It is a Subject-Verb Agreement question.

The corporation's regulations require that managers order a discharged employee to clean out their desk immediately and turn in all company identification.

A. managers order a discharged employee to clean out their desk
B. a manager order discharged employees to clean out their desks
C. managers order discharged employees that they should clean out their desks
D. managers order a discharged employee that they should clean out their desks
E. a manager order discharged employees to clean out his desk

Meaning: Managers order discharged (adj) employees to clean out their desks

option A. It means discharged employee will clean managers desk as only antecedent of their could be managers which does not seem logical
OPtion C and D: Subjunctive fatal error to use should as command , often referred as suicide
Option E means manager order employee to clean out manager's desk as his antecedent could be only manager which does not seem logical

Option B seems logical ...manager order employees to clean out their desks and is the right answer

Pronoun -Noun & Subject verb agreement errors are tested

A. managers order a discharged employee to clean out their desk
B. a manager order discharged employees to clean out their desks
C. managers order discharged employees that they should clean out their desks - Both Subject-verb & Noun-Pronoun agree - Hence Correct
D. managers order a discharged employee that they should clean out their desks
E. a manager order discharged employees to clean out his desk

All the other options have either Subject-Verb error or Noun-Pronoun agreement error as highlighted above.

Official Explanation:

The underlined portion of the sentence contains the pronoun their, so check whether it agrees with its referent. The plural pronoun their refers to the singular noun employee, so there is a pronoun agreement error. Eliminate choice A and look for any obvious repeaters. Choice D also uses the singular noun employee with the plural pronoun their, so eliminate choice D for a pronoun agreement error. Now, evaluate the remaining answer choices individually, looking for reasons to eliminate each.

Choice B fixes the original pronoun agreement error by replacing the singular noun employee with the plural noun employees to agree with the plural pronoun their, and introduces no new errors, so keep choice B. Choice C incorrectly completes the idiom order…to with order…that they should, so eliminate choice C. Choice E uses the singular pronoun his, which does not agree with the plural noun employees, so eliminate choice E for a pronoun agreement error.

Choice A: No. The plural pronoun their does not agree with singular noun employee. Pronoun agreement.

Choice B:Correct.

Choice C: No. Order…that they should is an incorrect construction of the idiom order…to. Idiom.

Choice D: No. The plural pronoun their does not agree with singular noun employee. Pronoun agreement.

Choice E: No. The singular pronoun his does not agree with the plural noun employees. Pronoun agreement.

The correct answer is choice B.
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Is "a manager order" in B a mistake, isn't it? Shouldn't it be "a manager orderS"?

Option C is the best case.

Managers + order + object = Correct


Option B

A manager + Order+ Object = Incorrect

It should be 'orders'.

Posted from my mobile device

Use of verb in option B is correct. It is a case of subjunctive verb. "require" before that is a sign for subjunctive, therefore the verb for "manager" is "order" not orders.

checkout this post by BB for subjunctive verbs
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Dear Expert,
Can you please tell me what's the DIFF between "a employee" and "the employee"?
Does it have any bearing on whether the subject would be singular or plural?

deveshj21 Both are singular. We are simply shifting from an indefinite article (a/an) to the definite article (the). You can read up on this subject, but in this case the difference is that when we use "the," we need to have a specific person to refer to. This could be one particular person, or it can refer back to an earlier mention:

The employee who put out the fire in the office was given a promotion.
Here, we use "the" because we are referring to the one particular person who performed this action.

The employee who stole from the company was fired.
If we say this, it implies that we know that theft occurred, and now the person responsible has been dealt with.

An employee who stole from the company was fired.
If we don't use the definite article, the meaning is different. Perhaps multiple people stole and only one was fired, or perhaps this is the first we (the readers) have heard about the theft, so it's not appropriate to refer to "the employee who stole" as if we already knew about it.

It is not appropriate to fire an employee for poor performance unless the employee has been given a chance to address the problem.
Here, we shift from "an employee" at the beginning, when we are speaking generally, to "the employee" at the end, when we want to refer back to the previous mention.

I hope this helps!
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How is the usage "a manager order" justified in option B?

Hi Sheetika ,

That usage is the command subjunctive structure.

Certain "bossy" or suggestive verbs (and adjectives!) require the command subjunctive.

To construct the command subjunctive, use
bossy verb + that + subject + bare infinitive*

Examples of verbs require the command subjunctive:
-- I demand that the loudmouthed wingnut be removed from my lecture!
NOT: I demand that the loudmouthed wingnut IS removed from my lecture!

-- The judge ordered that the defendant be released
NOT: The judge ordered that the defendant IS released.

-- The owner of the restaurant suggested that a manager order new silverware.

As LordStark suggested above, THIS POST, HERE, by GMAT Club founder bb is a good place to start.

After that, Google
GMAT command subjunctive

(I cannot explain the whole topic in one post. The post I linked you to will get you started.)

Hope that helps.

*The "bare infinitive" or "base form" of a verb is just the infinitive without the to.
TO BE → BE
TO PROPOSE → PROPOSE
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Please see the analysis of the sentences above.

Hope that helps!

The corporation's regulations require that managers order a discharged employee to clean out their desk immediately and turn in all company identification.

B. a manager order discharged employees to clean out their desks

Doesn't this mean that an employee has more than one desk?

Hello, MartinUSP. Your reading is a valid interpretation, but it is just one of two possible interpretations. It is the other that follows the intended meaning of the sentence, namely that each discharged employee must clean out the desk that that person has occupied while working for the corporation. The use of the plural employees, along with the pronoun their, sets up a logical completion in desks. The alternative would be much sloppier:

The corporation's regulations require that a manager order discharged employees to clean out their desk.

Now it appears as if discharged employees share a desk, and that is a nonsensical meaning, one that does not agree with the earlier plural nouns. As with any SC question, you have to go by what is on the screen in front of you, and if you had small doubts about (B), you could hang on to it while you searched for more obvious errors in the other answer choices. (Remember that the GMAT™ is not progressive to the point that their is considered a gender-neutral singular pronoun.)

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew