| Course | RES 6521 Research Methodology |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 3 |
| Paper type | Instrumentation section |
| Length | 1,230 words, about 4 pages plus title and reference pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | American College of Education |
| Program | Ed.D. and DBA doctoral core |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for RES 6521 Module 3
Three Measures and Four Controls: Instrumentation, Reliability and Validity Evidence for a Survey of Remote Work, Organizational Support and Intention to Leave
Student Name
American College of Education
RES6521: Research Methodology
Module 3 Assignment
Instructor Name
October 26, 2026
Introduction
The survey has to measure three constructs well enough that a weak result could not be blamed on poor instruments: how much an accountant works remotely, how much support the accountant believes the firm provides and how strongly the accountant intends to leave. It also has to record four control variables. This paper describes each measure, the evidence for its reliability and validity, how it will be scored and what permission it requires. It closes with the pilot test and the survey's layout, both chosen partly to reduce the bias that comes from measuring everything in one sitting.
Remote Work Intensity
No established scale measures how much of their working time accountants spend away from the office, so the study uses a direct report. Research on telecommuting treats intensity, the extent of remote work rather than its mere presence, as the feature that matters most; in a meta-analysis, effects on relationships with coworkers appeared mainly among people who worked remotely for a large share of the week (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007). The survey item asks: "In a typical month outside busy season, about what percentage of your paid working hours do you spend working somewhere other than a firm office?" Respondents enter a whole number from 0 to 100. A second item asks the same question for busy season, so that the study can describe how arrangements change when deadlines arrive, though the main analysis uses the non-busy-season figure. Single-item measures of concrete, factual quantities are generally acceptable because there is little ambiguity about what is being asked, unlike single items for attitudes.
Perceived Organizational Support
Perceived organizational support will be measured with eight items drawn from the original Survey of Perceived Organizational Support, which asks employees how far they believe the organization prizes what they contribute and looks after their welfare (Eisenberger et al., 1986). The original scale had 36 items and showed very high internal consistency and a single underlying factor. Because the scale is unidimensional and its items are highly intercorrelated, researchers have commonly used shorter versions built from its highest-loading items, and a review of more than 70 studies found that results with short forms were consistent with those using the full scale (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002). Each item offers seven response options anchored by strongly disagree and strongly agree. Negatively worded items are reverse scored, and averaging the eight items gives the scale score, so that higher scores mean stronger perceived support.
Turnover Intention
Intention to leave will be measured with the six-item version of the Turnover Intention Scale (Bothma & Roodt, 2013). Items ask, for example, how often the respondent considers leaving the job and how likely the respondent is to accept another job at the same compensation if offered, each rated on a five-point scale with item-specific anchors. The authors validated the short form with employees of a large information and communication technology company, reported acceptable internal consistency, with alpha of about .80, and showed that scores distinguished employees who later left the organization from those who stayed. That last result is the most important piece of validity evidence for a study that uses intention as a stand-in for departure. The scale score is the sum of the six items, ranging from 6 to 30.
Fit With the Population
Neither multi-item scale was developed with accountants. The support scale has been used across a wide range of occupations, and the turnover scale was validated in a professional services setting, but both will be examined in this sample before hypotheses are tested. Internal consistency will be estimated with Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega, with .70 as the minimum acceptable value for each scale. A confirmatory factor analysis of a two-factor model, with support and turnover intention items on separate factors, will check that respondents distinguish the two constructs. If the two scales cannot be told apart in this sample, the moderation test would be measuring one attitude twice, and the analysis would stop to address that before going further.
Control Variables
Four controls complete the survey. Tenure at the current firm is recorded in months. Age is recorded in years, offered in bands for respondents who prefer not to give an exact figure. Average weekly hours worked during the most recent busy season are entered as a number, since long busy-season hours are a leading reason accountants give for leaving. Firm size is recorded in four bands of professional staff, from 20-49 through 200-299. Service line, title and state are also collected to describe the sample but are not included in the main model.
Permissions
Before data collection, written permission or confirmation of terms of use will be obtained for both published scales and filed with the IRB application. The support items will be reproduced with their original wording and attributed in the survey's footer. The turnover scale's authors will be asked for permission to use the six-item form in a noncommercial doctoral study, and any condition they set, such as sharing a summary of results, will be honored. The remote work items were written for the study and need no permission.
Pilot Test
Eight accountants who meet the eligibility criteria but work at firms not targeted in recruitment will complete the survey and then talk with me for ten minutes about anything confusing. The pilot checks three things: whether respondents can estimate the remote work percentage without difficulty, whether the busy-season hours question is understood as an average week rather than a peak week and how long the survey takes. Pilot answers will not be included in the analysis. Wording changes after the pilot will be limited to the study-built items; the published scales will not be altered. If more than two of the eight pilot respondents misread an item, it will be rewritten and tried again with three new accountants before launch. Timing matters too: a survey that runs much past fifteen minutes during the months after busy season is likely to lose respondents partway through, so any block that slows the pilot down will be trimmed.
