XAT 2008 to XAT 2017 Decision Making Questions and Answers Ravi Handa Version 6.0 (Last Updated on: 15th september 2017) INTRODUCTION Questions on Decision Making have been asked in XAT for quite a few years. However, their importance has gone up drastically since 2012. Prior to that, you could expect 8 to 10 questions on Decision Making in the Analytical Reasoning section. In 2012, Decision Making became a section of its own and if you were to look at it purely from a scoring perspective – it make the most important topic for a student who is planning to write the XAT. It so happened because Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning and Verbal Ability – none of them had a full section on their own. They had to share the limelight, so to say, with some other related topic. In 2012, there were 25 questions in the Decision Making section. It even had some questions which were of 1.5 marks instead of the standard 1. The XAT paper in 2013 also had 25 questions, although all questions were of 1 mark each. The XAT paper in 2014 had 24 questions. This year i.e. XAT 2018 is expected to have 20-25 questions in the Decision Making section again. There is no doubt that this would be more than the number of questions on Quant, DI, LR or VA. These kind of questions require a logical approach and a clear understanding of the situation. It often requires going through large amounts of text and then logically interpreting the information presented. To put it in conventional terms, it is a combination of Reading Comprehension and Logical Reasoning and traditionally students who are good in these two areas tend to do well in the Decision Making section as well. A good way to prepare for Decision Making would be to look at previous year papers. You can have a look at questions from XAT 2008 to XAT 2017 which would give you approximately 135 questions to practice. These 135 questions will not only tell you your current level of understanding of the topic but if you analyze them properly, it can really make a difference to you final score. You can have a look at my Decision Making online coaching course available here: https://www.handakafunda.com/xat-decision-making-general- knowledge-mock-test-series/ The course contains: a) Video solutions to all previous year XAT Decision Making Sections b) Concepts for understanding Decision Making c) 5 sectional mock tests for Decision Making If you have any questions about it, feel free to call / email me. Ravi Handa [email protected] 09765142632 INDEX XAT 2008 XAT 2009 XAT 2010 XAT 2011 XAT 2012 XAT 2013 XAT 2014 XAT 2015 XAT 2016 XAT 2017 XAT 2008 Decision Making Questions and Answers Set 1 Answers Questions 1 to 6 based on the information given below. Mr. Rajiv Singhal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Loha India Ltd., (a steel manufacturing company) had just been visited by several other directors of the company. The directors were upset with recent actions of the company president, Mr. Ganesh Thakur. They demanded that the board consider firing the president. Mr. Thakur, recently appointed president, had undertaken to solve some of the management-employees problems by dealing directly with the individuals, as often as possible. The company did not have a history of strikes or any other form of collective action and was considered to have a good work culture. However, Mr. Thakur felt that by dealing directly with individuals, he could portray the management’s concern for the employees. An important initiative of Mr. Thakur was to negotiate wages of the supervisors with each supervisor. In these negotiation meetings, he would not involve anyone else, including the personnel department that reported to him, so as to take unbiased decisions. After the negotiation, a wage contract would be drawn up for each supervisor. This, he felt, would recognize and reward the better performers. Mr. Thakur successfully implemented the process for most of the supervisors, except those working in the night shift. For them, he had drawn up the contracts unilaterally benchmarking the wages of supervisors of the night with that of the supervisors of the day shift. For several days, Ram Lal, a night shift supervisor, had been trying to seek an appointment with Mr. Thakur about his wages. He was disgruntled, not only over his failure to see the president, but also over the lack of discussions about his wage contract prior to it being affected. As a family man with six dependents, he felt his weekly wage should be higher than that granted to him. Last Thursday afternoon, Ram Lal stopped by the president’s office and tried to see him. Mr. Thakur’s secretary refused his request on the grounds that Mr. Thakur was busy. Infuriated, Ram Lal stormed into the president’s office and confronted the startled Mr. Thakur, with his demands for a better wage. Mr. Thakur stood up and told Ram Lal to get out of his office and express his grievance through official channels. Ram Lal took a swing at the president, who in turn punched Ram Lal on the jaw and knocked him unconscious. 