"A lot has been written around the notion that workers are dissatisfied with the working conditions in our manufacturing facilities. The rumor is based on the protests by the labor union workers in the last three months. Those writing passionately on the issue may want to know that a paltry 20% of the workers have participated in these protests. Further, in our internal survey, an overwhelming 70% of the participating workers gave positive feedback for the working conditions. Last year, the management spent more money on improving the working conditions than what it did collectively in the three preceding years. Clearly, the notion is uncalled for and there is no significant scope for improvement in the working conditions in our manufacturing facilities.
The argument claims that the notion that the workers are dissatisfied with the working conditions in the corporate discussed is completely wrong. Hence, there is no scope of improvement. Stated in this way, argument fails to mention several key factors on the basis of which it can be evaluated. The argument relies on various unwarranted assumptions for which there is no clear evidence. Therefore, the argument is rather weak, unconvincing and has several flaws.
First, the argument claims that only 20% of the workers participated in protests organized by labor unions and 70% of those who participated gave positive feedback for the working conditions. But what about the remaining 30% who didn't give positive feedback ? Let 's suppose that there are total 1000 workers. 200 of 1000 participated in the protest and 140 of 200 participated gave positive feedback but 60 didn't give positive feedback. If out of 1000 workers, 60 are not satisfied with working conditions then there is high chance that many of the 60 would leave the organization because their issues are not addressed. But if those out of 60 who decide to leave are main employees of the organization then organization can face several problems and productivity would be hampered.
Second, the argument assumes that spending money on improving working conditions means satisfaction among workers. Apart from monetary benefits, works also want some non-monetary benefits such as recognition for work, respect etc. If these non-monetary benefit are not provided , employees tend to leave the organization in the first chance. This situation is nit desirable for any company. The argument would have been considerably strengthened if it had mentioned how money is spend on improvement of working conditions and what are its result.
Finally, the argument concludes that there is no significant scope for improvement in the working conditions. Google is one of the most employee caring company and has very low attrition rates. Even after having high level of employee satisfaction, it still looks for ways of improvement in working conditions of employees. No matter what the level of employee satisfaction, organizations still have to look for ways of improvement in working conditions of employees in order to retain its good employees,
The argument would have been considerably strengthened if it had mentioned how corporate plans to fulfil the demands of protesting employees and how corporate uses its money for increasing workers satisfaction. Corporate fails to mention several key evidence that would have supported the argument. Without the above details, the argument remains unsubstantiated and open to debate.