個案總覽

This case examines the interpretation of political polls. It discusses margin of error, confidence intervals and the relationship between sample size and margin of error. An Excel spreadsheet is included, Ivey product # 7B07E016, to help students understand the concepts.

This case looks at an in-house experiment conducted by a plant manager to determine whether his quality control machines are functioning properly. The case can be used to help students understand the concept of variation and sources of variation. It is also useful for illustrating the effective use of descriptive statistics, single sample tests, paired tests and their non-parametric equivalents.

Excel spreadsheet for students.

This case examines the interpretation of political polls. It discusses margin of error, confidence intervals and the relationship between sample size and margin of error. An Excel spreadsheet is included, Ivey product # 7B07E016, to help students understand the concepts.

This case looks at an in-house experiment conducted by a plant manager to determine whether his quality control machines are functioning properly. The case can be used to help students understand the concept of variation and sources of variation. It is also useful for illustrating the effective use of descriptive statistics, single sample tests, paired tests and their non-parametric equivalents.

A work-life conflict exists when participation in a work oriented life role is made more difficult by participation in a non-work life role or vice versa. This article summarizes key findings of research on work-life conflict spanning over two decades. The results suggest that work to family interference increased for 25% (in 1990) to 30% (in 2000) of respondents. Family to work interference increased more than five times, from 2% to 11% during the same time period. Research results also identified five root causes of the inability to balance work and family demands. Organizational downsizing, organizational culture, changing demographics, non-supportive managers and technology are the factors that are further described in the article. The article also examines coping mechanisms that employees use to help them balance work and family demands. 78 percent of the sample responded that they just work harder-which of course sets conflict levels spiraling out of control. Closely related to just working harder, 60 percent of our respondents indicated they cut down on outside activities, while 55 percent got less sleep. On a more positive note, 47 percent of the sample stated they planned their time more carefully, while 45 percent bought more goods and services (e.g., lawn care, daycare). The most disturbing finding relates to individuals in managerial and professional roles: 26 percent of women in these roles noted they have had fewer children because of work demands; 15 percent of men noted this was also true for them. The results also suggested that many women managers and professionals find that motherhood and career advancement are not compatible goals. The article also posits a solution to the work-life conflict. The authors suggest that employees just say no to work that regularly requires attention outside work hours. They should plan downtime and actively try to maintain a balance between their work and home lives.

This note presents the basic statistical concepts used to describe and analyze a collection of observations. It describes the differences between empirical distributions and mathematical (or theoretical) distributions, and illustrates the shortcomings of relying on a single statistical measure to draw conclusions. The advantages and disadvantages of histograms and bar charts are also discussed.

This note presents an overview of the process of collecting or sampling data from the appropriate population, presenting statistical measures to describe the data and to allow inferences to be drawn from the data, and then clearly presenting the results obtained.

This note describes various statistical sampling techniques and the inherent biases associated with each technique. Sample size, sampling bias, and sampling with an agenda are among the issues discussed.

This note presents numerous examples of deception by selectively using statistical measures. For example: implying credibility by providing accuracy to two decimal places; using the wrong base value when presenting per cent data; using small base levels when deriving percentage data; choosing an unrepresentative base period; and, presenting graphs that deceive.

A project manager at Digital Canada has designed a work-at-home program to encourage field personnel to spend less time working in the office and more time working at client sites, on the road and at home. He believes his plan will save Digital Canada millions of dollars annually and result in increased productivity. Unfortunately, the response from U.S. headquarters has been lukewarm, and the affected employees are reacting quite negatively. The manager is uncertain how to generate support for his plan in order to move forward.