List of top Questions asked in XAT- 2008

Passage:

Every conscious mental state carries a quality we call mood. We are always in some mood, pleasant or unpleasant to some degree. Bad moods may come from too little positive reinforcement in a person's life, along with too many punishments. Moods differ from emotions in one clear way: emotions are tied to a specific object, while moods are not. This split is not perfect, since emotions can also be aimed at something broad (a person can be angry at people in general), while a mood still carries a general sense about the state of the world at large. Moods show up as positive or negative feelings linked to health, personality, or how good a person feels life is. Moods can also grow out of an emotion, such as the mood that follows a specific event like failing to secure a loan. In that sense, a mood is the mind's judgment on the recent past. Goldie notes that an emotion can rise and fall inside a mood, while an emotion can still carry traits that are not object specific.

Moods matter to marketing because they color outlook and bias judgment. This is why consumer confidence surveys matter, since consumer confidence reflects the national mood. There is mood congruence when a person's thoughts and actions fall in line with their mood. Goleman describes this as a constant stream of feeling that runs in perfect harmony with a person's stream of thought. Mood congruence happens because a positive mood brings pleasant associations that soften later thoughts and actions, while a negative mood brings pessimistic associations that shape later judgment and behavior. A consumer in a good mood is more optimistic and confident about buying, and more willing to put up with things like waiting in a queue. Businesses try to put customers in the right mood using music and friendly staff, or place bakeries inside malls so the smell of fresh bread pulls shoppers in.

Thayer treats mood as a mix of biological and psychological influences, a kind of clinical thermometer that reflects everything going on inside and outside a person. For Thayer, the two building blocks of mood are energy and tension, combined in different amounts. A specific mixture of energy and tension, together with the thoughts they influence, produces moods. He describes four mood states:
- Calm-energy: the optimal mood for feeling good.
- Calm-tiredness: mild tiredness without stress, which can still feel pleasant.
- Tense-energy: a low level of anxiety suited to a fight-or-flight response.
- Tense-tiredness: a mix of fatigue and anxiety behind the unpleasant feeling of depression.

People generally feel down or feel good because of events happening around them, and this adds up to the national mood. People feel elated when their national soccer team wins an international match, and low when the team loses. An elated mood of calm-energy is an optimistic mood, which is good for business. Consumers, as socially involved individuals, are shaped by the prevailing social climate, and marketers talk about the national mood running for or against conspicuous consumption. Moods do change. Writing early in the nineteenth century, Tocqueville describes an American elite embarrassed by showy material display; sixty years later, in the Gilded Age, many people were eager to embrace a showy, materialistic style instead. The hard part is predicting a shift in national mood, since a change in mood affects everything from buying stocks to buying houses and washing machines. Thayer would argue that we should watch for national events likely to push people toward a tense-tiredness state or a calm-energy state, since these two extremes are more likely to shape behavior. Artists sensitive to national moods capture these long-term shifts. One example is the emotional distance between Charles Dickens's sentimental account of the death of Little Nell and Oscar Wilde's cruel joke about it (that one would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of Little Nell), a shift from high Victorian sentiment to the sharper cynicism found later in writers like Thomas Hardy and artists like Aubrey Beardsley.

Whenever the mind is not fully absorbed, consciousness is no longer focused and ordered, and under such conditions the mind drifts toward unpleasant thoughts, building a negative mood. Csikszentmihalyi argues that the human need to keep consciousness fully active drives a good deal of consumer behavior. Sometimes it does not matter what a person is shopping for; the act of shopping itself is one way to fill the void in consciousness when there is nothing else to do.

Question: Which one of the following statements best summarizes the above passage?
Passage:

Every conscious mental state carries a quality we call mood. We are always in some mood, pleasant or unpleasant to some degree. Bad moods may come from too little positive reinforcement in a person's life, along with too many punishments. Moods differ from emotions in one clear way: emotions are tied to a specific object, while moods are not. This split is not perfect, since emotions can also be aimed at something broad (a person can be angry at people in general), while a mood still carries a general sense about the state of the world at large. Moods show up as positive or negative feelings linked to health, personality, or how good a person feels life is. Moods can also grow out of an emotion, such as the mood that follows a specific event like failing to secure a loan. In that sense, a mood is the mind's judgment on the recent past. Goldie notes that an emotion can rise and fall inside a mood, while an emotion can still carry traits that are not object specific.

