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Working Conditions

by f2001290 » Wed Jun 20, 2007 3:52 am
A confidential survey revealed that 75 percent of
the employees of Company P are dissatisfied
with their jobs. However, an investigation into
working conditions at the company showed
nothing uncommonly bad. Therefore, Company
P’s consulting firm concluded that the
employees’ dissatisfaction must result from an
unusually high incidence of psychological
problems on their part.
Each of the following, if true, casts doubt on the
consulting firm’s conclusion EXCEPT:
(A) In the investigation of working conditions,
no account was taken of the fact that for
the past year many Company P employees
worked on a joint venture with Company O,
at Company O’s facilities.
(B) Workers in many companies are
dissatisfied although there are no
apparent problems with their working
conditions.
(C) The consulting firm’s conception of what
constitutes uncommonly bad working
conditions is not identical to that of
Company P’s employees.
(D) The reasons given by Company P’s
employees for their dissatisfaction varied
greatly from employee to employee.
(E) A battery of sets performed on Company
P’s employees one month ago revealed no
significant psychological stresses or
problems.
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by isisalaska » Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:17 am
C, D, and E cast doubt on the conclusion of the firm. A could also (although in less degree) cast a doubt, perhaps the employees were not happy to been forced to work on a joint venture with another company. That leave B, which is also out of scope sicne we are talking about this specific company not all the other companies.
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by jrbrown2 » Wed Jun 20, 2007 6:56 pm
C,D and E cast doubt on the argument.

A could also weaken the argument if it's possible that the workers were exposed to much better working conditions @ company O.

How would you feel about your working conditions (even if they aren't bad) if you spent sometime at another facility with even better working conditions?

Although (A) weakens the argument but not fully, (B) is out of scope, so I'd choose B
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by RM » Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:19 am
I would go with D.

Conclusion states that employees are dissatisfied because of physcological problems.

Choice D, supports the conclusion indicating that employees response varied - response varied because of different physocological problems of employees.
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by jrbrown2 » Thu Jun 21, 2007 4:55 pm
RM choice D didn't say that their responses varied among different psychological problems, it just says that their responses varied. That could mean that some employees were dissatisfied b/c of were psychological, financial etc.
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by g_beatthegmat » Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:08 am
What's the final take on this one? OA is B?
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by airan » Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:39 am
My Choice is B because B only doesn't contradicts in analysis of Company P.
Employees are not satisfied because of the personal reasons( it can be true to all the companies)l
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by Ian Stewart » Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:13 pm
RM wrote:I would go with D.

Conclusion states that employees are dissatisfied because of physcological problems.

Choice D, supports the conclusion indicating that employees response varied - response varied because of different physocological problems of employees.
I'd go with D as well, but note that you don't need to find an answer that supports the consulting firm's conclusion, you just need to find one that doesn't 'cast doubt' on it. I'm not sure that D supports the conclusion, but I don't see how it casts any doubt on it.

The debate seems to be over choices B and D. Let's look at B. The consulting firm's conclusion is that "employees’ dissatisfaction must result from an unusually high incidence of psychological
problems." If B is true:

(B) Workers in many companies are
dissatisfied although there are no
apparent problems with their working
conditions.

then it is not unusual to observe dissatisfaction in a workplace, even under good conditions- answer B says it's common, in fact. There would be no reason to think there was an "unusually high incidence of psychological problems" in Company P if worker satisfaction levels are similar to other firms. So answer B certainly casts doubt on the conclusions of the consulting firm, and is not the correct answer.
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by loki.gmat » Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:06 pm
B - there r 2 possibilities.
case1 - company P is a part of the so called "many companies" then B will actually support the argument n hence the correct answer.
case2 - company P is not the part of the so called "many companies" then there is a possibilty that the working conditions in company P is not upto the mark n hence the cause of dissatisfaction. in this B casts a doubt n hence not the correct answer.

D - if the reason given by each n every employee vary, then there will be many unique causes of employee dissatisfaction. It is diffucult to generalise all the causes due to psychological problems.hence D casts a doubt on the conclusion.

hence IMO B as atleast in one case B doesnot cast doubt on the conclusion.


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Re: Working Conditions

by Ian Stewart » Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:08 am
f2001290 wrote:A confidential survey revealed that 75 percent of
the employees of Company P are dissatisfied
with their jobs. However, an investigation into
working conditions at the company showed
nothing uncommonly bad. Therefore, Company
P’s consulting firm concluded that the
employees’ dissatisfaction must result from an
unusually high incidence of psychological
problems on their part.
Each of the following, if true, casts doubt on the
consulting firm’s conclusion EXCEPT:
(A) In the investigation of working conditions,
no account was taken of the fact that for
the past year many Company P employees
worked on a joint venture with Company O,
at Company O’s facilities.
(B) Workers in many companies are
dissatisfied although there are no
apparent problems with their working
conditions.
(C) The consulting firm’s conception of what
constitutes uncommonly bad working
conditions is not identical to that of
Company P’s employees.
(D) The reasons given by Company P’s
employees for their dissatisfaction varied
greatly from employee to employee.
(E) A battery of sets performed on Company
P’s employees one month ago revealed no
significant psychological stresses or
problems.
I'm curious about the source of the question. On reflection, I can see why others are ruling out D as an answer. We could explain how each answer casts doubt on the firm's conclusion:

A) Dissatisfaction may result from the working conditions at company O;
B) The dissatisfaction at Company P is normal, so there is no reason to think there is an 'unusually high' incidence of psychological problems;
C) The consulting firm may have misassessed the quality of working conditions in company P;
D) There may be other reasons for dissatisfaction besides working conditions and psychological issues;
E) Company P's workers do not have psychological issues, so there must be a different explanation.

