XAT Decision Making Questions – Free E-book

XAT Decision making section is a unique feature of the XAT exams and has this section has risen in prominence from 2012 onwards. The fact that decision making section is not present in any of the other management entrance exams held in India makes the XAT decision section making somewhat difficult for the candidates. In this blog, we are sharing a free e-book for XAT decision making that will help candidates in their XAT preparation.

Decision Making Questions for XAT

XAT decision making consists of 21 questions in the XAT paper as per the latest exam pattern. The decision making section requires the candidates to follow a logical approach and create a clear understanding of the situation.

In that respect, it can be said that the XAT decision making section is a combination of reading comprehension and logical reasoning. Candidates who are more at ease in these sections tend to perform well in the decision making section.

A good point to start preparing for the XAT decision making section is to solve the previous year papers.  In this blog, we have included some XAT Decision making questions that were asked in previous year XAT exams with their solutions.

How to Download XAT Decision Making Questions Study E-book?

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Answer Questions 1 to 6 based on the information given below.

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

Mr. Thakur, recently appointed president, had undertaken to solve some of the management-employees problems by dealing directly with the 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 portray the management’s concern for the employees.

An important initiative of Mr. Thakur was to negotiate wages of the supervisors with each supervisor. In these negotiation meetings, he would not involve anyone else, including the personnel department that reported to him, so as to take unbiased decisions. After the negotiation, a wage contract would be drawn up for each supervisor. This, he felt, would recognize and reward the better performers.

Mr. Thakur successfully implemented the process for most of the supervisors, except those working in the night shift. For them, he had drawn up the contracts unilaterally benchmarking the wages of supervisors of the night with that of the supervisors of the day shift.

For several days, Ram Lal, a night shift supervisor, had been trying to seek an appointment with Mr. Thakur about his wages. He was disgruntled, not only over his failure to see the president but also over the lack of discussions about his wage contract prior to it being affected. As a family man with six dependents, he felt his weekly wage should be higher than that granted to him.

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. Infuriated, Ram Lal stormed into the president’s office and confronted the startled Mr. Thakur, with his demands for a better wage. Mr. Thakur stood up and told Ram Lal to get out of his office and express his grievance through official channels. Ram Lal took a swing at the president, who in turn punched Ram Lal on the jaw and knocked him unconscious.

Questions

Q1. The most important causal factor for this entire episode could be:

a. Trying to follow a divide-and-rule policy in his dealings with the supervisors.
b. Inconsistent dealings of Mr. Thakur with supervisors.
c. Paternalistic approach towards mature individuals in the organisation.
d. Legalistic approach to employee problems.
e. Inadequate standards for measurement of supervisors’ on-job performance.

Q2. The situation with Mr.Lal could have been avoided if Mr. Thakur had:

1. Delegated the task of negotiation of wage contracts for night shift employees to Personnel department.
2. Created a process for supervisors working the night shift so that they could have had 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 of wage revision for supervisors in the night shift for two months, since supervisors were rotated on different shifts after every two months.

The option that best arranges the above managerial interventions in decreasing order of organisational impact is:

a. 4, 2, 3, 1
b. 4, 3, 2, 1
c. 4, 3, 1, 2
d. 4, 1, 2, 3
e. 2, 3, 1, 4

Q3. The most likely premise behind Mr. Thakur’s initiative regarding individualised meetings with the supervisors seems to be:

a. Employee related policies should allow scope for bargaining by employees.
b. Involvement of company’s president in wage problems of employees will lead to a better goodwill towards the management among the workers.
c. Individual agreements with supervisors would allow the management to prevent any possible collective action by the supervisors.
d. Management will be able to force supervisors to accept lesser wages individually in this way.
e. He would be able to know who the trouble makers in the plant are by interacting with the supervisors.

Q4. 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 philosophy of having one to one interaction as the supervisors were in a way being forced to accept the wage contracts.
b. His being in the night shift had worked to his disadvantage as he could not interact with the management regarding 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 forced him to stay away from his family during the daytime and therefore he could not interact with his family members much.
e. All of these

Q5. Apart from the supervisors working in the night shift, executives of which department will have the most justified reasons to be disgruntled 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 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 quality of steel making process.
5. Personnel department – for it was their work to oversee wage policies for employees and they had been ignored by Mr. Thakur.

a. 1 + 2 + 3
b. 1 + 4 + 5
c. 1 + 2 + 5
d. 1 + 3 + 4
e. 3 + 4 + 5

Q6. Which of the following managerial attributes does Mr. Thakur seem to lack the most?

a. Emotional instability under pressure.
b. Proactive problem solving.
c. Ethical behaviour.
d. Emotional stability under pressure.
e. Independent decision making

Check out more such questions in the free e-book provided above.

Solutions

Q.No	Answer (Correct Option)
1	B
2	E
3	B
4	B
5	C
6	D

Also read:

XAT Preparation – Section Wise Tips & Strategies for XAT 2022

XAT 2022 – How to Crack Verbal Ability

How to Crack Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation – XAT 2022

XAT 2022: How to Crack XAT Decision Making

Conclusion

XAT Decision making section is unique for XAT and therefore it is tough to solve. Candidates should practice as many mocks as possible to develop confidence in this section. Hope this free e-book will also help candidates in their XAT preparation. Stay connected for more updates.