Question

select the correct answer.

a manager wants to gauge employee satisfaction at a company. she hands out a survey questionnaire to everyone in the human resources department who were hired in the past two years. the employees must respond to the questionnaire within five days.

what type of bias are the survey results at risk for?

• the survey results are most at risk for nonresponse bias.
• the survey results are most at risk for undercoverage.
• the survey results are not at risk for any bias.
• the survey results are at risk for nonresponse bias and undercoverage.

Explanation:

Analyze the target population and sample selection

The manager wants to gauge overall employee satisfaction at the company (target population), but only surveys employees in the human resources department who were hired in the past two years (sample). This systematically excludes employees from all other departments and those with more than two years of tenure, leading to undercoverage.

Analyze the response requirements

The employees are required to respond to the questionnaire within five days. Since response is mandatory ("must respond"), there is no voluntary choice to participate or ignore the survey among the selected group, which eliminates the risk of nonresponse bias for this sample.

Determine the primary risk of bias

Because a large portion of the company's employee population has no chance of being selected, the survey results are primarily at risk for undercoverage.

Answer:

• The survey results are most at risk for nonresponse bias.
• The survey results are most at risk for undercoverage. (Correct answer)
• The survey results are not at risk for any bias.
• The survey results are at risk for nonresponse bias and undercoverage.