Moods matter to marketing because they color outlook and bias judgment. This is why consumer confidence surveys matter, since consumer confidence reflects the national mood. There is mood congruence when a person's thoughts and actions fall in line with their mood. Goleman describes this as a constant stream of feeling that runs in perfect harmony with a person's stream of thought. Mood congruence happens because a positive mood brings pleasant associations that soften later thoughts and actions, while a negative mood brings pessimistic associations that shape later judgment and behavior. A consumer in a good mood is more optimistic and confident about buying, and more willing to put up with things like waiting in a queue. Businesses try to put customers in the right mood using music and friendly staff, or place bakeries inside malls so the smell of fresh bread pulls shoppers in.

Thayer treats mood as a mix of biological and psychological influences, a kind of clinical thermometer that reflects everything going on inside and outside a person. For Thayer, the two building blocks of mood are energy and tension, combined in different amounts. A specific mixture of energy and tension, together with the thoughts they influence, produces moods. He describes four mood states:
- Calm-energy: the optimal mood for feeling good.
- Calm-tiredness: mild tiredness without stress, which can still feel pleasant.
- Tense-energy: a low level of anxiety suited to a fight-or-flight response.
- Tense-tiredness: a mix of fatigue and anxiety behind the unpleasant feeling of depression.

People generally feel down or feel good because of events happening around them, and this adds up to the national mood. People feel elated when their national soccer team wins an international match, and low when the team loses. An elated mood of calm-energy is an optimistic mood, which is good for business. Consumers, as socially involved individuals, are shaped by the prevailing social climate, and marketers talk about the national mood running for or against conspicuous consumption. Moods do change. Writing early in the nineteenth century, Tocqueville describes an American elite embarrassed by showy material display; sixty years later, in the Gilded Age, many people were eager to embrace a showy, materialistic style instead. The hard part is predicting a shift in national mood, since a change in mood affects everything from buying stocks to buying houses and washing machines. Thayer would argue that we should watch for national events likely to push people toward a tense-tiredness state or a calm-energy state, since these two extremes are more likely to shape behavior. Artists sensitive to national moods capture these long-term shifts. One example is the emotional distance between Charles Dickens's sentimental account of the death of Little Nell and Oscar Wilde's cruel joke about it (that one would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of Little Nell), a shift from high Victorian sentiment to the sharper cynicism found later in writers like Thomas Hardy and artists like Aubrey Beardsley.

Whenever the mind is not fully absorbed, consciousness is no longer focused and ordered, and under such conditions the mind drifts toward unpleasant thoughts, building a negative mood. Csikszentmihalyi argues that the human need to keep consciousness fully active drives a good deal of consumer behavior. Sometimes it does not matter what a person is shopping for; the act of shopping itself is one way to fill the void in consciousness when there is nothing else to do.

Question: Which of the following is closest to "conspicuous consumption" as used in the passage?
Passage:

Every conscious mental state carries a quality we call mood. We are always in some mood, pleasant or unpleasant to some degree. Bad moods may come from too little positive reinforcement in a person's life, along with too many punishments. Moods differ from emotions in one clear way: emotions are tied to a specific object, while moods are not. This split is not perfect, since emotions can also be aimed at something broad (a person can be angry at people in general), while a mood still carries a general sense about the state of the world at large. Moods show up as positive or negative feelings linked to health, personality, or how good a person feels life is. Moods can also grow out of an emotion, such as the mood that follows a specific event like failing to secure a loan. In that sense, a mood is the mind's judgment on the recent past. Goldie notes that an emotion can rise and fall inside a mood, while an emotion can still carry traits that are not object specific.

Moods matter to marketing because they color outlook and bias judgment. This is why consumer confidence surveys matter, since consumer confidence reflects the national mood. There is mood congruence when a person's thoughts and actions fall in line with their mood. Goleman describes this as a constant stream of feeling that runs in perfect harmony with a person's stream of thought. Mood congruence happens because a positive mood brings pleasant associations that soften later thoughts and actions, while a negative mood brings pessimistic associations that shape later judgment and behavior. A consumer in a good mood is more optimistic and confident about buying, and more willing to put up with things like waiting in a queue. Businesses try to put customers in the right mood using music and friendly staff, or place bakeries inside malls so the smell of fresh bread pulls shoppers in.

Thayer treats mood as a mix of biological and psychological influences, a kind of clinical thermometer that reflects everything going on inside and outside a person. For Thayer, the two building blocks of mood are energy and tension, combined in different amounts. A specific mixture of energy and tension, together with the thoughts they influence, produces moods. He describes four mood states:
- Calm-energy: the optimal mood for feeling good.
- Calm-tiredness: mild tiredness without stress, which can still feel pleasant.
- Tense-energy: a low level of anxiety suited to a fight-or-flight response.
- Tense-tiredness: a mix of fatigue and anxiety behind the unpleasant feeling of depression.

