Logical Reasoning

PT113 · S2 · Q1 Company president: Grievance procedures should

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Company president: Grievance procedures should allow the grievant and the respondent to select a mediator who will attempt to work out a resolution.

Conclusion (However)

Beginning mediation fairly late in the process, as our human resources department proposes, would be relatively ineffective.

Evidence

There really isn't any evidence provided for the president's criticism. They open with a pair of concessions: grievence procedures should allow mediation, and mediation can be helpful. Then, they pivot into their criticism.

Evaluate / Goal

It's unusual for a Strengthen question to ask us to justify a claim that has no evidence to back it up. The pivot (however) away from the concession and into the criticism does give us something to work with, though. The president concedes that mediation is helpful, so why are they concluding that this particular HR proposal for mediation won't be? The only clue we get that might support that this proposal is an exception to the rule is the idea of "beginning mediation fairly late in the process." Predict an answer that connects starting late to being ineffective.

1.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to justify the company president's criticism of the human resources department's proposal?

  1. People who file grievances are

    Unrelated to Goal

    This answer doesn't explain why it's bad to do mediation late. It just makes it sound like it's bad to do mediation at all, like it would be hopeless no matter when we started. This answer makes it seem like we'd be wiser to think of this problem as Paradox, so that we keep in our mind, "GIVEN THAT the author does think mediation is effective, WHY IS IT THAT the author thinks that late mediation isn't effective?"

    1% picked this

  2. Many disagreements are already being

    Unrelated to Goal

    This answer doesn't explain why it's bad to do mediation late. It talks about people who don't use mediation at all.

    5% picked this

  3. Correct

    Adversaries’ positions tend to harden

    Why this is right

    This offers a reason why it's bad to do mediation late. It says that "as a dispute wears on" (i.e. the later it goes ..) the more people become affixed to their viewpoints. They become set in their ways. Stubborn. Their positions harden. The goal of mediation is to find a compromise. If two people were getting a divorce and both of them expressed a desire in keeping the house they co-own, an early mediation might be able to find a compromise, "Okay, she keeps the house, but he keeps the dog." But if this couple doesn't get a mediator until they've already been disputing for a while, then they may have both dug their heels into getting the house, and so then there's no way to achieve a compromise.

    Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    82% picked this

  4. Respondents tend to be supervisors

    Unrelated to Goal

    This answer doesn't explain why it's bad to do mediation late. It just makes it sound like supervisors have a hard time admitting to wrongdoing when an underling files a grievance about them. But this answer has nothing to do with why mediation would be helpful if it just started earlier.

    1% picked this

  5. The mediation process itself is

    Unrelated to Goal

    This answer doesn't explain why it's bad to begin mediation late. It seems to make mediation out to not be any sort of cost-saving over alternative processes. But it offers no contrast between why mediation would be better / more effective early in the process vs. later. If anything, starting mediation earlier might mean that it will be longer and thus more expensive overall. Beginning mediation later might be a good thing because it would save money? That would go the opposite direction of what we're trying to support (which is that late mediation = bad). But we don't even care about cost. We're just supposed to be analyzing effectiveness, which is measured in terms of whether it succeeds in working out a resolution.

    11% picked this

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