naija: A Brief History of Ugep/Yakurr

Information is an important factor to any business organisation in a sense that businesses use information gathered to support the day-to-day operations, decision making and also in all the functional areas in a business and it has a vital role to play with an organisation.

Firstly, information as an important tool to any business organisation stand as a link between the business and the target population due to the fact that if an organisation have gotten quality and accurate information before carrying out a new product to the market the product will sale because that business has done a thorough market research within the industry they operate, customers and sales representatives. (Chirantan, 2015)

Furthermore, with accurate information the business will be able to cut cost maybe in the cost of purchasing a machinery for the business and to also improve on their initial performance within the industry i.e. with the kind goods or service they render, this will also help the business gain and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace and quality information can help a business operational and financial flexibility to grow locally and internationally.

In summary, information serves as a tool that stands between the success and failure of any business organisation and even to individuals. Information is important to organisation because it helps them to know the kind of product they take into the marketplace and this will help them to cut cost both internally and externally and also a source form the organisation to grow globally.

The aim of this discussion is to give researchers and business organisation an insight on how to go about in picking their samples in order for them to have a clear view of which of the sampling method that will be more suitable for their research.

Simple Random Sampling: (Trochim, 2002)this method of sampling is the most instinctive sampling methodology. It is a method in which every population has equal opportunity to be randomly picked and this is a bias free sample method. Samples in the population are either chosen with replacement or without replacement and the selection of a particular unit to be sampled is not influenced by the other units that have been selected or will be selected. Example in a class of 10 females and 20 males and the lecturer needs a female and a male which he has nobody in mind to call he has to use this method in selecting out of the whole population.

Systematic Sampling: systematic sampling, either by itself or in combination with some other method, may be the most widely used method of sampling (Levy, 1999) this method each unit has an equal probability of been selected, but combinations of units have different probabilities, this technique relies on positing the target population according to some ordering scheme and then selecting elements at regular intervals through that ordered list. In systematic sampling it is important that the starting point is not automatically the first in the list, but it is randomly chosen from within the first to the kth unit in the list. The suitable sampling can easily be identified but at the same time sample may be biased if unseen periodicity in population coincides with that of selection.

Quota Sampling: it involves the selection of a portion of the population being studied. In probability sampling each unit in the population has a known non-zero chance of being selected through the use of a random selection (Michael, 2008). Furthermore, in quota sampling the researcher aims to represent the major characteristics of the population by sampling a proportional quantity of each.

            Alternatively, in quota sampling every proportions in each category must be accurate because it is difficult to find up-to-date information on certain topics and also the selections of sample units within a given set of the quota frame maybe biased even though the proportion of the population is accurately estimated.

Clustered Sampling: (Saifuddin, 2009)this methods constitutes the sampling unit, instead of a single element of the population and is also a method in which the population is divided into groups which are usually geographic or organisational which some of the groups are randomly chosen and it has more error than simple random sampling but this errors can be limited if the clusters are similar to each other and if different from each other there will be huge error, also in using cluster sampling it is not desirable if the clusters are different.

Data are raw components and for businesses to be able to collect an unbiased data they have to use the following methods of collecting data which are the observation, interview, questionnaire and content analysis method. This work will be explaining the observation and interview methods advantages and disadvantage which will be a useful tool to the organisation.

OBSERVATION METHOD

ADVANTAGES 

1.      First-hand Information: The kind of information gathered in first-hand information will be the fact because no one is telling the researcher about what he is researching for.

2.      Verifies Data from other sources: this will help the researcher to make sure that the data gotten or collected from other sources are accurate and it really what the researcher need

3.      Simple to Use: it will be easy for the researcher to use not finding any difficulty to apply the raw components into processed information that will be helpful to the organisation.

4.      Data  can be reliable: the data collected when observing can be reliable by the researcher because he is carrying out this research for his/herself and by so doing whatever he observes that is based on his research will be reliable for him even in future purpose.

5.      Opportunities from the natural setting: this is because you are in the field on your own and nobody is reporting to you the feedback of what is happening in that environment and you also have access to most information which you can’t get from your correspondent.

DISADVANTAGES

1.      Presence of observer can influence performance: this will affect the event or environment an organisation is researching or collecting data because what the target population would have done without fear they will not do it again because they is someone in their mist who want to get a full detail of what is happening in that particular environment at that time.

2.      Time consuming: this method will be time consuming for the organisation or researcher to collate all the necessary data needed due to the fact that he may not be able to gather a handful of information before the deadline.

3.      Bias due to personal influence: Due to the observer interest in the data it may cause the observer to give a wrong data representation.

4.      No Possibility to Interact: In this case the observer will not have the possibility of speaking with the target population and it will course less inflow of information.

5.      Difficult to understand some behaviours: it will result to an extent in which the organisation or the researcher carrying out this method of collecting data will not be able to explain or even understand the behaviour of a particular sub-set of the target population.

INTERVIEW METHOD

ADVANTAGES

1.      Flexible: This method is flexible because the interviewer will expect changes in the course of asking questions or discussing on a topic

2.      Accurate data information: it will be accurate because the data collected is correct and it is quality due to the fact that the data collected is from a reliable source.

3.      Motivational: the interviewer ways of putting questions to the interviewee might determine if or not to answer the questions asked and if the interviewer ask questions that are mind blowing the interviewee will be eager to respond.

4.      Additional Information can be given: the interviewee in the act of responding to question can even give out information which can be very useful to the organisation that is conducting the interview.

5.      Capture Verbal and Non-Verbal questions: it helps the interviewer to capture verbal and non-verbal questions, but this most likely help capture non-verbal questions which include body-language and this can cause discomfort with the questions.

DISADVANTAGES 

1.      Cost: this is a major disadvantage of interviews, because they require a staff of people to conduct the interviews, which means there will be personnel costs.

2.      Quality of Data by Interviewer: the quality of data receives will often depend on the interviewer, this is because some people have the natural ability to conduct and interview and gather data.

3.      Manual Data Entry: this will occur if the interview is administered on paper, then the data collected will need to be entered manually or scanned if a scan-able interview questionnaire is created.

4.      Limit Sample Size: this is as a result of gathering data from a particular subset of the target population the organisation will not have access to even half of the sample size targeted and by so doing their data gathered will be limited.

5.      Training and Practice required: the interviewer needs to be trained on how to ask questions during interview and also needs to practice the questions the organisation has set for the interview.

To summarize, this topic it is very essential for any business. Organisation are supposed to go into research before setting up a business in order for them to collect useful data and they must use either of the four methods which are the observation, interview, questionnaire and content analysis method of data collection to collect relevant data like their target population and sampled population.