Because no employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes

Because no employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of a superior, information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy. the chief executive is therefore, less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels.

The conclusion drawn above is based on the assumption that
a) problems should be solved at levels in the management hierarchy at which they occur
b) employees should be rewarded for accurately reporting problems to their superiors
c) problems-solving ability is more important at higher levels than it is at lower levels of the management hierarchy
d) chief executives obtain information about problems at lower levels from the no source other than their subordinates
e) some employees are more are concerned about truth than about the way they are perceived by their superiors


The assumption here is a logic gap assumption.
An assumption is what is absolutely necessary for the conclusion to be true. In short, an assumption is a hidden premise that bridges the gap between the premises and the conclusion.
See how the premises jump to the conclusion here.

Premise 1. No employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of the superior.
Premise 2. Hence, information about serious problems at lower levels is softened and distorted as it goes up the management ladder.
Conclusion: the CEO is less well informed about the problems at lower level than the sub-ordinates at that levels.

Premises say that information is softened by sub-ordinates. Conclusion says that the CEO is less well informed that sub-ordinates. Does it not assume that CEO is not informed by any other means than his sub-ordinates?

Try negating the choice D. The conclusion falls apart.
Negating is a good test on assumption questions.

Lets have a look at other choices.
A - problem solving is not discussed in the argument. though this seems like a real world solution, it is not in the scope of the argument and by no means is the assumption made to reason.
B - same as A. it is a solution. not an assumption
C - this is a trap choice! this is NOT an assumption. this might be true but this is not an assumption. even if problem solving ability were not more important at higher levels, this argument would remain valid.
D - correct answer as discussed above.
E - this assumption actually weakening the conclusion by challenging the premises. Remember, in CR assumption questions the validity of premises and conclusion cannot be challenged unless the question asks for a flaw in reasoning in which the assumption is put in a negative light!!

Hi,

The first step in the process is understanding the passage or drawing a logical structure. The argument structure is of the form A->B->C. Let's draw it:

No employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of a superior ------------>>>> information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy ----------------->>>>>>> the chief executive is less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels.

Does the argument make sense? It says that employees don't want to be associated with bad news; so, they distort the bad news when they report to higher levels. Now, this means that chief executive would be less well informed about problems than his juniors (this is because the distortion in information increase as the information travels up the heirarchy).

Now, in these kind of causal arguments A->B: we need to consider all the statements which could break this relationship and negation of such statements would be assumption (since our conclusion is that the relation A->B holds, so anything which prevents such relationship, we assume it not to be true)

Now, if you can pre-think an assumption in this case, do it; if not, just move on to the options. However, for understanding purpose, let's see how prethinking can be done here:

Is there a way chief executive knows as well as his juniors even though information is distorted as it travels up?

The answer could be that if he has some other source of information than his immediate juniors. In this case, he'll probably know as well or better than his juniors.

Therefore the assumption for the conclusion to hold, would be that Chief executive has no other source of information than his juniors.

This is what is expressed by option D, which is the correct choice.

Hope this helps

Thanks,
Chiranjeev
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D is a supporter Assumption..The conclusion brings in the new piece of information "CEO".. so Use this in the answer choices

There are 2 kinds of assumptions which are explained in the book GMAT CRITICAL REASONING BIBLE by powerscore.

The 2 kinds are defender assumption and supporter assumption.

The problem is that negation test make clear the assumption.

in hard assumption questions in gmatprep va Manhantan, I normally see there are 2 choice, negation of both of which weakens the argument and can both be an assumption. However, only one is correct. Other choice is considered far. The example is question "bacteria on earth now" in gmatprep.

Interesting...I pick D as well. The assumption is that the people at the top only gets their information from the bottom. Thus, if the bottom lies, the top doesn't get good intel.

Because no employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of a superior, information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy. The chief executive is, therefore, less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels.
The conclusion drawn above is based on the assumption that
(A) problems should be solved at the level in the management hierarchy at which they occur
(B) employees should be rewarded for accurately reporting problems to their superiors
(C) problem-solving ability is more important at higher levels than it is at lower levels of the management hierarchy
(D) chief executives obtain information about problems at lower levels from no source other than their subordinates
(E) some employees are more concerned about truth than about the way they are perceived by their superiors

Bold = premise

Red = conclusion

Assumption = only D is true for the conclusion

A) problem solving is not the point

B) employee rewarded is not the point

C) PS ability is more important is not the point

E) how employee are perceived is not the point

Kudos is this helps you
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For this argument to hold true, the phrase, 'goes up each step in the hierarchy' must apply to the conclusion. However, unless the C.E.O. is getting his/her news from the person/s directly below him/her and that person/s directly below them, then distortion is not likely to happen. Meaning that if the C.E.O. hears bad news from someone far lower on the hierarchy the conclusion does not hold true. Therefore (D) works best.
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Hi Chris

in your opinion this is a good CR question ?? and what is its real level ??

