(A) irrelevant

(B) A hierarchical work environment is considered as negative by the employees, therefore Summit retains its employee by providing a nonhierachical work environment! Best answer

(C) irrelevant

(D) Weakens conclusion!

For further explanations look up OG11! cheers

B seems pretty clear to me as well.

A irelevant
B strenthens summits explanation
C strenthens but only that it retains its emloyees
D weakens
E out of scope
therefore it is between B and C...B strenthens the most
therefore B

Thanks for the explanations guys, but I'm still not seeing why B is better than D.

The whole point of the passage is that Summit retains its employees better. What keeps employees? If they're satisfied.

D states that in a non-hierarchical work environment, people don't disrupt group harmony. Not disrupting group harmony = satisfaction/happiness/employee retention!

B only states that cooperative exchange of ideas that is necessary for work takes place. This statement only argues that employees do their work more effectively. More effective/efficient work means better profits and etc, but not necessarily employee satisfaction! Employee satisfaction can have very little to do with how well people exchange ideas necessary for work.

I really don't like this question, but it's in the OG11, which is why I'm analyzing it so much. I got this wrong because after reading the passage, I was lookign for something that would improve employee satisfaction, so I chose D.

I dunno, how else can I look at this problem?

ok, so i'm not insane. I think it's D too, but the OA is B.

i'm about to chalk this one up as one that i'll just never understand and hope I don't get a question with such shabby answer choices on the real GMAT.

I feel as if the answers are faulty because you must assume extra information in order for them to be correct.

B does state that a hierarchical work environment obstructs cooperative exchange of ideas that the employees deem necessary for their work.

To me, this says that it helps them do their jobs more effectively, NOT that it keeps them from leaving the firm. There seems to be a gap in the argument there. How is it that without lack of "critical collaboration" leads to employees leaving firms? To me, lack of critical collaboration leads to inefficient work. It's a big step to say that inefficient work leads to employees quitting their jobs.

IF the answer choice explicitly stated that most computer industry workers felt deeply dissatisfied with their jobs if they could not collaborate with their coworkers, then yeah, B all the way.

In addition, B only talks about hierarchical work environments. Just because this is true of hierarchical work environments doesn't necessarily mean the opposite is true of non-hierarchical work environments. "Summit credits its success in retaining employees to its informal, nonhierarchical work environment." Logically, we're looking for something that says "ok, non-hierarchical work environments are GOOD!" to strengthen the argument.

Choosing answer choice B is like saying "my company is successful because we use a just-in-time inventory system" and using this to strengthen the argument:

"traditional inventory systems lack the precision we need."

We're saying "if A, then B" and supporting it by saying "not A, then not B."
How are we supposed to be convinced that "if A, then B" is really true or not? We only know about "not A," not "A."


Then again, if we chose D, we would have to make a couple assumptions as well. We would have to assume that dissatisfaction with jobs and disruption of group harmony will lead to employees leaving the firm. To me, this is smaller gap in the argument than saying "ineffective work" ==> "employees leaving the firm"


Conclusion: I hate the GMAT.[/b]

I agree that the choices could have been better, but B is the best among the ones given. Others are totally wrong. that's why B.