Some managers think that the best way to maximize employee performance is to institute stiff competition among employees. ████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ██ ███████ █████████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ █████ █████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████████
The author concludes that stiff competition can undermine employee performance. This is based on the fact that if one competitor is perceived to be clearly superior, other competitors become anxious and doubt their own ability to perform.
The conclusion asserts that competition can hurt employee performance. But the premise establishes only that competition might lead to other competitors becoming anxious and having self-doubt about their performance. Do these feelings actually undermine performance? We have no reason to think so. Maybe those feelings actually spur people to perform better? To make the argument valid, we want to establish that feelings of anxiety or self-doubt about one’s ability to perform undermine employee performance.
The conclusion of the argument ███ ██ ████████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
Those who are █████████ ██ ██ ███████ ████████ ██████ ██████ ████
(A) doesn’t establish anything about what undermines employee performance. Since neither this answer nor the premise establishes that something undermines employee performance, it cannot make the argument valid.
The winner of █ ███████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███████
(B) doesn’t establish anything about what undermines employee performance. Since neither this answer nor the premise establishes that something undermines employee performance, it cannot make the argument valid.
When competitors perceive ███ ███████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████ ███████████ █████████ █████████
(C) doesn’t establish anything about what undermines employee performance. Since neither this answer nor the premise establishes that something undermines employee performance, it cannot make the argument valid. In addition, (C) tells us what improves performance. We’re trying to conclude that something hurts performance.
Doubting one's own ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ █████ ███████ ████████████
(D) connects doubting one’s own ability to perform to undermining employee performance. If (D) is true, stiff competition, because it can lead to self-doubt about ability to perform, hurts employee performance.
Competitors who work ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █████████████
(E) doesn’t establish anything about what undermines employee performance. Since neither this answer nor the premise establishes that something undermines employee performance, it cannot make the argument valid.
Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.
It takes about five minutes.
Take the free diagnostic