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PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 123

average age, earnings, nature of occupation, full-time/part-time employment
status, and the like. This might help him to elicit further information or decide
right away on the types of individuals who should be made ineligible for loans
in the future.

Example 6.3 A CEO may be interested in having a description of organizations in her indus-
try that follow the LIFO system. In this case, the report might include the age of
the organizations, their locations, their production levels, assets, sales, inventory
levels, suppliers, and profits. Such information might allow comparison later of
the performance levels of specific types of companies.

Example 6.4 A marketing manager might want to develop a pricing, sales, distribution, and
advertising strategy for her product. With this in mind, she might ask for infor-
mation regarding the competitors, with respect to the following:
1. The percentage of companies who have prices higher and lower than the
industry norm; a profile of the terms of sale; and the percentage where prices
are controlled regionally instead of from central headquarters.
2. The percentage of competitors hiring in-house staff to handle sales and those
who use independent agents.
3. Percentage of sales groups organized by product line, by accounts, and by
region.
4. The types of distribution channels used and the percentage of customers
using each.
5. Percentage of competitors spending more dollars on advertising/promotion
than the firm and those spending less; a categorization of their target audi-
ence, and the types of media most frequently used.
6. Percentage of those using the web (“dot coms”) to sell the product.

Descriptive studies thus become essential in many situations. Whereas quali-
tative data obtained by interviewing individuals may help the understanding of
phenomena at the exploratory stages of a study, quantitative data in terms of fre-
quencies, or mean and standard deviations, become necessary for descriptive
studies. A report on a descriptive study of the reaction of organizational mem-
bers to a proposal to introduce an on-site child care facility, for instance, might
look somewhat like this:

Whereas 30% of the employees were in favor of the idea, at least 40% felt that
on-site child care facility was unnecessary. Twenty percent indicated that it
would benefit only those with preschool children and hence would be unfair
to the others who cannot use the facility. The remaining 10% suggested the
introduction of a cafeteria style of benefits, so that employees could opt for
what they preferred.