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A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due 19 Sep 2019, 18:40
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We are told that department heads and subordinate staff are insufficient in terms of number to meet the vacancies. Since Uni Corp won't hire externally, D is the only answer choice that eliminates another potential source of recruitment that meets the criteria of the question.
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A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due 21 Oct 2020, 12:46
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I agreed some of the discussion above. D is the best, but D kind of repeat the stimulus 'xx is half xxx'.
However, it is safe/must to assume the pool of candidates mentioned in the stimulus refer to the employee who is at lower rank than dept head.
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A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due 23 Dec 2021, 08:47
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Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due to retire this year. The number of employees other than current department heads who could take on the position of department head is equal to only about half of the expected vacancies. Unitron is not going to hire department heads from outside the company or have current department heads take over more than one department, so some departments will be without department heads next year since Unitron will not ______.

(A) raise the minimum qualifications an employee must have to be promoted to department head

(B) promote any current department heads to higher managerial positions

(C) reduce the responsibilities of each department

(D) have any manager who are currently senior to the department heads appointed as department heads

(E) reduces the average number of employees per department

Show Spoiler
The Question is the same as an old gmat CR question. What makes this one tough are the options.
Show more

Although there are a few explanations, I am still not very clear on why would I eliminate A. GMATNinja any explanation here please?
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A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due 09 Jan 2022, 08:56
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Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due to retire this year. The number of employees other than current department heads who could take on the position of department head is equal to only about half of the expected vacancies. Unitron is not going to hire department heads from outside the company or have current department heads take over more than one department, so some departments will be without department heads next year since Unitron will not ______.

(A) raise the minimum qualifications an employee must have to be promoted to department head

(B) promote any current department heads to higher managerial positions

(C) reduce the responsibilities of each department

(D) have any manager who are currently senior to the department heads appointed as department heads

(E) reduces the average number of employees per department

Show Spoiler
The Question is the same as an old gmat CR question. What makes this one tough are the options.

Although there are a few explanations, I am still not very clear on why would I eliminate A. GMATNinja any explanation here please?
Show more
To answer this question, we're looking for the answer choice that explains why "some departments will be without department heads next year." What could cause these positions to be unfilled?

With that in mind, take another look at (A):
Quote:
(A) [some departments will be without department heads next year since Unitron will not] raise the minimum qualifications an employee must have to be promoted to department head.
Show more

(A) talks about raising the qualifications to get promoted to department head. Raising the qualifications would make it harder to fill the position -- which looks like a good fit!

There's one major problem, though -- when you add in the rest of the sentence, you learn that "Unitron will NOT raise the minimum qualifications" for the position. In other words, the info in (A) does NOT make it harder to fill the department head slots. The company is keeping the bar as low as it is currently.

That "not" is the reason we can get rid of (A).

Compare that to (D):
Quote:
[some departments will be without department heads next year since Unitron will not] have any manager who are currently senior to the department heads appointed as department heads.
Show more
(D) tells us that Unitron will NOT pull department heads from another pool of employees -- specifically, from the group that currently outranks the department heads.

This provides a reason that the slots will go unfilled. (D) is the correct answer.

I hope that helps!
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A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due 09 Jan 2022, 14:57
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Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due to retire this year. The number of employees other than current department heads who could take on the position of department head is equal to only about half of the expected vacancies. Unitron is not going to hire department heads from outside the company or have current department heads take over more than one department, so some departments will be without department heads next year since Unitron will not ______.

Solution:

(A) raise the minimum qualifications an employee must have to be promoted to department head: If Unitron will not raise the minimum qualifications, then it will not become difficult to become a department head. This option doesn't explain why then there will still be a shortage of department heads. We need another explanation or another thing that Unitron can do but won't do to rectify the shortage problem.

(B) promote any current department heads to higher managerial positions: This will again not explain the shortage, as Unitron won't promote any current department head.

(C) reduce the responsibilities of each department: This is irrelevant. Whether Unitron reduces the responsibility of each department or not has no bearing on the number of department heads.

(D) have any manager who are currently senior to the department heads appointed as department heads: This explains a thing that Unitron can do but won't to rectify the situation and hence becomes our answer.

(E) reduces the average number of employees per department: Irrelevant. This has no bearing on the number of department heads.
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A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due 30 Nov 2022, 13:00
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Which of the following most logically completes the argument?
A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due to retire this year. The number of employees other than current department heads who could take on the position of department head is equal to only about half of the expected vacancies. Unitron is not going to hire department heads from outside the company or have current department heads take over more than one department, so some departments will be without department heads next year since Unitron will not ______.

A. raise the minimum qualifications an employee must have to be promoted to department head
B. promote any current department heads to higher managerial positions
C. reduce the responsibilities of each department
D. have any manager who are currently senior to the department heads appointed as department heads
E. reduces the average number of employees per department

I get why D) is right, my doubt is regarding A)

Why is it wrong? Anyone care to clarify?

Thanks in advance
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I guess you (& others who have chosen A) have misinterpreted the word 'raise' as 'lower'. I did the same the mistake. Had the word been 'lower/ reduce', A would have been a good answer choice too.
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A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due 16 Oct 2023, 08:45
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Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due to retire this year. The number of employees other than current department heads who could take on the position of department head is equal to only about half of the expected vacancies. Unitron is not going to hire department heads from outside the company or have current department heads take over more than one department, so some departments will be without department heads next year since Unitron will not ______.

We are looking for an option that will strengthen the conclusion.

(A) raise the minimum qualifications an employee must have to be promoted to department head - This is a weakener. Negation of this statement will further bolster the conclusion.

(B) promote any current department heads to higher managerial positions - This is a weakener. Negation of this statement will further bolster the conclusion.

(C) reduce the responsibilities of each department - out of scope.

(D) have any manager who are currently senior to the department heads appointed as department heads - This is an assumption as the negation of this statement will shatter the conclusion. And all assumptions are strengthener (But not all strengtheners are assumptions, as an assumption is a must-be true condition)

(E) reduces the average number of employees per department - doesn't impact the conclusion. Distortion.
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A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due 13 Dec 2025, 23:27
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I dont agree here @bb, Experts

Argument clearly states no of employee other then current dept heads is half of expected vacancies. So even if managers who are senior to current dept head will take up the positions of dept head they will still be insufficient to fill all the positions of dept head.

Whereas if responsibilty reduced then we can expect more employee to get free which can take positions of the dept head
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A significant number of Unitron Corporation’s department heads are due 14 Dec 2025, 00:10
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I dont agree here @bb, Experts

Argument clearly states no of employee other then current dept heads is half of expected vacancies. So even if managers who are senior to current dept head will take up the positions of dept head they will still be insufficient to fill all the positions of dept head.

Whereas if responsibilty reduced then we can expect more employee to get free which can take positions of the dept head
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If you’re referring to answer choice C, as you have mentioned yourself, the number of qualified employees is only a half of open slots. So even if you reduce the responsibility of employees that number will not change. There will be more available employees but they will not be qualified.

PS. Only D is possible. None of the other options make any sense. Even D does not make a lot of sense to me but it’s the only one that I can see fit.
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