Question

(Questions 115 to 117): The year 2004 was a great year for Top-Cloth cotton mill. Manufacturing towels for the export market and employing more than 2000 workers, the company had an impressive growth in sales and profits. The Chairman felt that employees were entitled to a share in the profits, and it was proposed that the employee mess be air-conditioned. The proposal was discussed in a meeting attended by, among other senior officials, the marketing director, the personnel director and the finance director. The proposal was based on the fact that the shop floor of the mill often had temperatures in excess of 40 degrees C with a relative humidity of 99%. The air-conditioned mess would represent management's appreciation of the employees' hard work.

At the end of 2005, management reviewed the mill's performance. Profits were higher, and employee attrition was negligible. The Chairman decided that employees deserved additional recognition for their fine work. Since the mess had already been air-conditioned, the Chairman wanted to know if the employees appreciated this sort of action. In the course of discussion, the Chairman asked the personnel director to send a questionnaire to a sample of fifty employees and obtain their reaction to the air-conditioned mess. The management agreed to decide only after obtaining the feedback from the employees.

The personnel director mailed a simple form to fifty employees, asking them for the following information: "Please state your reaction to the air-conditioned mess." Of the fifty forms mailed, forty-six were returned. The answers received were as follows:

Reaction	Frequency
"I did not know it was air-conditioned."	16
"I never eat there"	8
"If management can spend money like that, they should pay us more"	6
"I wish the entire mill was air-conditioned."	8
"The mess is for management employees."	4
"It is OK."	2
Miscellaneous comments	2

115. The main conclusion(s) about the personnel director that emerge(s) from this situation is(are):
A. The personnel director did not have the competence to manage an employee feedback survey, and should have been given the task to a professional consultant.
B. The personnel director was responsible for employees' reactions.
C. The personnel director had failed in his duty of maintaining constant touch with employees.
D. The cost of air-conditioning is a waste, since its beneficiaries did not feel any benefit.

• A. B only
• B. C only
• C. D only
• D. A, C and D

Hint:

Check each statement (A to D) against the actual survey numbers: does it describe something the personnel director did or failed to do, and is it backed by a fact in the passage?

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Understanding the Question.
We are asked which conclusions about the personnel director follow from the case, based on what the passage actually shows about him, and not on outside assumptions.

Step 2: Key Formula or Approach.
Go through statements A, B, C and D one at a time and check two things for each: is it actually supported by facts in the passage, and is it really a conclusion about the personnel director rather than about something else, like the original air-conditioning decision itself, which was the Chairman's call.

Step 3: Detailed Explanation.
Statement A: the personnel director's entire survey was a single vague open line, "Please state your reaction to the air-conditioned mess," mailed to fifty people. This produced scattered, hard-to-use answers, sixteen employees did not even know the mess was air-conditioned, eight never eat there, and so on, which points to a poorly designed feedback exercise. A trained professional would have used structured questions to get a clear, usable reaction. This shows a real competence gap, so A is supported by the passage.
Statement B: this blames the director for the content of employees' reactions themselves. But not knowing about the mess, not eating there, or feeling the money should have gone into pay are the employees' own views and habits, not something the director caused or is "responsible for" in that sense. This does not follow from the passage, so B is not supported.
Statement C: sixteen of the forty-six respondents, more than a third, did not even know the mess had been air-conditioned. If the personnel director had truly stayed in regular contact with staff, this basic fact would have reached almost everyone well before a survey was needed. This gap directly supports C.
Statement D: only two people said "It is OK", a mild positive, while the rest either did not know, did not use the mess, or felt the money should have gone elsewhere. So the intended beneficiaries largely did not register or value the benefit, supporting D's conclusion that the spending did not land as a felt gain.
So A, C and D are backed by the passage, while B is not.

Step 4: Final Answer.
The conclusions that follow are A, C and D.\[ \boxed{\text{A, C and D}} \]