Research on Lack of Interpersonal Skills of Programmers

[RESEARCH METHOLOLOGY]

[Sep 2011]

Research on Lack of Interpersonal Skills of

Programmers [Submitted To: Prof. Binod Krishna Shrestha]

[Submitted By: Roshan Joshi | Roll 10529]

[ K U S O M | E M B A ]

Exploratory Research on Lack of Interpersonal Skills of Programmers: Roshan Joshi

Exploratory research on lack of interpersonal skills of programmers

INTRODUCTION ABC is an outsourcing company in Nepal that specializes in web services and deals exclusively for foreign projects. Currently there is 50 full time staff. Majority of them are programmers. The work division is led by management and software managers. The following is a research on the lack of social behavior of programmers.

PROBLEMS Programming job is different from many other jobs in the manner that they require continuous and intense concentration on monitor. Even their spare time is away from office is spent on computers. And being used to different language understood by computer, generally they are not very good at expressing themselves. The deadlines are very crucial putting them more pressure. So much so that there is a tendency to use chat messages to a person sitting next even for informal discussion. In addition sitting on chair the whole day gives physical strain, which adds up to the mental stress. It has been observed that not being able to express themselves and not getting a way to express themselves has resulted in lack of interpersonal behavior or socialization. Often this causes low team efforts and lower productivity. Major problems perceived are: - Programmers spending much time on computers - Inability in dealing with humans in real life (lack of interpersonal skills) - Lack of group events in or outside office

RESEARCH THEME Identify why programmers are not socialize more and if group events can help them socialize more.

MDP How to make the programmers more social through team builds?

MRP Identify factors affecting the interpersonal behavior why programmers.

LITERATURE REVIEW http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//events/io/2011/static/notesfiles/ProgrammingWellwithOthersSocialSkillsforGeeks.pdf Full time programmers or geeks, tend to work well in groups rather than alone.


VARIABLES Dependent Variable: Lack of socialization in programmers Independent Variables: Not enough group events Not enough break between works Tight deadlines and penalties in case of missing them Too much sitting on the same position and lack of exercise Not enough things to do on weekends

Conceptual Framework


EXPLORATORY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY An exploratory research was conducted among the programmers and the software managers to verify the lack of social behavior and potential reduction with team building and group events. An extensive questionnaire was developed and used. 3 programmers and a software manager were chosen.

QUESTIONNAIRE ● How much time do you work on computer on average office day? ● How many hours do you work in computer except office? ● What do you normally do during weekends? ● How often do you meet friends outside in a week? ● Any particular occasions where you talk to your peers more? ● What are the topics of discussion with your peers? ● Do you want to be doing something else other than programming on free time? ● Have you had any health related problems recently? ● Can group events in organization help in getting along with others more? Why? ● Can events during weekends make you more comfortable with peers? How? ● Can talk programs make you more comfortable with peers? How? ● How is computer affecting your social life?

FINDINGS Using the exploratory interview with the employees, the results were found to be in line with some of the problems identified. Whereas other reasons such as tight deadlines were not regarded as causes for such lack of interpersonal skills. Programmers tend to spend much time on computers in and outside office. All of the candidates agreed that they have less spare time beyond office work, that the organization has continuous work and fewer amounts of official group events such as team building and get together activities (movies, picnic, social works were some of the activities that were frequently mentioned). In general, employees were interested in

More activities to do on weekends and More frequent team building functions by office.


VARIABLES

Independent Variables Dependent Variables

Not enough official group events Lack of comfort with team members

Not enough group activities

OPERATIONALIZATION

Variable Operationalized Value

Not enough official group events Team builds programs organized by office

Not enough group activities Number of group activities (except those involving computers)

Lack of comfort with team members Level of comfort in sharing views and working

MDP How group events can be used to increase interpersonal skills of programmer?

MRP Identify factors that can be used to increase interpersonal skills of programmers.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS Does official group events increase comfort level with team members? Do group activities (except those involving computers) increase interpersonal skills? Does spending time outside office increase comfort level with colleagues? Does gender affect comfort level?

HYPOTHESIS H1: official group events increase comfort level with team members H2: group activates (except those involving computers) increase interpersonal skills H3: spending time with colleagues outside office increase comfort level H4: gender affects interpersonal skills


CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Fig: Conceptual framework for lack of interpersonal behavior of programmers

Not enough

group activities

Not enough

official group events

Lack of

comfort with team

members


RESEARCH METHOD

RESEARCH DESIGN In this causal correlation research the two independent variables have been chosen as the basis of the dependent variable – that is, not enough group events and not enough group activities causing lack of interpersonal skills of programmers. Data collection has been done using internet. Google Docs was used to build the survey form and Twitter to reach out to the programmers. Data is then analyzed through various tests on SPSS.

