Affirmative action is good business. So asserted the National Associat

My final vote is for (B).
I was caught between (B) and (D).Will explain if B is the right answer.Even Iam not sure what Affirmative action meant.

B should be the answer.

The companies trying to discharge its services by doing some ggof to the community by hiring minorities so that they are part of the action may be called Affirmative action. The original leaders wanted to help minorities and wanted businesses to voluntarily help them. In India the closest thing to AA may be reservations (or quotas for minorities) which is not voluntary but forced.

B it is! As the association claims, Diversity in work force participation has produced new ideas in management, product development , and marketing, so if businesses which promote such diversity are also profitable, then the claim would be more strengthened.

(B) Those businesses with the highest percentage of minority and women workers are those that have been the most innovative and profitable.

Doesnt "highest percentage of minority and women" decrease the diversity??
A weaken??

C, D and E - They aren't even talking about diversity or minorities or women. They are totally out of context.

And A option isn't talking about business growth or innovation or anything. So, it's also out.

B is what we are left with and also B is talking about both and giving the pros of diversity, leading to strengthen the conclusion.

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Can someone please explain this? I had the same doubt and hence i ruled out this option.

Actually it will increase diversity rather than decrease it

GMATNinjaTwo Can you please tell me what is th argument here? As in what is the premise and what is the conclusion?

Regards

I can help you with this one.

Affirmative action is good business.
This is the conclusion of the association. The association believes in this. Slight outside context here is that affirmative action refers to any policy that benefits 'traditionally marginalized communities'. What this traditionally marginalized community could be varies from country to country. For example - India has reservation for SC, ST and OBC communities, and colleges in the US have certain diversity requirements for African Americans. In this argument, the association is referring to 'minorities and women' as can be seen from the next statement.

So asserted the National Association of Manufacturers while arguing retention of an executive order requiring some federal contractors to set numerical goals for hiring minorities and women.

"Diversity in work force participation has produced new ideas in management, product development, and marketing," the association claimed.
This is the premise on which the conclusion is based. Affirmative action is good business because 'diversity in work force participation' has produced new ideas in management etc etc.


The association's argument as it is presented in the passage above would be most strengthened if which of the following were true?
In other words, we are looking for something that reinforces our belief in the fact that affirmative action is good for business because it (diversity) leads to new ideas.


(A) The percentage of minority and women workers in business has increased more slowly than many minority and women's groups would prefer.
% of workers or their growth or the expected pace of that growth is irrelevant to our conclusion

(B) Those businesses with the highest percentage of minority and women workers (= marginalized communities) are those that have been the most innovative and profitable.
Okay - so I already knew diversity was leading to new ideas. Now I know that those ideas might have translated to innovation and profits. Definitely, a strengthener
Also, this doesn't mean that minorities and women constitute the highest % in a given business. This simply says that if minority+ women represented {30%, 30%, 20%, 10%, 5%} for 5 companies A, B, C, D, E; then A and B would be most innovative and profitable

(C) Disposable income has been rising as fast as among the population as a whole.
Irrelevant to minorities and women

(D) The biggest growth in the sales in the manufacturing sector has come in industries that market the most innovative products.
This was an attempted trap, given the use of the phrase 'market the most innovative products'. But what does it tell us? The biggest growth in ABC sector has come through marketing of most innovative products. So is affirmative action good for business? Umm we don't know. Exactly!

(E) Recent improvement in the management practices have allowed many manufacturers to experience enormous gains in worker productivity.
Is affirmative action a management practice? We don't know. What improvements in these practices? We don't know.

Affirmative action is good business. So asserted the National Association of Manufacturers while arguing retention of an executive order requiring some federal contractors to set numerical goals for hiring minorities and women. " Diversity in work force participation has produced new ideas in management, product development, and marketing," the association claimed.

The association's argument as it is presented in the passage above would be most strengthened if which of the following were true?

Association's argument: Affirmation action is good business (is the conclusion).
The reasoning provided is 'diversity in workforce has produced new ideas in management, product development, and marketing'.

One reason is provided to support 'affirmation action is good business', and we need to provide another reason why this 'affirmation action is good business'.

(A) The percentage of minority and women workers in business has increased more slowly than many minority and women's groups would prefer.
not correct: we don't know what happens to a business if 'the % of minority and women workers in workforce has increased more slowly than some groups preferred'. So, without knowing the consequence of this '% of minority and women workers in the workforce' on the business, we can't say 'affirmative action is good business'.

(B) Those businesses with the highest percentage of minority and women workers are those that have been the most innovative and profitable.
correct: this choice gives one more reason to believe why 'affirmative action is good business'. This choice says that if there are many minority & women workers in a business then that business is the most innovative and profitable. If this is the case, then one can confidently say 'affirmative action is good business'.

(C) Disposable income has been rising as fast as among the population as a whole.
not correct: we don't get any info from this choice about minority and women workforce.

(D) The biggest growth in the sales in the manufacturing sector has come in industries that market the most innovative products.
not correct: we don't know whether these 'most innovative products' came from 'minority and women workforce' or 'from non-minority workforce'. So, it can't support the conclusion.

(E) Recent improvement in the management practices have allowed many manufacturers to experience enormous gains in worker productivity.
not correct: if this happens then the existing workforce is good enough for businesses, and then there is no need for 'affirmative action'. Actually, this weakens the conclusion.

