Quote:
Manager: 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
(B) Whether most of them who inadvertently violate office rules already feel resentful and uncooperative
(C) Whether most of them violate at least some office rules with which they are familiar
(D) Whether most of them who regularly read the weekly newsletter are familiar with at least some office rules
(E) Whether most of them would usually read with sufficient care the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rules
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?
(E) Whether most of them would usually read with sufficient care the portions of the weekly newsletter that are reminders of rulesOption (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.
If we answer
“Yes” – They will read rules in the newsletter carefully. Then possibly, employee adherence to office rules will improve.
“No” – They will not read rules in the newsletter carefully. Then possibly, employee adherence to office rules will not improve.
The two answers affect the conclusion differently. Hence, this is the correct option.
(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.
(A) Whether most of them who are lectured for inadvertent rule violations are deterred from violating the same rule againWe are not concerned about repeat violators after reprimand. We are concerned about reducing violations the first time itself.
(B) Whether most of them who inadvertently violate office rules already feel resentful and uncooperativeWe are given that they violate rules “inadvertently”. It means they don’t do it on purpose. Then whether they are already resentful is irrelevant.
(D) Whether most of them who regularly read the weekly newsletter are familiar with at least some office rulesThe weekly newsletter does not publish the rules yet. Whether the ones reading it already know some rules is irrelevant. Most employees do not know ‘all’ the rules since very few of them read them in the orientation material. Hence, they break rules inadvertently. Knowing or not knowing ‘some’ rules will not make any difference.
Answer (E)Discussion on Useful to Evaluate Questions:
https://youtu.be/1JtHjH1lWZc