Logical Reasoning

PT108 · S3 · Q9 In a recent poll of

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In a recent poll of chief executive officers (CEOs) of 125 large corporations, the overwhelming majority claimed that employee training and welfare is of the same high priority as customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

The popular belief that is unfounded. (i.e. top CEOs behave in ways that are concerned with the needs/desires of employees)

Evidence

In a recent poll, almost all the top CEOs said that "employee training and welfare" are of the same priority as "customer satisfaction".

Evaluate

GIVEN THAT .. most CEOs in this poll ranked "employee training and welfare" as the same priority as "customer satisfaction"

HOW COULD WE SAY THAT .. these CEO's are indifferent to the needs and aspirations of employees?

One objection that might come to mind is that the argument moves from "X just as important a priority as Y" to the idea of "X is an important priority". It's a Relative vs. Absolute move.

When you're picking your law school, you could say that

That doesn't mean that either of those things is a high priority. They could be tied for being "lowest priority". However, in this case, the argument does say "the same high priority as customer satisfaction". So we can't argue that employee training/welfare is tied with customer satisfaction for being a low priority.

So if we're not making that objection, and we're accepting that most top CEOs put a high priority on employee training and welfare, is that the same as ?

Could the CEOs just be telling the pollster what they know is the right thing to say? Could the CEOs consider employee training/welfare a priority for selfish CEO reasons, but still be indifferent to what employees actually need and want?

Goal

We're either looking to fill a gap between "employee training/welfare is a high priority for CEOs" and , or we're trying to rule out a possible objection.

9.

The argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it

  1. fails to define adequately the

    Not a Flaw

    There's never been a correct answer (to my recollection) that's complained about the lack of a specific measurement/value, lack of definition, or lack of a specifically-named source. We're fine with the concept of "top management". That's not where the reasoning flaw lies between evidence and conclusion.

    2% picked this

  2. presumes, without giving justification, that

    Out of Scope: top priority

    This is tempting, since the author is assuming that "one is not indifferent to something that one considers as high a priority as customer satisfaction". But since the argument never labels anything a top priority, this concept in the answer has no match in the argument.

    18% picked this

  3. presumes, without giving justification, that

    Out of Scope: judging priorities

    "Misplaced" is normative, whereas this argument is just descriptive. The author of this argument isn't assessing the validity / correctness of CEOs' priorities. It is only rebutting a claim that says "these people are indifferent to X", by saying, "they're not indifferent to X -- look, X is as high a priority as Y." It's an argument over what CEOs do or don't care about, not an argument over what CEOs should or shouldn't care about.

    1% picked this

  4. Correct

    presumes, without giving justification, that

    Why this is right

    This speaks to the disconnect between "in a poll, CEOs said that employee welfare was as high a priority as customer satisfaction" and the conclusion, "thus CEOs behave in a way that isn't indifferent to their employees needs and aspirations". If we negate this answer, it's saying that "The CEO's claims are not reflected in actual practice". It would badly weaken this argument if CEOs claim that employee welfare is a high priority but don't reflect that claim in actual practice (i.e. they behave as though employee welfare is not a high priority).

    Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    68% picked this

  5. makes a generalization based on

    Wrong Flaw

    This refers to the famous Sampling Flaw, but there's no generalization in the conclusion. The evidence was about the CEOs of large corporations and the conclusion is about the top management of large corporations. The conclusion speak for a group that's broader than the 125 corporations polled, but we have no reason to think the 125 large corporations polled were an unrepresentative sample of large corporations.

    10% picked this

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