People generally feel down or feel good because of events happening around them, and this adds up to the national mood. People feel elated when their national soccer team wins an international match, and low when the team loses. An elated mood of calm-energy is an optimistic mood, which is good for business. Consumers, as socially involved individuals, are shaped by the prevailing social climate, and marketers talk about the national mood running for or against conspicuous consumption. Moods do change. Writing early in the nineteenth century, Tocqueville describes an American elite embarrassed by showy material display; sixty years later, in the Gilded Age, many people were eager to embrace a showy, materialistic style instead. The hard part is predicting a shift in national mood, since a change in mood affects everything from buying stocks to buying houses and washing machines. Thayer would argue that we should watch for national events likely to push people toward a tense-tiredness state or a calm-energy state, since these two extremes are more likely to shape behavior. Artists sensitive to national moods capture these long-term shifts. One example is the emotional distance between Charles Dickens's sentimental account of the death of Little Nell and Oscar Wilde's cruel joke about it (that one would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of Little Nell), a shift from high Victorian sentiment to the sharper cynicism found later in writers like Thomas Hardy and artists like Aubrey Beardsley.

Whenever the mind is not fully absorbed, consciousness is no longer focused and ordered, and under such conditions the mind drifts toward unpleasant thoughts, building a negative mood. Csikszentmihalyi argues that the human need to keep consciousness fully active drives a good deal of consumer behavior. Sometimes it does not matter what a person is shopping for; the act of shopping itself is one way to fill the void in consciousness when there is nothing else to do.

Question: What is "mood congruence" as described in the passage?
Passage:

Every conscious mental state carries a quality we call mood. We are always in some mood, pleasant or unpleasant to some degree. Bad moods may come from too little positive reinforcement in a person's life, along with too many punishments. Moods differ from emotions in one clear way: emotions are tied to a specific object, while moods are not. This split is not perfect, since emotions can also be aimed at something broad (a person can be angry at people in general), while a mood still carries a general sense about the state of the world at large. Moods show up as positive or negative feelings linked to health, personality, or how good a person feels life is. Moods can also grow out of an emotion, such as the mood that follows a specific event like failing to secure a loan. In that sense, a mood is the mind's judgment on the recent past. Goldie notes that an emotion can rise and fall inside a mood, while an emotion can still carry traits that are not object specific.

Moods matter to marketing because they color outlook and bias judgment. This is why consumer confidence surveys matter, since consumer confidence reflects the national mood. There is mood congruence when a person's thoughts and actions fall in line with their mood. Goleman describes this as a constant stream of feeling that runs in perfect harmony with a person's stream of thought. Mood congruence happens because a positive mood brings pleasant associations that soften later thoughts and actions, while a negative mood brings pessimistic associations that shape later judgment and behavior. A consumer in a good mood is more optimistic and confident about buying, and more willing to put up with things like waiting in a queue. Businesses try to put customers in the right mood using music and friendly staff, or place bakeries inside malls so the smell of fresh bread pulls shoppers in.

Thayer treats mood as a mix of biological and psychological influences, a kind of clinical thermometer that reflects everything going on inside and outside a person. For Thayer, the two building blocks of mood are energy and tension, combined in different amounts. A specific mixture of energy and tension, together with the thoughts they influence, produces moods. He describes four mood states:
- Calm-energy: the optimal mood for feeling good.
- Calm-tiredness: mild tiredness without stress, which can still feel pleasant.
- Tense-energy: a low level of anxiety suited to a fight-or-flight response.
- Tense-tiredness: a mix of fatigue and anxiety behind the unpleasant feeling of depression.

People generally feel down or feel good because of events happening around them, and this adds up to the national mood. People feel elated when their national soccer team wins an international match, and low when the team loses. An elated mood of calm-energy is an optimistic mood, which is good for business. Consumers, as socially involved individuals, are shaped by the prevailing social climate, and marketers talk about the national mood running for or against conspicuous consumption. Moods do change. Writing early in the nineteenth century, Tocqueville describes an American elite embarrassed by showy material display; sixty years later, in the Gilded Age, many people were eager to embrace a showy, materialistic style instead. The hard part is predicting a shift in national mood, since a change in mood affects everything from buying stocks to buying houses and washing machines. Thayer would argue that we should watch for national events likely to push people toward a tense-tiredness state or a calm-energy state, since these two extremes are more likely to shape behavior. Artists sensitive to national moods capture these long-term shifts. One example is the emotional distance between Charles Dickens's sentimental account of the death of Little Nell and Oscar Wilde's cruel joke about it (that one would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of Little Nell), a shift from high Victorian sentiment to the sharper cynicism found later in writers like Thomas Hardy and artists like Aubrey Beardsley.

