According to research published in Organizational Behavior magazine

Question type: Complete the argument.

Deconstructing argument-
Managers in large firms perform similar evaluations of all employees which they classify into groups. Therefore average performers gets low raises.
Now based on this can we assume that high performers must be getting higher raises?

Let go through the options-

A) employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises.
This is completely opposite to what the research suggests. Not our answer.

B) in small firms, the raises given to higher-ranked employees will be significantly higher than those of their colleagues in the firm.
This sounds reasonable but it talks about small firms. This was a trap option. Let's cross it off from our possible answer.

C) average-ranked employees in large firms will work harder in order to get more than the minimal raise.
This one seems resonable. When average performers get low raises they'll try to improve their performance. Let's keep this option.

D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries.
Higher raise to employees with higher salaries? Why would they do it if the criteria is performance of an employee. Not our answer.

E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises.
Hmm..motivated. yes everyone wants a good raise but can they actually do it for themselves? Whether that's true or not, it is not something that can be derived from the reasearch which emphasize on performance and reward system. This option is an example of a loophole in the system. We can reject this option.

Hence option C

A) employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises.
this answer choice is wrong ---employees ranked similar will get identical annual raises not different so (OUT)

B) in small firms, the raises given to higher-ranked employees will be significantly higher than those of their colleagues in the firm.
From the stimulus we don't know anything about small firms ---stimulus is talking about managers in large firms
so this answer choice is (irrelevant)

C) average-ranked employees in large firms will work harder in order to get more than the minimal raise.
yes this is the correct answer choice......in order to get more than minimal raise average ranked employees will outperform their work
that means they will work hard (CORRECT)

D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries.
no, this cant be true ---suppose these employees do not outperform their work then they will get identical and minimal annual raises so (OUT)

E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises.
No, we can't prove this from stimulus ........Research doesn't say anything what manager should do in order to get high salaries...it only says how managers evaluate their employees on the basis of their work and what annual raises they are expected to receive
so we can't expect this to be true (OUT)

Which of the following best completes the passage below?
According to research published in Organizational Behavior magazine, managers in large firms tend to produce quite similar evaluations of their employees, thus employees who do not outperform their targets are expected to receive virtually identical and minimal annual raises. Hence, according to this research, it can be expected that ______________.

Pre thoughts :
Here authors giving us conclusion , about the employees -- could be about the remaining employees who work hard end up getting less than they deserve or of the same employees who under perform

A) employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises.-- Incorrect
Author is talking the opposite

B) in small firms, the raises given to higher-ranked employees will be significantly higher than those of their colleagues in the firm.-Incorrect
Author is not talking about the small firms

C) average-ranked employees in large firms will work harder in order to get more than the minimal raise.-Correct
This is as per our pre-thoughts

D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries.-Incorrect
Author is saying manager gives same raise to all employees under him

E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises.-Incorrect
Out of scope - author is not talking about managers raise

Conclusion from the report: Employees who do not exceed their targets in large firms usualy receive similar minimal annual raises.

A) employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises. --> Wrong. The contrary is true as mentioned in the passage. Similar ranked employees will receive minimal and similar annual raises.

B) in small firms, the raises given to higher-ranked employees will be significantly higher than those of their colleagues in the firm. --> Wrong. Out of scope. We are not talking about small firms in this passage.

C) average-ranked employees in large firms will work harder in order to get more than the minimal raise. --> Correct. This is inline with the conclusion laid out in the passage from the report.

D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries. --> Wrong. Out of scope. The impact of current salaries of employees on their annual raises is not discussed here.

E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises. --> Wrong. Out of scope. The personal motivations of the managers is not discussed here.

Which of the following best completes the passage below?

According to research published in Organizational Behavior magazine, managers in large firms tend to produce quite similar evaluations of their employees, thus employees who do not outperform their targets are expected to receive virtually identical and minimal annual raises. Hence, according to this research, it can be expected that ______________.


In our words if employees of large companies perform similarly, nobody works good enough to have remarkable difference from other employees, even if someone work a little bit better or worse, all of them get no additional increase (raise) to their salaries.


A) employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises.
this answer goes against the results of published research, quite similar evaluations lead to similar annual raises

B) in small firms, the raises given to higher-ranked employees will be significantly higher than those of their colleagues in the firm.
the researcher was done about large firm managers’ employees evaluations not the small firm, and even if we compare raises of higher ranked employees of larger firms with raises of HRE of small firms we cannot say that latter receives higher salary raises

C) average-ranked employees in large firms will work harder in order to get more than the minimal raise.
if average-ranked will work harder they might get some raise to their salary, so this answer most probably logically completes the given sentence

D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries.
we don't have enough information to say so, it might happen that employee with high salary doesn't meet targets and won't get get any raises to salary, hence it goes against

E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises.
we don't have such information to support this idea, we cannot say that they get higher raises to salaires if they raise their performance

C is the answer

Which of the following best completes the passage below?
According to research published in Organizational Behavior magazine, managers in large firms tend to produce quite similar evaluations of their employees, thus employees who do not outperform their targets are expected to receive virtually identical and minimal annual raises. Hence, according to this research, it can be expected that ______________.

My Take :-
one thing which is important to understand here all managers in large firm are impartial towards evaluations. so it means evaluation is pretty much fair.
Here Author is very much particular about managers in large firm . So we will go through each options to solve this question

A) employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises.
Incorrect:- This is opposite , if the rank is same , raise is same then how come different annual raise ?
B) in small firms, the raises given to higher-ranked employees will be significantly higher than those of their colleagues in the firm.
Incorrect :- Author has not shared any opinion towards small firm
C) average-ranked employees in large firms will work harder in order to get more than the minimal raise.
Correct:- Thats pretty much is left for average-ranked employees in large firms
D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries.
Incorrect:- Managers from large firms are concerned here . and moreover managers are impartial towards salaries
E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises.
Incorrect :- Thats out of box. We dont know the criteria for manager's hike

This was a simple (and a good) application of pre-thinking.

Look at it this way: employees who do not outperform their targets → get similar/identical evaluations from their managers → minimum annual raises

Now, while pre-thinking, the first thought that naturally came to my mind was: if I were an employee at this firm and if I observed and understood this pattern, I would tend to work harder to overachieve my targets, SO THAT I do not get an identical valuation as my other colleagues and thus, might get a higher annual raise compared to them.

With this thought, looking at the options, (C) exactly resonates and is in line with my pre-thinking, and hence, is the correct answer choice.

To be on the safer side, let us also eliminate all the other options before marking (C) as the correct option:

(A) exactly opposite to what the passage is saying. OUT.
(B) There's no information about small firms, and thus, we can't really infer anything regarding what might happen at small firms from the information that is provided to us. OUT OF SCOPE. ELIMINATED.
(D) We're not talking about the current salary or the role that has to play in determining the raise to be given to that employee. We're only concerned with target achievement/performance. OUT.
(E) Why do we even care what do the managers do to increase their own salaries??? EASILY ELIMINATED.

Eliminating all the others on solid grounds, we're only left with (C) - our correct answer choice.

Which of the following best completes the passage below?
According to research published in Organizational Behavior magazine, managers in large firms tend to produce quite similar evaluations of their employees, thus employees who do not outperform their targets are expected to receive virtually identical and minimal annual raises. Hence, according to this research, it can be expected that ______________.

A) employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises.
WRONG. It's quite opposite , who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive same wage.
B) in small firms, the raises given to higher-ranked employees will be significantly higher than those of their colleagues in the firm.
WRONG. There is no information about small firms in passage.
C) average-ranked employees in large firms will work harder in order to get more than the minimal raise.
RIGHT. Employees will understand that if they outperform, they will gain more money.
D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries.
WRONG. We don't know this raises in % or in absolute limited value.
E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises.
WRONG. I think managers have their own higher managers, so they are part of employees. Hence, 'C' is more precise than this one.

ANSWER C

I would like to know why option A is incorrect.

I was confused between Option A and Option C.
At first I thought Option A is directly contradicting the passage, so I chose option C. But then I changed my answer to A after giving it some more thought.

Here is my argument for Option A:

The passage says that managers give similar evaluations to ALL employees. So my understanding of this statement is that managers in large organizations do not differentiate between any employees while giving evaluations (Or ranks / or ratings). (Maybe because they dont have time, but reasons are not relevant so I wont speculate)

The passage also states that people who do not outperform their targets get a similar minimal raise. (NOTE: Raise is different from evaluation. I know for a fact that in most companies people with similar 'Ratings' can get different raises. But again, my knowledge is not relevant. I was just trying to point out that RAISE is DIFFERENT from EVALUATION).

