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First of all Karishma, i am great fan of your's. After reading your posts on Weighted Averages concept, it has helped me a lot in solving major problems . Kudos to you :)

Coming to this Question , I totally agree with Karishma's Explanation .

As this Question talks about a plan to improve employee productivity, the only option which says the productivity could be improved is choice D

I just want to know whether my thought process is correct here

The question asks us about a prediction that the Acme Corporation's plan will achieve its goal

We can directly strike off options A and C ---- irrelevant to current Question.

Options B and E talk about Acme Corporation's plan after implementing it .

But here in the Question we need an argument which predicts the success of plan before implementing it .

Option D predicts that plan will become success and improve productivity before implementing the plan.

Karishma, could you tell me whether my approach was correct ?

Thanks in advance :)
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goodyear2013
The Acme Corporation has found that improvements in its information technology infrastructure allow its employees to make more decisions that are both sound and well-informed than was previously feasible. Consequently, the corporation plans to improve employee productivity by introducing new managerial techniques that delegate much of the decision-making to lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. Managers will simply set clear standards and guidelines and then allow employee teams to undertake tasks without centralized control.

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support a prediction that the Acme Corporation's plan will achieve its goal?

A) The corporation will be able to cut its managerial staff only if the managers’ sole function is to set clear standards and guidelines for employees.
B) After Acme’s information technology infrastructure was improved, very few of Acme’s managers continued to believe that only managers should make most decisions.
C) Most of the tasks currently performed by the corporation's employees require few if any significant decisions to be made.
D) When employees can make decisions themselves, rather than submitting the same matters for decision to managers, there is more time available for directly productive activities.
E) Some other companies that have better employee productivity than does the Acme Corporation also plan to use the new managerial techniques.

A This suggests a condition-limitation of managers' responsibilities-that would have to be fulfilled to make layoffs of managerial staff possible, but it does not provide evidence that the plan would improve employee productivity overall.
B If most of the managers agree that they should give up some decision-making authority, they may not resist the plan's implementation, but this does not provide evidence that the plan would improve productivity.
C If the employees do not need to make decisions to do their jobs well, then delegating decisions to them is less likely to improve their productivity.
D Correct. This explains how the plan, by reducing the time employees have to spend dealing with managers, could improve employee productivity.
E Since the other companies are not using the new managerial techniques yet, the higher employee productivity at those companies does not suggest that the techniques improve productivity.

Hi, I chose (B). Could anyone explain why it is wrong, please.

We need to strengthen the prediction that the plan will succeed. To do that we need to focus on what the plan is.

Plan: "the corporation plans to improve employee productivity by introducing new managerial techniques that delegate much of the decision-making to lower levels"

The plan is to improve employee productivity by delegating decision making to lower levels of the hierarchy.

To strengthen it, we need to provide a reason that would lead to increased productivity when decision making is delegated. Option (D) gives us that reason:
D) When employees can make decisions themselves, rather than submitting the same matters for decision to managers, there is more time available for directly productive activities.
The employees have more time to be directly productive (instead of waiting for management decision every time and hence sitting on it) when decision making is delegated to them. Hence we have greater faith in our plan now. It certainly seems more possible to succeed. We might actually increase employee productivity.

Now do you think (B) has any relevance?
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dheeraj24
First of all Karishma, i am great fan of your's. After reading your posts on Weighted Averages concept, it has helped me a lot in solving major problems . Kudos to you :)

Coming to this Question , I totally agree with Karishma's Explanation .

As this Question talks about a plan to improve employee productivity, the only option which says the productivity could be improved is choice D

I just want to know whether my thought process is correct here

The question asks us about a prediction that the Acme Corporation's plan will achieve its goal

We can directly strike off options A and C ---- irrelevant to current Question.

Options B and E talk about Acme Corporation's plan after implementing it .

But here in the Question we need an argument which predicts the success of plan before implementing it .

Option D predicts that plan will become success and improve productivity before implementing the plan.

Karishma, could you tell me whether my approach was correct ?

Thanks in advance :)

Thanks Dheeraj! I am glad you found my posts helpful.

As for this question, here are my thoughts on other options.
(A) is irrelevant
(C) doesn't strengthen. If anything, it weakens our plan. If there are very few decisions to be made, delegating decision making may not save much extra time and hence may not increase productivity much.

