A Social Psychologist's Study on Leadership Style and Worker Productivity

Hypothesis Testing for Leadership Style and Worker Productivity:

Step 1: State the Research Question and Hypotheses:

Research Question: Does the leadership style (democratic vs. autocratic) significantly affect the productivity of workers in assembling fax machines?

Null Hypothesis (H0): There is no significant difference in the average number of fax machines assembled per hour between teams under democratic and autocratic leadership.

Alternative Hypothesis (Ha): There is a significant difference in the average number of fax machines assembled per hour between teams under democratic and autocratic leadership.

Step 2: Choose the Statistical Test:

Since we are comparing the means of two independent groups (democratic and autocratic teams) of equal size (15 each), we will use a two-sample t-test.

Step 3: Collect and Analyze Data:

We need data on the average number of fax machines assembled per hour for both teams (15 democratic and 15 autocratic workers).

Calculate the relevant data: means, standard deviations, and sample size for each group.

Step 4: Set the Significance Level:

The significance level typically used is α = 0.05 (5%). This means we will reject the null hypothesis if the p-value is less than 0.05.

Step 5: Conduct the t-test:

Use a statistical software package or calculator to perform the t-test with the collected data. This will provide the:

- t-statistic

- Degrees of freedom (df)

- p-value

Step 6: Interpret the Results:

Compare the p-value to the significance level:

If p-value < α (0.05), reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is a significant difference in productivity between the two leadership styles.

If p-value ≥ α (0.05), fail to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is no evidence of a significant difference in productivity based on the given data.