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Chapter-II

Methodology

2.0 Introduction

Organizational commitment is a concept which has been applied in many different ways. It is

vital for the productivity of any organization and educational organizations are also not an

exception. The concept of commitment of the teachers lies at the heart of the educational

organizations. According to WeiBo, Kaur, and Jun (2009) the concept of commitment to

workplace is one of the most studied but still challenging concept in organizational

behaviours.

This chapter provides a detailed account of the method utilized in this study for

collecting the primary and secondary data, and analyzing the qualitative and quantitative

collected data in search of a reliable interpretation.

2.1 Area of the Study

2.2.1 The scope and subject of the study

The scope and subject of this research include human resource management and

organizational behavior; according to the nature of the subject, it utilizes the studies in the

field of sociology, social psychology, as well as sociology of organizations.

2.2.2 The spatial area of the study

As educational organizations are among the most fundamental organizations of every society,

the spatial area of this study includes three main universities in Hyderabad, India, namely

Osmania University (OU), Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), and

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University of Hyderabad. Hyderabad is a city situated in Andhra Pradesh, a southern state in

India. Based on the consensus in 2011, it had a population of 6.8 million which makes it the

fourth populous city of India. Hyderabad, as a metropolis, accommodates a large university

population of India as well.

2.2.3 The time scope of the research

The time scope of the study has been three years, starting from 2011.

2.3 Universe and Sampling

The main sampling design used for the purpose of this study was multi-stage sampling. As

the total area of the researcher interest, that is the universities of Hyderabad, covered a broad

area, to select a sample, cluster sampling was utilized. According to Kothari (2010) cluster

sampling is used “to divide the area into a number of smaller non-overlapping areas and then

to randomly select a number of these smaller areas (usually called clusters), with the ultimate

sample consisting of all (or samples of) units in these small areas or clusters (p.65). Applying

cluster sampling, three universities, Osmania University, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological

University, and University of Hyderabad, have been chosen as a sample of universities of

Hyderabad.

The second stage of sampling is proportional stratified sampling which classifies

the population under study based on inter-group characteristics such as sex and

designation; based on the recorded information in 2012, the three above mentioned

universities had a total population of 1312 teachers, including professors, associate

professors, and assistant professors, both male and female, a detailed account of which is

tabulated below.

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Table 2.1 The Frequency and Percentage of Teachers in OU, JNTU, and University

of Hyderabad

Universities Professors Associate Professors Assistant Professors Total

Male Female Male Female Male Female

OU 282

(27.77%)

72

(10.66%)

140

(20.74%)

26

(3.86%)

76

(11.25%)

79

(11.70%)

675

(51.44%)

JNTU 65

(27.77%)

11

(4.7%)

41

(17.52%)

37

(15.81%)

41

(17.52%)

39

(16.66%)

234

(17.83)

University of

Hyderabad

160

(39.70%)

27

(6.69%)

86

(21.33)

30

(7.44%)

79

(19.60)

21

(5.95%)

403

(30.71%)

Total 507 110 267 93 196 139 1312

The final stage of sampling has been simple random sampling through which some

samples were chosen randomly from each group.

To determine the sample size, the researcher applied Cochran Formula as follows:

Based on the result of Cochran formula, 297 teachers have been must be chosen from 1312

teachers as a representative sample of the teachers of the three universities, that is. Osmania

University, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, and University of Hyderabad.

The sample size of each designation, that is. Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant

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Professor in proportion to the whole population of the teachers at the three universities

is shown in the following table:

Table 2.2 Sample Size of Each Designation

Universities Professors Associate Professors Assistant Professors Total

Male Female Male Female Male Female

OU 64 16 32 6 17 18 153

JNTU 15 3 9 8 9 9 53

University of

Hyderabad

36 6 19 7 18 5 91

Total 115 25 60 21 44 44 297

2.4 Methods and Tools for Data

Collection

The main tool which has been utilized for the purpose of this study is questionnaire. A

questionnaire was designed to be filled by the teachers. To test the validity of the designed

questionnaire, the first draft of it was shown to some experts in the field, some

modifications were made and then the validity of the questionnaire was confirmed.