Although I selected B, but I was confused between B and D.
In strengthen type question, we look for outside info not present in the argument (Ron videos). But B says "highest percentage of minority and women workers are those that have been the most innovative and profitable" which is paraphrasing "Diversity in work force participation has produced new ideas in management".
Diversity = percentage of minority and women workers and most innovative and profitable=produced new ideas in management
D indirectly says most innovative products helps in sales growth. So we are strengthening through extra info which is sales growth.
Can someone please help me understand the right approach for strengthen type question?
How to avoid this type of confusion

This is an excellent question and If we see the question stem closely, the question is not exactly a strengthen question, it's an assumption question. why?
Let's have a look:

The association's argument ---What is the association's argument?
-Association thinks that diversity is important in the work force as it has produced new ideas in management, product development, and marketing and will continue to do so.
as it is presented in the passage above
would be most strengthened
if which of the following were true

--So the question stem says: Which of the following options has to be true in order to make association's argument to be true or to make association's argument more believable?
--Heard this sentence somewhere?? ...Well revise the first chapter of your assumption notes <Atleast I did>

(A) The percentage of minority and women workers in business has increased more slowly than many minority and women's groups would prefer.
-- What would the preference of 'many minority and women's group' has to do with association's argument? Out of context

(B) Those businesses with the highest percentage of minority and women workers are those that have been the most innovative and profitable.
--Negate
--"Those businesses with the highest percentage of minority and women workers are those that have NOT been the most innovative and profitable"...hmm so if the businesses with most minority and women workers are not the most innovative and profitable businesses then association's argument does not stand true. So hold on to this.

(C) Disposable income has been rising as fast as among the population as a whole.
--Disposable income is rising among the population....wow! ...This statement is not even close to what association thinks about the inclusion of minority and women. Out of context.

(D) The biggest growth in the sales in the manufacturing sector has come in industries that market the most innovative products.
--So Biggest Growth in manufacturing was the result of most innovative products...Hmm so were these products suggested by minorities or women? Not sure!.
-Even if you negate this option, the negated option will not make any impact on the association's assertion on minorities and women groups.

(E) Recent improvement in the management practices have allowed many manufacturers to experience enormous gains in worker productivity.
--Improvement in Management Practice ---> Gains in worker productivity
--Were the improvements in management practice result of the inclusion of Minorities/Women? We don't know.
--No impact on Association's assertion on diversity in workforce.

So here you go!...Option B is our answer.

I have the same doubt please some explain how D can be eliminated?

Stimulus: Settings goals for a company to strive for is important--that is why the association of manufacturing would like to set numerical goals for hiring people with diverse backgrounds. [color=#fff200]The association claims that diversity helps the company grow through innovation, PD, marketing & superb management.[/color]

(A) The percentage of minority and women workers in business has increased more slowly than many minority and women's groups would prefer. -- This is not correlative to the fact that diversity drives businesses forward. This is just an opinion or claim that does not help strengthen the argument.

(B) Those businesses with the highest percentage of minority and women workers are those that have been the most innovative and profitable. -- This is great news. The conclusion is that diversity drives businesses forward. If we show that the business with the most diversity reigns the highest profits among that of other companies, we have found the correct answer.

(C) Disposable income has been rising as fast as among the population as a whole. -- I ate so much food during dinner and also drank pedialyte to hydrate myself. The claims that I made have the same relevancy as answer choice C; None.

(D) The biggest growth in the sales in the manufacturing sector has come in industries that market the most innovative products. -- This is great as we have mentioned that diversity drives product innovation, but it is not the most preferred answer choice in comparison to B.

(E) Recent improvement in the management practices have allowed many manufacturers to experience enormous gains in worker productivity. -- This is a similar answer to D as it brings home another benefit of diversity within a business. Although D & E provide examples of diversity, it does not state that diversity is the only way to achieve innovation and worker productivity.

Hope this helps team! Keep falling forward.

Nick­

Same here. Little confused on the conclusion :

Can someone please help elaborate the right conclusion here?

Is "Affirmative action is good business. " the conclusion or "Diversity in work force participation has produced new ideas in management, product development, and marketing" is the conclusion ?

As both look as the author's argument. And as per the question the same needs to be strengthened.

Hi Experts,
Need you help with B and D
VeritasKarishma GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo

The association's argument as it is presented in the passage above would be most strengthened if which of the following were true?
My first doubt is what needs to be strengthened acc to the question stem? 
My understanding is that "Affirmation action is good" needs to be strengthened. Structure of passage - Association says "Diversity is good for business" because it helps to produce new ideas. St1 is the conclusion and St3 gives us the reason why it's good for business.
(B) Those businesses with the highest percentage of minority and women workers are those that have been the most innovative and profitable.
It supports the conclusion. It says business which has highest % of diversity are innovative (new ideas) and profitable (good for business). It increases my belief that diversity might have a good impact on business. 
(D) The biggest growth in sales in the manufacturing sector has come in industries that market the most innovative products.
The business that sells the most innovative products has seen the biggest sales growth. We know from the passage that diversity helps in innovative products, we can conclude that it's good for business (high sales growth). Can we reject this option because we don't know what led to sales growth? Innovative products because of diversity or technical innovation or something else?? Although we are sure what led to innovative products, it increases my belief in the conclusion. 
Option B focuses on statement 1 ("Diversity is good for business") whereas option D focuses on st3 (Why diversity is good because it helps to create innovative) products)
Is my understanding of option D correct? How to reject D?

Dear Sneha2021,
concerning your thoughts

Indeed we can infer that the innovation lead to Growth; yet the conclusion is Affirmative action, hiring minorities and women, is good business.

Thus, D is wrong because we cannot deduce who precisely spur the innovation.

Hope it helps