PrepTest 140, Section 2, Question 13
Consultant: The dramatic improvements in productivity achieved during(50 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(13 more words not shown)
- AMost companies still(13 more words not shown)
- BIncreased productivity is(18 more words not shown)
- CMost of the(22 more words not shown)
- DThe innovations of(27 more words not shown)
- EIncreases in productivity(19 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Standardizing the work helped companies become more productive. Now giving workers more say helps them improve again. Why would moving in what looks like the opposite direction help?
Perhaps the work has changed. A factory might benefit from a tightly controlled process, while a marketing team might need freedom to try new ideas. Or perhaps already productive companies benefit from employee input in a way that less developed operations don't. Those are possible explanations, not facts we've been given.
What we’re looking for
We need to explain the newer improvement while keeping the older success in view. What is it about giving employees more influence that helps these already productive companies do even better?
Working the answers
- A
Most companies could still pursue standardization while some highly productive companies improve through employee influence. That doesn't explain why the latter approach works for the companies described. We need an explanation of those gains, not a head count of companies following another strategy.
- B
Greater job satisfaction is another possible benefit, but why does productivity improve? The answer doesn't say happier workers become more productive or explain how their greater control produces the reported gain. It gives us another result rather than the missing connection.
- C
Robots might explain most recent productivity growth while leaving these particular gains unexplained. The passage attributes improvements at the companies in question to greater employee influence. Information about advanced technology doesn't explain how that influence helps.
- D
This describes companies moving toward the Industrial Revolution's innovations after employees had controlled their work. Our puzzle concerns companies giving employees greater influence after they are already productive. D addresses a movement in the other direction.
- ECorrect
At highly productive companies, further gains depend on management gathering employees' ideas about their work and applying those ideas broadly. Workers may notice a better way to do something; giving them influence lets the company learn about it and put it into practice.
This also shows why employee input needn't undo the advantages of standardization. Management can take a useful idea from one employee and make it part of the process across the company. Central coordination and ideas from individual workers can work together. The answer supplies a concrete route to the newer gains, even though it isn't simply the change-in-type-of-work explanation we initially considered.
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