XAT 2013 Question Paper - DM
Marathe is a Vice President in a construction equipment company in the city of Mumbai. One day, his subordinate Bhonsle requested that Kale, a project manager, be transferred to the Chennai office from the Mumbai office. In Chennai, Kale would work alone as a researcher. Bhonsle gave the following reasons for his request: "Kale is known to frequently fight with his colleagues. Kale is conscientious and dedicated only when working alone. He is friendly with seniors, but refuses to work with colleagues, in a team. He cannot accept criticism and feels hostile and rejected He is over-bearing and is generally a bad influence on the team."
Marathe called upon Gore, another project manager, and sought further information on Kale. Gore recalled that a former colleague, Lakhote (who was also Kale's former boss) had made a few remarks on his appraisal report about Kale. In his opinion, Kale was not fit for further promotion as he was emotionally unstable to work in groups though he had seven years of work experience. Lakhote had described Kale as too authoritative to work under anyone. Lakhote had further told Gore that Kale had an ailing wife, and an old mother, who does not want to stay with his wife.
Consider the following solutions to the problem mentioned above:
1. Marathe should transfer Kale to Chennai office
2. Marathe should try and verify the facts from other sources as well
3. Kale should be sacked
4. Kale should be demoted
5. Marathe should suggest Kale to visit a family counselor
Which of the following would be the most appropriate sequence of decisions in terms of immediacy: starting from immediate to a longer term solution?
Consider the following solutions to the problem mentioned above:
1. Marathe should transfer Kale to Chennai office
2. Marathe should try and verify the facts from other sources as well
3. Kale should be sacked
4. Kale should be demoted
5. Marathe should suggest Kale to visit a family counselor
Marathe sought an appointment with Lakhote to find out ways to help Kale. Lakhote is of the opinion that the company's responsibility is restricted to the workplace and it should not try to address the personal problems of employees. If Marathe has to agree to Lakhote's opinion, which of the solutions presented in the previous question would be weakened:
Consider the following solutions to the problem mentioned above:
1. Marathe should transfer Kale to Chennai office
2. Marathe should try and verify the facts from other sources as well
3. Kale should be sacked
4. Kale should be demoted
5. Marathe should suggest Kale to visit a family counselor
Which of the following statements, if true, would weaken the decision to sack Kale the most?
Read the following caselet and choose the best alternative:
It was the end of performance review cycle for the year 2012 when you asked your subordinates about any problems they were facing. Natrajan told you that an important member of his team, Vardarajan, who had also won the best performance award for the year 2011, was not taking interest in work. Despite Natrajan's counseling, no change was noticed in Vardarajan, rather his attitude deteriorated. You had also received such information from other employees. You had not interfered hoping that Natrajan, an experienced hand, would be able to solve the problem. But now that Natrajan himself brought this to your notice, you decided to call Vardarajan and counsel him.
Which of the following could be the most unlikely reason for Vardarajan's declining involvement in the workplace?
Vardarajan did not find his work challenging enough, given below are some steps that could be taken to motivate him:
1)Â Give Vardarajan a more challenging assignment
2)Â Transfer Vardarajan from Projects department to Training department
3) Ask him to take a vacation for two months
4)Â Send him for further training on decision making under stress
Which of the following conditions can be appropriate?
You overheard a conversation between Vardarajan and his colleague over an official dinner. He expressed his unhappiness about the fact that good performers were not given their due credit while poor performers were promoted faster. If Vardarajan is right, which of the following steps would help in creating a better organization?
For the following questions answer them individually
Over the last five years, Bank of Bharat has seen the number of its retail customer accounts drop by over 40 percent. Over the same period, the share price of Bank of Bharat has increased by more than 80 percent. This amazed a few investors, who believe that a bank's share price should drop if its number of customers drops. Which of the following, if true over the last five years, best accounts for the observed movement in the price of Bank of Bharat's equity shares?
Gastric bypass surgery has been shown to be effective at helping extremely obese people lose weight. Some patients have lost as much as 300 pounds after undergoing the surgery, thereby substantially prolonging their lives. Despite the success of the treatment, most doctors have not embraced the surgery. Which of the following statements, if true, best accounts for the lukewarm reaction of the medical community to gastric bypass surgery'?
Read the following caselet and choose the best alternative:
 Island of Growth was witnessing a rapid increase in GDP. Its citizens had become wealthier in recent times, and there had been a considerable improvement in the standards of living. However, this rapid growth had increased corruption and nepotism in the Island. In the recent times, a fear had gripped the population that corruption would destroy the inclusive nature of the society and hinder economic progress. However, most citizens had kept quiet because:
a. they had benefited from the corruption indirectly, if not directly.
b. they did not have the time and energy to protest.
c. they did not have courage to rise against the established power centers.
