CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0. Introduction

This chapter focuses on the systematic approach for solving the research problem in this study
and highlights the instruments and techniques used to seek solution to the research problem. It
consists of the research design, study area, population and sample size, sampling procedure,
methods of data collection and data analysis. 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 dDesign

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 a 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.

The random sampling procedure is used in selection process in the activities surrounding the
drawing of the sample of fifty (50) names of persons serving as respondents’ group from the
general population of one hundred (100) persons named on folded slips prepared by the
researcher. In the stage of the data collection process, according to this design interviews and
questionnaires were applied to get the information presented as findings of the study. This study
is designed to present raw figures on tables which stated the number of respondents with
different, similar or the same view on different questions related to the objectives of the study.
The raw figures are in frequency (f) modulation numbers and indicate the percentage (%) of each
category, as shown in the tables that bear the presentations of the findings on this research work.
Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques are used in analyzing the raw data
collected and presented as findings from which conclusions and recommendations are drawn
after the study ends.
3.2 Study Area

The study area that is identified in the process of carrying out the research work is the sSumbuya
local community in lLugbu 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 staff that are employed by
this company has 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

3.3.1 Population of the Study

The population of the study comprised of one hundred (100) members of the staff and selected
members of the sumbuya community that have close connections with the Sierra Tropical
Limited (STL) company establishment in the township and its environs. The population of one
hundred (100) persons randomly selected as participants for this study included men and women
that are either part of the current staff of Sierra Tropical Limited (STL) company, retirees, those
who resigned from their jobs willingly, and those sacked, and friends of the company such as
chiefs, tribal heads, leaders and other stakeholders of the sumbuya community. In selecting the
population for the purpose of conducting the study, the researcher took all gender issues into
considerations, and so choose fifty (50) males and (50) females in a random contact with each
person included as part of this research work. In the population selection, certain is where fifty
(50) Respondents selected initially among the men and women population of the study were
again divided into two equal portions, with twenty-five (25) males and twenty-five (25) females’
respondents, all on equal basis. For instance, the sample size of fifty (50) selected from among
the staff and stakeholders of the Sierra Tropical Limited (STL)at sumbuya Bo district Sierra
Leone.

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 (100) participants who were randomly contacted
to serve as part of the population of the study. There are several sampling procedures in
empirical research’s 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 starts right from the population selection process, where the names of each of the
persons contacted for the purpose of the study are written in a notepad that contain bearing to the
research work. The names of the one hundred (100) participants serving as population of the
study were written on slips or papers, each folded and placed into a bag or cup or bucket. Then,
the folded slips in the container were mixed up properly, and then one slip are taken out one way
a time, throwing away one as out and one as in. This procedure continued until the whole lot of
slips or papers have been divided into two equal parts, the one part was discarded and the other
included as part of 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 Data Collection

3.5.1 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. Also, to give
their views on suggestions to improve on the effects of staff motivation on business productivity
at the company. Mores 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.
3.5.2 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 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 were reported on tables (1-4) with the frequency (f)and equal percentage (%) as seen
on the tables included in the work.

3.6 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.