MBA Notes Case Study
Nonprofit Management Students: Who they are and why they enroll
Nonprofit Management Students: Who they are and why they enroll
Summary: This is an essay which looks at the article "Nonprofit Management Students: Who They Are and Why They Enroll" by Mark. L. Wilson of Michigan University and R. Sam Larson of Applied Research, East Lansing, Michigan [Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.2002] in connection with graduate and certificate programs in non-profit management education and answers some questions from the data in the paper. The essay contains one reference.
Introduction
The essay is divided into various sections and some questions and observations from the data contained in "Nonprofit Management Students: Who They Are and Why They Enroll" by Mark. L. Wilson of Michigan University and R. Sam Larson of Applied Research, East Lansing, Michigan [Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.2002], are answered.
Analysis
Various sub-headings below discuss different aspects of the paper being discussed.
A. Brief
Non-profit management has now been recognized as a profession and non-profit managers are involved in diverse range of activities including schools of business, social work, public administration and non-profit management. More then 90 degree programs are offered in the USA up from 17 some time back and 70% are in general work.
The paper being looked at studies the students enrolled in the non-profit courses in various institutes in the USA and through a survey conducted by sending questioners to a sample of students in selected universities of six states of the USA attempts to find out more about these students with an aim to improving the study programs.
The survey attempts to look at:
-The demographic profile of the students including questions like sex, age, race / ethnic group, education, employment and characteristics of the program enrolled in i.e. masters with non-profit concentration, certificate etc.
-Reasons why students returned to school e.g. personal development, skill acquisition, career change etc.
-The important study program characteristics, which influenced the students to choose a particular program e.g. reputation, convenience, finances, non-profit community engagement etc.
The paper being discussed then attempts to statistically analyze the results of the survey conducted and reach conclusions about the results. It is found that most of the respondents were white females of varied age. Most of the students were employed full time while taking classes and locality was important to them as most of them sought to enroll close to home. The study program was chosen because of the reputation of the program and its concentration on non-profits and the students decided to study because of personal development and skill enhancement as well as financial benefits. The educational expenses were offset by the financial support of the employers.
Few differences between the students were found on the basis of demographics and the type of course being studied i.e. certificate or degree. Usually a suitable program with a strong reputation within one hour of home or work was enrolled in.
The paper is, therefore, an attempt to learn about the educational interests and needs of non-profit managers and with future research into why students choose the non-profit program it will help improve the program and its availability at suitable institutions.
Research Development
The following important points about the subject of the paper are observed by reading the paper.
1. Main Research Question of the paper is to study the demand side, i.e. the students of the non-profit management courses being studied in representative institutions in six states of the USA.
2. Theory used to guide the research process is the Statistical Sampling and Estimation Theory and Hypothesis testing in which students from representative universities in six states were studied to arrive at the conclusions.
3. Hypothesis about the relationships between variables found through research is that the variables are correlated to various degrees. Thus there are various degrees of correlation between race and requirements, race and finances and age and finances.
Measures
The measures that were used in the study such as race, age, finances etc are statistical measures. In relation to these, we observe the following:
4 (a). The authors used correlation analysis, calculating r, to examine the relationship bbetween the measures that they were using.
(b). The findings of the authors in regard to the study were that there is a correlation between race and requirements and between race and finances while there is a moderate correlation between age and finances. Minority students rated finances / requirements more important then white / causations. There is also a marginally significant relationship between age and focus on local programs.
5. So, how can we reduce measurement errors, random or systematic? One thing you can do is to pilot test your instruments, getting feedback from your respondents regarding how easy or hard the measure was and information about how the testing environment affected their performance. Second, if you are gathering measures using people to collect the data (as interviewers or observers) you should make sure you train them thoroughly so that they aren't inadvertently introducing error. Third, when you collect the data for your study you should double-check the data thoroughly.
Research Design
6. The research design for this study was to sample selected six universities offering graduate and certificate courses in six states of the USA and use their selected student population for a sample survey of the population.
The universities selected from the regions in the USA were selected randomly with random student population and therefore the design is randomized or true experiment as opposed to quasi-experiment or non-experiment.
The experiment is then R O O type experiment in which there is no treatment and second observation involved.
