To Evaluate a Plan to Save Money on Office Space Expenditures GMAT Critical Reasoning

Question: To evaluate a plan to save money on office space expenditures by having its employees work at home, XYZ Company asked volunteers from its staff to try the assignment for six months. During this period, the productivity of these employees was as high or higher than before.

Which of the following, if true, would argue most strongly against deciding on the basis of the trial results, to implement the company's plan?

1. The employees who agreed to participate in the test of the plan were among the company's most self-motivated and independent workers.
2. The savings that would accrue from reduced office-space expenditures alone would be sufficient to justify the arrangement for the company.
3. Other companies that have achieved successful results from work-at-home plans have work forces that are substantially lower than that of XYZ.
4. The volunteers who worked at home were able to communicate with other employees as necessary for performing at work.
5. Minor changes in the way office work is organized at XYZ would yield increases in employee productivity similar to those achieved in the trial

“To evaluate a plan to save money on office space expenditures by having its employees work at home” – is a GMAT Critical question. To answer the question, a candidate can by either finding a piece of evidence that would weaken the argument or logical flaws in the argument. GMAT critical reasoning tests the logical and analytical skills of the candidates. This topic requires candidates to find the strengths and weaknesses of the argument, or find the logical flaw in the argument. The GMAT CR section contains 10 -13 GMAT critical reasoning questions out of 36 GMAT verbal questions.

Answer: A

Explanation: Let us rephrase the question, XYZ Company asked volunteers from its staff to try the assignment for six months in order to evaluate a plan to save money on office space expenses by having its employees work from home. During this time, these employees' productivity was as high as or higher than before.
Assumption - what if the employees who participated in the plan are not representative of the entire workforce?
Now let's evaluate our option statements and Which of the following, if true, would be the strongest argument against deciding to implement the company's plan based on trial results?

1. The employees who agreed to participate in the test of the plan were among the company's most self-motivated and independent workers.
   This statement is correct, because the sample of employees who volunteered is not representative of the employees of company as a whole
2. The savings that would accrue from reduced office-space expenditures alone would be sufficient to justify the arrangement for the company.
   This statement is Incorrect.
3. Other companies that have achieved successful results from work-at-home plans have work forces that are substantially lower than that of XYZ.
   This statement is Irrelevant because the size of the workforce is insignificant.
4. The volunteers who worked at home were able to communicate with other employees as necessary for performing at work.
   This statement is Inapplicable because it explains how work-from-home employees made certain that communication was not hindered.
5. Minor changes in the way office work is organized at XYZ would yield increases in employee productivity similar to those achieved in the trial
   This statement is irrelevant because the Other methods are unimportant .

The correct answer is A

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