Question

1. For each of the following situations, identify the likely data collection approach and then identify your sample: the population of interest, the type of sample, and the sampling procedures you would use. Explain your rationale and any known limitations given the situation.

a. There has been increasing concern about the ability of the federal government to attract college graduates as employees. Your team has been asked to determine what image college students have about working for the federal civil service. However, there is no listing of all college students, and privacy laws prohibit the colleges from giving out their addresses.

b. Your organization’s diversity task force wants to find out the attitudes of managers and frontline workers about diversity. The task force would like to conduct an attitude survey and asks you for advice about the sample.

c. What sampling strategy would you use to determine the number of potholes in the city?

d. The director of the child welfare agency is interested in the length of time that families receive protective services. She asks you to provide information regarding the number of treatment hours received by these clients. The data are not in a computer, so you will have to look at closed files. The agency has been in operation for twenty years and has served over 100,000 clients.

e. The city council wants to find out the citizens’ views about the challenges facing the city in the next two years.

Answer 1