There was a need to remove corruption but no one was willing to stick his neck out. Many politicians, bureaucrats and private organizations were corrupt. Media and intellectuals kept quiet, as they benefited indirectly from corruption. The common man was scared of state's retribution and the youngsters feared insecure future.
Against this background, an old, unmarried and illiterate gentleman of high moral and ethical authority, Shambhu, decided to take on the issue of corruption. He sat on a hunger strike in the heart of the capital city of the Island. Shambhu demanded that the Government should constitute new laws to punish the corrupt across all walks of life. Media and the citizens of the island gave massive support to Shambhu. Buckling under the pressure, the Government promised to accept Shambhu's demands. He ended the hunger strike immediately following the Government's announcement. Shambhu became the darling of the media. He used this opportunity as a platform to spread the message that only citizens with an unblemished character should be allowed to hold a public office.
A few months later, it was found that the Government had not fulfilled any of its promises made to Shambhu. Infuriated, he was thinking of launching another island-wide protest. However, this time, he sensed that not many people and media persons were willing to support him.
Read the following statements:
1. People's latent anger against corruption
2. Shambhu's moral courage
3. Hungry media looking to raise issues
4. Raising income level
In your opinion, which combination of the above statements is the most unlikely reason for Shambhu's initial success?
Which of the following could be the most likely reason for decline in public support for Shambhu?
Read the following caselet and choose the best alternative:
Head of a nation in the Nordic region was struggling with the slowing economy on one hand and restless citizens on the other. In addition, his opponents were doing everything possible to discredit his government. As a famous saying goes, "There is no smoke without a fire", it cannot be said that the incumbent government was doing all the right things. There were reports of acts of omission and commission coming out every other day.
Distribution of public resources for private businesses and for private consumption had created a lot of problems for the government. It was being alleged that the government has given the right to exploit these public resources at throw-away prices to some private companies. Some of the citizens were questioning the government policies in the Supreme Court of the country as well as in the media. In the midst of all this, the head of the nation called his cabinet colleagues for a meeting on the recent happenings in the country.
He asked his minister of water resources about the bidding process for allocation of rights to setup mini-hydel power plants. To this, the minister replied that his ministry had followed the laid out policies of the government. Water resources were allocated to those private companies that bid the highest and were technically competent. The minister continued that later on some new companies had shown interest and they were allowed to enter the sector as per the guidelines of the Government. This, the minister added, would facilitate proper utilization of water resources and provide better services to the citizens. The new companies were allocated the rights at the price set by the highest bidders in the previous round of bidding. After hearing this, the head of the nation replied that one would expect the later allocations to be done after a fresh round of bidding. The minister of water resources replied that his ministry had taken permissions from the concerned ministries before allocating the resources to the new companies.
Media reports suggested that the minister of water resources had deliberately allocated the water resources at old prices to the new companies, and in return some received kickbacks. However, the minister denied these charges. His counter argument was that he followed the stated policies of the Government and it is very difficult to price a scarce resource. He also said that the loss that the media is talking about is notional and in reality the Government and the citizens have gained by the entry of new players. Which of the following is the most appropriate inference?
Subsequently, the minister questioned the role of the media in the whole affair. He said that the media cannot act like a reporter, prosecutor and judge at the same time. Mr. Swamy, an independent observer, was asked about appropriateness of the minister's opinion. What should be Mr. Swamy's reply?
Looking at the public unrest and discontent, the Government's anti-corruption branch was with the task of investigating the matter. Within a week's time the branch chargesheeted top corporate managers and the minister for wrong doings. Mr. Swamy was again asked to identify the guilty. Who should Mr. Swamy pick?
Each of the Big, Small and Medium cost is categorized by the manager into Red, Yellow, Green and Violet costs. Breakdown of the additional costs under these headings is shown in the table below: Red, Yellow, Green and Violet costs are allocated to different retail formats. These costs are apportioned in the ratio of number of units consumed by each retail format. The number of units consumed by each retail format is given in the table below:
 The BIG and Colourful Company
You are running "BIG and Colourful (BnC)" company that sells books to customers through three retail formats:
a. You can buy books from bookstores,
b. You can buy books from supermarket,
c. You can order books over the Internet (Online).
