Consultant: The dramatic improvements in productivity achieved during the Industrial Revolution resulted in large part from standardization of processes and procedures coupled with centralization of planning and decision making. Yet, in recent years, many already productive companies have further improved their productivity by giving individual employees greater influence in decision making and in how they do their work.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
How have many already productive companies further improved their productivity by implementing less centralized planning and decisionmaking, even though more centralization has been known to lead to huge increases in productivity?
Objective
The correct answer should suggest a difference between the already productive companies and the average company that could explain why the already productive companies can increase their productivity more through less centralization.
A
Most companies still try to improve productivity mainly through greater standardization and centralization of decision making.
What most companies do doesn’t explain why the already productive companies we’re concerned with in the stimulus can increase productivity through less centralization.
B
Increased productivity is not the only benefit of giving individual employees greater control over their work; job satisfaction increases as well.
This might provide another reason companies may want less centralization, but doesn’t help explain how companies can become more productive through les centralization.
C
Most of the increases in industrial productivity that have occurred in recent years have been due to the introduction of advanced technology like industrial robots.
Even if most increase in productivity has occurred through technology, we still know some companies have increased productivity through less centralization. This answer doesn’t explain how this happened.
D
The innovations of the Industrial Revolution are only now being applied in those companies in which individual employees have traditionally been entirely in control of how they do their work.
This answer tells us what’s happening in companies in which individual employees already have complete individual control. This doesn’t relate to the already productive companies we’re concerned with in the stimulus, which are giving their employees more and more control.
E
Increases in productivity in highly productive companies depend on management’s broad application of innovative ideas solicited from individual employees about their work.
Once a company is already highly productive, further productivity comes from individual employees’ ideas. This could be why less centralization (and greater autonomy for employees) is how already productive companies become more productive.
A
Farmers engaged in very large-scale cattle production generally try to reduce the labor costs involved in the production and sale of beef.
B
The wholesale price per pound of beef is approximately ten times the wholesale price per pound of bread.
C
The labor and marketing costs in producing and selling bread represent most of its cost, but the cost of feeding cattle represents most of the cost of producing beef.
D
Only an insignificantly small proportion of the beef sold in retail markets is produced from cattle fed on grass rather than grain.
E
The vast majority of retail grocery outlets purchase the bread they sell from small independent bakers but purchase the meat they sell from large wholesale processing operations.
Depression is a serious problem for residents of nursing homes. However, a recent study has found that residents who developed personal bonds with pets had significantly lower rates of depression than did residents who did not develop personal bonds with pets.
Summary
Depression is a serious problem in nursing homes. However, a recent study found that residents who formed bonds with pets had much lower rates of depression than those who didn't.
Encouraging nursing home residents to have pets could potentially help to lower the rate of depression in nursing homes.
Depression in nursing homes might in part stem from residents’ lack of companionship.
A
Nursing-home residents are more subject to depression than any other individuals.
Unsupported. The stimulus tells us that depression is a serious problem for residents of nursing homes. However, it does not compare rates of depression among nursing home residents to rates of depression among anyone else.
B
The best method for helping a nursing-home resident to overcome depression is to provide access to a pet.
Unsupported. Although forming bonds with pets significantly lowers rates of depression among nursing home residents, we do not know that this is the best way for residents to overcome depression.
C
High rates of depression among nursing-home residents may result at least in part from a lack of companionship.
Strongly supported. Residents who formed bonds with pets had much lower rates of depression than those who didn’t, and bonds with pets are a kind of companionship. So, rates of depression may result in part from a lack of companionship.
D
Animal companionship is essential for psychological well-being.
Unsupported. We do not know that animal companionship is essential for psychological well-being simply because animal companionship could help alleviate depression in some circumstances.
E
Allowing free access to pets in nursing homes would eliminate problems relating to depression.
Unsupported. Allowing free access to pets could alleviate rates of depression in nursing homes, but we have no way to know whether it would entirely eliminate all problems relating to depression.