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

The article in that appeared in the business magazine concludes that, businesses must hire people who need less than six hours of sleep per night. It is based on the premise that the study conducted among 300 advertising executives, which suggests that people who need less than six hours of sleep are productive in making their company successful. However, it is assumed that the conclusion drawn from this study conducted at a small scale, will go a long way in deciphering the productivity of people. Lots of questions seem to be answered, before the readers can assume the validity of the argument.

First of all, the questions regarding the study need to be answered. When was the study conducted? If the study has been conducted 5 to 6 years back, then their results will not hold good so long. Additionally, the sample tested is only 300 members. Based on the results obtained from this meager sample, we cannot come to a hopeful conclusion regarding the real causes of success of the firms. Moreover, more details need to be furnished as to how the rating was performed and what is the correlation factor established between the sleeping pattern and success of the firms. If the correlation factor is low, then sleep can be deemed as an 'unimportant' factor.

Furthermore, it is mentioned that the executives reported needing no more than six hours of sleep. However, the reliability of the reporting is not obvious. The executives have to be grilled with questions regarding other factors contributing to their productivity. And, only certain advertising firms are said to be studied. This does not necessarily mean the results have to apply to all the advertising firms. Above all, the author seems to mistakingly correlate the sleeping hours with higher profit margin and rapid growth. Besides number of hours an executive sleeps, other factors' contribution to his success must be analysed. Some of them include: the ability of the executive to complete the task within time, his managerial capabilities, motivation factor, leadership qualities etc... These factors' role must be explained and only if they seem insignificant to the sleeping hours, can we conclude that sleeping hours are a major contributing factor towards the executive's growth.

The author of the article comes to a hasty generalization that the businesses must hire people who need less than six hours of sleep, solely based on the study. In the first place, the study itself seems unreliable and lots of details need to be furnished to validate the study. In addition, the hiring process can take into accomodation, various skills of a candidate like: verbal ability, problem solving skills, logical reasoning etc... The values of these skills must be proven to be discounted by the number of hours a person sleeps. Only then, can the readers accept the argument given in the article to be convincing. Without these questions being answered, doubts will lurk in the minds of the readers.

Terms like 'faster' and 'higher' need to be quantified and their values in previous years must be mentioned so that the readers can get a clear-cut view of the real rapid growth and increase in profit margins. Without the values, there is a possibility that the author could have mistaken a 10% growth rate to be a higher value; or he could have misconstrued a 50% growth rate to be low. Hence, quantification is of prime importance in this argument.

Thus, the questions to be answered for the validity of the argument include: the representative sample proven to reflect all the advertising firms, validity of the ratings, reliability of the reports, other factors to be considered in gauging the profit margins and growth rates of the executives, prerequisites necessary for a potential employee. The author seems to vouch this study as 'valid' for all kinds of businesses; whereas this study was mainly conducted for businesses related to advertisements. All in all, the article contains specious argument rife with unstated assumptions and a plethora of questions to be answered. Only if proper answers are given, can the businesses march forward towards the implementation of the recommendation.