According to P. F. Drucker, the management philosophy known as Total Q

Time : 3 mins 54 seconds (including reading) all correct

2. Which of the following best describes the relationship of the second paragraph to the first paragraph?
para 1: claim : according to drucker " TQM can work successfully in conjunction with two older management systems. " ... support is provided for the claim.... why is it a CLAIM? because it is someone's POV (someone being drucker) .. we cannot call it a fact or a GENERAL PRINCIPLE.
para 2: Though TQM can work in conjunctions with older systems , there ae still some LIMITATION ... limitations or better yet detailed differences between TQM and other systems.So this para MODIFIES OR GIVES US FURTHER INFO TO VIEW THE CLAIM IN TOTALITY with a much deeper undertstanding.

A. It presents contrasting explanations for a phenomenon presented in the first paragraph.
errors : Contrasting explanations : there are no contrasting explanations mentioned anywhere... the AUTHOR in second para merely gives us a more detailed picture in totality for the reader to evaluate the claim.
Phenomenon: phenomenons are usually events or facts which are substantiated with other factual premises. here druckers makes HIS CLAIM. THAT DOES NOT MEAN HE IS STATING A PHENOMENON. Well you could call the support given to the claim " operational features bla bla bla " in para 1 as a phenomenon because it is a fact and hence is substantiated .

B. It discusses an exception to a general principle outlined in the first paragraph.
errors: AN EXCEPTION : There is no exception . See the author is providing us more info to evaluate (view/judge) drucker's claim. He points out no exception ( that in this case , the claim does not work ). If there had been an exception , the author would have explicitly cited the exception (a scenario in which the claim does not hold true). But nowhere has h/she mentioned such an exception.
Even if we ignore being literal , there is still a problem ... AN exceptions. author points out more than 1 differences in the systems. so AN exception is inappropriate. BOTTOM LINE : THERE IS NO EXCEPTION
General principle: There is no GENERAL PRINCIPLE. Nowhere is it mentioned that the claim made by drucker is widely accepted . author JUST MENTIONS A CLAIM ...THAT'S IT.

C. It provides information that qualifies a claim presented in the first paragraph. CORRECT
Why right? -
provides info : yes the author provides us info wherein he mentions certain key differences and some common objectives.
qualifies: qualifies means modifying or giving more info on something through which we can evaluate something.
Note : a potential MISCONCEPTION among readers who think " to qualify : to limit" ... qualifying something means provide more info on which we can narrow in and get more info on something to make a sound judgement
for eg : I like ice cream ( this is my claim ... you are the reader) .... I like butterscotch icecream ( My qualification (modification of icecream )) .. Now you can make an even sound judgement about which icecream i like. THIS IS QUALIFICATION.
... SO in para 2 author provides us more info from which we can make a sound judgement on drucker's claim.

D. It presents an example that strengthens a claim presented in the first paragraph.
errors: example - no example is given....raw info is provided.
strengthens a claim : nowhere is author even trying to substantiate the claim : TQM can successfully work with other sys.... he is providing info

E. It presents an alternative approach to solving a problem discussed in the first paragraph.
errors: alternative approach - first of all there isnt any approach to which author is author is providing an alternative.
a problem - a claim is mentioned. author never says that the claim is problematic


GMATNinja please judge my reasoing .. thankyou...

Passage Map:
p1: To state that TQM can be used with 2 other systems: human relations and rationalist
p2: To state that TQM cannot be simply grafted onto these 2 other systems as it views the interests of multiple stakeholders as convergent

Q1 - Main Idea
A - no contradictions. Incorrect.
B - objectives aren't compared or contrasted. Incorrect
C - no shared organisational features are discussed. Incorrect.
D - This is quite clearly the case. P1 introduces TQM and states how it can be used with other systems; P2 explains certain caveats of using TQM with other systems.
E - one system isn't discussed in terms of its advantages over another. Incorrect

Q2 - Function
Can refer to passage map above for this.
C is correct. The claim is that TQM can be used with other systems. P2 qualifies this claim by stating that TQM can't simply be "grafted onto these systems"...

A is incorrect - no contrasting explanations are given whatsoever.
B is incorrect because this isn't an exception. This qualification applies to all non-TQM systems as per "TQM cannot simply be grafted onto these systems or onto certain other non-TQM management systems"
D is incorrect - no strengthening at all...
E is incorrect - this is not an alternative approach. This is the same methodology, but the author is just caveating his claim 'hey... it can't simply be grafted on because... X'

Q3 - Detail
Explained in P2 - "other management systems referred to (Rationalist and Human relations) use upper management decision-making and employee specialization to maximize shareholder profits over the short term"
A - correct as stated in the quoted.
B - incorrect as we cannot support this. We actually know that "human relations" has some sort of emphasis on organisational structure as per the last sentence of p1.
C - incorrect as we are told TQM is "consistent with the statistical sampling techniques..."
D - we cannot support this. We are told of the impact of lowering prices on TQM, but we aren't told that this is how the theories are alike
E - no. We are actually told the rationalist and human relations focus more on the short term.

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