The following table shows the distribution of employees in an organization. Martha Foreman, an analyst, wants to see if race has a bearing on the position a person holds with this company. Using the critical value approach, the decision and conclusion are ________.
A) reject the hypothesis; conclude race and seniority are dependent
B) reject the null hypothesis; conclude race and seniority are independent
C) do not reject the null hypothesis; conclude race and seniority are dependent
D) do not reject the null hypothesis; conclude race and seniority are independent

Question

The following table shows the distribution of employees in an organization. Martha Foreman, an analyst, wants to see if race has a bearing on the position a person holds with this company.  Using the critical value approach, the decision and conclusion are ________.
A) reject the hypothesis; conclude race and seniority are dependent 
B) reject the null hypothesis; conclude race and seniority are independent 
C) do not reject the null hypothesis; conclude race and seniority are dependent 
D) do not reject the null hypothesis; conclude race and seniority are independent

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

We are not given any hypothesis to begin with in the question. Therefore, we need to set up a hypothesis and test it using the critical value approach. Our null hypothesis is that race and position held in the company are independent. Our alternative hypothesis is that they are dependent. To test our hypothesis, we calculate expected values for each cell in the table assuming the null hypothesis is true, then use these values to calculate the test statistic. Comparing the test statistic to the critical value, we find that we cannot reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, we conclude that race and position held in the company are independent. Hence, the correct choice is D.

The Following Table Shows the Distribution of Employees in an Organization