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The following appeared in the editorial section of a corporate newsletter. The common notion that workers are generally apathetic about management issues is false， or at least outdated： a recently published survey indicates that 79 percent of the nearly 1，200 workers who responded to survey questionnaires expressed a high level of interest in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. Discuss how well reasoned.。. etc. Based upon a survey among workers that indicates a high level of interest in the topics of corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs， the author concludes that workers are not apathetic about management issues. Specifically， it is argued that since 79 percent of the 1200 workers who responded to survey expressed interest in these topics， the notion that workers are apathetic about management issues is incorrect. The reasoning in this argument is problematic in several respects. First， the statistics cited in the editorial may be misleading because the total number of workers employed by the corporation is not specified. For example， if the corporation employs 2000 workers， the fact that 79 percent of the nearly 1200 respondents showed interest in these topics provides strong support for the conclusion. On the other hand， if the corporation employs 200，000 workers， the conclusion is much weaker. Another problem with the argument is that the respondents views are not necessarily representative of the views of the work force in general. For example， because the survey has to do with apathy， it makes sense that only less apathetic workers would respond to it， thereby distorting the overall picture of apathy among the work force. Without knowing how the survey was conducted， it is impossible to assess whether or not this is the case. | 