The questionnaire includes both multiple-choice questions and the open-ended questions

where the respondents were required to answer the questions in their own words. To test

the reliability of the questionnaire, it was distributed among fifty teachers of the three

universities, and then the Cronboch’s Alpha of the questionnaires was calculated by SPSS

software. The Cronboch’s Alpha was calculated to be 86 which indicates the high

reliability of the questionnaire.

The finalized questionnaire has five sections; the first section entitled “Personal

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background of the respondents” includes questions on the gender, age, employment status,

workplace, educational qualification, years of job-experience, income, marital status, type of

family, total family income, religion, and the number of children of respondents.

The second section entitled “Social factors of respondents” includes seven questions;

the third section on “Organizational factors” includes thirty seven questions; the forth section

on “Organizational commitment” consists of forty seven questions; and finally, the fifth

section is dedicated to the respondents’ suggestions.

The questions in the first section, personal background, are both multiple choice and

open-ended questions. The questions in the preceding three sections, namely second, third,

and forth section, have been based on a five-point Likert item. Named after its inventor,

psychologist Rensis Likert, “a Likert scale measures the extent to which a person agrees or

disagrees with the question. The most common scale is 1 to 5. Often the scale will be

1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=not sure, 4=agree, and 5=strongly agree” (University of

Northern Iowa, 2013).

After ensuring the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, it was distributed

among respondents. The number of questionnaires distributed for the purpose of this

study was more than the determined sample size as some questionnaires were not filled up

properly or completely. Some of the questionnaires were given personally while some were

also sent and received through e-mail. According to Kothari (1985) the method of

collecting data through mailing the questionnaire to the respondents is extensively used

nowadays- however, it was not the case with this study- because of some merits as having

low cost, being free from the biases of the researcher, the respondents’ having adequate time,

etc. which will all increase the reliability of the findings (pp. 100-101). After collecting the

data, SPSS was used to analyze the data through different tests as X2, T-Test, F-Test, to derive

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the primary data.

2.5 Sources of Secondary Data

Besides the primary data, received from processing the questionnaires, the researcher

collected secondary data from academic journals, reference books, relevant theses, as well as

internet.

2.6 Classification and Tabulation of Collected Data

To make the analysis and interpretation of the data more reliable and the findings more

accurate, the collected data are classified and tabulated. Various materials collected from

different sources have been classified into various categories in terms of their relevance.

A scheme of coding, mostly centered on the hypotheses of the study, has been devised

to transform the data from the questionnaire schedule to the computer to be the analyzed with

special spreadsheet software like SPSS, and MS- Excel.

2.7 Analysis and Interpretation of the Data

During the coding process care must be taken not to overlook important data. Bryman (2001)

suggests that the coding is to be done as soon as possible after the data have been acquired.

This provides the researcher with a more accurate understanding of the collected data and

leads to more efficient research process. After arranging the collected data through tabulation

and classification, they are analyzed and the findings are interpreted. Several statistical

methods like measures of central tendencies, percentages, standard deviation, correlation,

regression and parametric test like T-test, and ANOVA as well as non-parametric tests like

chi-square, and Friedman tests (F-Test) were used in the study. During the process of data

analysis and interpretation, the researcher has implemented great care and cautions to achieve

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a reliable conclusion in an objective manner.

2.8 Limitations of the Study

India is a vast country with many universities. The scope and area of this study are limited to

three universities in Hyderabad, India. Due to temporal and financial restrictions the

researcher had to confine herself to only three universities in Hyderabad. As the researcher is

a foreigner here, she has faced more restrictions compared with the natives, however to

compensate part of these limitations, the researcher chose three of the main universities of

Hyderabad with the most numbers of teachers and students.

2.9 Problems of the Study

Every study has its own limitations and problems and no study is perfect. This study is also

not an exception. An account of the problems is provided below:

1. Temporal limitation is among the problems the researcher encountered during the

course of this study. The duration of PhD program is limited, and the question of the

viability of the research in terms of time made the researcher to confine her sample to

only three universities in Hyderabad.

2. The researcher was a self-financed foreigner student here in India, and managing the

different costs of the study was also a burden.

