"During the past year, Alta Manufacturing had thirty
percent more on-the-job accidents than nearby Panoply Industries, where the work shifts are one hour
shorter than ours. Experts
believe that a significant contributing factor in many accidents is fatigue
caused by sleep deprivation among workers. Therefore, to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents at
Alta, we recommend shortening each of our three work shifts by one hour.
If we do this, our employees will get
adequate amounts of sleep."
Write a response in which you discuss what
questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the
recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to
explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the
recommendation.
In memo from a vice president of Alta
Manufacturing, it appears that the Alta Manufacturing had thirty percent more
job accidents than Panoply industries due to the less sleep hours availed by
the employees which is as a result of sleep deprivation.
The author’s
claim firstly seems to be very convincing but the detailed scrutiny revealed
that the claim is not based on reliable reasoning on the basis of following arguments.
First,
the author is stating his point of view with reference to one year only. This
is not a good prediction of the overall accidents. If the predication was on
the basis of couple of years it would have been a good estimate. There is possibility that it was due to some
unusual circumstances during last year, which may include the intake of new
employees who do not have enough experience of handling machinery.
Secondly,
the author is comparing two of the manufacturing companies without any prior similarities
or the basis. He has not mentioned the kind of manufacturing company, which
plays essential role in determining the health of the employees and their
injuries. There is possibility that Panoly industries are a kind of industry in
which employees are less prone to the hazardous work conditions. Contrarily the
Alta industries might be some kind of metallurgical industry in which people
are highly prone to hazardous work conditions.
Thirdly,
further observation shows that he has not mentioned the size of company. There
is possibility that Panoly is a small scale industry, where as Alta is a large
scale industry. Additionally the argument could be strengthened if he mentions
whether each of company follows the international labor laws, or not.
Furthermore if a company has well trained labor force, there is less
probability to have accidents, alternatively if the labor is not well trained
there are high chances of injuries.
Lastly,
one more thing the author has taken into consideration is the services of expert,
but he fails to mention that whether the expert has properly scrutinized the case
or not.
The argument
by the author facilitates us up to a considerable extent, however there is
enough scholarship required to find why the accidents have been increased in
the last year, other than the shortening of the sleep hours.