So, I inferred from this that employees not outperforming target will ALWAYS get similar and minimal raises. BUT, employees who outperform targets have a chance of getting higher than minimal raises. So, RAISE IS DECIDED BY TARGETS AND NOT EVALUATIONS/RATINGS. ALL EMPLOYEES WILL HAVE SIMILAR RATINGS IRRESPECTIVE OF TARGET ACHEIVEMENT. Consequently, employees above target and below target will have similar evaluations / ranks / ratings BUT DIFFERENT RAISES.


Please let me know what am I reading wrong? Or what am I assuming incorrectly?


Also, I understand arguments in favour of C, but in my opinion arguments in favour of A outweighed arguments in favour of C because if C were correct, we would be assuming that employees are aware of the ratings and raises that their colleagues have received. And also whether they outperform targets. Ratings and Raises are usually very confidential (Even if they werent, we cant assume that everyone knows). We will also be assuming average employees will be motivated to get higher salaries (which would be generally true, but the passage doesnt speak of motivations. Maybe they are happy with their salaries)

For these reasons I think A is better than C. Please let me knwo your thoughts and where I am going wrong.

Thanks!

At large firms, managers produce similar evaluations of their employees.
Employees who do not outperform, receive identical and minimal raises.
(seems to say that avg employees receive the same minimal raise because they get very similar evaluations)

So it can be expected that ________

A) employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises.

This is not expected at all. It is expected that employees in large firms who were ranked quite similar will receive identical raises.

B) in small firms, the raises given to higher-ranked employees will be significantly higher than those of their colleagues in the firm.

What happens in small firms is out of scope.

C) average-ranked employees in large firms will work harder in order to get more than the minimal raise.

Yes, we can expect that to get more than the minimal raise, the average ranked employees will work harder. They will need to outperform their targets.

D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries.

No such expectation from the research.

E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises.

How managers will manage their own evaluations is outside the scope of our argument.

Answer (C)

As per the argument, targets, evaluations and raises are all connected.

Managers in large firms tend to produce quite similar evaluations of their employees.
Hence, employees who do not outperform their targets (and hence don't stand out) are expected to receive virtually identical and minimal annual raises.

In the argument, we are talking about employees who just meet their targets (don't outperform). They get similar evaluations and identical raises.
Those who outperform their target would supposedly receive better evaluations and better raises.

Hence, your first thought was correct. Option (A) is opposite of what we would expect. And to be honest, in your opposite explanation, I just got lost!

Which of the following best completes the passage below?
According to research published in Organizational Behavior magazine, managers in large firms tend to produce quite similar evaluations of their employees, thus employees who do not outperform their targets are expected to receive virtually identical and minimal annual raises. Hence, according to this research, it can be expected that ______________.

A) employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises.
B) in small firms, the raises given to higher-ranked employees will be significantly higher than those of their colleagues in the firm.
C) average-ranked employees in large firms will work harder in order to get more than the minimal raise.
D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries.
E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises.

VeritasKarishma

This is a must be true question and this belongs to that family of questions where introducing new information is not correct.

By introducing a completely new information i.e working hard into this argument, are we not breaking this rule ?

This is not a must be true question. We are looking for an expected implication of what we are told in the argument using "it can be expected that ...." which is forward - looking. As per given conditions, we can expect that ... (this is likely to have new information)
We are not looking for an inference or a conclusion which should have no new information.

This is the best explanation on here, hands down.
Everyone has misunderstood the first option.

No, the first option is not "exactly opposite" the passage. Usually managers give similar employee ratings to all their employees, so more than employee ratings it's the performance that matters. Imagine you have two employees working under you, and because you can't hurt either one of them, you decide to evaluate them similarly - "He's great. Very dedicated." and "She's awesome. Very hard working."

What's this saying about their performance? Nothing, right? So ultimately, it's the exceeding-the-targets that helps determine raises.

Now, the first option says, "employees in large firms, who were ranked quite similar by their manager, will receive substantially different annual raises.---Incorrect--- [color=#2e3192]"

"Will receive substantially different" is incorrect. "Can receive substantially different" might have been correct. Because you don't know if their actual target based performances are similar or substantially different.