Survey Layout and Method Bias
Because all variables come from the same respondent at one time, the layout itself is part of the measurement plan. Following the procedural remedies recommended by Podsakoff et al. (2003), the support and turnover items will be placed in separate blocks divided by the control questions, they will use different response formats, the instructions will stress that there are no right answers and that firms will never see individual responses and the order of items within each scale will be randomized. A theoretically unrelated marker item, asking about preference for printed versus electronic workpapers, will be included so that the analysis can estimate how much variance the responses share for reasons unrelated to content.
Conclusion
The survey measures remote work intensity with a direct percentage item, perceived organizational support with an eight-item short form of an established scale and turnover intention with a validated six-item scale whose scores have predicted actual departure. Each scale will be rechecked for reliability and distinctness in this sample, permissions will be secured before launch and a pilot will test the study-built items. The layout separates the key measures and includes a marker item. Module 4 describes data collection and analysis procedures.
References
Bothma, C. F. C., & Roodt, G. (2013). The validation of the turnover intention scale. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 11(1), Article 507. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.507
Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Hutchison, S., & Sowa, D. (1986). Perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71(3), 500-507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500
Gajendran, R. S., & Harrison, D. A. (2007). The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: Meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(6), 1524-1541. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1524
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879-903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
Rhoades, L., & Eisenberger, R. (2002). Perceived organizational support: A review of the literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 698-714. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698
What the RES 6521 Module 3 instructions ask for
Instrumentation is where Chapter 3 shows the study can measure what it claims to. The third module of RES 6521 generally asks you to name every instrument or data source, describe how it was developed, list or illustrate its items, explain scoring and report reliability and validity evidence from earlier studies. You will usually also need to address whether the instrument suits your population and how you will obtain permission. Qualitative studies describe interview or observation protocols and how they were reviewed. Researcher-built items need a rationale and, ideally, a pilot. Present the evidence for each measure in its own subsection so a reader can evaluate them one at a time. Where an instrument has several versions, say which one you will use and why.
How this RES 6521 Module 3 example is built
The section moves measure by measure. Remote work intensity gets a direct percentage item, justified by the telecommuting literature's focus on extent and by the general acceptability of single items for factual quantities. Perceived support uses an eight-item short form with evidence that short forms behave like the full scale. Turnover intention uses the TIS-6, with its predictive validity singled out. A subsection plans to recheck reliability and the two scales' distinctness in accountants. Controls, permissions and an eight-person pilot follow, and a final subsection treats questionnaire layout and a marker item as part of the measurement plan before a short conclusion.
RES 6521 Module 3 rubric: what full marks look like
Instrumentation sections are judged on evidence and appropriateness. Faculty expect each instrument to be described accurately and cited to its source, with reliability and validity evidence reported, scoring explained and fit with the study population discussed. Studies using instruments outside the populations they were built for should plan to test reliability in the new sample. Permissions should be addressed explicitly. Credit goes to sections that explain why each measure was chosen over alternatives and how researcher-built items will be checked. Attention to common method bias in single-source surveys is increasingly expected in DBA work. Clear subsections and accurate APA 7 citations complete the criteria.
Common RES 6521 Module 3 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Instrument sections often come back with questions about reliability, validity or permission that students did not know to answer. If you are unsure whether a short form is acceptable, whether your scale fits your population or how to justify a researcher-built item, our writers can help. Share your variables, the instruments you are considering and the module prompt, and we will prepare an instrumentation section with the evidence for each measure, scoring rules and a pilot plan. Survey, interview and archival studies each have their own expectations here. Clear measurement now saves rewriting Chapter 4 later. We also check that every scale you cite is described in the version you actually plan to administer.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official American College of Education document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More RES 6521 and Ed.D. and DBA doctoral core sample papers
- RES 6521 Module 1: Research Design and Rationale
- RES 6521 Module 2: Population, Sample and Recruitment
- RES 6521 Module 4: Data Collection and Analysis Plan
- RES 6521 Module 5: Complete Chapter 3
- RES 6041 Module 4: Paraphrase and Argument Paper
- RES 6003 Module 2: Hypothesis Testing Report
- RES 6023 Module 5: Quantitative Design Proposal
- RES 6531 Module 4: Further Themes and Gap Statement
RES 6521 Module 3 questions, answered
What does RES6521 Module 3 usually ask for?
The third RES6521 module usually asks you to describe each instrument in your study, with its origin, items, scoring, reliability and validity evidence, permissions and fit with your population.
Can I use a short form of a published scale?
Often, yes, if the scale measures one construct and published research supports the shorter version. Cite that evidence and check reliability again in your own sample.
Is a single survey item ever acceptable?
For concrete facts such as hours or percentages, a single clear item is usually fine. Attitudes and perceptions generally need multi-item scales to be measured reliably.
Where can I find a free RES 6521 Module 3 sample paper?
Scroll through this page for one: a DBA candidate documents a remote work item, an eight-item support scale and the TIS-6, plus a pilot and a layout built against method bias.
Do I need permission to use a published survey scale?
Check the author's or publisher's terms. Many research scales are free for noncommercial use, but documenting permission or terms is expected by most IRBs and committees.