A true experimental design is a design in which subjects are randomly designed to programs and control groups. With this technique, every member of the target group has an equal chance of being selected for the sample. The fact that every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected for the sample makes this design the strongest method for establishing equivalence between a program and control group.
7. The method of data collection was responding to and filling out a survey form with questions. The survey form was to be returned after questions being answered. The benefits are that it is relatively in expensive to conduct and the disadvantage is that an insufficiently large sample of the population may be covered.
8. The response rate of the survey was 50% and reducing the number of questions and offering incentives for responding could have improved it.
Sample Selection
9. The population of interest in this program is the students studying graduate and certificate courses in the USA.
10. The unit of analysis is students studying a certificate or graduate course in non-profit management in the USA.
11. The non-random sampling technique employed is stratified sampling. In this form of sampling the population is divided into homogeneous sub-groups and then taking a sample in each subgroup. Divide the population into non-overlapping groups (i.e., strata) N1, N2, N3, ... Ni, such that N1 + N2 + N3 + ... + Ni = N. Then do a simple random sample of f = n/N in each strata.
12. The listing of the accessible population from which the researcher will draw the sample is called the sampling frame. In this case the sampling frame is 520.
13. The limitations that arise from not using SRS are that it would not have been possible to take representative samples from the whole if this sampling technique had not been used. Stratified random sampling has more precision then simple random sampling. There could, therefore, be errors arising from non-homogeneous whole and dispersion of students. Disproportionate stratified sampling could have been used if it had been thought that the universities sampled had student populations which were widely different but the researchers did not think that it would have given any more precision to the research.
Sample Size
14. The lot size N of this study is the student population studying certificate and graduate courses in non-profit management in USA.
15. Two considerations for determining the optimal sample size for this study is bias and dispersion which is acceptable i.e. the variance and the acceptable error in the estimate for a measure. We consider the sampling distribution and take into consideration the sampling error with the 68, 95, and 99 per cent rule.
For starters, we assume that the mean of the sampling distribution is the mean of the sample. Then, we calculate the standard error. To do this, we use the standard deviation for our sample and the sample size and we come up with a standard error of. Now we have everything we need to estimate a confidence interval for the population parameter.
16. The authors did attempt to address the representative ness of their sample by taking representative regions of the USA and selecting six institutions in diverse regions of USA.
Findings
17. The authors' main findings were that there are few differences between the students because of age, race, gender and region and they had all selected their courses because they were one hour's drive from home or work to the institution where it was being taught and the course had a strong reputation. There was a marginal significance between age and local program
18 (a). The limitation that was acknowledged by the authors about their questionnaire / survey instrument was that it only captured the views of 250 students in six programs.
(b). Their recommendation about future research in the area is research on decision by students to undertake courses in non-profit management versus other courses. This is given in the article by the authors.
II SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE DEVELOPMENT
A. Reconstruction of the questionnaire
The questionnaire that would have been used to collect the data in this paper is as presented below.
Survey for students enrolled in non-profit courses
Name and age
What is your name: Your age:
Sex
Male: Female:
Race
White / Caucasian: African American: Asian / Pacific Islander:
Hispanic: Chicano / Mexican American: Native American:
Other:
Previous Education
Baccalaureate: Bachelors: Doctorate:
Field of previous education
Arts and letters / liberal education: Social sciences:
Government / public education: Communications:
Employment status employment prior to starting the course
Employed full time: Part time: Unemployed:
Were you employed prior to starting your course:
Type of employment prior to starting the course
Non-profit organization: Government:
Profit organization:
Employment while enrolled in classes
Working outside the university: Non-profit organization:
Government agency: Profit firm:
Type of employment while enrolled in classes
Working full time: Volunteers / internees / graduate assistants:
Unemployed:
Your current study program
Master degree: Master's of non-profit management / philanthropy:
Masters with non-profit concentration: Certificate:
When did you start your program
Near completion: Half way: Started in past two terms:
Reasons for returning to school
Personal development: Skill acquisition: Increase income:
New employment opportunities: Career change:
Promotion with present employer: Suggested by employer:
Support for your studies from your employer
Employer is providing financial support: Employer providing time off:
No support by employer:
Geographic consideration in selection of course to attend
Place bound with program within one hour's drive:
Program outside geographic location:
Distance learning:
How many programs did you consider prior to selecting your current program
One program: Two or three programs:
How long did you think before enrolling in your current program
Less then one year: About one year: About two years:
Circle from one to five the important considerations in selecting current program
( 1, very important; 5, not important)
Reputation
Reputation of program 1 2 3 4 5
Reputation of University 1 2 3 4 5
Teaching reputation of faculty 1 2 3 4 5
Quality of faculty research 1 2 3 4 5
Program placement record 1 2 3 4 5
Nonprofit / Community engagement
Specialization in non-profits 1 2 3 4 5
Program-practitioner engagement 1 2 3 4 5
Program-community engagement 1 2 3 4 5
Convenience
Proximity of classes to work 1 2 3 4 5
Evening or weekend classes 1 2 3 4 5
Requirements
Academic requirements 1 2 3 4 5
Work experience requirements 1 2 3 4 5
Enrolment deadline 1 2 3 4 5
Finances
Cost of tuition /classes 1 2 3 4 5
Financial assistance 1 2 3 4 5
Availability of assistantships 1 2 3 4 5
B. Relationship between Survey Instrument and Data Analysis
1. Your current study program is measured at the nominal level while reputation in selection of program is measured at the ordinal level.
In nominal measurement the numerical values just "name" the attribute uniquely. No ordering of the cases is implied. For example, jersey numbers in basketball are measures at the nominal level. A player with number 30 is not more of anything than a player with number 15, and is certainly not twice whatever number 15 is. An example of the nominal measurement is the age of a student.
In ordinal measurements, the measurements are rank ordered. The variable "reputation of the program" is an ordinal measurement.
2. Although the authors did not present this data in their article, please provide for each level of measurement, the appropriate measures of central tendency and variability
The table below illustrates different measures of central tendency for different levels of measurement calculated using SPSS package and standard statistical formulas.
Mean Standard deviation
Gender Female 42.4264
Age 33.33 3.2146
Ethnic Group White 31.1601
Education Bacculerate 35.3777
Bacculerate Holders Arts letters/liberal education 6.4807
Or Social Sciences
Employment Employed 63.6396
Employment Sector in Non-profit 25.9808
pre-course employment
Nature of prior employment Full time 59.3970
Employment while enrolled Outside the university 33.9411
Nature of student work Nonprofit 26.5016
Full time 38.7857
Level of course Masters 36.7696
Area of study Masters of non-profit 9.0185
or non-profit conc.
Completion of course Nearly completed 7.556
Reasons for taking course Personal growth /Skill 33.5949
Acquisition/New employment
Employer support Financial / time off 25.0067
Program location considerations Local 32.9292
Classroom / Distance learning Classroom 52.3259
No of programs considered Two to three 2.8284
Time of deliberation Less then one year 8.3267
Reputation as factor of program choice Reputation of program 23.4521
University/ Faculty
Non-profit / community engagement Specialization in non-profit 8.0
As a factor of choice /Program-practitioner engagement
Convenience factors in program Proximity of classes to home 3.5355
Choice or work
Requirements influencing choice Academic 15.0997
Financial factors affecting program Cost of tuition 18.2483
Choice and financial assistance
3. Using 1 to 5, (from important to not important), is an appropriate statistic for this level of analysis. The authors could have used from 1 to 10 if they wanted finer discrimination but it was not required because the statistic variance was sufficient.
4 (a). The r level of 0.18 means moderate correlation. This is the conclusion that we reach by consulting the statistical tables found in many statistics texts.
(b). The measure age is the independent variable since it is a variable that nature manipulates while focus is the dependent variable since it is what is affected by the independent variable..
Conclusion
Various aspects of the paper "Nonprofit Management Students: Who They Are and Why They Enroll" by Mark. L. Wilson of Michigan University and R. Sam Larson of Applied Research, East Lansing, Michigan were looked at and the findings and data presented were discussed in terms of the theory of statistical analysis
References
1. Social Research second edition by Don G. McTavish and Herman J. Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. 2002. "Nonprofit Management Students: Who They Are and Why They Enroll" by Mark. L. Wilson of Michigan University and R. Sam Larson of Applied Research, East Lansing, Michigan
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