Manager: Although our corporation lists office rules in an orientation

Dear goodyear2013,
I'm happy to respond.

Think about (D). Suppose I answer that question. Suppose I were able to tell you:
Yes, most of the folks who regularly read the weekly newsletter are familiar with most of the rules.
Well, then the folks who are already well informed about the rules will read the reminders about what they already know, but what if most employees don't know the rules and don't read the newspaper?
Similarly, if I were able to tell you
No, most of the folks who regularly read the weekly newsletter don't have a clue about most of the rules.
Well, OK, then there would be three groups
(a) the folks who know the rules already
(b) the folks who didn't know the rules but who would learn about it in the newspaper
(c) the folks who don't know the rules and just don't read the newspaper
How big are these three groups? Is group (c) a relatively small or relatively large portion of the whole? As long as we don't have an answer to this question, knowing the answer to question (D) is not going to help us much in evaluating the argument.

By contrast, think about (E). Suppose I were able to tell you:
No, most of the folks will ignore completely the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rules.
Well, that would shatter the argument. That would make a HUGE difference in the validity of the argument. Printing this stuff in the paper is not going to do bupkis if folks aren't going to give it any attention; it would be a entirely futile gesture. That's why knowing the answer to question (E) could make a HUGE difference in evaluation the strength of the argument.

Here's a blog about this question type with four practice questions:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-criti ... onclusion/

Does all this make sense?
Mike
_________________

Responding to a pm:

Situation:
Employees don't read the rules given in the booklet carefully.
Lecturing employees for violations makes them resentful.

Aim: IMPROVE employee adherence to office rules.

Plan: Issue gentle reminders about various rules in each issue of our weekly newsletter.

Here are some things that you need to evaluate whether the plan will succeed:
1. Do employees read the weekly newsletter?
2. Will they read the 'rules' section of the weekly newsletter?
3. Are they likely to adhere to the rules if they know them?

Option (E) pertains to point 2 above. Whether they would read the rules section carefully. So it is certainly useful in evaluating the success of the plan. This is the answer.

Option (C) is NOT the same as point 3 above.

(C) Whether most of them violate at least some office rules with which they are familiar.

(C) wants to know whether they violate some rules. It doesn't matter what your answer is. It doesn't help you evaluate the plan.
Say, answer is 'Yes, they do violate some rules.' - Does this mean they will not adhere to the other rules if they know them? No.
Say, a rule says - "Do not stay back beyond the office hours until and unless you must." Say most employees do stay back a lot randomly and hence do not adhere to this rule. Does this mean that if they know that "No personal call should be made from office phones," they will still make personal calls? No. They make not make personal calls if they know they are not allowed to. Just because they violate some rules, it doesn't mean they will adhere to no rules even if they do know them. The plan may still succeed and the rule flouting may DECREASE. That is the aim of the plan.
If the answer is 'No', then again the plan may succeed.
Hence, evaluating this statement does not help us figure out whether the plan will succeed.
_________________

[b]Manager:[/b] Although our corporation lists office rules in an orientation booklet, few employees read the booklet carefully enough to familiarize themselves with all the rules. Lecturing employees for inadvertent rule violations often makes them resentful and less cooperative. Thus, to improve employee adherence to office rules, we plan to issue gentle reminders about various rules in each issue of our weekly newsletter.

Which of the following would it be most helpful to discover about the employees in the corporation in order to evaluate the likelihood that the plan will succeed?

(A) Whether most of them who are lectured for inadvertent rule violations are deterred from violating the same rule again we are no more worried about effect of lecture but about effect of the news letter
(B) Whether most of them who inadvertently violate office rules already feel resentful and uncooperative whether they feel resentful or not does'nt make a difference to ----whether the gentle reminders are communicated to them..or to that whether they know the rule in first place....
(C) Whether most of them violate at least some office rules with which they are familiarthey may violate some office rules they know..... but may not violate some new rules learnt through the news letter
(D) Whether most of them who regularly read the weekly newsletter are familiar with at least some office rules they may be familiar with some office rules but what about the balance? they may learn new ones and follow them
(E) Whether most of them would usually read with sufficient care the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rulesIf yes --- the plan effective ..... if no.... the plan will fail....SIMPLE

KUDOS IF YOU PLEASE....

