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by [email protected] » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:23 am
Contemporary business firms need to recognize that avoiding social responsibility leads to the gradual erosion of power. This is Davis and Blomstrom's Iron Law of Responsibility: "In the long run, those who do not use power in a manner which society considers responsible will tend to lose it." The law's application to human institutions certainly stands confirmed by history. Though the "long run" may require decades or even centuries in some instances, society ultimately acts to reduce power when society thinks it is not being used responsibly. Therefore, a business that wishes to retain its power as long as it can, must act responsibly.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most weakens the above argument?

(A)Government institutions are as subject to the iron Law of Responsibility as business
institutions.
(B)Public relations programs can cause society to consider an institution socially responsible even when it is not.
(C)The power of some institutions erodes more slowly than the power of others, whether they are socially responsible or not.
(D)Since no institution is eternal, every business will eventually fail.
(E)Some businesses that have used power in socially responsible ways have lost it.


OA - B

Can anybody explain options C and E in detail. I feel even they are strong.
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by abidshariff » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:36 am
Hi mate,

Please avoid posting the answer along with the question. That hinders most of the people from thinking.

Coming to the question, watch out for "some" word in both the options. if some of the business that have used power in socially responsible ways have lost it, then it means that many businesses have gained the power.

The author says "a business that wishes to retain its power as long as it can, must act responsibly". It doesn't mean that every business that acts responsibly has retained its power.

Same holds for option C.
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by cans » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:54 am
IMO B
conclusion: a business that wishes to retain its power as long as it can, must act responsibly.
a) irrelevant
b) a company can be accepted as socially responsible even when it is not. Thus it need not act responsibly to retain power. It can use PR programs and retain power :)
c) argument concerns about how not being social responsible decreases power.
d) same as c)
e) out of scope
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by patanjali.purpose » Sun Jun 05, 2011 11:08 am
[email protected] wrote:Contemporary business firms need to recognize that avoiding social responsibility leads to the gradual erosion of power. This is Davis and Blomstrom's Iron Law of Responsibility: "In the long run, those who do not use power in a manner which society considers responsible will tend to lose it." The law's application to human institutions certainly stands confirmed by history. Though the "long run" may require decades or even centuries in some instances, society ultimately acts to reduce power when society thinks it is not being used responsibly. Therefore, a business that wishes to retain its power as long as it can, must act responsibly.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most weakens the above argument?

(A)Government institutions are as subject to the iron Law of Responsibility as business
institutions.
(B)Public relations programs can cause society to consider an institution socially responsible even when it is not.
(C)The power of some institutions erodes more slowly than the power of others, whether they are socially responsible or not.
(D)Since no institution is eternal, every business will eventually fail.
(E)Some businesses that have used power in socially responsible ways have lost it.
C: as the argument is concerned about a business that wishes to retain power in long run. The argument neither emphasizes rate of erosion nor compares rate of erosion btn instituions

D: yes true, every instituion will fail- some will fail today while other tomorrow. Not concerned. Argument just says how to retain power in long term.

E: argument never says, businesses that are socially responsibly will not fail. Therefore there can be a case when a business, even though, is socially responsible loses power

Hope it helps
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Mon Jun 06, 2011 8:33 am
[email protected] wrote:Contemporary business firms need to recognize that avoiding social responsibility leads to the gradual erosion of power. This is Davis and Blomstrom's Iron Law of Responsibility: "In the long run, those who do not use power in a manner which society considers responsible will tend to lose it." The law's application to human institutions certainly stands confirmed by history. Though the "long run" may require decades or even centuries in some instances, society ultimately acts to reduce power when society thinks it is not being used responsibly. Therefore, a business that wishes to retain its power as long as it can, must act responsibly.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most weakens the above argument?

(A)Government institutions are as subject to the iron Law of Responsibility as business
institutions.
(B)Public relations programs can cause society to consider an institution socially responsible even when it is not.
(C)The power of some institutions erodes more slowly than the power of others, whether they are socially responsible or not.
(D)Since no institution is eternal, every business will eventually fail.
(E)Some businesses that have used power in socially responsible ways have lost it.


Can anybody explain options C and E in detail. I feel even they are strong.
I got a PM asking me to post on this thread, so I will, although others have done an admirable job explaining why B is correct and why C and E aren't.

One important factor in your CR success will be how well you understand the scope of the argument. Since the most common trap in CR is "outside the scope", accurately identifying the scope will get you a lot of points; sometimes you can eliminate 4 choices on this basis and get the point even if you don't completely understand the argument!

Here, the conclusion references "retain its power as long as it can", without giving a specific time frame. For that reason alone we can eliminate C, since relative rates of erosion (to steal a great phrase from Patanjali) are outside the scope of the argument.

E is another classic trap - when an author says that A leads to B, sometimes answers will focus on a different relationship - that not A leads to not B. Just because the Iron Law says that irresponsibility leads to a loss of power doesn't mean that responsibility guarantees power. Accordingly, E is also outside the scope (or, if you prefer, focuses on a distortion of the evidence given).

To predict the correct answer to this question (something you should always endeavour to do), we could identify the shift from the evidence to the conclusion. The evidence focuses on societies perception of responsibility and the conclusion on actually acting responsible. The author must be assuming that the only way society will perceive a business as responsible is for that business to actually act responsibly.

Our prediction to weaken the argument: an answer that makes us doubt the assumption, i.e. there's a way to fool society. B gives us exactly what we want: choose B!
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