(B) and (E) give you opinion of other people - managers' and other companies'. They believe in the plan. But that doesn't make it more likely to succeed. We need a concrete fact which favors our plan, not someone's opinion that it will succeed. Note that improving IT infra is not the plan. Improving IT infra brings about well informed employee decisions. Acme's IT infra is already good. Hence the plan is to delegate decision making to employees. (B) and (E) are not post implementation opinions.

Option (D) gives us a fact that supports our plan - When employees can make decisions themselves, there is more time available for directly productive activities.

Hence (D) is correct.
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The Acme Corporation has found that improvements in its information technology infrastructure allow its employees to make more decisions that are both sound and well-informed than was previously feasible. Consequently, the corporation plans to improve employee productivity by introducing new managerial techniques that delegate much of the decision-making to lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. Managers will simply set clear standards and guidelines and then allow employee teams to undertake tasks without centralized control.

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support a prediction that the Acme Corporation's plan will achieve its goal?

A) The corporation will be able to cut its managerial staff only if the managers’ sole function is to set clear standards and guidelines for employees.
B) After Acme’s information technology infrastructure was improved, very few of Acme’s managers continued to believe that only managers should make most decisions.
C) Most of the tasks currently performed by the corporation's employees require few if any significant decisions to be made.
D) When employees can make decisions themselves, rather than submitting the same matters for decision to managers, there is more time available for directly productive activities.
E) Some other companies that have better employee productivity than does the Acme Corporation also plan to use the new managerial techniques.

A This suggests a condition-limitation of managers' responsibilities-that would have to be fulfilled to make layoffs of managerial staff possible, but it does not provide evidence that the plan would improve employee productivity overall.
B If most of the managers agree that they should give up some decision-making authority, they may not resist the plan's implementation, but this does not provide evidence that the plan would improve productivity.
C If the employees do not need to make decisions to do their jobs well, then delegating decisions to them is less likely to improve their productivity.
D Correct. This explains how the plan, by reducing the time employees have to spend dealing with managers, could improve employee productivity.
E Since the other companies are not using the new managerial techniques yet, the higher employee productivity at those companies does not suggest that the techniques improve productivity.

Hi, I chose (B). Could anyone explain why it is wrong, please.


Why A is wrong? Managers are employee too. So if we cut some managers and company retain the same productivity then average productivity of employee will increase.
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Conclusion - corporation plans to improve employee productivity by introducing new managerial techniques that delegate much of the decision-making to lower levels of the organizational
Supports - D when employees make decision themselves they can have more time and thus be more productive
A - Is good for cost cutting but don't address productivity
B - Managers belief is ok but this option also doesn't address productivity
C- This weakens the argument
E- This also can weaken the argument but certainly doesn't support it
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The Acme Corporation has found that improvements in its information technology infrastructure allow its employees to make more decisions that are both sound and well-informed than was previously feasible. Consequently, the corporation plans to improve employee productivity by introducing new managerial techniques that delegate much of the decision-making to lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. Managers will simply set clear standards and guidelines and then allow employee teams to undertake tasks without centralized control.

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support a prediction that the Acme Corporation's plan will achieve its goal?

A) The corporation will be able to cut its managerial staff only if the managers’ sole function is to set clear standards and guidelines for employees.
B) After Acme’s information technology infrastructure was improved, very few of Acme’s managers continued to believe that only managers should make most decisions.
C) Most of the tasks currently performed by the corporation's employees require few if any significant decisions to be made.
D) When employees can make decisions themselves, rather than submitting the same matters for decision to managers, there is more time available for directly productive activities.
E) Some other companies that have better employee productivity than does the Acme Corporation also plan to use the new managerial techniques.

A This suggests a condition-limitation of managers' responsibilities-that would have to be fulfilled to make layoffs of managerial staff possible, but it does not provide evidence that the plan would improve employee productivity overall.
B If most of the managers agree that they should give up some decision-making authority, they may not resist the plan's implementation, but this does not provide evidence that the plan would improve productivity.
C If the employees do not need to make decisions to do their jobs well, then delegating decisions to them is less likely to improve their productivity.
D Correct. This explains how the plan, by reducing the time employees have to spend dealing with managers, could improve employee productivity.
E Since the other companies are not using the new managerial techniques yet, the higher employee productivity at those companies does not suggest that the techniques improve productivity.