Whenever the mind is not fully absorbed, consciousness is no longer focused and ordered, and under such conditions the mind drifts toward unpleasant thoughts, building a negative mood. Csikszentmihalyi argues that the human need to keep consciousness fully active drives a good deal of consumer behavior. Sometimes it does not matter what a person is shopping for; the act of shopping itself is one way to fill the void in consciousness when there is nothing else to do.

Question: Which of the following statements are correct, based on the passage? Statement 1: In general, emotions are object specific. Statement 2: In general, moods are not object specific. Statement 3: Moods and emotions are the same. Statement 4: As per Thayer, moods are a mix of biological and psychological influences.
Passage:

Every conscious mental state carries a quality we call mood. We are always in some mood, pleasant or unpleasant to some degree. Bad moods may come from too little positive reinforcement in a person's life, along with too many punishments. Moods differ from emotions in one clear way: emotions are tied to a specific object, while moods are not. This split is not perfect, since emotions can also be aimed at something broad (a person can be angry at people in general), while a mood still carries a general sense about the state of the world at large. Moods show up as positive or negative feelings linked to health, personality, or how good a person feels life is. Moods can also grow out of an emotion, such as the mood that follows a specific event like failing to secure a loan. In that sense, a mood is the mind's judgment on the recent past. Goldie notes that an emotion can rise and fall inside a mood, while an emotion can still carry traits that are not object specific.

Moods matter to marketing because they color outlook and bias judgment. This is why consumer confidence surveys matter, since consumer confidence reflects the national mood. There is mood congruence when a person's thoughts and actions fall in line with their mood. Goleman describes this as a constant stream of feeling that runs in perfect harmony with a person's stream of thought. Mood congruence happens because a positive mood brings pleasant associations that soften later thoughts and actions, while a negative mood brings pessimistic associations that shape later judgment and behavior. A consumer in a good mood is more optimistic and confident about buying, and more willing to put up with things like waiting in a queue. Businesses try to put customers in the right mood using music and friendly staff, or place bakeries inside malls so the smell of fresh bread pulls shoppers in.

Thayer treats mood as a mix of biological and psychological influences, a kind of clinical thermometer that reflects everything going on inside and outside a person. For Thayer, the two building blocks of mood are energy and tension, combined in different amounts. A specific mixture of energy and tension, together with the thoughts they influence, produces moods. He describes four mood states:
- Calm-energy: the optimal mood for feeling good.
- Calm-tiredness: mild tiredness without stress, which can still feel pleasant.
- Tense-energy: a low level of anxiety suited to a fight-or-flight response.
- Tense-tiredness: a mix of fatigue and anxiety behind the unpleasant feeling of depression.

People generally feel down or feel good because of events happening around them, and this adds up to the national mood. People feel elated when their national soccer team wins an international match, and low when the team loses. An elated mood of calm-energy is an optimistic mood, which is good for business. Consumers, as socially involved individuals, are shaped by the prevailing social climate, and marketers talk about the national mood running for or against conspicuous consumption. Moods do change. Writing early in the nineteenth century, Tocqueville describes an American elite embarrassed by showy material display; sixty years later, in the Gilded Age, many people were eager to embrace a showy, materialistic style instead. The hard part is predicting a shift in national mood, since a change in mood affects everything from buying stocks to buying houses and washing machines. Thayer would argue that we should watch for national events likely to push people toward a tense-tiredness state or a calm-energy state, since these two extremes are more likely to shape behavior. Artists sensitive to national moods capture these long-term shifts. One example is the emotional distance between Charles Dickens's sentimental account of the death of Little Nell and Oscar Wilde's cruel joke about it (that one would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of Little Nell), a shift from high Victorian sentiment to the sharper cynicism found later in writers like Thomas Hardy and artists like Aubrey Beardsley.

Whenever the mind is not fully absorbed, consciousness is no longer focused and ordered, and under such conditions the mind drifts toward unpleasant thoughts, building a negative mood. Csikszentmihalyi argues that the human need to keep consciousness fully active drives a good deal of consumer behavior. Sometimes it does not matter what a person is shopping for; the act of shopping itself is one way to fill the void in consciousness when there is nothing else to do.

