Worker and Mgmt Issue

8. The following appeared in the editorial section of a corporate newsletter.

“The common notion that workers are generally apathetic about management issues is false, or at least outdated: a recently published survey indicates that 79 percent of the nearly 1,200 workers who responded to survey questionnaires expressed a high level of interest in the topics of corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs.”

Discuss how well reasoned... etc.

In this argument the author concludes that workers are actually not as apathetic about management issues as people usually think. To support this, the author uses a recently published survey indicating that as high as 79% of the respondents are very interested in topics of corporate restructuring and redesign of benefit programs. As we skim through the argument we might find the conclusion somewhat appealing. However, after a quick but careful analysis, several logical flaws can be identified and render the author’s line of reasoning questionable.

Firstly, the information provided by the survey is incomplete, which considerably undermines the credibility of the survey. By only showing the results of the workers who responded to the survey without stating how much percentage of workers responded, the author is unconsciously or deliberately misleading the readers. On one hand, workers who are willing to respond to the survey already suggest that at least they do concern about the management issues, on the other hand, if the 1200 respondents only represent 10% of the total surveyed people, then there are 90% of workers don’t even bother to fill out the survey, which clearly exhibit their indifference. Consequently, using the fact that 79% the 1200 respondents do show interests of management issues do not lead to any meaningful conclusion.

Another logical flaw lies in the natures of the two topics in which many respondents express their interest. The corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs are,...