CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction

This chapter focuses on the methodology used in carrying out the research process in this study
and highlights the instruments and techniques used to seek solution to the research problem. It
consists of the Research Design, A Description of the Study Area, Population and Sample Size,
Sources of Data, Sampling Procedure, Research Instruments, Data collection Procedure, Data
Analysis, and Ethical Consideration. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of
staff motivation on business productivity at Sierra tropical limited (STL) Bo district-Sierra
Leone.

3. 1 Research Design

The research design is a mixed-method that is, it is both qualitative and quantitative in style
because it uses discussions and raw figures either to explain issues in the literature review or
taking presentations of raw data in numbers. Since it uses mixed-methods in conducting the
research, the design provides for the identification of a study location from which the population
and sample size is drawn as concrete evidence of a targeted community.

3.2 Study Area

The study area that is identified in the process of carrying out the research work is the Sumbuya
local community in Lugbu chiefdom of Bo district in the southern region of the country where
Sierra Tropical Limited (STL) is located. For instance, Sumbuya Township is Mende dominated,
though other tribal groups and ethnicities are also part of the business community of persons that
are miners, buyers of minerals, rice traders and board traders are the richest persons that can be
seen in this locality. The entire Sumbuya Township and its entire surroundings are mining areas
with few farmers of rice and other vegetables, and the Sierra Tropical Limited is among the few
farms on which its productivity is highly dependent by workers, citizens in the community and
its surroundings, other business people and organizations in other countries. It is specifically set
up as a business company that maximizes profits from the income that is invested in the
production of pineapple and other subsequent business transactions as an entity.

The Sierra Tropical Limited (STL)) is a company established under the licensure and
management of the Japanese Itochu cooperation with holdings derived from the Dole foods. For
instance, the Dole Foods is believed to have been the first company to seek holdings form the
Japanese Itochu Corporation which is an old registered in the world that has growing pineapple
plantation farms. The Dole foods form which Sierra Tropical Limited (STL)is seeking holdings
is considered to be one of the world's oldest growers of pineapple plantation farms because it is
one of the tropical fruits in Africa which has great nutritional food values.

Moreover, The Sierra Tropical Limited (STL) is a well-established tropical food growing
company that has contributed to the feeding of many Sierra Leoneans, especially those living in
the big cities and towns where the produce is sold. The productivity rate of this company has
attracted many big investors in the production of tropical juice by the factories and mini-factories
that are in the country and even outside of Sierra Leone. The company has many employees, and
many over the past years, have left the company because of one reason or the other, while the
management and administration have tried to also have employed more new staff. The company
is cultivating pineapples mainly in this part of the country, the Lugbu chiefdom of Bo district
Sierra Leone.

The reason for the establishment of Sierra Tropical Limited (STL) in Sumbuya Bo district is that
the Sumbuya locality has a very fertile soil which the company saw fit for the growth and
sustainability of Tropical fruits, especially pineapples. Therefore, the staffs that are employed by
this company have to work hard to sustain the business as an institution of employing agency in
this part of the country. The issue of motivating them to work hard to achieve the goals and
objectives of the business as a profit-making establishment depends on the innovations of their
managers and the investors of the company.

3.3. Population and Sample Size

A data sample is a set of data selected from a statistical population by a defined procedure.
However, the sample size is the act of choosing the number of observations to include in a
statistical sample. Also, the sample size may be described as a subset from a larger population
(Sudman, 2016). This would mean that, before thinking of the samples, one must have a clear
picture of the population from which the sample size is to be selected. According to Gay and

Airasian (2010), a sample size comprises individuals, items, or events selected from a larger
group referred to as a population.

The population or sample frame for the study was one hundred and fifty (150) members of the
Sumbuya community and they comprised men and women of staff of the Sierra Tropical Limited
(STL) currently employed, resigned, sacked or retired and key stakeholders who are well
informed about the activities of the company. This population size gave the researcher the
opportunity to gain a broader perspective of the study at hand. From this population, fifty (50)
participants’, twenty-five (25) males and twenty-five (25) females became the key participant of
the respondents of the study.

3.4 Sampling Procedure

The Researcher used the random sampling procedure to draw the sample size needed for the
study from the general number of one hundred and fifty (150) participants who were contacted to
serve as part of the population of the study. There are several sampling procedures in empirical
researches generally, but for the purpose of conducting this study, the researcher used the
random sampling procedure to draw the sample from the number of participants selected as part
of the population of the study. The aspects that encompassed random sampling processes, it is
systematic, chronological in the way and manner in which participants were being selected as
part of sample needed from the general number that counts as population of the study.

The procedure started right from the population selection process, where the names of each of
the persons contacted for the purpose of the study and gave their consent were written in a
notepad that contain pertinent information to the research work. The names of the one hundred
and fifty (150) participants, seventy-five (75) males and seventy-five (75) females serving as
population of the study were written on slips or papers, each pre-folded and placed into two
separate bags, one for males and the other, females. The researcher started with the bag
containing pre-folded names of male participants and the slips in the bag were mixed up
properly. The slips were taken out of the bag in sets of three and each third slip formed part of
the respondents until all in the bag were completed and twenty-five (25) male respondents
selected. The same procedure was carried out for the female participants and twenty-five (25)
female respondents were also selected. In total, fifty (50) respondents were selected for the
study.