Now, I'm reading B to mean "there's nothing unusual about the level of dissatisfaction at Company P". If that's not the intended meaning, B may be correct. But there doesn't seem to be a great answer to the question, which makes me curious to know where it came from.
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Re: Working Conditions

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:36 am
f2001290 wrote:A confidential survey revealed that 75 percent of
the employees of Company P are dissatisfied
with their jobs. However, an investigation into
working conditions at the company showed
nothing uncommonly bad. Therefore, Company
P’s consulting firm concluded that the
employees’ dissatisfaction must result from an
unusually high incidence of psychological
problems on their part.
Each of the following, if true, casts doubt on the
consulting firm’s conclusion EXCEPT:
(A) In the investigation of working conditions,
no account was taken of the fact that for
the past year many Company P employees
worked on a joint venture with Company O,
at Company O’s facilities.
(B) Workers in many companies are
dissatisfied although there are no
apparent problems with their working
conditions.
(C) The consulting firm’s conception of what
constitutes uncommonly bad working
conditions is not identical to that of
Company P’s employees.
(D) The reasons given by Company P’s
employees for their dissatisfaction varied
greatly from employee to employee.
(E) A battery of sets performed on Company
P’s employees one month ago revealed no
significant psychological stresses or
problems.
Like a lot of CR arguments, we can classify this one in the causation category:

effect: dissatisfaction with job
eliminated cause: no uncommonly bad working conditions
author's cause: psychological problems

In every causation argument, the author is assuming that there's no other possible cause (especiallly when she uses extreme language like "must result from").

To weaken a causation argument, we often offer up alternative causes. Another great way to weaken a causation argument is to show that there isn't a link between the stated cause and effect. A third way to weaken (but much rarer on the GMAT) is to suggest that the author has cause and effect reversed.

Here, we have a weaken EXCEPT question. So, we want to eliminate the 4 choices that do weaken the argument and we want to choose the answer that does NOT weaken. "Non-weakeners" can fall into two categories: strengtheners and outside-the-scopes.

Let's review the choices:

(a) offers an alternative cause (i.e. it was working conditions, just not those on-site at P) - weakens, so eliminate.

(b) attacks the link between being dissatisfied and poor working conditions (suggests that the two aren't necessarily connected) - weakens, so eliminate.

(c) directly attacks the relevance of the evidence - a good way to weaken any argument type - eliminate.

(d) do different reasons for dissatisfaction show that psychological factors aren't the root cause? No - it's possible that crazy people may have 1000 different reasons for being crazy. Do different reasons show that psychological factors are the root cause? Also no - it's possible that crazy people are all crazy for the same reason. So, (d) doesn't give us any information that helps us evaluate the argument. Therefore, (d) is outside the scope, which makes it the CORRECT answer to a "weaken except" question.

For further clarification, let's use Kaplan's Denial Test on (d):

"It is not the case that the reasons given by Company P’s employees for their dissatisfaction varied greatly from employee to employee."

Simplified:

"Company P's employees all gave similar reasons for their dissatisfaction."

Well, if they all gave similar reasons, does that rule out psychological instability? No, because we don't know what those reasons were. If every employee said "it's because the plants whisper bad things about me behind my back", then we'd probably be on board with the "psychological issues" explanation. If every employee said "it's because my friends do the same amount of work as me and earn twice as much as I do", then we'd doubt the author's explanation.

Since the denial of (d) has the same impact on the argument as (d) itself (i.e. neither one helps us evaluate the author's conclusion), we know that (d) is irrelevant and, therefore, the correct answer.

(e) directly attacks the author's conclusion - a good way to weaken any argument type - eliminate.
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by varunrajwade » Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:42 am
The source is Kaplan CR practice set..

Anyways I think it is B as I marked during my practice. B says that the problem is not in companies but the psyche of workers in general. but the OA is D..
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:47 am
varunrajwade wrote:The source is Kaplan CR practice set..

Anyways I think it is B as I marked during my practice. B says that the problem is not in companies but the psyche of workers in general. but the OA is D..
I knew I recognized the question from somewhere!

(b) doesn't say that the problem is the "psyche of workers in general"; (b) says some people are dissatisfied even when there are no apparent problems with their working conditions. Leaping from (b) to "it's due to psychological problems" requires a number of assumptions - and any time you bring your own assumptions into solving a CR problem, you're setting yourself up to make a bad choice.
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by peter.p.81 » Wed May 11, 2016 12:07 am
Guys can anyone give a decent reason why B is not right.
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