According to research published in Organizational Behavior magazine

IMO-C

Passage-
# A research published in XYZ magazine states something regarding Evaluation.
# In Large Firms, Managers generally give similar evaluation to their employees.
# Employees who don't meet their target are expected to receive identical or minimal annual raises.

Last line is concluding the passage. Conclusion marker is present at end.....
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.---Incorrect--- As per passage, rise depends on whether the target were outperformed or not. Similar rank does not define the achievement level and thus nothing can be concluded on 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--Passage is all about large firms, 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.---Correct----Managers rank employees more or less the same , so most of the employees will in the same rank (close to average rank).Now get more than minimal raise , performance has to exceed the expected. So this option summaries the passage y stating that if these average ranked employees have to get more than minimal raise, then they will have to work hard (outperform).

D) managers will give the higher raises to employees with significantly higher salaries.---Incorrect--- as per passage , there is a correlation between performance evaluation and salary/wages rise. higher salary will lead to higher raise in no way can be the concluding remarks.

E) Managers in large firms will be motivated to raise their own evaluations, in order to get higher salary raises.---Incorrect------This cannot be concluded as how raising of own evaluation (whether of their own employees or self assessment---not clear) is going to provide managers possibility of a salary increase. Managers increase will depend on his/her assessment by their employers..

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 ______________.


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

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.

While option C best completes it, it isn't bulletproof is it? Managers may work as hard as they can but that doesn't mean they WILL Outperform targets. Hardwork =/= Outperformance. Is it normal to see such susceptible answer choices as the right answer in the actual test?