At CSX Transportation, employees in the Purchasing and Supply Chain Management (P&SCM) department perform many varied tasks, including inventory management, parts identification, equipment operation, purchasing, etc. In attempting to conduct a study of the skills sought by this department's management, probability sampling of hiring managers and operations managers would be beneficial. According to Cooper and Schindler (2014), probability sampling provides “confidence estimates of various parameters that cannot be achieved with non-probability samples” (p. 348). The appropriate sampling method to use to determine the desired skills needed for supply chain management at CSX will depend on factors such as cost and population size. Here is a discussion of the different sampling designs proposed by Cooper and Schindler (2014). Simple random sampling provides an equal chance of selection for each member of the population. The probability of selection is determined by dividing the sample size by the population size (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). In the case of CSX's P&SCM department, the simple random sample would give an equal chance for each hiring and operations manager to provide feedback on the preferred skills of new hires, thus allowing for accurate representation of desired skills at all levels..