3. The universe of the study consisted of university teachers who were themselves

involved with academic practices, but contrary to the researcher’s expectation a

perceptible lack of cooperation and interest of the teachers in filling up the

questionnaires was observable.

4. There was no standard prepared questionnaire available to test the organizational

commitment of the teachers, thus the researchers had to design a questionnaire which was

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then to be evaluated for validity and reliability, and it was admittedly not an easy task.

5. Collecting the questionnaire was an issue as most of the teachers were either busy or not

available at their office. And among the few who were available, most were reluctant to

fill up the questionnaires. Those teachers with high official status were among the most

reluctant to fill up the questionnaire mostly its first section which was asking for the

personal background of the respondents. To the most reluctant, can be added the teachers

at engineering departments; as soon as hearing that the researcher is from department of

sociology, as they were mostly having this presupposition that sociology is different

from their field of study, the teachers of engineering departments expressed their

disinterest and were not even ready to give some minutes to researcher to explain the

subject under study and its relevance.

6. Nowadays, communication through emails is one of the strategies utilized in data

collection, and India is one of the pioneers in computer and cyber technology, but

most of teachers at these three universities were not accustomed to utilizing this

technology. The researcher found the e-mail addresses of seventy teachers from the diary

book published by the three universities, sent them emails explaining the situation and

requesting them to fill up the questionnaires, but none of the seventy emails were

answered. First, the researcher attributed it to lack of trust, but the case was more or less

the same even after the personal visits. Being requested to fill up the questionnaire at their

office, the teachers were declaring that they were busy and did not have time, even when

they were given the option of receiving the questionnaire through email and filling it at

their comfort and email it back to the researcher, most teachers expressed that they were

not in the habit of using email.

7. So many questionnaires were also lost during the course of the study as those teachers who

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preferred to fill up a hard copy of questionnaires were asking for a few day time.

Returning on the determined time to collect the filled-up questionnaire, in many cases the

researcher was told that the questionnaire was lost.

2.10 Plan of the Study

Chapter I of this study starts with introduction part which consists of the significance of the

study, statement of the problem, review of literature, objectives and hypotheses of the study.

Chapter II describes the methodology and procedure part in which the universe and

sampling techniques, tools of data collection, analysis and tabulation of data, and their

interpretation are described.

Chapter III is devoted to elaborating on the concept of organizational commitments.

Chapter IV investigates the first minor objective of this study that is the relationship

between the social, economic, cultural, and personal characteristics of the teachers of the

three universities of Hyderabad, namely OU, Hyderabad Central, and JNTU and their

organizational commitment.

Chapter V is dedicated to studying the second minor objective of this study that is to

investigate the relationship between social factors and the organizational commitment of the

teachers.

Chapter VI focuses on the third objective of this study that is investigating the

relationship between organizational characteristics and organizational commitment of the

teachers of the three universities of Hyderabad, namely OU, Hyderabad Central, and JNTU.

Finally, chapter VII reviews the study and its major findings and conclusions. It also

provides a detailed account of more observations done during the course of the study. It is

concluded by further suggestions and acknowledging the potential areas for future studies.

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2.11 Summary

This chapter has been dedicated to the methodology of the research. It determined the subject,

temporal, and geographical area, as well as the universe and sampling of the study. The tools

utilized for data collection, the process of classification and tabulation of the collected data,

and the analysis and interpretation of the very data were also explained. An account of the

limitations and problems the researcher encountered during the course of the study is given,

and the chapter is concluded with the plan of the study.

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References

Bryman, A. (2001). Social research methods. New York: Oxford University press.

Kothari, C. R. (1985). Research methodology: methods and techniques (2nd

revised ed.). New

Delhi: New Age Techno Press.

SPSS techniques series: statistics on Likert scale surveys. (2013). University of Northern

Iowa. Retrieved from http://www.uni.edu/its/support/article/604#

WeiBo, Z., Kaur, S., and Jun., W. (2010). New development of organizational commitment:

A critical review (1960-2009). Business Management, 4(1), 12-20. Retrieved from

http:// www.academicjournals.org/ajbm/pdf/pdf2010/jan/weibo%20et%20al.pdf