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 800 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.

stratified sampling because only part of each position can do the survey

One sampling method that might produce a biased sample in this scenario is using a convenience sampling method. Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling method where individuals who are easily accessible or readily available are included in the sample.

Using convenience sampling for this survey would be a poor choice because it may result in a biased sample that does not accurately represent the entire employee population. In this case, convenience sampling may lead to a disproportionate representation of certain employee groups, such as executives or middle-management, while underrepresenting others like the custodial staff.

Since the goal of the survey is to obtain an accurate understanding of job satisfaction among all employees, it is important to use a sampling method that allows for equal and unbiased representation of all employee positions. Convenience sampling may introduce selection bias and compromise the validity and reliability of the survey results.