Question

What are the issues of ethical statistical practices and reporting that need to be followed in today’s business environment? Why might this be a problem? When reporting statistical information, why is it essential to make the primary reporting direct and easy to understand, while including the more complex analysis in an appendix? What are some of the issues about reporting statistics that we need to consider when preparing information for decision makers?

Answer 1

The issues of ethical statistical practices and reporting includes the use of genuine data, the statistical methods to be followed and the ease of reports for easy analysis. In today's world, lots of decision making is done on the basis of data. Hence statistical practices must first focus on the purity and diversity of data. It must be ensured that data doesn't get corrupted by opinions, biases etc. Many management hide behind statistical jugglery to hide the real picture. reporting the true picture is important for shareholders and stakeholders to make decisions regarding the future of the company. Adherence to ethical statistical reporting is important as it shows that the company has honest management.

This is a problem for some since it exposes their mismanagement and non-performance which will hurt the executive's careers.

It is essential to make primary reporting easy direct and easy to understand because there are many stakeholders involved who might not understand the statistical knowledge to understand the implications of findings. Therefore, they need to be translated into business language for ease of understanding the inferences of the data.

while preparing the reporting statistics for decision-makers, these issues should be kept in mind.

1)The data should present the findings clearly. It should tell the decision-makers what the conclusion is. It should be simple.

2)It should answer the question for which the statistics are prepared.

3)The presentation and comparison of data should not be too technical.

4)Graphs and charts should be used for comparison.