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ACCA Applied Knowledge · Management Accounting · Sampling methods

A company wants staff views on a new canteen. The surveyor simply asks the first 30 employees she meets at the main entrance on Monday morning. Which is the most significant weakness of this approach?

The main weakness is likely bias. Convenience sampling takes whoever is easily available, such as staff arriving at the main entrance on Monday morning, so the sample may not represent all employees. It is cheap and needs no sampling frame, but employees do not have equal selection chances.

  1. AIt is likely to be biased because the sample is not representative of all staffCorrect
  2. BIt cannot be carried out without a sampling frame
  3. CIt is more costly than random sampling
  4. DIt gives every employee an equal chance of selection

Explanation

This is convenience sampling. Those who arrive at the main entrance on Monday morning may differ from shift workers or part-timers, so results may be biased. It needs no sampling frame and is cheap, and not everyone has an equal chance of selection, which is why option D is wrong.

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