The owner of a large company is conducting a survey about job satisfaction, including questions about salary, hours, stress, and other conditions. There are about eight hundred employees in the company, including 100 executive positions, 650 middle-management positions, and 50 custodial positions. The owner wants to include about 10% of his employees in the survey sample.

Identify a sampling method that might produce a biased sample. Explain why using the method for this survey would be a poor choice.

Question

The owner of a large company is conducting a survey about job satisfaction, including questions about salary, hours, stress, and other conditions. There are about eight hundred employees in the company, including 100 executive positions, 650 middle-management positions, and 50 custodial positions. The owner wants to include about 10% of his employees in the survey sample.

Identify a sampling method that might produce a biased sample. Explain why using the method for this survey would be a poor choice.

anonymous · Answer

A Biased Method?
Choose all executive positions and a few middle management. These are the "softest" jobs, and will provide the most favorable results.