Dr. Jones works as an industrial/organizational psychologist for
a large microchip manufacturing plant in
Phoenix, AZ. The company is contemplating moving to a flex-time
work schedule for its employees. Instead of working 5 days a week
at the traditional 8-hour shift from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm with an
hour off for lunch, employees will work four 10-hour shifts
choosing which 4 days to work. Although other
companies have reported that flex time schedules increase both
employee morale and production levels, the company executives are
concerned that not enough employees will be on site during critical
production times.
They ask Dr. Jones to carry out an evaluation study of the new
work schedule. There are two fabrication units at the
plant, Fab A and Fab B. Company records give monthly production
levels for each unit. Dr. Jones chooses to move all employees in
Fab A to the new flex schedule for the next three months. Employees
in Fab B will stay on their old schedule. The figure
attached to the first question shows chip production levels for the
two units for the 3 month trial period (2010) along with comparable
data from the previous year (2009). What type of study
is this? Is there an independent variable? Dependent variable? Why
is it unlikely that a true experiment could be performed? How many
different groups of participants were there? What was the
hypothesis of this study and what are the conclusions from looking
at the data?