Compressed work weeks are defined as “alternative work schedules in which a trade is made between the number of hours worked per day, and the number of days worked per week, in order to work the standard number of weekly hours in less than 5 days.” A field study was conducted at a large, midwestern, continuous- processing (7 days/24 hours) chemical plant that had experimented with four different work schedules, two of which were compressed:

Six hundred seventy-one hourly employees were asked to rank the four work schedules in order of preference. The accompanying table gives the number of first-place rankings for each schedule. Is there sufficient evidence to indicate that the hourly employees have a preference for one of the work schedules? Test using α = .01.

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Three 8-hour fixed shifts Two 12-hours fixed shifts (day, evening, midnight) (12 A.M.-12 P.M., 12 P.M.-12 A.M.) Three 8-hour rotating shifts Two 12-hour rotating shifts