Some Conditions That Affect Practical Application of Factor Analysis

The study examined some conditions that must be satisfied in order to perform Factor Analysis. The objective was to determine whether or not the accepted pre-requisite tests always prove that the dataset will produce practical factor solution. Some of the conditions examined are the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity. Two datasets were used in this study namely Sales Performance and Personality Types. Both datasets were subjected to the pre-requisite tests and the extraction of various factor solutions. Both datasets passed the pre-requisite tests. One of the datasets was found not to produce significant factor solution; the other produced a practical factor solution. Keywords: factor analysis, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test, Bartlett’s test