5-2 Discussion: Proper Sampling
My own example of improper sampling from my day-to-day life is how my boss uses
convenience sampling to get quick and easy results that he uses to manipulate his employees
with. My boss will go to his friends and work buddies because he has easy access to them,
without any regard to the larger population, and he will get information from him to get what he
wants. For example, one time he was trying to prove that most of his employees were happy with
the way things were being done in the field of work we work in. He only surveyed people at his
company that he knew would benefit from siding with him and not any of us that disagreed with
him. So my boss arrived at the conclusion that the majority of his employees are satisfied with
the way things are at his company, which is likely to be false.
This sampling method is improper because it's not random, the outcome is not accurate,
and it's bias. The type of sampling that should have been used is a probability sampling method,
such as simple random sampling. This would help to avoid bias and get more accurate results. In
my opinion, my boss and all of the employees would have benefited more from a proper
sampling because the company would be more successful with happier employees, which in turn
would make my boss happier.
Reference:
Doane, D. P., & Seward, L. E. (2022).
Applied Statistics in Business and Economics
(7th ed., pp.
1-231). McGraw Hill.
