Certain companies require their managers to rank workers in the groups

isn't supporting the conclusion supposed to mean correct answer?

Can someone elaborate why D is wrong?

Thanks

D and E both cover just one aspect of the argument separately not the full argument as a whole.
They merely represent tlone idea discussed in argument

so they can not be the conclusion.

Posted from my mobile device

IMO answer should be C (although I marked D initially).

Reasoning (after seeing the correct answer)-

Question stem- "most accurately expresses the conclusion drawn in the argument?"

Conclusion- The system is unfair to workers.

Option C is saying that the ranking system is not a fair way...which is same as the conclusion drawn in the argument.

Whereas in Option D, it says the reason(one of the many) why the rating system is unfair. It's quite an attractive choice (which fooled me in the first place).?

Posted from my mobile device

D and E each presents one different aspect of the conclusion whereas C concludes in a complete manner.

(A) Some companies require their managers to give unique rankings to the workers they supervise. --> We already know this fact since it is at the ground of the ranking system

(B) Under the ranking system, the top 10 percent of the workers in each group are rewarded and the bottom 10 percent are penalized or fired. --> This sentence is already cited in the passage and doesn't represent the conclusion we can draw from the question said to us

(C) The ranking system is not a fair way to determine penalties or rewards for workers. CORRECT --> This answer is the correct one because allows us to put together all the different information we have, such as "Workers in exceptionally strong work groups are unfairly penalized"; "Managers often give the highest rankings to workers who share the manager’s outside interests", therefore it can be claimed that the ranking system, in this case, is not a fair way to determine penalties or rewards

(D) Workers in exceptionally strong work groups are unfairly penalized under the ranking system. --> This sentence is already cited in the passage and doesn't represent the conclusion we can draw from the question said to us

(E) Managers often give the highest rankings to workers who share the manager’s outside interests. --> This sentence is already cited in the passage and doesn't represent the conclusion we can draw from the question said to us

This stimulus is very easy to solve if we focus on its keywords [highlighted in red]

Certain - this means some, this is not generalising to everyone
But- we can predict something contrasting is coming up
Futhermore- Additional information is following
Often- Not always, not generalising every manager


But this system is unfair to workers. Good workers could receive low rankings merely because they belong to groups of exceptionally good workers.

In this sentence we have our conclusion -this system is unfair to workers. and everything rest is the reason for that conclusion [Good workers could receive low rankings merely because they belong to groups of exceptionally good workers]

Now coming to options

(A) Some companies require their managers to give unique rankings to the workers they supervise. This is already stated in the stimulus + its not our reason to conclude (after reading the passage)
(B) Under the ranking system, the top 10 percent of the workers in each group are rewarded and the bottom 10 percent are penalized or fired. Again same thing
(C) The ranking system is not a fair way to determine penalties or rewards for workers. A strong conclusion
(D) Workers in exceptionally strong work groups are unfairly penalized under the ranking system. This was backing our conclusion in the passage, its not concluding
(E) Managers often give the highest rankings to workers who share the manager’s outside interests. This was the additional information

Hi BrightOutlookJenn

As we need to find out the conclusion of the the argument. I shortlisted C and D.
When I asked question : what is the key point , to myself before looking at the answer choices, I replied: workers in strong groups are fired unfairly. ( then i asked a quesiton: What about in general? My answer was: Other things seem normal, toppers get rewards, middle ones are fine too.Only issue with workers who get low ranking in strong groups)
To finalize answers, I want to make sure all the information is given in the argument

(C) The ranking system is not a fair way to determine penalties or rewards for workers.
I rejected C because ranking system is not fair only for some workers ( only for good workers in strong groups) so I didn't want to step out of information that is given in the argument.
secondly rewards is not mentioned in argument.

(D) Workers in exceptionally strong work groups are unfairly penalized under the ranking system.
This statement matched my pre-thinking. Here it mentions only about certain workers. Even al words match in the argument

Finally I choose D.

But I was wrong. So I am trying to understand what was wrong in my process to reach at D but not C

Your comments would be fruitful.


Thanks! BrightOutlookJenn
( Sorry if you any in-convenience due to tag)

Hi I think there is some confusion between D and E, so here are my two cents. The argument asks us to provide the conclusion(main idea, takeway) from the argument. Now with this in mind, I think it becomes easier to eliminate D and E. Indeed both are mentioned in the argument or can be infered but are they the coclusion/main idea of the argument? No. Hence both can be eliminated.

Lets look at option C now. C says ranking system isn't fair and thats what the whole argument is trying to tell us, because favourism(manager might like a worker(s) becauase of similar interest) and luck (being in a group of all good worker), which are not in control of a worker, might work against him/her.

HTH

Certain companies require their managers to rank workers in the groups they supervise from best to worst, giving each worker a unique ranking based on job performance. The top 10 percent of the workers in each group are rewarded and the bottom 10 percent are penalized or fired. But this system is unfair to workers. Good workers could receive low rankings merely because they belong to groups of exceptionally good workers. Furthermore, managers often give the highest rankings to workers who share the manager’s interests outside of work.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the conclusion drawn in the argument?

(A) Some companies require their managers to give unique rankings to the workers they supervise. - WRONG. Only one can be there or hundred can be there.
(B) Under the ranking system, the top 10 percent of the workers in each group are rewarded and the bottom 10 percent are penalized or fired. - WRONG. Rephrase of the passage only.
(C) The ranking system is not a fair way to determine penalties or rewards for workers. - CORRECT. Aligned to the turn of flow of the passage i.e. with 'but ....'.
(D) Workers in exceptionally strong work groups are unfairly penalized under the ranking system. - WRONG. Rephrase of the passage only.
(E) Managers often give the highest rankings to workers who share the manager’s outside interests. - WRONG. Rephrase of the passage only.

Answer C.

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