The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine."A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep t

In this article, the editorial’s author concludes that hiring only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night would assist a business to prosper. The author also cites limited anecdotal statistics regarding Mentian advertising executives to substantiate the conclusion. Close scrutiny of the evidences reveals that they lend little creditable support to the author’s conclusion.

The first problem with the study has to do with the study mentioned, in that the author hastily assumes that the sample used in this study is representative of the larger population. As you know, in research studies, the larger the sample used in the study, the more reliable and valid the findings are. As such, more information regarding the overall number of executives of the advertising firms that were studied is required in order to correctly assess the argument. Maybe the total number of individuals that were studied was significantly larger than the 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives, in which event the results of such study is neither reliable, nor valid.

Secondly, the argument relies on a known correlation between the profit margins and growth speed and the average number of hours the executives sleep per night. Yet the correlation alone amounts to scant evidence of the claimed cause-and-effect relationship. Perhaps higher profit margins and faster growth could be achieved by other factors such as training workshops for the advertisers, or superior advertising strategies implemented by the firms. In short, without establishing that no plausible factors involving the profit margins and growth speed affected the results of the previously mentioned study, I cannot accept the author’s conclusion.

Finally, the conclusion depends on another unsubstantiated assumption that hiring only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night by itself bring higher profit margins and faster growth to the desired extent. Absent any evidence that this is the case, it is entirely possible that the recommended course of action would not suffice by itself. Unless the author supplies substantiating evidence, the conclusion lacks any merit whatsoever.

In sum, the argument is logically flawed, and therefore unconvincing. To bolster the argument, the author must firstly indicate that the sample used in the study was not only significant in size, but also representative of the larger population. In addition, the author must offer evidence regarding the correlation between the profit margins and the average number of hours the executive sleep per night. We would also need to know whether the proposed plan would suffice by itself to achieve higher profit margins and faster growth.