1. The most important causal factor for this entire episode could be: A. Trying to follow a divide-and-rule policy in his dealings with the supervisors. B. Inconsistent dealings of Mr. Thakur with supervisors. C. Paternalistic approach towards mature individuals in the organisation. D. Legalistic approach to employee problems. E. Inadequate standards for measurement of supervisors’ on-job performance. 2. The situation with Mr.Lal could have been avoided if Mr. Thakur had 1. Delegated the task of negotiation of wage contracts for night shift employees to Personnel department. 2. Created a process for supervisors working the night shift so that they could have had opportunity to interact with him. 3. Created an open door policy that would have allowed employees to see him without any appointment. 4. Postponed the decision of wage revision for supervisors in the night shift for two months, since supervisors were rotated on different shifts after every two months. The option that best arranges the above managerial interventions in decreasing order of organisational impact is: A. 4, 2, 3, 1 B. 4, 3, 2, 1 C. 4, 3, 1, 2 D. 4, 1, 2, 3 E. 2, 3, 1, 4 3. The most likely premise behind Mr. Thakur’s initiative regarding individualised meetings with the supervisors seems to be A. Employee related policies should allow scope for bargaining by employees. B. Involvement of company’s president in wage problems of employees will lead to a better goodwill towards the management among the workers. C. Individual agreements with supervisors would allow the management to prevent any possible collective action by the supervisors. D. Management will be able to force supervisors to accept lesser wages individually in this way. E. He would be able to know who the trouble makers in the plant are by interacting with the supervisors. 4. Out of the following, which one seems to be the most likely cause of Ram Lal’s grievance? A. His disappointment with the management’s philosophy of having one to one interaction as the supervisors were in a way being forced to accept the wage contracts. B. His being in the night shift had worked to his disadvantage as he could not interact with the management regarding his problem. C. He was not allowed to meet chairman of the board of directors of the company D. Employment in the night shift forced him to stay away from his family during the day time and therefore he could not interact with his family members much. E. All of these. 5. Apart from the supervisors working in the night shift, executives of which department will have most justified reasons to be disgruntled with Mr. Thakur’s initiative? 1. Production department - for not being consulted regarding the behaviour of the supervisors on the shop floor. 2. Finance department - for not taken into confidence regarding the financial consequences of the wage contracts. 3. Marketing department - for not being consulted on the likely impact of the wage contracts on the image of the company. 4. Quality control - for not being able to give inputs to Mr. Thakur on how to improve quality of steel making process. 5. Personnel department - for it was their work to oversee wage policies for employees and they had been ignored by Mr. Thakur. A. 1 + 2 + 3 B. 1 + 4 + 5 C. 1 + 2 + 5 D. 1 + 3 + 4 E. 3 + 4 + 5 6. Which of the following managerial attributes does Mr. Thakur seem to lack the most? A. Emotional instability under pressure. B. Proactive problem solving. C. Ethical behaviour. D. Emotional stability under pressure. E. Independent decision making Answer 1: B Answer 2: E Answer 3: B Answer 4: B Answer 5: C Answer 6: D Individual Questions: 7. Seema was a finance manager in an MNC and felt that gender discrimination at work place hampered her career growth. Frustrated, she quit the job and started a company. While starting her company, Seema decided that she would have equal proportion of males and females. Over the last six years, Seema emerged as a very successful entrepreneur and expanded her business to eight locations in the country. However, Seema recently started facing an ethical dilemma because she realized that female employees were not willing to travel across cities and work late hours, as the work required them to do so. Male employees did not hesitate undertaking such work. Seema started to feel the pressure of reducing the proportion of female employees. On the other hand, she is aware that equal representation was one of the strongest reasons for her to have founded the company. What should she do as a conscientious female entrepreneur? A. See if unwilling female employees could be given assignments which do not require travel and involve less overtime. B. Reduce the number of female employees as it is a business requirement. She should not let anything affect her business. C. Let the status quo continue. D. Henceforth hire only male employees. E. She should close the business. 8. You, a recruitment manager, are interviewing Mayank, a hardworking young man, who has problems in speaking fluent English. He has studied in vernacular medium schools and colleges. Amongst the following options, what would you choose to do, if your company has vacancies? A. I would hire him at all costs. B. I would hire him for the job he is good at, and provide training in other areas. C. I would hire him for production or finance job but not for marketing job, which requires good communication skills.