XAT 2018 — Decision Making Question 1
Answer the following question based on the information given below.
Satyender heads a branch of a Micro-Finance company. The company provides small-size loans catering to rural households. As the head of the branch, he supervises three collection officers - Palani, Sayed, and Godwin. Palani was recently transferred by the company from another branch. Sayed feared Palani's transfer may pull down the performance of the branch, as he felt Palani was transferred due to his poor performance in the previous branch.
Which of the following information will most likely assuage Sayed's fear?
Answer & solution
In the past 12 years as the head of branch, Satyender has exceeded targets every time.
- B
Palani has been a top performer in the organization; his performance has deteriorated only in the last three years.
- C
The branch's performance has been good for the past 10 years; Sayed has joined the organization 3 years back.
- D
When Sayed joined as a fresher in this branch, others in the branch had feared that he might bring down the performance of the branch.
- E
While calculating the branch's performance, the branch head has the choice to exclude new joinee's performance.
The question may seem tricky at first glance. Here, Sayed believes that Palani was transferred due to his poor performance in the previous branch. Thus, he fears that Palani's transfer may pull down the performance of the branch. Any option that can state that the performance of the branch will not suffer due to Palani will help in assuaging Sayed’s fear. [2], [3] and [4] do not help in this. Between [1] and [5], the former is a better choice as it implies that irrespective of the employees who joined his team, Satyender has exceeded targets every time in the past twelve years. Thus, even if Palani does not perform well, it is possible that the performance of the branch will not suffer. Though [5] appears close, it does not address the fear of Sayed that Palani's transfer may affect the performance of the branch in a negative manner.
Hence, the correct answer is option 1.