SAMPLING The population under study has been identified as programmers of the ABC Company. However due to the highly matching nature of similar sized outsourcing companies, the broader population has been considered as all programmers. Hence a sample has been chosen from the population of ABC Company along with programmers from other outsourcing companies. The survey form however was designed as an anonymous survey (attached at the end). The average sample profile age is expected to be less than 30 with fewer female samples.


DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Correlation Test

Correlations

comfort level

attendance

official events

attendance

events w/o

computers

unofficial

hangout

frequency

comfort level Pearson Correlation 1 .616** .278 .094

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .136 .622

N 30 30 30 30

attendance official events Pearson Correlation .616** 1 .486** .205

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .007 .276

N 30 30 30 30

attendance events w/o

computers

Pearson Correlation .278 .486** 1 .464**

Sig. (2-tailed) .136 .007 .010

N 30 30 30 30

unofficial hangout frequency Pearson Correlation .094 .205 .464** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .622 .276 .010

N 30 30 30 30

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Here, only the attendance during official team builds programs cause error significance level less than 0.05. This means our alternative hypothesis that official group events increase comfort level with team members is accepted. But, attending events without computers cause error significance level greater than 0.05. Also spending time outside office with colleagues causes error significance level greater than 0.05. Thus alternative hypothesis are rejected. Only official events (team build programs) are relevant for providing interpersonal skills to the programmers.


T-Test

Group Statistics

gender N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

comfort level Male 24 3.96 1.122 .229

Female 6 4.17 .753 .307

Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test for Equality of

Variances

F Sig.

comfort level Equal variances assumed 1.408 .245

Equal variances not assumed

To analyze the relation of gender in interpersonal skills, we conduct the T-Test. Gender error

significance test shows greater than 0.05 errors. Thus comfort level with team members is not

dependent on gender. However, mean shows slight higher mean for female (among the 6 who

have taken survey), hence female are slightly better in interpersonal skills than male.


Regression Test

Model Summary

Model R R Square

Adjusted R

Square

Std. Error of the

Estimate

1 .617a .381 .309 .873

a. Predictors: (Constant), unofficial hangout frequency, attendence

official events, attendence events w/o computers

ANOVAb

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression 12.190 3 4.063 5.333 .005a

Residual 19.810 26 .762

Total 32.000 29

a. Predictors: (Constant), unofficial hangout frequency, attendence official events, attendence

events w/o computers

b. Dependent Variable: comfort level

Coefficientsa

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients

t Sig. B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 1.607 .733 2.191 .038

attendence official events .689 .193 .629 3.560 .001

attendence events w/o

computers -.013 .193 -.013 -.069 .946

unofficial hangout frequency -.029 .174 -.029 -.167 .868

a. Dependent Variable: comfort level

Regression shows a significance error of 0.05 thus showing a correlation between the

independent variables and dependent variable, that is interpersonal skills. However, regression

coefficient, R2 is only 0.381. More than 61% cannot be predicted as being dependent.


CONCLUSION From the research, it has been seen that group event such as team building is a predictor of interpersonal skills (socialization) for programmers. As such, ABC Company should foster programs that include group involvement and participation from the organization themselves as well. Among these, socialization is more dependent on official group events and less dependent on other group activities. As for the sample, the sample does not represent the whole population and could produce different result depending on the organizational culture itself.


SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (Instruments) Academic Research on lack of interpersonal skills of programmers This survey is a part of my Academic Research to explore the reasons and possible solutions of lack of interpersonal skills of programmers. Your support is required to complete this questionnaire. Approximate time estimated for survey is 2 minutes. No personal information is gathered here. Any problems or suggestion regarding the form can be sent to [email protected] * Required Please select your gender. *

Male

Female How comfortable do you feel to talk to your peers? *

1 2 3 4 5

Very Little Very Much

How frequently do you participate in official group events? *

1 2 3 4 5


How much do you participate in events that do not involve using computer? *

1 2 3 4 5


How often do you spend time outside office with your colleagues? *

1 2 3 4 5


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Research on Lack of Interpersonal Skills of Programmers