ACADEMIC ASSIGNMENT 2

5. The Human Resources department of Lanzadera is recruiting employees for a job

abroad. When administration asks them how the process is going on, they reply that the
mean overall score will be of 90 points. However, when administration checks 19 results,
they find that the mean score is 83.25 pints, with a standard deviation of 11.

(a) Assuming that the distribution is normally distributed, is Human Resources right, with
a level of significance α = 0.1?

(b) Compute the p-value.

At the problem above, we can see how the Human Resources department has made a
claim (Null Hypothesis) that the average result of the employees that have been
interviewed will be of 90 points. Therefore, they stand for: “µ0=90”. However, the
administration checks 19 results and find out that the mean observed is 83.25.
Therefore, administration stand for: “x = 83.25” and “n = 19”, and the Alternative
Hypothesis is “µ ≠ 90”. Since the exercise gives us that the sample standard deviation s
= 11 and α = 0.1, we are asked if the Null Hypothesis made by Human Resources should
or should not be rejected. Then, we will have to compute the tests of the mean of a
normally distribution if σ unknown to check if the deviation obtained by the
administration is inside the variance that the result can provide and, hence, Human
Resources is right, or if the value obtained is in the rejection region and we should reject
the claim made by Human Resources.

To solve the problem, we will use one of the tests explained at the unit 4. We will obtain
by one of these tests the rejection region of our problem. These tests can be divided in
two groups, the one-tail test (this one is divided as well in lower and upper tail) and the
two-tail test, depending on if the rejection region is placed in one or both sides of the
normal distribution. In our problem we will be using the two-tail test, since the “µ0”
given is supposed to be equal to 90, and not higher or lower. In fact, we use the two-tail
test when the Null Hypothesis stands “µ = value”, and our Alternative Hypothesis stands
for “µ ≠ value”. Otherwise, the one-tail test should be used when the Null Hypothesis
stands for “µ≥/≤ value” (Being “value” = 90 in our exercise).

• We proceed now to solve the exercise:

(a) Assuming that the distribution is normally distributed, is Human Resources
right, with a level of significance α = 0.1?

➢ H0: µ0 = 90
➢ HA: x = 83.25
➢ n = 19
➢ s = 11
➢ α = 0.1 (level of significance)

Since we are going to use the two-tail test, our α must be changed to α/2. Therefore,
our new level of significance α = 0.05. Having obtained this value, we set up the values
that determine the rejection regions. These are obtained from the test of the mean of a
normally distribution if σ is unknown:

t > tn – 1, α/2

We will reject our Ho if:

t < - tn – 1, α/2
 t = (83.25 – 90)/ (11/√𝟏𝟗)

t= -2.67

Checking now the t-student table we can see easily that our tn – 1, α/2 = t18, 0.05 = 1.734.
Then, our values that determine the rejection region will be: +/- 1.734

*Notice that the table does not show the values for α= 0.05, but we can look for 1 – α
and will obtain the same number.

t < - tn – 1, α/2 -2.67 < -1.734

We conclude to reject the Null Hypothesis, hence, Human Resources is not right.

(b) Compute the p-value.

To compute de p-value of a two-tail test, we must do the following operation:

p-value = P(Z ≤ -2.67) + P(Z ≥ 2.67)

We check now the z-table, but since we are just given the positive part of this one, we
should apply that:

o P(Z ≤ -2.67) = 1 - P(Z ≤ 2.67) = P(Z ≥ 2.67) = 0.0038

And therefore, we have that our p-value equals:

P(Z ≤ -2.67) + P(Z ≥ 2.67) = 0.0038 + 0.0038 = 0.0076

p-value = 0.0076

We can now confirm if we certainly should have rejected the Null Hypothesis if our p-
value is lower than our level of significance. While p-value is clearly lower than the level
of significance, our solution in the first part of the problem was correct.