Study the research proposal based on the excerpt of a report on digital gender divide prepared by the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation and answer the questions that follow. Bridging the Digital Gender Divide: Include, Upskill, Innovate Digital transformation the effects on economies and societies of digitisation and the use of interconnected digital technologies and data is offering new opportunities across the world, and holds promises for enhanced productivity growth and improved well-being of all citizens. However, a significant gender gap in the access, use and ownership of digital technologies is still present in many G20 economies and beyond, limiting the equitable realisation of the benefits of digital transformation. Furthermore, the transformation is profoundly changing the content and nature of jobs and the skills needed to perform them. This uncertainty clouds the potential impact of digitalisation on the labour market for women: new and more flexible jobs can foster greater labour market participation and better, more formal jobs, but new challenges appear as automation and ICTs spread across sectors and occupations and potentially erode existing labour policies and standards. Fresh insights and evidence are needed, to enable governments to accurately diagnose issues and take steps to empower all individuals in our increasingly digital world. Recognising both the opportunities that digitalisation is providing for the economic empowerment of all, including women, and the challenges of ensuring that the benefits of the digital transformation are being equitably shared, G20 Ministers responsible for the Digital Economy in their 2017 Roadmap for Digitalisation: Polices for a Digital Future (the Roadmap), committed to share national practices on bridging the digital gender divide, and to consider taking action across a range of key policy areas. This important commitment by G20 Ministers responsible for the Digital Economy is part of the broad effort that G20 economies are making to promote gender equality globally, including through the debates on skills in the digital era taking place in the G20 Employment Working Group and the G20 Education Working Group. G20 Leaders first committed to womens full economic and social participation as part of their agenda in Los Cabos (2012), with an important follow-up commitment to reduce the gender gap in labour market participation by 25% by 2025 at the 2014 Brisbane Summit. These important aims serve to support a new source of inclusive global economic growth, as well as working to achieve gender equality (Sustainable Development Goal [SDG] 5) and implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Agenda. In support of this broad effort and particularly to take forward the gender dimension of the 2017 Roadmap, the Australian Government asked the OECD to carry out work aimed at strengthening evidence and analysis related to bridging the digital gender divide. The work provides a valuable complement to the initiative of the Argentinian 2018 G20 Presidency to share those policies, actions and national practices that have had a significant and measurable impact in bridging the digital gender divide. This report presented the outcomes and findings of a multifaceted approach integrating complementary work, articulated around the following key areas of analysis:

1. The gender divide and digital technologies, providing an overview of the gender divide in access, uptake and usage of technological tools and the extent of digital financial inclusion worldwide, in particular regarding the use of ICT and digital platforms, mobile phones and digital payments by women.

2. Leapfrogging opportunities for reducing the gender gap, discussing some of the many opportunities that digital technologies offer for narrowing the digital gender divide.

3. Skills for the digital era, discussing how the pervasiveness of digital technologies changes the way individuals access and elaborate knowledge, understand and interact with the reality around them, and whether women and girls possess the (set of) skills allowing for a deeper understanding and meaningful use of digital technologies. The objective should be to equip women and girls with the skills needed to thrive in the digital era.

4. Jobs and skills in the digital transformation, shedding light on whether women are equipped with the skills needed to navigate the world of work in the digital economy analysing the returns to skills, in terms of wages, for men and women in digital and less digital intensive sectors and discussing how digital platforms can be leveraged to boost women's labour force participation and help achieve the G20 25 by 25 goal.

5. Women and innovation, proposing a first-time analysis of the participation of women in innovation activities and output at the core of the digital transformation, i.e. both technological developments and open-source software. This section also includes an analysis of tech entrepreneurial activity as reflected in VC activity.

6. Learning from experience, presenting existing national practices for economic empowerment of women, drawing on a stocktaking exercise of national initiatives.

7. Bridging the digital gender divide: the role of policy, synthesising the main policy implications of the overall analysis and identifying possible policy directions for consideration by G20 governments. In each of its components, the report sought to identify and discuss the broad range of drivers at the root of the digital gender divide, ranging from barriers to access and affordability, to education and technical literacy, to socio-cultural attitudes and biases.

Source: http://www.oecd.org/digital/bridging-the-digital-gender-divide.pdf Motivation for the proposed study Recognising the global shift towards the digital economy, the Public Service Commission has contracted a team of organisational researchers to conduct a study with the aim of developing a gender-sensitive digital strategy for bridging the digital gender divide across the South African public sector. Due to the complex nature of the subject matter, the team has agreed to conduct two separate studies concurrently, one using a qualitative approach and the other a quantitative approach to the inquiry. The research report will include a consolidated conclusion and recommendations drawn from the two studies. Please note: Students living outside South Africa are encouraged to relate the inquiry to the public sector in their respective countries

Question 1

1. Propose a title for the inquiry and, on the basis of the 5W framework, assess the appropriateness of the title you have proposed.

1.2 Formulate FIVE (5) research objectives for the proposed study. TWO (2) of the research objectives should be formulated for the qualitative study, TWO (2) should be formulated for the quantitative study and the last should focus on practical recommendations to the management of the public sector organisation.

1.3 On the basis of the FIVE (5) research objectives formulated in 1.2, formulate FIVE (5) associated research questions that the two studies will attempt to answer.

1.4 State the aim and significance of the inquiry.

1.5 State briefly the broad areas of inquiry that would inform the literature review for the proposed inquiry.

Question 2

Highlight the distinguishing characteristics of the quantitative and qualitative approaches to the inquiry in terms of the sampling methodology. Your discussion should highlight the sample size, the (non)random nature of the selection of study participants and the methods of sampling typically associated with the quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. For each approach, a method of sampling should be proposed supported by compelling reasons.

Question 3

Distinguish between the quantitative and qualitative approaches to the inquiry with regard to the collection for data for the inquiry. Your discussion should highlight the research instruments and main methods of data collection that you would consider for the quantitative and qualitative approaches, the piloting of the study and how you would address the criteria of the quality of the study. For each approach, a method of data collection should be proposed supported by compelling reasons.

Question 4

For the quantitative study, a pilot study has been initiated to determine whether perceived improvement in employee performance, as an outcome of the gendered digital strategy, differs across gender. Using an instrument with a standardized scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the lowest possible rating and 10 being the highest), the pilot study posed the question: To what extent has the introduction of the gendered digital strategy improved your performance at your place of work? The pilot data was collected from ten employees (4 females and 6 males) as shown in Table 4.1, below. Respondents # Gender Perceived improvement in performance due to gendered digital strategy 00001 Male 4 00002 Male 3 00003 Female 5 00004 Female 6 00005 Male 6 00006 Female 7 00007 Female 7 00008 Male 5 00009 Male 7 00010 Male 5 Table 4.3: Ranks Gender N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks Employee performance Males 6 26.50 159.00 Females 4 28.50 114.00 Total 10 Table 4.4: Test Statisticsa Employee performance Mann-Whitney U 5.500 Wilcoxon W 114.00 Z -.914 Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .361 a. Grouping Variable: Gender. The data was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 25 and the output showed in Table 4.2 to Table 4.6 was produced. Due to the small sample size of 10, a non-parametric test was conducted. Table 4.2: Descriptive Statistics Gender N Mean Std. Deviation Minimum Maximum Employee performance Males 6 5.000 1.414 3.000 7.000 Females 4 6.250 0.957 5.000 7.000 REQUIRED:

Provide full details on how the concept of hypothesis testing applies to the data analysis conducted in the pilot study. 4.1 (4 marks)

Relate the level of significance employed in a statistical analysis to the type-I and type-II errors of hypothesis testing. 4.2 (5 marks)

Provide information on which inferential test was run to determine whether there is a significant difference in employee performance across gender? Provide reasons for choosing this inferential test. 4.3 (6 marks)

4.4 Interpret the output of the data analysis and state the main primary findings from the pilot study. (7 marks)

4.5 Highlight a major limitation of the pilot study. (3 marks)