one chance to collect data, it is necessary to check and make sure that the data collected is essential, can answer the research questions and achieve the objective by observations. Creating data requirements tables is helpful. First, whether an explanatory or descriptive research is needed as the main outcome should be decided. Secondly, each research objective of question should be sub-divided into the data needed to be gathered in specific investigative questions. Thirdly, repeat sub-dividing until the questions of investigating are sufficiently precise. Fourthly, the variables about the data needed to be collected for each investigative question should be identified. Fifthly, the level of detail should be established for the variable data. Finally, measurement questions should be developed to capture the data when requiring it for each variable. These would be useful in the future research.

References

Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2011). Business research methods / Alan Bryman, Emma Bell. Oxford Oxford University Press c2011.

Cameron, S., & Price, D. (2009). Business research methods : a practical approach / Sheila Cameron and Deborah Price. London Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2009.

Field, A. P. (2000). Discovering statistics using SPSS for Windows : advanced techniques for the beginner / Andy Field. London SAGE 2000.

Hinton, P. R., McMurray, I., & Brownlow, C. (2014). [ebook]SPSS explained / Perry R. Hinton, Isabella McMurray and Charlotte Brownlow. Hove Routledge 2014.

Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2011). Designing qualitative research / Catherine Marshall, Gretchen B. Rossman. London SAGE 2011.

Sara, E. (2009). ILO school-to-work transition survey: A methodological guide. Switzerland: ILO

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2012). Research methods for business students / Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis, Adrian Thornhill. Harlow Pearson 2012.

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ASSIGNMENT2		Yulan Kang