Question

Read the following caselet and answer the question that follows.

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 the recent actions of the company president, Mr. Ganesh Thakur. They demanded that the board consider firing the president.

Mr. Thakur, recently appointed as president, had undertaken to solve some of the management-employee problems by dealing directly with 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 show the management's concern for the employees. An important step Mr. Thakur took was to negotiate the wages of the supervisors with each supervisor one on one. In these negotiation meetings he did not involve anyone else, including the Personnel Department which reported to him, so that he could take an unbiased decision. After negotiation, a wage contract was drawn up for each supervisor. He felt this would recognise and reward the better performers. Mr. Thakur carried out this process for most of the supervisors, except those working the night shift. For them he drew up the contracts on his own, benchmarking the night shift supervisors' wages against the day shift supervisors' wages.

For several days, Ram Lal, a night shift supervisor, had been trying to get an appointment with Mr. Thakur about his wages. He was upset, not only because he could not see the president, but also because there had been no discussion about his wage contract before it was put into effect. As a family man with six dependents, he felt his weekly wage should be higher than what he had been given.

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. Angry, Ram Lal walked into the president's office and confronted the startled Mr. Thakur with his demand for a better wage. Mr. Thakur stood up and told Ram Lal to get out of his office and raise his grievance through the official channel. Ram Lal took a swing at the president, who in turn punched Ram Lal on the jaw and knocked him unconscious.

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 one-on-one interaction policy, since supervisors were in a way being forced to accept the wage contracts.
• B. Being in the night shift worked against him, since he could not interact with the management about his problem.
• C. He was not allowed to meet the chairman of the board of directors of the company.
• D. Employment in the night shift kept him away from his family during the day, so he could not interact with his family members much.

Hint:

Separate what the caselet actually states about Ram Lal from what merely sounds plausible about night shift work.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1: Understanding the Question.
We need the real reason Ram Lal was upset, based only on what the caselet tells us about him.

Step 2: What the caselet actually says about Ram Lal.
The passage says Ram Lal, a night shift supervisor, tried for several days to get an appointment with Mr. Thakur about his wages. It also says his contract was drawn up unilaterally, with no discussion before it was put into effect, unlike the day shift supervisors who got one-on-one negotiation.
So his grievance has two linked parts: he was denied the same face-to-face negotiation given to day shift supervisors, and this denial happened because of his shift timing, which kept him from reaching the president.

Step 3: Checking each option against this.
Disappointment with the one-on-one policy forcing contracts on people is not right, since day shift supervisors were not forced, they were negotiated with individually and seemed to accept this well; only night shift supervisors were left out of negotiation entirely.
Not meeting the chairman is wrong because the caselet never says Ram Lal tried to reach the chairman, Mr. Rajiv Singhal, he was trying to reach the president, Mr. Thakur.
Being away from his family during the day is a real fact about night shift work, but the caselet frames his grievance around wages and lack of interaction with management, not around family time.
The option about the night shift working against him because he could not interact with the management matches the passage directly: he could not get an appointment, and this failure traces back to his shift.

Step 4: Final Answer.
The most likely cause of Ram Lal's grievance is that being on the night shift worked against him, since it kept him from interacting with the management about his wage problem.