This sampling procedure was said to be free of the bias behaviours that can be commonly
identified in the sample selection procedure that are present in the world of empirical studies.
Therefore, many of the research work that uses random sampling procedure have been developed
in full-blown projects that have been funded for practical implementation programmes at local
community levels (Joseph, 2017:35).

3.5 Sources of Data

Data for this study were derived from two key sources, Primary and Secondary Data.
Primary Data: The researcher collected primary data for this study through semi structured
interviews and administration of questionnaires from respondents with direct experience of what
the study was all about.
Secondary Data: On the other hand, the researcher collected secondary data for the study
mainly from books, journal and articles of other writers which he consulted that were related to
the research.

3.6 Research Instruments

Research instruments or tools may be defined as those things that become means of collecting
information for one's study (Trochion, 2013). According to Borg and Gall (2009:130),
questionnaires, interviews and observations are the most common instruments for data collection
in research. In this study, unstructured interviews and questionnaires were employed for data
collection.

3.6.1 Interviews

The researcher conducted interviews that were not planned with respondents, they were very
impromptu and no written documents about the information received from conducting this
exercise. The interviews were impromptu in that these sources of information received pertaining
the objectives of the study were only seen as first-hand information collected on each of the
problems placed under investigation. During the interviews, questions were asked that have
relation to either the economic, educational, or social effects of motivation on business
productivity at Sierra Tropical Limited (STL) at Sumbuya Bo district Sierra Leone. Respondents
were required to give their views on suggestions to improve on the effects of staff motivation on
business productivity at the company.

More so, the views that were given by each respondent during the interview sessions were only
meant to be understood as prior information that kept the researcher prepared and well set before
going to administer questionnaires on these same questions in the near future. The information
collected during the interview conducted were not part of the findings reported as presentations
to be made at the end of the exercise.

3.6.2 Questionnaires

The researcher drafted questionnaires investigating the effects of staff motivation on business
productivity of the Sierra Tropical Limited (STL) at Sumbuya Bo district Sierra Leone. For
instance, the test items were related to the key objectives of the study that were transformed into
research questions. This is the reason why the Questionnaire have four sections, each of those
sections solicits information from the respondents pertaining to either giving their views on the
economic, educational, and social effects of staff motivation on business productivity at Sierra
Tropical Limited (STL) at Sumbuya Bo district and suggestions to enhance on the effects of staff
motivation on the business productivity of the same company in the said area.

Again, the questionnaires consist of open-ended questions which required respondents to fill in
their views on any of the questions posted to them on the test items during the instrumentation
period. The answers that were given to the questions, that is the views of the respondents were
correlated to ascertain those opinions that are the same, the ones that are similar and the others
that totally or slightly different in meaning. The views of the respondents were correlated
according to the options (A-E) provided on the questionnaires that were used for collecting the
major data of the study. The number of respondents was reported on tables (1-4) with the
frequency (f) and equal percentage (%) as seen on the tables included in the work.
3. 7. Data Collection Procedure

The data for this research was collected through unstructured interviews conducted by the
researcher with certain members among the sample frame used for the study. The researcher also
administered fifty (50) questionnaires, one to each participant selected to be part of the study.
The researcher decided to embark on this process which lasted five (5) working days and
targeted at least ten (10) members daily based on their cooperation.

3.8 Data Analysis

The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques that were
employed when analyzing the raw data that were presented on the tables (1-4), having the
frequency (f) of respondents and the percentage (%) when calculated in simple statistical forms.
The raw data were presented on four tables, and each table is followed by an analysis of the raw
figures that were listed on each table (1-4) of the research work. Raw numbers representing the
amount of frequency (f) and its equivalent percentage (%) were analyzed in a simple discussion
method. Stating an analysis of the raw figures based on their validity content as weighed in the
findings presented on each of the tables. The analysis of the raw data collected and submitted on
each table (1-4) is systematic, starting from the figures at the top of the tables, coming down with
the presentations to those figures at the bottom of the tables. The analysis of the findings
contains a series presentation showing how numbers differ one from the other in terms of the
view submitted on each question answered that is pertinent to the objectives of the study.

3.9 Ethical Considerations

According to Sorie Y. Kamara (2011) a research undertaking at any level and in whatever way
requires so much consideration that needs to be made for successful outcome. Mustapha, (2017)
also affirmed that research work is to successfully bring out substantial facts relating to the
problem identified and investigated for the information and comprehension of readers and other
researchers in related field of study.

In this study, a lot of ethical considerations were taken into cognizance. The researcher
guaranteed respondents that whatever information given will only be used for the purpose of the
study and the identity of participants will never be disclosed. The researcher created the enabling
environment and ensured that all participants overcame the barriers of trust and built confidence
before soliciting information from them. Informed consent forms were prepared for each
respondent participating in the research and signed before questionnaire was administered.