Manager: One reason productivity in our office is not as high as it

Question

Manager: One reason productivity in our office is not as high as it could be is that office workers spend too much time taking unauthorized breaks. Since the number of office workers assigned to each manager will soon be reduced, managers will be able to supervise workers more closely in the future to make sure that they are not taking unauthorized breaks. Therefore, productivity in our office will soon increase.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the manager's argument depends?

(A) The best way to improve productivity is to reduce the number of employees and give more work to employees who remain on the job.

(B) Office workers are spending more time now taking unauthorized breaks than they used to.

(C) Giving financial incentives to workers whose divisions increase their productivity would not have any significant effect on overall office productivity.

(D) Supervising employees more closely to reduce unauthorized breaks is the most efficient way of increasing overall office productivity.

(E) The gain in productivity that will result from reducing unauthorized breaks will exceed any loss in productivity caused by closer supervision.

MartyMurray · Accepted Answer

Manager: One reason productivity in our office is not as high as it could be is that office workers spend too much time taking unauthorized breaks. Since the number of office workers assigned to each manager will soon be reduced, managers will be able to supervise workers more closely in the future to make sure that they are not taking unauthorized breaks. Therefore, productivity in our office will soon increase.

In answering an Assumption question, we should pay particular attention to the conclusion of the argument and how it's supported.

Conclusion:

productivity in our office will soon increase

Support:

One reason productivity in our office is not as high as it could be is that office workers spend too much time taking unauthorized breaks.

and

Since the number of office workers assigned to each manager will soon be reduced, managers will be able to supervise workers more closely in the future to make sure that they are not taking unauthorized breaks.

We see that the reasoning of the argument is that, since authorized breaks cause productivity to be less high than it would be and since closer management supervision will result in a reduction in unauthorized breaks, productivity will increase.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the manager's argument depends?

The correct answer will state something that must be true for the evidence to effectively support the conclusion.

(A) The best way to improve productivity is to reduce the number of employees and give more work to employees who remain on the job.

Arguing that a reduction in unauthorized breaks will result in an increase in productivity clearly does not require assuming that something else, reducing the number of employees and giving more work to employees who remain, is the best way to improve productivity.

Eliminate.

(B) Office workers are spending more time now taking unauthorized breaks than they used to.

The argument works regardless of whether workers are spending "more" time taking breaks than they used to.

After all, even if they are NOT spending more time taking breaks than they used to, it's still true that "One reason productivity ... is not as high as it could be is that ... workers spend too much time taking unauthorized breaks."

So, even if they are not spending "more" time taking unauthorized breaks, they are still taking them enough to impact productivity.

Thus, a reduction in the number of unauthorized breaks should result in increased productivity.

Eliminate.

(C) Giving financial incentives to workers whose divisions increase their productivity would not have any significant effect on overall office productivity.

The point of the argument is not that a reduction in unauthorized breaks is the ONLY way increase productivity.

So, the argument works even if giving financial incentives WOULD have a significant effect on productivity.

Eliminate.

(D) Supervising employees more closely to reduce unauthorized breaks is the most efficient way of increasing overall office productivity.

The conclusion is simply that productivity will increase, not that supervising employees more closely is more "efficient" than other ways of increasing productivity.

So, regardless of whether this choice is true, the argument works.

After all, even if supervising employees more closely is NOT the most efficient way of increasing overall productivity, doing so could still result in increased productivity.

Eliminate.

(E) The gain in productivity that will result from reducing unauthorized breaks will exceed any loss in productivity caused by closer supervision.

This choice is interesting.

After all, if the gain in productivity that will result from reducing unauthorized breaks will NOT exceed any loss in productivity caused by closer supervision, then increased supervision will cause a loss in productivity greater the gain in productivity resulting from a reduction in unauthorized breaks.

In that case, the evidence involving closer supervision and a reduction in authorized breaks does not effectively support the conclusion that "productivity will soon increase."

So, for the argument to work, this choice must be true.

Thus, this choice states an assumption on which the argument depends.

Keep.

Correct answer:   E

guddo · Answer

Manager: One reason productivity in our office is not as high as it could be is that office workers spend too much time taking unauthorized breaks. Since the number of office workers assigned to each manager will soon be reduced, managers will be able to supervise workers more closely in the future to make sure that they are not taking unauthorized breaks. Therefore, productivity in our office will soon increase.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the manager's argument depends?

