A researcher wants to study the impact of different incentive structures on employee productivity
Scenario A. A researcher wants to study the impact of different incentive structures on employee productivity. Employees in sales group 1 are assigned to receive a monetary bonus, sales group 2 is assigned extra vacation days, and sales group 3 is given public recognition for meeting productivity goals over 3 months.
1.What is the independent variable in scenario A?
The company
The researchers
Employee productivity
The employees
The incentive structure
2.How many levels are there for this IV?
Here's why:
- An independent variable is the factor that is being manipulated or controlled by the researcher to see its effect on something else.
- In this scenario, the researchers are deliberately changing the incentive structure (monetary bonus, vacation days, public recognition) for different employee groups.
- Employee productivity and other variables might be affected, but they are not being manipulated in this case.
- There are 3 levels for this independent variable:
- Monetary bonus (assigned to sales group 1)
- Extra vacation days (assigned to sales group 2)
- Public recognition (assigned to sales group 3)