Thanks
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Because no employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of a superior, information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy. the chief executive is therefore, less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels.

The conclusion drawn above is based on the assumption that

a) problems should be solved at levels in the management hierarchy at which they occur
b) employees should be rewarded for accurately reporting problems to their superiors
c) problems-solving ability is more important at higher levels than it is at lower levels of the management hierarchy
d) chief executives obtain information about problems at lower levels from the no source other than their subordinates
e) some employees are more are concerned about truth than about the way they are perceived by their superiors

How to approach above question by e-gmat way?
How to make logical structure and then pre-think?

Regards,
Aristocrat

A simple approach to assumption question can be:
Focus on the conclusion and the premise from which the conclusion is being led.
In this question, the premise just before the conclusion is :" information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy"
The conclusion is: "the chief executive is therefore, less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels".
So you see how the author has jumped from that premise to the conclusion.
The missing statement is clearly the choice D.

I liked the explanation by e-GMAT. Adding to this..

The assumption here is a logic gap assumption.
An assumption is what is absolutely necessary for the conclusion to be true. In short, an assumption is a hidden premise that bridges the gap between the premises and the conclusion.
See how the premises jump to the conclusion here.

Premise 1.
No employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of the superior.
Premise 2.
Hence, information about serious problems at lower levels is softened and distorted as it goes up the management ladder.
Conclusion:
The CEO is less well informed about the problems at lower level than the sub-ordinates at that levels.

Premises say that information is softened by sub-ordinates. Conclusion says that the CEO is less well informed that sub-ordinates. Does it not assume that CEO is not informed by any other means than his sub-ordinates? Option D opens up the answer for this question.
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press kudos if this helps

Premise: Because no employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of a superior, information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy.

Conclusion: the chief executive is therefore, less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels.

Assumption: chief executive do not get the information about serious problems from any other source than subordinates.

Option: D states the same. You can confirm this option by Negation test as well.
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Because no employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of a superior, information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy. the chief executive is therefore, less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels.

a) problems should be solved at levels in the management hierarchy at which they occur
this is not about what needs to be done.. irrelevant... the issue is whether the chief executive know any less than his or her subordinates...

b) employees should be rewarded for accurately reporting problems to their superiors
same as a... not the issue...

c) problems-solving ability is more important at higher levels than it is at lower levels of the management hierarchy
the issue is whether the chief executive is any less informed.. out...

d) chief executives obtain information about problems at lower levels from the no source other than their subordinates
bingo! if there are other sources then the conclusion is not solid...

e) some employees are more are concerned about truth than about the way they are perceived by their superiors
if so, then the author shouldn't conclude that the chief executive will know less... if they are not that concerned about how they are percieved.. opposite... out

IMO , there is no gap in the argument.
The argument states how the information is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy and finally concludes how the CEO is less well informed.
Hence , the correct answer "C" works as "defender assumption".

daagh , chetan2U.
please correct.

[quote="GMATD11"]Because no employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of a superior, information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy. the chief executive is therefore, less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels.

The conclusion drawn above is based on the assumption that
a) problems should be solved at levels in the management hierarchy at which they occur
b) employees should be rewarded for accurately reporting problems to their superiors
c) problems-solving ability is more important at higher levels than it is at lower levels of the management hierarchy
d) chief executives obtain information about problems at lower levels from the no source other than their subordinates
e) some employees are more are concerned about truth than about the way they are perceived by their superiors

[spoiler=]guys i find answer choice D as .. and D it is.

D...negate D and argument falls apart.

if the CEO is getting info other than from sub. then he is well informed

d) chief executives obtain information about problems at lower levels from the no source other than their subordinates

The assumption should relate CEO, sub-ordinates and Issues at lower levels logically. And D does this.

D is the correct choice

a) outside the scope
b) outside the scope
c) outside the scope
d) Correct; we needed a link between CEOs and how they obtain information
e) this goes against the argument presented. If this were true, then employees would have no reason to soften the news and the CEO would be receiving accurate information - this is a weakening argument