Hi, I chose (B). Could anyone explain why it is wrong, please.


Why A is wrong? Managers are employee too. So if we cut some managers and company retain the same productivity then average productivity of employee will increase.

The plan is to improve employee productivity i.e. the productivity of each employee. The intent is clearly the workforce which gets billed. Managers manage the workforce; they don't have billable hours.
Also, (A) only tells you when it might be possible to layoff managers. It does't say that the company can easily lay off managers and hence reduce staff.
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goodyear2013
The Acme Corporation has found that improvements in its information technology infrastructure allow its employees to make more decisions that are both sound and well-informed than was previously feasible. Consequently, the corporation plans to improve employee productivity by introducing new managerial techniques that delegate much of the decision-making to lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. Managers will simply set clear standards and guidelines and then allow employee teams to undertake tasks without centralized control.

Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support a prediction that the Acme Corporation's plan will achieve its goal?

(A) The corporation will be able to cut its managerial staff only if the managers’ sole function is to set clear standards and guidelines for employees.

(B) After Acme’s information technology infrastructure was improved, very few of Acme’s managers continued to believe that only managers should make most decisions.

(C) Most of the tasks currently performed by the corporation's employees require few if any significant decisions to be made.

(D) When employees can make decisions themselves, rather than submitting the same matters for decision to managers, there is more time available for directly productive activities.

(E) Some other companies that have better employee productivity than does the Acme Corporation also plan to use the new managerial techniques.
A This suggests a condition-limitation of managers' responsibilities-that would have to be fulfilled to make layoffs of managerial staff possible, but it does not provide evidence that the plan would improve employee productivity overall.
B If most of the managers agree that they should give up some decision-making authority, they may not resist the plan's implementation, but this does not provide evidence that the plan would improve productivity.
C If the employees do not need to make decisions to do their jobs well, then delegating decisions to them is less likely to improve their productivity.
D Correct. This explains how the plan, by reducing the time employees have to spend dealing with managers, could improve employee productivity.
E Since the other companies are not using the new managerial techniques yet, the higher employee productivity at those companies does not suggest that the techniques improve productivity.

Hi, I chose (B). Could anyone explain why it is wrong, please.

(A) The corporation will be able to cut its managerial staff only if the managers’ sole function is to set clear standards and guidelines for employees. (Does not discuss about employees productivity. )

(B) After Acme’s information technology infrastructure was improved, very few of Acme’s managers continued to believe that only managers should make most decisions. (It does not matter what managers think. Argument is about low level employees and their decision making)

(C) Most of the tasks currently performed by the corporation's employees require few if any significant decisions to be made. (Does not tell us how they will improve the productivity)

(D) When employees can make decisions themselves, rather than submitting the same matters for decision to managers, there is more time available for directly productive activities.(Clear winner. If employees take decisions, it will reduce the time of taking decisions by managers, and they can devote that time for productive activities. Remember, we need not to prove whether they really be productive or not. We have to take it as truth considering the argument.)

(E) Some other companies that have better employee productivity than does the Acme Corporation also plan to use the new managerial techniques.(Out of scope)
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION


Reasoning- What would suggest that the plan to allow lower-level employees to make more decisions will improve their productivity? We are told that new information technology now allows the employees to make sound, well-informed decisions. Consequently, allowing lower-level employees to make more decisions may not hurt productivity. But we have no evidence that this change will actually improve productivity. Therefore, look for an answer option explaining how it might do so.

A. This suggests a condition—limitation of managers’ responsibilities—that would have to be fulfilled to make layoffs of managerial staff possible, but it does not provide evidence that the plan would improve employee productivity overall.
B. If most of the managers agree that they should give up some decision-making authority, they may not resist the plan’s implementation, but this does not provide evidence that the plan would improve productivity.
C. If the employees do not need to make decisions to do their jobs well, then delegating decisions to them is less likely to improve their productivity.
D. Correct. This explains how the plan, by reducing the time employees have to spend dealing with managers, could improve employee productivity.
E. Since the other companies are not using the new managerial techniques yet, the higher employee productivity at those companies does not suggest that the techniques improve productivity.

The correct answer is D.
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