What can you learn by putting out a survey on social media. This is my groups survey project that we put on Facebook. What can I learn from this?

Abstract

Does knowing a colleague's political position influence workplace communication? We were interested in knowing how the intense emotions of today's hot-button issues impact communication in the workplace. Does workplace activism create a hostile work environment? Can people work well together when they stand on opposing sides of the important issues of today?

We took a convenience sample by posting to Facebook and asking friends and relatives to complete the survey. 51 people responded. The outcome or 'dependent' variable of the research question is "freedom of expression" or the comfort one feels expressing their views and beliefs in alignment with company policies. What we found was that the population surveyed does not feel one way or the other about whether knowing a colleague's political position influences workplace communication.

Researching Communication in the Workplace

We hypothesized that people would feel that knowing someone's political views would influence workplace communication. Provided a person works a full time work schedule, they are spending close to a third of their day at the workplace. This means that the quality of the communication in the workplace can have a great impact on the overall quality of an employees life. Part of workplace communication is the feeling that you have the freedom to express yourself and express your opinions, and whether or not those opinions will be respected by others in that workplace community. This research seeks to better understand the workplace environments we create, and how people feel that they are able to communicate with each other within those environments. People who work with others are the people we are focused on researching.

Method

Measures

We had one quantitative variable and used the single sample t-test to estimate a single population mean.

See The Appendix for scales

Our scales were developed by identifying the positive and negative statements associated with communication in the workplace and comfort level of expressing oneself politically in the workforce as well. We each made a list of questions related to the subject and worked together to determine which would be most suitable for our research. We determined together which would be most appropriate to "flip" and ask in the negative sense.

Participants

We posted the survey on Facebook and asked friends and family to complete. We collected 51 responses.

Demographics:

# counts for Age.Group

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 and older

4 8 22 5 8 4

# percentages for Age.Group

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 and older

7.84 15.69 43.14 9.80 15.69 7.84

# counts for Education.Level

Associates degree or equivalent professional certificate

23

Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional certificate

10

Doctorate

1

High school diploma or equivalent

14

High school diploma or equivalent;Associates degree or equivalent professional certificate

1

Master's degree

2

# percentages for Education.Level

Associates degree or equivalent professional certificate

45.10

Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional certificate

19.61

Doctorate

1.96

High school diploma or equivalent

27.45

High school diploma or equivalent;Associates degree or equivalent professional certificate

1.96

Master's degree

3.92

# counts for Ethnicity

Black/African American Hispanic/Latino Other Prefer not to say White/Caucasian

1 3 1 2 44

# percentages for Ethnicity

Black/African American Hispanic/Latino Other Prefer not to say White/Caucasian

1.96 5.88 1.96 3.92 86.27

# counts for Income.Level

$100k to $150k $10k to $50k $50k to $100k Below $10k Below

9 18 19 1

Over $150k

3

$100k to $150k $10k to $50k $50k to $100k Below $10k Below $10k;Over $150k

17.65 35.29 37.25 1.96 1.96

Over $150k

5.88

Analysis Plan

The single variable we had was a person's comfort with knowing political views of colleagues in the workplace.

Our variable is quantitative because we are measuring on a scale of 0-4.

We will use a single sample t-test with tails. We tested if mu is neutral (2).

Results

Descriptive statistics: X bar = 1.8655, s = .6558, n = 51

H0: mu = 2

H1: mu! = does not =2

Alpha: 0.05

We checked our assumptions by recognizing the variable is normal. Our sample size is larger (51) so we meet the assumption and can run our test.

Test statistic: -1.4641

Df = 50

Confidence interval = 1.681087, 2.050005

p.value = .1494

We are 95% confident that the population mean would fall between 1.7 and 2.1 that are indifferent about whether knowing a colleague's political position influences workplace communication.

The p-value is greater than alpha so we fail to reject the null hypothesis.

It is fair to assume that the average number of individuals don't know whether knowing a colleague's political position has any influence on workplace communication.

Discussion

We determined that the population does not feel one way or another about whether knowing political views would influence communication at work. We are surprised by the findings because of how polarizing politics are right now. This tells us that more data should be collected to learn more. The findings may suggest people do not feel that politics are influencing communication and openness among colleagues.

We are surprised by the findings because people seem to be very divided politically. Democrats and Republicans seem to place the primary blame on the other party for the things that are wrong in society. We would expect this negativity to affect communication at work.

We did not have the time or resources to conduct an expensive or lengthy test. For this reason, we were limited in how we conducted our sampling. We could have done things differently, we could have improved our sampling by doing a larger non- convenience sampling by paying for advertising on social media. We could have also used resources on campus to add to a larger sample.

Appendix

Complete Questionnaire

Race/Ethnicity:

White/Caucasian

Black/African American

Hispanic/Latino

Native American/American Indian

Asian/Pacific Islander

Middle Eastern

Mixed Race

Other

Prefer not to say

Sex:

Female

Male

Other

Prefer not to say

Age:

18-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-64

65 and older

Education:

What is your highest level of education?

Less than high school

High school diploma or equivalent

Associates degree or equivalent professional certificate

Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional certificate

Masters degree

Doctorate

Political Alignment

Democrat

Democrat leaning

Moderate (neither Democrat nor Republican)

Republican leaning

Republican

Independant

Libertarian

Other___________

Income Level

Below $10k

$10k to $50k

$50k to $100k

$100k to $150k

Over $150k

On a scale of 0-4, zero being you strongly disagree with the statement, four being you strongly agree with the statement, how would you rate your experience in your current, or most recent, work environment.

Communication In The Workplace

1 I think politics should stay out of the workplace.

2 I am uncomfortable having conversations regarding my political beliefs with coworkers.

3 My supervisor creates an environment where I am comfortable expressing my political opinions.

4 It is important to me to express my political beliefs in the workplace.

5 I feel my politics separate me from others at work.

6 I am comfortable discussing my political beliefs and values in the workplace.

7I do not feel open to hearing about my coworkers' different beliefs and values while at work.

8 I feel that I am able to openly communicate about politics with my boss.

9 I feel optimistic about upcoming election seasons and the social climate it will create in my work environment.

10 I feel that sharing my political views would create tension for me at work.

11 I can maintain great working relationships with those whose politics are very different from my own.

12 I feel that I am unable to openly communicate about politics with my boss.

13 I often have conversations regarding my political beliefs with coworkers.

14 I am open to understanding my coworkers beliefs and values that are different from my own.