Plan : To improve employee adherence to office rules
How : By placing reminders in weekly newsletter

(A) Whether most of them who are lectured for inadvertent rule violations are deterred from violating the same rule again -> Doesn't concern the argument
(B) Whether most of them who inadvertently violate office rules already feel resentful and uncooperative -> Doesn't concern the argument
(C) Whether most of them violate at least some office rules with which they are familiar -> Doesn't concern the argument


(D) Whether most of them who regularly read the weekly newsletter are familiar with at least some office rules
If the people have read the weekly newsletter and they are familiar with some rules. Did they know from weekly newsletter ? May be or may be not. They might have read about the rules from other sources and they just happened to know about those rules.

(E) Whether most of them would usually read with sufficient care the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rules
This option actually connects the dots. People are reading the reminders of the rules "with sufficient care". That means
if it is correct. it will strengthen the plan
if it is not correct, it will weaken the plan

So as per the variance test, it is also satisfying

Could somebody pls tell me why option C is incorrect
(C) Whether most of them violate at least some office rules with which they are familiar.

Reasoning I had in mind when i chose C as the answer - if most of them violate office rules with which they are familiar, then publishing the rules in the newsletter will still not help. They will read, become familiar but still violate.

VeritasPrepKarishma
Thank you for your inputs.

Hi Karishma,
I have a query regarding option E
(E) Whether most of them would usually read with sufficient care the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rules.
If yes --- the plan will be effective ..... if no.... the sentence states that most of them would usually not read with sufficient care the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rules.
This does not mean that they will ignore the readings completely ( not sufficient care). May be a look is enough for them to understand the rules and adhere them.
If we say that without sufficient care, they will read the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rules. If the rules are complex enough to understand(another assumption), then the employees wont be able to adhere them. Also, we are making another assumption that employees are not smart enough that without sufficient care, they wont be able to understand and adhere them.)

Think about it - what is the meaning of "sufficient care"? It should be sufficient to help them understand the rules. It doesn't matter whether someone put in 1 hour to read them or a few moments - whatever is required by each employee.
_________________

Lets use variance technique...
With "YES" or "NO" , infused in the argument , the conclusion should either get helped or get hurt.

The conclusion is :- to improve employee adherence to office rules, we plan to issue gentle reminders about various rules in each issue of our weekly newsletter.

Option A and option B are clearly irrelevant.
Option C , YES..most of them violate at least some office rules with which they are familiar.
Then the conclusion follows and gets HELPED.
NO...most of them DO NOT violate at least some office rules with which they are familiar.
That means they violate some rules with which they are not familiar.
Then the conclusion follows and gets HELPED.
So Option C is not the correct answer.

Option E , YES ..most of them would usually read with sufficient care the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rules.
Then the conclusion follows and gets HELPED.
NO....most of them would NOT usually read with sufficient care the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rules.
Then there is no point issuing gentle reminders of rules in each issue of our weekly newsletter.
Conclusion gets HURT.
Option E is the correct answer.
Please give me kudo s if you liked my explanation.

GMATNinja generis ... Please check my explanation once...

Hi EducationAisle.

I chose OPTION D as an answer.



Say the answer is : YES

Then in that case issuing gentle reminders about various rules in each issue of weekly newsletter will be effective.

Say the answer is : NO

Then in that case even after reading the rules , the employees are not familiar with the rules. Hence, it makes no sense to issue reminders in weekly newsletter.

Regards

If the answer is NO, how are you concluding that even after reading the rules , the employees will not be familiar with the rules?

If I am not aware of the office rule that (say) I need to switch off the lights of my cabin when leaving the office, then a "gentle reminder" of this rule in the weekly newsletter will definitely help me become familiar with this rule!

This is provided I read the weekly newsletter! That's exactly what E mentions.
_________________