Hello, everyone. In the interest of helping the community, I will share my thoughts on each response below.
maxgmat100 wrote:
Human beings are social animals possessing evolved behaviors that depend on group cohesiveness and cooperation. Many popular management practices in the mid-twentieth century tended to suppress these social behaviors and to foster an over-emphasis on competitiveness and aggressiveness. These practices often contributed to unhealthy psychological environments, reducing efficiency and causing higher levels of stress in workers than do practices that encourage cooperation and socialization in the workplace. Managers in the twenty-first century are recognizing this and finding ways to adapt their management practices to better conform to what is being learned about evolved social behaviors in humans in order to improve worker satisfaction and efficiency.
Which of the following conclusions can most reasonably be drawn from the information above?
This is an
inference question, and in such questions, you have to be vigilant about sticking to the
exact phrasing of the passage, or you can get into trouble. The passage tells us about human nature and draws a comparison, more or less, between former managerial practices, those of
the mid-twentieth century that took a sort of social Darwinist bent of survival of the fittest, and more modern ones, those practiced
in the twenty-first century that seek to promote
worker satisfaction and efficiency by catering to
evolved social behaviors, those that, according to the passage,
depend on group cohesiveness and cooperation. With all this in mind, we are ready to jump into the fray.
maxgmat100 wrote:
(A) New discoveries about evolved human social behavior are showing that managers who suppress competitive behavior in the workplace will maximize organizational efficiency.
Analysis: The passage does not state anything about
maximizing efficiency. The last line of the passage only mentions
improving efficiency. Also, the
will is definitive, leaving no room for interpretation. Taken together,
will maximize is a clear overstatement, enough to see off this answer choice.
Red light.maxgmat100 wrote:
(B) Some recent management practices are more likely to promote efficiency in the organization than were practices used in the 1950s and 1960s.
Analysis: Note the cautious, toned-down language of this option in
more likely. The passage does not state anything about the
effects of more recent managerial practices, only what modern managers hope to achieve. If you forgot the part from the passage the mentions the
mid-twentieth century, then
the 1950s and 1960s might catch you off-guard--you might wonder how the argument could single out those two decades within the twentieth century on the whole--but there is nothing overstated or otherwise in this answer choice.
Green light. maxgmat100 wrote:
(C) In order to create a work environment that encourages social behavior, managers will need to find ways to adapt to less efficiency.
Analysis: I can see why, as of this writing, no one has blundered into this answer choice. Not only does it completely speculate on what managers will definitively
need to do, but it also provides an out-of-left-field speculation in
ways to adapt to less efficiency. The passage does not touch on this notion at all.
Red light. maxgmat100 wrote:
(D) Environments fostering competitiveness and aggressiveness were the primary causes of workplace inefficiency and stress in the mid-twentieth century.
Analysis: Here we go again with overreaching language. The passage tells us that
these practices often contributed to... [reduced] efficiency and [caused] higher levels of stress, but we have no idea whether these were the
primary causes of such negative outcomes. Again, watch out for bold language.
Red light. maxgmat100 wrote:
(E) Managers now believe that the best method for reducing workplace stress and increasing efficiency is hosting frequent social events in the workplace.
Analysis: Another superlative:
the best. In general, it is good practice to be skeptical of modifiers ending in -st in both CR and RC questions. The part at the end about not just hosting
social events, but doing so on a
frequent basis falls outside the scope of the passage. You might loosely interpret
socialization in the workplace as
social events in the workplace, but that is already dangerous in CR questions.
Socialization could just mean
communication. It is never defined outright. But if you were still unsure, you have to ask yourself, where does
frequent come from, and what exactly does it mean in the context of the answer and the passage? Taken altogether, this answer choice is falling apart.
Red light.Thank you,
maxgmat100, for sharing. If anyone has any questions about this one, I would be happy to help out.
- Andrew
close
26 Feb 2020, 16:09
37%
(02:29)
wrong 
