Lark Manufacturing Company initiated a voluntary Quality Circles program for machine
operators. Independent surveys of employee attitudes indicated that the machine operators
participating in the program were less satisfied with their work situations after two years of the
program’s existence than they were at the program’s start. Obviously, any workers who
participate in a Quality Circles program will, as a result, become less satisfied with their jobs.

Each of the following, if true, would weaken the conclusion drawn above EXCEPT:

(A) The second survey occurred during a period of recession when rumors of cutbacks and
layoffs at Lark Manufacturing were plentiful .
(B) The surveys also showed that those Lark machine operators who neither participated in
Quality Circles nor knew anyone who did so reported the same degree of lessened
satisfaction with their work situations as did the Lark machine operators who participated
in Quality Circles.
(C) While participating in Quality Circles at Lark Manufacturing, machine operators exhibited
two of the primary indicators of improved job satisfaction: increased productivity and
decreased absenteeism.
(D) Several workers at Lark Manufacturing who had participated in Quality Circles while
employed at other companies reported that, while participating in Quality Circles in their
previous companies, their work satisfaction had increased.
(E) The machine operators who participated in Quality Circles reported that, when the program
started, they felt that participation might improve their work situations.