Question: The statement "moods provide energy for human actions" is ________, based on the passage.
Passage:

Every conscious mental state carries a quality we call mood. We are always in some mood, pleasant or unpleasant to some degree. Bad moods may come from too little positive reinforcement in a person's life, along with too many punishments. Moods differ from emotions in one clear way: emotions are tied to a specific object, while moods are not. This split is not perfect, since emotions can also be aimed at something broad (a person can be angry at people in general), while a mood still carries a general sense about the state of the world at large. Moods show up as positive or negative feelings linked to health, personality, or how good a person feels life is. Moods can also grow out of an emotion, such as the mood that follows a specific event like failing to secure a loan. In that sense, a mood is the mind's judgment on the recent past. Goldie notes that an emotion can rise and fall inside a mood, while an emotion can still carry traits that are not object specific.

Moods matter to marketing because they color outlook and bias judgment. This is why consumer confidence surveys matter, since consumer confidence reflects the national mood. There is mood congruence when a person's thoughts and actions fall in line with their mood. Goleman describes this as a constant stream of feeling that runs in perfect harmony with a person's stream of thought. Mood congruence happens because a positive mood brings pleasant associations that soften later thoughts and actions, while a negative mood brings pessimistic associations that shape later judgment and behavior. A consumer in a good mood is more optimistic and confident about buying, and more willing to put up with things like waiting in a queue. Businesses try to put customers in the right mood using music and friendly staff, or place bakeries inside malls so the smell of fresh bread pulls shoppers in.

Thayer treats mood as a mix of biological and psychological influences, a kind of clinical thermometer that reflects everything going on inside and outside a person. For Thayer, the two building blocks of mood are energy and tension, combined in different amounts. A specific mixture of energy and tension, together with the thoughts they influence, produces moods. He describes four mood states:
- Calm-energy: the optimal mood for feeling good.
- Calm-tiredness: mild tiredness without stress, which can still feel pleasant.
- Tense-energy: a low level of anxiety suited to a fight-or-flight response.
- Tense-tiredness: a mix of fatigue and anxiety behind the unpleasant feeling of depression.

People generally feel down or feel good because of events happening around them, and this adds up to the national mood. People feel elated when their national soccer team wins an international match, and low when the team loses. An elated mood of calm-energy is an optimistic mood, which is good for business. Consumers, as socially involved individuals, are shaped by the prevailing social climate, and marketers talk about the national mood running for or against conspicuous consumption. Moods do change. Writing early in the nineteenth century, Tocqueville describes an American elite embarrassed by showy material display; sixty years later, in the Gilded Age, many people were eager to embrace a showy, materialistic style instead. The hard part is predicting a shift in national mood, since a change in mood affects everything from buying stocks to buying houses and washing machines. Thayer would argue that we should watch for national events likely to push people toward a tense-tiredness state or a calm-energy state, since these two extremes are more likely to shape behavior. Artists sensitive to national moods capture these long-term shifts. One example is the emotional distance between Charles Dickens's sentimental account of the death of Little Nell and Oscar Wilde's cruel joke about it (that one would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of Little Nell), a shift from high Victorian sentiment to the sharper cynicism found later in writers like Thomas Hardy and artists like Aubrey Beardsley.

Whenever the mind is not fully absorbed, consciousness is no longer focused and ordered, and under such conditions the mind drifts toward unpleasant thoughts, building a negative mood. Csikszentmihalyi argues that the human need to keep consciousness fully active drives a good deal of consumer behavior. Sometimes it does not matter what a person is shopping for; the act of shopping itself is one way to fill the void in consciousness when there is nothing else to do.

Question: Implication and proposition are defined as follows. Implication: a statement that follows from the passage. Proposition: a statement that forms a part of the passage. Consider the two statements below and decide whether each is an implication or a proposition. Statement I: The marketers should understand and make use of moods and emotions in designing and selling products and services. Statement II: Consuming is nothing but a way of filling the void in consciousness.
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.

The situation with Mr. Lal could have been avoided if Mr. Thakur had:
1. Delegated the task of negotiating wage contracts for night shift employees to the Personnel department.
2. Created a process for supervisors working the night shift so that they could have an 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 on wage revision for supervisors in the night shift for two months, since supervisors were rotated across different shifts every two months.
The option that best arranges the above managerial interventions in decreasing order of organisational impact is:
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.

Apart from the supervisors working the night shift, executives of which department will have the most justified reasons to be unhappy 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 being 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 the quality of the steel making process.
5. Personnel department, since it was their job to oversee wage policies for employees, and they had been ignored by Mr. Thakur.
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.

Which of the following managerial attributes does Mr. Thakur seem to lack the most?
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.

The most important causal factor for this entire episode could be:
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?
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.

The most likely premise behind Mr. Thakur's step of holding individual meetings with the supervisors seems to be: