Self-study
Decentralization enables divisions of a large institution to function autonomously. ████ ██████ ███████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███████████ █████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████████ ███ ████████ ████ ███████ ████████████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████████████ ██ █████ ██ ████████████████ ██████ ███████ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████
Summary
The stimulus says that decentralization allows different parts of a large institution to function autonomously. Autonomous functioning means that the same people are making decisions and implementing policies, which in turn allows more realistic planning and encourages innovation. Finally, decentralization lets the institution’s administrators focus on big-picture issues instead of daily operations.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
The stimulus supports these conclusions:
An institution whose divisions cannot function autonomously is not decentralized.
In institutions whose divisions do not function autonomously, planning is not always as realistic as possible.
If an institution’s central administrators are not able to focus on big-picture issues instead of daily operations, then the institution is not decentralized.
18.
The statements above most strongly ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
In large institutions █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
This is strongly supported. Based on the facts, when divisions function autonomously, planning becomes more realistic. That means that institutions without autonomous divisions could improve how realistically they plan—in other words, planning is not maximally realistic.
b
Innovation is not ██████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████████ █████████████
This is not supported. Sure, decentralization encourages innovation, but that doesn’t mean that centralized institutions don’t encourage innovation. Maybe every type of institutional structure encourages innovation! We don’t know.
c
For large institutions ███ ██████████ ██ ████████████████ ████████ ███ ██████████████
This is not supported. The stimulus discusses some advantages of decentralization, but we never learn about disadvantages at all. That means we can’t compare whether the advantages or disadvantages are more significant.
d
The central administrations ██ █████ ████████████ ███ ███████ █████████ ███████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████
This is not supported. We know that decentralization allows administrators to not worry about daily operations, but that doesn’t tell us anything about how operations are usually managed. We don’t even know if most large institutions are decentralized or not!
e
The people directly ████████ ██ ████████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██████████
This is not supported. Based on the facts, this style of decision-making and implementation leads to more realistic planning and more innovation. But “more” is a comparison, not an absolute judgement. Even if planning gets more realistic, it might still be not very realistic.