Advantages and Disadvantages of Interviews
One of the primary methods of collecting data is through interviews. They are different methods of carrying interviews such as face to face, internet and telephone interviews. The advantage of face to face interviews is that the interviewer can pick up social cues from the respondent. As the respondent gives his answers there are non-verbal gestures such as posture of the body, the intonation of the voice and movement of the hands (Opdenakker, 2006).
The interviewer can add these social cues to the verbal answer. There is also no time lag between the question and the response as the respondent gives a more spontaneous answer which is usually more honest than an answer given after an extended period of reflection. The interview session can be recorded and the interviewer has a chance to listen to the tape again and review the responses. Through telephone and email or internet interviews more people can be accessed to give their responses over the phone or through email.
There are also those sensitive topics of a political, religious or sexual nature that an individual may not be comfortable with discussing face to face. There are several disadvantages of interviews. There is a danger of the interviewer guiding the respondent towards a certain direction either when explaining the question further or with his body language. Secondly, the interviewer must have the necessary skills set to carry out the interview otherwise certain objectives will not be met. The interviewer must be able to concentrate on the responses and understand well what the respondent in saying while at the same time ensuring that the questions have been answered fully with all the required details.
Interviews can be costly especially face to face in terms of time, effort and money spent. This is especially where the respondents to be visited or called are many and cover a wide geographical area. The telephone costs will be high. The travelling costs for face to face interviews will be high.
Statistics in planning for production and sales
Linear programming is a tool in statistics that is used greatly in operations management. It enables the manager to come up with functional equations that will help him know what he should produce. There are certain constraints in business such as human resource and machine hours. Yet the manager wants to maximise his profit.
The company has several courses of action available. If the company produces product A and B, there are different combinations of the product that can be produced however the best mix must be obtained which will maximise profit and utilize the existing resources in machine and labour hours.
In addition to the optimal solution, the managers are also interested in carrying out sensitivity analysis. Business is not static, it is dynamic. The manager is interested in knowing what will be the change in the optimal solution when the constraints change. If the constraint changes by 10% or 15%, the manager is interested in knowing how his production mix will change in order to maximise the current profit target or higher (Fagoyinbo, Akinbo & Ajibode, 2011).
At times, linear programming may focus on minimization rather than maximization of profit. The manager may want to minimize costs therefore he will structure the objective function and equations to enable him to get the right production mix that will minimize costs. Linear equations may either be solved graphically or by solving the equations.
Fagoyinbo, I.,Akinbo, R. & Ajibode, I. (2011). Maximization of Profit in Manufacturing
Industries Using Linear Programming Techniques: Geepee Nigeria Limited. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2(6), 97-105.
Opdenakker, R. (2006). Advantages and Disadvantages of Four Interview Techniques in
Qualitative Research. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 7(4), Art. 11, Retrieved from: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0604118
