“The common notion that workers are generally apathetic about management issues is false, or at least outdated: a recently published survey indicates that 79 percent of the nearly 1,200 workers who responded to survey questionnaires expressed a high level of interest in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.”
Essay:The argument claims that the common notion that workers are apathetic about management issues is either false or outdated. The conclusion of the argument is based on a survey whose result indicates that 79 percent of the participants expressed high interest in such management issues as corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs. The conclusion of the argument relies on the assumption for which there is not clear evidence. Hence, the argument is unconvincing and has several flaws.
First, the argument has based its reasoning on the result of a survey in which 1200 workers praticipated. However, nothing more has been mentioned about the questions or the content of the survey. It is quite possible that the relevant questions were not asked in the survey, or most of the questions in the survey were not relevant to the argument. In such a case, accurate conclusion can't be drawn on the basis of the survey.
Second, the argument has mentioned that 1200 workers participated in the survey. It has not included any information about the workers who didn't responded to the survey. It is very likely that only those workers who are really intereste in discussing the management issues have responded to the survey. In this scenerio the result of the survey would be baised.
Finally, the argument has mentioned only two topics of management issues to which 79 percent of the survey respondents agree. However, it is possible that there are some other management issues to which most of these workers didn't agree. Furthermore, it is very likely that questions about such issues were asked in the survey, but the results weren't published. In such acase the conclusion of the argument will fall apart.
In conclusion, the argument is flawed for above mentioned reasons and is thus unconvincing. Based upon the given premises, it can't be concluded that the workers are apathetic about management issues. Without further knowledge and data, the argument remains unsubstantiated and open for debate.