The Extra Mile

Annex B: Statistical terms and analysis

Throughout this book we have referred to data and analysis of the data, such that we have been able to offer insights and to suggest courses for action. The statistical techniques used include the following:

Factor analysis – examination of the intercorrelation of survey items to determine which items tend to reliably ‘hang’ together and should be treated as one factor or ‘category’ of items (e.g. employee engagement, customer focus). Factor analysis also provides a sense of the core themes in the data.

General descriptive statistics – examination of means, standard deviations and response distributions to identify trends in the data, including response patterns of various demographic groups, key themes ...