Company A

Memo
To: Managers of Company A

From: Yashmi Bhanderi

Date: 8th May 2023

Re: Statistical techniques.

To the managers of Company A, I am writing to guide you through the statistical techniques that
help to solve management issues.

Statistical techniques help managers in decision-making as the data are processed. The data
acquired can either be primary or secondary.

 Primary data is the data that the firm physically collects on a particular subject required
by the firm to collect information. It can be in the form of interviews, questionnaires, and
observations. When the firm decides to use questionnaires, they need to design them
briefly as possible which is straightforward and clear to respondents to respond easily.
 Secondary data are collected for other purposes and are publicly accessible, e.g. on
the Internet or in newspapers. 

There are various ways of collecting the data, and the process is called the sampling
technique. A firm cannot interview the entire population or observe them. However, some parts
of the population can be represented incorrectly or not at all, leading to problems and skewed
results. Therefore, the following must be refrained from being done;

 Intentional choosing- where there is a personal element in a respondent’s choosing.

 Substitution- choosing another item for an already sampled item introduces biases.
  Not covering the whole sample- this is a common mistake in postal surveys when
respondents respond.
 Indiscriminate selection- inadequate care for the selected sampling method.

There are three methods of sampling as follows;

 Random sampling- this method where only a small, random sample of every individual
in the whole data set, with each participant having an equal chance of being selected.
This method is easy as there are no chances of biases.
 Non-random sampling- this method includes bias where specific respondents are
chosen by the researcher based on gender, age, and culture.
 Quasi-random sampling- this method has both of the above sampling methods.
 Quota sampling- this method necessitates the selection of representing people from a
defined category.

The sampling method can be represented geographically in two ways;

1. Discrete data- appropriately measured data consisting of various ranges of numbers.

2. Continuous data- data having a range of possible values.

Frequency distributions - this will provide the sample's frequency and quantity in a tabular
format.

The sampling methods help management to solve problems in the following ways;

 The reduction of data collection saves time as not all people need to answer the query.
 When the correct technique is used, the results acquires are nearly accurate.
 The data acquired is mostly detailed when a small number of resources are employed
thus there are fewer overheads for carrying out the survey.

Task 1.2 – Summary

STATISTICAL LOCATION.

There are three ways to display data with its variations. These include:

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  Mean- This is the total number of numbers in the data divided by the total number of
values in the data.
 Median- this is the middle number of the data that is organized chronologically of
magnitude.
 Mode- is the most repeated number in the data set.

The variables include;

Type of variable Best way to measure the
variable
Nominal Mode
Ordinal Median
Un-skewed interval/ratio Mean
Skewed interval/ ratio Median

The mean, mode, and median can be found using the table below as a reference.
Marketing and sales 25
Service engineers 15
Quality control 20
Warehouse 80
HR 10
Administration 25
Finance and accounts 15
Catering 10

25+15+20+80+10+ 25+15+10
Mean= =25
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For the median firstly the numbers need to be arranged from lowest to highest. The numbers
therefore will be arranged as 10, 10, 15, 15, 20, 25, 25, and 80. Since this has two median
numbers both of them are added and divided by 2 to get 17.5.

The most occurring numbers are 10, 15, and 25, thus these three numbers are the mode.

STATISTICAL DISPERSION.

This measures the spread and difference between how far some variances deviate from the
mean. After calculating the absolute difference, the mean deviation may be computed.

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Standard deviation is a popular type of dispersion; it is used to compute the mean deviation and
then square roots it, ensuring that values do not get too low or too high when compared to the
mean. For this data distribution, a symmetric pattern with no substantial deviations means the
following:

• The majority of the data will fall within three standard deviations of the mean.

• The standard deviation should represent around one-sixth of the range.

• Less than 10% of the data will deviate from the mean by two standard deviations.

• Fifty percent of the data should fall within 0.67 standard deviations of the mean.

Using the previous table, the standard deviation can be calculated.

1. Using the mean, the number of staff in each division is subtracted from the mean as
follows;
Marketing and sales 25 – 25 = 0
Service engineers 15 – 25 = -10
Quality control 20 – 25 = -5
Warehouse 80 – 25 = 55
HR 10 – 25 = -15
Administration 25 – 25 = 0
Finance and accounts 15 – 25 = -10
Catering 10 – 25 = -15

2. The figures above are then squared to find the average as follows;
Marketing and sales 02 =0
Service engineers -102 = 100
Quality control -52 = 25
Warehouse 552 = 3025
HR -152 = 225
Administration 02 =0
Finance and accounts -102 = 100
Catering -152 = 225

0+100+25+3025+225+ 0+100+225
Average of results = =462.5
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The average value is squarely rooted to get 21.5.

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The value 21.5 is the standard deviation of company A that can be used to make a comparison
between the department.