LSAT 107 – Section 4 – Question 19

LSAT 107 - Section 4 - Question 19

October 1999

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT107 S4 Q19
+LR
Except +Exc
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
A
2%
160
B
75%
166
C
11%
160
D
6%
159
E
6%
160
143
153
163
 +Harder 141.321 +SubsectionEasier

In the decade from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, large corporations were rocked by mergers, reengineering, and downsizing. These events significantly undermined employees’ job security. Surprisingly, however, employees’ perception of their own job security hardly changed over that period. Fifty-eight percent of employees surveyed in 1984 and 55 percent surveyed in 1994 stated that their own jobs were very secure.

"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did corporate employees not perceive their job security to have changed appreciably from the beginning to the end of a decade during which their jobs were less secure?

Objective
The correct answer must fail to identify a reason for employees in 1994 to be as confident in their job security as employees in 1984. Every wrong answer, meanwhile, will provide a good hypothesis suggesting that the employees’ jobs were equally secure in both years, or that employees in 1994 were more likely than employees in 1984 to say their jobs were secure for a different reason.

A
A large number of the people in both surveys work in small companies that were not affected by mergers, reengineering, and downsizing.
This explains the consistent confidence measurement. The workers surveyed were largely not the ones at risk, so they did not perceive their job security to have changed much.
B
Employees who feel secure in their jobs tend to think that the jobs of others are secure.
This does not explain why employees remained apparently overconfident in their own job security. The author does not imply that employees were asked about other employees' jobs.
C
The corporate downsizing that took place during this period had been widely anticipated for several years before the mid-1980s.
This makes the consistent job confidence less surprising. If employees in 1984 were expecting downsizing, and employees in 1994 had experienced it, then employees in both years responded to the survey based on similar outlooks.
D
Most of the major downsizing during this period was completed within a year after the first survey.
This makes the consistent survey results less surprising. If the survey was conducted in years before and well after significant downsizing, employees in both years were likely not expecting it.
E
In the mid-1990s, people were generally more optimistic about their lives, even in the face of hardship, than they were a decade before.
This contributes to an explanation of the survey results. Employees in 1994 had an optimistic outlook that countered the effects of their declining job security to keep the survey results roughly consistent.

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LSAT PrepTest 107 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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