Logical Reasoning

PT118 · S4 · Q18 Decentralization enables divisions of a large

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Decentralization enables divisions of a large institution to function autonomously.

Statements

causal / conditional Decentralization enables divisions to function autonomously.

causal / conditional This always permits more realistic planning and encourages innovation.

causal This better planning / more innovation is because the people responsible for decision making are directly involved in implementing the policies they design.

causal Decentralization lets the central admin focus on big picture issues without being overwhelmed by details of daily operations.

Evaluate

It sounds like decentralizing large institutions has a lot of upsides: 1. more realistic planning 2. big emphasis on innovation 3. allows central admin to focus on big picture, not drowning in daily details

There are several causal verbs, enables / permits / permits, and there is one true conditional word, always.

It's not really clear how we would chain together or synthesize these. We could probably make a causal chain.

1. Decentralization lets divisions of a big institution function autonomously. 2. thus, the people who have to make decisions are directly involved in implementing the policies they design. 3. thus, there is more realistic planning and a strong incentive for innovation, and the central admin is not overwhelmed with daily details.

Goal

I wouldn't have any strong prediction here. Let's just find the most provable claim based on what we were told.

18.

The statements above most strongly support which one of the following?

  1. Correct

    In large institutions whose divisions

    Why this is right

    This is strong in the sense that it's a conditional about all large institutions that do not have autonomously functioning divisions. But what it's saying about them is weak "planning is not maximally realistic". It could be anywhere from 0-99% realistic, but not 100% realistic. Do we know anything about maximal realistic planning / not having autonomously functioning divisions? Well that language comes from the first two claims. We were told that decentralization can allow divisions to function autonomously, and that this always allows for more realistic planning. So according to that rule, if you haven't yet made your divisions function autonomously, then there's no way you could be at 100% realistic planning. There is always room for more realistic planning when you enable divisions to function autonomously.

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

    47% picked this

  2. Innovation is not always encouraged

    Unsupported: not encouraged

    This is very attractively weak language, but we have no support for any instances in which innovation is not encouraged. We were told about something that "strongly encourages innovation", but that's a relative sense (strongly encourages vs. mildly encourages). There isn't any language that's absolute (does / doesn't encourage). And there may be many different things that strongly encourage innovation. Even if a large institution didn't decentralize, we couldn't say that they therefore don't encourage innovation.

    16% picked this

  3. For large institutions the advantages

    Unknown Comparison

    We were only told about decentralization's advantages, so we would be speculating that they outweigh the disadvantages. We're not sure what those disadvantages are.

    7% picked this

  4. The central administrations of large

    Too Strong: usually / most

    We can't get this quantitatively specific and say that central admin's, more than 50% of the time, are partially responsible for more than 50% of the details of daily operations. Just because central admin has the potential to be overwhelmed by the details of daily operations doesn't mean they're responsible for more than 50% of them. Picture the central administration of the Pentagon. Maybe it's a crew of like 10 people. There's no way they're responsible for more than 50% of the details of the 1000 people working at the Pentagon.

    22% picked this

  5. The people directly involved in

    Too Strong: always

    The passage was saying that when the people who are responsible for decision making are also the people directly involved in implementing the policies they design, then you get more realistic planning and encouraged innovation. But this answer is talking purely about people who are involved in implementing policies (they may or may not also be responsible for decision making). We can't say that they always are able to make innovative and realistic decisions.

    8% picked this

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