The Islamic and Western Leadership Style - Research Paper Example

In this study however, quantitative data was only used for investigation and research findings analysis. Values associated with particular variable reflect the true nature of the variable as collected in the field or as seen and measured. In quantitative data analysis, arguments have come forth that two categories exist for statistical approach to research data. The two categories of approach are the descriptive and the inferential statistics (Creswell, 2005; Spatz, 2005; Salkind, 2004; McMillan, 2001).

Just like the name suggest, descriptive statistics are statistics that are used to describe the sample data. They summarize the data characteristics, organize them and provide a whole round description of the data. Inferential statistics on the other part are used to predict the possible outcome of data based on a smaller subset of the same. Sample data is analyzed and the outcome used to infer to the general population. The sample data acts as a representative sample of the whole population Descriptive statistics are commonly used for the summarization of data demographics.

It offers a quick over view of the total population without the need to go deeper in to each value element. Descriptive statistics brigs out how one data element relates to all the other elements in the sample, however for inferential statistics, a relationship between the data element and the entire population are sought. In the section that follows a clear description of descriptive statistics used in the study is provided. 4.1 Descriptive statistics for the Demographic Data Analysis The SPSS data analysis package that was used for the analysis of data was SPSS version 17.0. In the version descriptive statistics are obtained by various ways.

The flexibility offered by the software enables a clear description of data irrespective of the approach used. Some of the tools used for description included, Frequencies, Descriptive and Explore. If descriptive statistics for categorical variables is needed the best approach would be to use frequencies.