This chapter presents the sampling that will be done to answer the stated research questions. It further explains the participants who will be considered in the sample and their characteristics. Variables to be measured feature in this chapter. The materials to be used in the data collection are defined in this chapter. Finally, the chapter gives an explanation of the methods of data collection to be employed as well as the whole procedure that will be followed in carrying out this study.

Participants

The study will consider respondents under different employment levels in companies in the aviation industry and mainly the personnel that are involved in communications. These will include company executives, human resource managers, pilots, customer care personnel, flight attendants and other aviation industry employees. Company executives and human resource managers are considered on the reason that they communicate with employees. Pilots communicate with flight staff and passengers. Customer care personnel communicate with clients and the other aviation industry employees communicate with the management. The study will limit the participants described above to be only those who work for the five organizations; Air Arabia, Royal Jet, Emirates Airlines, Fly Dubai, and the RAK Airways.

Sampling technique

The study will use a simple random sampling technique in the selection of respondents from each organization. Simple random sampling is highly applicable in public relations related research since it helps eliminating bias in sample selection (Austin, 2014). In this method, I will write the names of the intended officials per category and assign them numbers which I will then put in a lottery and select the intended number of respondents under each category (Ember & Ember, 2001). For example, I will write down the names of customer care personnel in the Emirates Airline and assign them numbers. I have approached five companies in the UAE. These are the Air Arabia that is based in Sharijah, Royal Jet that is based in Abu Dhabi, Emirates Airlines and Fly Dubai based in Dubai, as well as the RAK Airways based in Ras Al Khaima. From the each of the five organizations, I intend to choose two senior executives, two human resource personnel, four pilots, five customer care personnel, five flight attendants and five employees in other sectors from each of the three organizations. The organizations will also be selected randomly from a group of organizations in the aviation industry in the United Arab Emirates. Random selection helps in minimizing bias in collecting information from one city that limits generalizations about UAE. The above criterion make a sample size of 125 respondents.

Data collection

Collection of data will be done using well designed questionnaires that are to take only 15 minutes of the respondent. The questionnaires will be sent to the selected respondents via email. The questionnaires will contain open-ended questions and some closed questions as deemed necessary by the researcher. The respondent is expected to fill in the spaces provided for the open ended questions and for the few closed questions, the scale is provided where the respondent is expected to choose either one or may of the choices provided. All the questions are necessary, and any questionnaire with unanswered questions will not be included in the analysis. The questionnaire will have three sections where section one will be seeking to capture demographic information of the respondent which include the age, gender, job category, years of experience in the aviation industry and the level of education. Section two will be capturing responses that will answer the general research question of the effectiveness of the intercultural communication which will be open ended in nature. The third section will contain some specific questions like the barriers to effective intercultural communication, contribution of the cultural diversity to the organization’s culture among others. This section will have both closed and open ended questions. Finally, the questionnaire will end with exit question of how effective is the intercultural communication within the respondent’s organization and what should be done to improve the effectiveness.

Variables

This section defines the variables to be studied and starts with the research questions. The general research question was; how effective is intercultural communication in the aviation industry within the organizations in the UAE?

The specific research questions were;

RQ1: What are obstacles to effective intercultural communication in the aviation industry within the organizations in the UAE?

RQ2: How does cultural diversity contribute the culture of the organization?

To answer the above questions, data will be collected on various variables. Effectiveness of intercultural communication will also be measured. According to Redmond and Bunyi (1993) this measure comprises of three items. The first item was asking the respondent the number of languages that they understand as used by their counterparts or clients. The respondents are expected to give a brief explanation of different cultural groups they have ever come across in their lines of duty and the different languages they use. The respondent is also expected to include the languages they have come across along with their levels of understanding of those languages.  The question of whether the respondent was able to communicate well with people from different cultures will also be included. The respondents will also be required to rate their ease in resolving misunderstandings with their clients or in their lines of communication. The responses under this aspect will be coded for analysis. For effective intercultural communication, the items are expected to return above 50% of positive response. For example if more than 50% of the respondents are able to communicate well across different cultural groups, then the item shows effective intercultural communication.

Cultural sensitivity will be measured. Cultural sensitivity is the ability to identify other people’s ethnicity and act accordingly and is measured using two three-point Likert-type questions (Bernal, Bonilla & Bellido, 1995). Questions to be used in assessing cultural sensitivity are, “rate the level of awareness of the culture of the people that you deal with in your line of duty”. This question will be answered on a three point scale for always aware, sometimes aware and not aware at all. Another question on cultural sensitivity will be, “do you consider other people’s culture when communicating to them?” Also, this will be answered on a three point scale of completely consider, somehow consider, and I do not consider at all. Reliability of the scale will be assessed using the Cronbach’s (1951) alpha. The respondents’ experience in the intercultural workplace is also important and will be included in the questionnaire. Experience will be measured in terms of years. In addition, I asked the respondents the number of foreign languages they are conversant with and the ones they use most of the times in their work places. I asked the respondents whether they knew about the culture of the persons they deal with in their lines of duty. Again, the question of how often their respondents are required to switch from one language to another when communicating with their clients was also to be answered.

For the question of barriers to effective intercultural communication, the respondent is expected to write a list of the barriers that they have identified and their reasons. Lastly, concerning contribution of cultural diversity to the organization’s culture, the respondents are expected to write a short paragraph to express their views on this variable. Content analysis will be applied to the last two open ended questions.

Procedures

I have talked to five aviation organizations as listed above and sought permission to send the questionnaires one month before the actual practice. I have been granted permission to do so by the top managers of the organizations. I have chosen to send the questionnaires one month earlier to give the respondent enough time to have thought about the answers. Sending the questionnaires through email is economical, saves time and has some significant degree of confidentiality since only the intended person will have access to the questionnaire. I will give the respondents one month to respond to the questionnaire. I will, therefore, be sending a reminder to the after every two weeks after sending. At the end of the survey, I will download all the returned questionnaires check for the ones that are completely responded to. Any questionnaire that will not be filled will not be included in the analysis.

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Sampling.
Order Description
Describe how a researcher determines how big a sample should be for a study. Include a discussion of the different ways sample size can be determined. Then, compare and contrast probability sampling versus non-probability sampling. Describe the pros and cons of using both types of sampling in your research.

Sampling.
Order Description
Describe how a researcher determines how big a sample should be for a study. Include a discussion of the different ways sample size can be determined. Then, compare and contrast probability sampling versus non-probability sampling. Describe the pros and cons of using both types of sampling in your research.