yuxiangdreamMBA wrote:
When I do this question, I eliminated B because I thought it says that the insurance company assigned complex tasks to all of its adjusters, so each of the adjuster has the same difficulty-level jobs and the more efficient ones are the better ones; And I choose E because I think due to the higher prices of the insurance offered by the company compared to its competitor, it takes more time for customer to ponder whether to sign a contract so it's not the adjuster's fault, it's the company's fault.
Let's start by considering answer choice (B):
Quote:
Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into question the consultants’ criterion for selecting the staff to be laid off?
(B) Supervisors at Vasquez-Morrell tend to assign the most complex claims to the most capable adjusters.
As you suggest, the question of which employees tend to receive the most complex claims is key to analyzing (B). Notice that the passage itself
doesn't tell us anything about who receives the most complex claims. Given that fact, how does (B) affect the criterion for "selecting the staff to be laid off?"
Well, if the most capable staff tend to get the most complex claims, they may take longer to complete their cases than other adjusters. And if that's the case, laying off adjusters who take the longest to complete their claims would selectively get rid of the
most capable employees. Since the goal of the criterion is to "ensure that the company’s ability to handle claims promptly is affected as little as possible," laying off the most capable adjusters would be a bad idea.
So because (B) calls the "criterion for selecting the staff to be laid off" into question, it's correct.
Let's now consider (E):
Quote:
(E) The premiums that Vasquez-Morrell currently charges are no higher than those charged for similar coverage by competitors.
Notice (E) is telling us that Vasquez-Morrell's charges are NO higher -- meaning their premiums are either the same or lower those of other companies. How would this affect the "criterion for selecting the staff to be laid off?"
Keep in mind we're looking for a reason to call into question the criterion of laying off employees who take the longest to complete their claims. In other words, we're trying to see why the average length of time per claim isn't a good way to measure performance.
From that angle, it's hard to see why the cost of the premiums would matter. Since all the employees would be working with the
same premiums, it shouldn't affect some more than others, so it doesn't really call into question the criterion for deciding who to lay off. For that reason, we can eliminate (E).
I hope that helps!