Question

Employees at a fast food restaurant are

to receive one of two types of
feedback (supportive or critical) and
are assigned to receive more schedule
flexibility or not. It is expected that
these two variables (feedback and
flexibility) will affect worker
productivity and may even interact
with one another. Which statistical test
would be most appropriate for this
scenario?
O correlation (one-tail, positive)
correlation (one-tail, negative)
correlation (two-tail)
O ANOVA (F-test)
O
paired/dependent t-test (one-tail)
paired/dependent t-test (two-tail)
independent t-test (one-tail)
independent t-test (two-tail)

Answer 1

The ANOVA (F-test) is the appropriate statistical test for analyzing the impact of two independent variables, feedback and schedule flexibility, on employee productivity in a fast food restaurant, since it can compare multiple groups and check for interaction effects.

Step-by-step explanation:

The most appropriate statistical test for the scenario where the productivity of employees at a fast food restaurant is expected to be affected by two factors – the type of feedback (supportive or critical) and the presence or absence of schedule flexibility – is the ANOVA (F-test). This test is suitable because it allows for the examination of more than two groups (combinations of feedback and flexibility) and determines whether there are any statistically significant differences between the mean productivity levels across these groups. Moreover, if there is an interaction between feedback and flexibility, ANOVA can handle this as well.

ANOVA analyzes the variance within groups and between groups to see whether the means are different enough to be statistically significant. It is the right choice in this case since correlation would not be adequate; it generally measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables, which is not what is being assessed here. The paired/dependent t-test and independent t-test are not suitable because they only compare two means, whereas we are dealing with more than two groups.