The manager argues that closer supervision will reduce unauthorized breaks, and that this will increase productivity.  The key assumption  is that reducing breaks will create a  net productivity gain , not merely shift the problem or create another productivity loss.

(A) The best way to improve productivity is to reduce the number of employees and give more work to employees who remain on the job.

Wrong. The argument does not depend on this being the best way to improve productivity, and it does not say workers will be given more work.

(B) Office workers are spending more time now taking unauthorized breaks than they used to.

Wrong. The argument only needs unauthorized breaks to be a current cause of lower productivity. It does not matter whether the problem has increased over time.

(C) Giving financial incentives to workers whose divisions increase their productivity would not have any significant effect on overall office productivity.

Wrong. Other possible methods are irrelevant. The argument does not depend on financial incentives being ineffective.

(D) Supervising employees more closely to reduce unauthorized breaks is the most efficient way of increasing overall office productivity.

Wrong. The argument does not need closer supervision to be the most efficient method. It only needs it to increase productivity.

(E) The gain in productivity that will result from reducing unauthorized breaks will exceed any loss in productivity caused by closer supervision.

Correct. If closer supervision causes a productivity loss greater than the gain from fewer breaks, productivity would not increase. So the manager must assume that the net effect will be positive.

Answer: (E)

Pikachuu · Answer

In the 1st line, Manager describes "one reason" for low productivity. 
 But in conclusion, the manager says that the productivity (overall productivity) in office will increase.

Logical Jump: There could be more than one reason for low productivity. Suppose, we try to resolve that "one reason" mentioned in the premise. What if resolving that "one reason" disturbs some other reasons that ultimately leads to lower final productivity?

With this understanding, lets jump straight into answer choice analysis:

A. I initially picked this because the first thing that came to my mind for this question was the following: if they lessen the employee to manager ratio, the way the stimulus worded "reduce" made me think they're going to cut staff and make everyone else do more closely supervised work. This is wrong because the stimulus says NOTHING about HOW they're going to achieve this lesser ratio, it is just important that the ratio is lesser than what it was before to achieve greater productivity.

B. The stimulus says nothing about now v/s before. so this choice is irrelevant.

C. The stimulus says nothing about financial incentives. This does not help us get to the conclusion.

D. The stimulus' conclusion is "productivity... will increase" irrespective of whether the method of "supervising employees more closely" is the "most efficient". In other words, this choice is too strong.

E. This is the correct answer because it shows that productivity "will increase" even if there are any negative/undesirable consequences of increased supervision. Whether we're lessening the ratio either by reducing the employees OR by increasing the managers, the benefits to productivity outweigh the drawbacks.- CORRECT

yc168 · Answer

OE for reference:

Overview:  
The argument bases its conclusion on two considerations. First, productivity in the office is lower than it could be, because of a specific cause. And second, changes are about to be made that will eliminate that cause. The argument concludes that, once those changes are made, productivity will soon increase. The question asks you to identify an assumption on which the argument for the predicted increase in office productivity depends.

The Correct Answer:

E  It is possible that supervising workers more closely will have some unintended consequence that tends to reduce productivity. For example, workers who are supervised too closely might become resentful and find ways of resisting supervisory control, perhaps by working more slowly. Such a slowdown would reduce productivity. For the plan to succeed, any loss in productivity resulting from closer supervision must be less than the gain in productivity resulting from the elimination of unauthorized breaks. And this is equivalent to what (E) says.

The Incorrect Answer Choices:

A, C, D  The argument lays out a plan for increasing productivity and concludes that it will work. Success of the plan in increasing productivity does not depend on whether or not the manager has hit on the best possible way of achieving an increase. Nor does it depend on some other way of trying to increase productivity not working very well. Nor does it depend on whether or not the manager has hit on the most efficient way possible of achieving an increase. So neither (A) nor (C) nor (D) is assumed.

B  The manager's plan obviously cannot succeed if workers are not spending any time taking unauthorized breaks. But for the plan to succeed it does not have to be true that workers now spend more time taking unauthorized breaks than they used to. So (B) is not assumed.

Manager: One reason productivity in our office is not as high as it

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Manager: One reason productivity in our office is not as high as it

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