Most employees in the computer industry move from company to company,

The first sentence of the passage gives us some background information: most employees in the computer industry move from company to company and change jobs several times in their careers. This implies that most computer companies do NOT retain their employees very well. Summit Computers, on the other hand, is known for retaining its employees, so we can infer that employees of Summit Computers do not follow the same general pattern exhibited by most employees in the computer industry.

Why do employees of Summit Computers stay with their company while most computer industry employees tend to move from company to company? "Summit credits its success in retaining employees to its informal, nonhierarchical work environment." This is just one hypothesis, and we don't know for sure whether it is accurate. The question asks us to select a piece of evidence that, if true, most supports the hypothesis of Summit Computers.


Choice (A) does not tell us why Summit employees tend to stay with their company. This statement simply provides one reason why employees in the computer industry might leave their jobs. If we were told that projects at Summit Computers were particularly exciting, that information might weaken Summit's explanation (by suggesting an alternative explanation), but it certainly would not strengthen Summit's explanation. Choice (A) can be eliminated.


Computer industry employees believe that a cooperative exchange of ideas is necessary for their work and that a hierarchical work environment hinders the cooperate exchange of ideas. Thus, having a nonhierarchical work environment is a necessary (though not sufficient) requirement if the employees are to be able to do their work. Given the information in statement (B), computer industry employees would prefer a nonhierarchical work environment where their ability to do their work is not necessarily hindered. This supports the theory that a nonhierarchical work environment improves employee retention, so let's keep choice (B).


As with choice (A), choice (C) does not tell us why employees of Summit Computers tend to stay with their company and certainly does not tell us whether Summit's success in retaining employees is due to its informal, nonhierarchical work environment. If anything, choice (C) might be taken as evidence that Summit manages to hire exceptionally loyal computer industry employees, perhaps explaining Summit's relatively high retention rates. But that would only serve to weaken the explanation presented in the passage because it provides an alternative explanation. Choice (C) can be eliminated.


Choice (D) implies that employees in a hierarchical work environment would be reluctant to discuss their job dissatisfaction. This characteristic of a nonhierarchical work environment certainly does not explain why employees working in such an environment would be less likely to leave their company. In fact, it suggests that such employees would quietly grow dissatisfied and then perhaps eventually leave to seek more satisfying jobs. Choice (D) can be eliminated.


This statement provides an alternative explanation for why Summit has a relatively high retention rate compared to that of some other computer companies. This actually weakens the hypothesis presented by Summit by suggesting that its high retention rate is due to cost of living, not due to Summit's hierarchical work environment. Thus, choice (E) can be eliminated, and we are left with choice (B).