Abstract
This paper presents the findings of three regression analysis performed on American InterContinental University’s survey data. They include regression analysis for intrinsic satisfaction versus benefits, extrinsic satisfaction versus benefits and overall satisfaction versus benefits. The coefficient of determination for each analysis was found to be 0.0042629, 0.000018508, and 0.0025798 respectively. In each case the coefficient of correlation was found to be less than 0.1. Meaning, there is very weak relationship between benefits and job satisfaction.
Introduction
Regression analysis is a statistical technique used to evaluate the strength of relationship between variables (Lang & Secic, 2006). The technique is useful in the prediction of values of another variables based on known variables. There are many types of regression analysis, but, for the purpose of this paper only linear regression was used. This is because the analysis only involved two variables whose association was assumed to be linear. It is appropriate for approximating the linear association between variables (Babbie, 2010). The relationship between variable is expressed mathematically in form of the equation of a straight line y = m x + c +є where the last term is an error. The slope (m) is called regression coefficient while the constant c is the y intercept. The most important statistic determined in regression is the coefficient of determination whose square root gives the Pearson coefficient of correlation. Coefficient of determination referred to as R2 gives the percentage of the variability in one variable that is due to variability in the other variable. It also refers to the ratio of explained variation to total variation in dependent variable (Meier, Brudney, & Bohte, 2012).
Benefits and Intrinsic Job Satisfaction
Regression output from Excel
Graph
Benefits and Extrinsic Job Satisfaction
Regression output from Excel
Graph
Benefits and Overall Job Satisfaction
Regression output from Excel
Graph
Key components of the regression analysis
Similarities and Differences
All the three graphs have positive y-intercepts. Meaning that, apart from benefits there are other factors that influence intrinsic, extrinsic and overall satisfaction. These y-intercepts represent baseline satisfaction level without benefits. The intrinsic benefits and overall benefit graph have negative slopes while the extrinsic benefits graph has got positive slope. This implies that there is a positive correlation between extrinsic satisfaction and benefits. On the other hand, intrinsic and overall satisfaction correlates with benefits in a negative way.
Correlation coefficients
The excel output for Pearson correlation coefficients for intrinsic vesus benefits, extrinsic versus benefits and overall versus benefits were -0.0653, 0.0043 and -0.0501.These figures shows that irrespective of direction there is a very weak correlation between benefits and job satisfaction. They are all less than 0.3. The correlation between benefit and extrinsic satisfaction is positive. Meaning, increase in benefits makes employees feel more satisfied extrinsically. On the other hand, the correlation between benefits and either intrinsic satisfaction or overall satisfaction is negative. The most important inference from this analysis for the manager is that benefits have minimal effect employees’ satisfaction. This is because the Pearson correlation coefficients are all less than 0.1 which imply very weak correlation. Job satisfaction is critical component of service delivery. Therefore, the manager should try other methods of making employees happy such as improving the conditions of work and providing social support system.
Conclusion
The coefficients of determination for intrinsic versus benefits, extrinsic versus benefits and overall versus benefits are 0.0653, 0.0043 and 0.0508 respectively. This translates to 0.42%, 1.85% and 0.26%. Meaning, a very small percentage of variability in satisfaction can be attributed to benefits. In other words, 99.58%, 98.15% and 99.74% of the variability in intrinsic, extrinsic and overall satisfactions respectively are not as a result of the variability in benefits. Consequently, large proportions of variability in satisfaction remain unaccounted for by benefits. This implies benefits play very minimal role in as far as employees’ job satisfaction is concerned.
References
Babbie, E. R. (2010). The practice of social research. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth Cengage.
Lang, T. A., & Secic, M. (2006). How to report statistics in medicine: Annotated guidelines for authors, editors, and reviewers. New York: American College of Physicians.
Meier, K. J., Brudney, J. L., & Bohte, J. (2012). Applied statistics for public and nonprofit administration. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
