ployee’ s salary can be framed in the following ways—
• According to you, how is your salary? Good / Bad( Nominal scale)
• Please indicate your level of salary. Very High / High / Moderate / Low.( Ordinal Scale)
• Indicate your salary level on a scale of 1-10.( Interval Scale)
Very Low Very High 1 10
• What is your gross salary in Indian rupee per month?( Ratio Scale)
Before elaborating on why so much importance is given on framing any question in different type of scale, let’ s have some idea about the various types of data analysis.
Most basic type of statistical analysis is“ Descriptive analysis”, which is used to summarise the responses from large number of respondents in a few simple statistical measures. Data can be described in terms of“ Frequency”,“ Central Tendency’ and“ Statistical Distribution” followed by a set of data. Mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, variance are widely used in descriptive statistics. Data description can be done with the help of tabulation, graphs, charts and cross tabulation. Mean, median and mode gives an idea about the central tendencies of the data and range and standard deviation depict the variability of data. Following table gives an idea about various measures of descriptive analysis to be used for various types of scales.
Once the data description is done inferential statistics plays a role to test hypothesis. It means some inferences can be drawn about some population based on the observation of a small sample. For example a research on work life balance of Indian working women does not need the entire Indian working women to be studied, it can be done by taking a sample consisting of small number of females who are working in various sectors in a geographical area. Hypothesis testing is utilized to do the inferences. Hypothesis is a formal statement of explanation stated in a testable form. Hypotheses are tested to draw a conclusion about population or about dependency of variables. Depending on the number of variables to be studied, there types of statistical analysis are there—
• Univariate statistical analysis- hypothesis involving only one variable. E. g. Working women in IT sector are highly stressed.
• Bivariate statistical analysis- tests hypotheses involving two variables. E. g. Flexible timing of work reduces stress level of female workers.
• Multivariate statistical analysis- tests hypotheses involving more than two variables. E. g. Flexible timing of work, number of family members, age of the employee, inter-organisational relationship are having impact on stress level of female workers.
Nominal Scale Ordinal Scale Interval Scale Ratio Scale
Mode, Frequencies
Mode, Median, Frequencies, Range
Mode, Median, Frequencies, Range, Mean, Standard Deviation
Mode, Median, Frequencies, Range, Mean, Standard Deviation, Geometric mean, Harmonic mean