Two years ago, the human resources department at Harrison's

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Two years ago, the human resources department at Harrison's Technologies had 175 sexual harassment cases open, a number that at that time led all companies in the sector. At that time, a typical claim took six months to process and clear. In response to this high number, the CEO's Advisory Team published a comprehensive set of guidelines for training employees in the identification and avoidance of behaviors that could constitute sexual harassment. At this writing, the human resources department has only sixty sexual harassment cases open. Clearly, the guidelines published by the CEO's Advisory Team were effective in reducing the occurrence of new sexual harassment claims at Harrison's Technologies.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A) Two of the six members of the CEO's Advisory Team were found guilty of sexually harassing members of the secretarial staff
B) New paperwork and procedure, also introduced two years ago, has allowed the human resources department at Harrison's Technologies to process and close almost all new claims of sexual harassment in less than one month.
C) The human resources department at Anthony Information Industries, a principal rival of Harrison's with a similar number of employees, opened no new sexual harassment claims in the past year.
D) Independent consultants using scientifically designed surveys have found that the majority of current employees at Harrison's Technologies are not properly educated on exactly what behaviors constitute sexual harassment.
E) The majority of sexual harassment claims lead to the termination of employees found guilty; new employees hired to fill these positions need to be trained in the guidelines.

What's the best approach to determine the answer? Can any experts help

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by elias.latour.apex » Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:52 pm
What's the conclusion? It is: "The guidelines published by the CEO's Advisory Team were effective in reducing the occurrence of new sexual harassment claims at Harrison's Technologies. "

Why do we think that the guidelines were effective? Because the number of open sexual harassment cases dropped from 175 to 60 after the new guidelines were released.

What's the assumption? The assumption is that these guidelines are the only possible cause of the reduction in the number of open sexual harassment cases. Since our job is to weaken the argument, we will be looking for another possible cause for the reduction in open sexual harassment cases.

A) does not offer an alternate cause for the reduction
B) offers an alternate cause for the reduction.
C) does not offer an alternate cause for the reduction.
D) does not offer an alternate cause for the reduction.
E) does not offer an alternate cause for the reduction.

Accordingly, the best answer must be (B).
Elias Latour
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