Your manager has an interesting way of classifying expenses: some of the expenses are classified in terms of size: Big, Small and Medium; and others are classified in terms of the colors, Red, Yellow, Green and Violet. The company has a history of categorizing overall costs into initial costs and additional costs. Additional costs are equal to the sum of Big, Small and Medium expenses. There are two types of margins, contribution (sales minus initial costs) and profit (contribution minus additional costs). Given below is the data about sales and costs of BnC:
Read the following statements:
Statement I. Online store accounted for 50% of the sales at BnC and the ratio of supermarket sales and book store sales is 1:2.
Statement II. Initial Cost is allocated in the ratio of sales. If you want to calculate the profit/loss from the different retail formats, then
What is the profit/loss from "online" sales? (Use data from previous question if needed)
Read the following caselet and choose the best alternative
A teacher wanted to administer a multiple choice (each question having six choices) based quiz of high difficulty level to a class of sixty students. The quiz had sixty questions. The probability of selecting the correct answer for a good student and a brilliant student was 0.2 and 0.25 respectively. The poor students had no learning advantage. The teacher did not want students to cheat but does not have time and resources to monitor. All students were seated serially in 10 rows and 6 columns.
Is it possible for the teacher to detect cheating without monitoring? Choose the statement that best describes your opinion:
Three good students were seated next to each other. What is the probability of them having the same incorrect choice for four consecutive questions?
For the following questions answer them individually
Students from four sections of a class accompanied by respective class teachers planned to go for a field trip. There were nineteen people in all. However, on the scheduled day one of the four teachers and a few students could not join the rest. Given below are some statements about the group of people who ultimately left for the trip.
I: Section A had the largest contingent.
Il: Section B had fewer students than Section A.
Ill: Section C's contingent was smaller than Section B.
IV: Section D had the smallest contingent.
V: The product of the number of student from each section is a multiple of 10.
VI: The number of students from Section C is more than 2.
VIl. The product of the number of students from each section is a multiple of 24.
VIll. The largest contingent has more than 4 students.
IX: Each section contributed different number of students
The statements that taken together can give us the exact number of students from each section:
There is a lot of interest in the first five ranks for Class XI students. One student guessed the rank order as Ankita, Bhagyashree, Chanchal, Devroopa and Esha. Later upon announcement of the results, it was found that not only did he get each student out off her true position, none of the students in his ranking correctly followed her immediate predecessor. Another student guessed Devroopa, Ankita, Esha, Chanchal and Bhagyashree. Even his guess was wrong. It was found that he had got two positions correct, and two students in his ranking correctly followed their immediate predecessors. Which of the following is true about the correct rank order?
Read the following caselet and choose the best alternative:
Prof. Vijya, the chairperson of the Faculty Academic Committee (FAC), was trying to understand the implications of decisions taken by the Student Placement Committee (SPC) on placement issues.
It was alleged that Biswajit, a final year student, inflated his grades in his bio-data that was sent to the recruiters. The President of SPC requested the FAC to debar Biswajit from the campus recruitment process. When the matter was brought up for discussion in FAC, one of theprofessors remarked that Biswajit too should be allowed to defend himself. When Biswajit arrived for the meeting the situation became even more challenging.
Biswajit raised the issue that many other students who had misrepresented grades to get coveted jobs had gone scot-free. He alleged that these students were close to the President of SPC and therefore, no action was taken against them. He stated that somebody has deliberately manipulated his grades in the bio-data.
This allegation confused the members and it was decided to adjourn the meeting. Vijya was to decide on the next course of action.
It was found that a large section of the students have been indulging in such practices. Unfortunately, the HR manager of a much coveted campus recruiter, who is an alumnus of the college came to know about this. Considering yourself in the position of that HR manager, what would be your reaction?
As a potential entrant you are having an informal Facebook chat with one of the college seniors. You wanted to know about the pay packages of the graduating students. The senior replied that one will be able to understand this only after joining the college. He did not reveal any information but suggested that it is not very difficult to get a high salary job as you have already started networking. He also cautioned that you should not believe any rumors and you should directly contact the student body for any further information. What will be your most appropriate choice for seeking further information about placements?
Vijya found that there were many such cases of grade inflation. She was giving final touches to the report when her attention was diverted by a phone call on her personal cell phone. It was from an unlisted number. The caller conveyed to her that it will be in her interest as well as in the interest of the college if the report is not presented to the Director. The caller also told her these findings will change nothing only result in bad publicity for the college. The caller identified himself as a well-wisher of the college before hanging up. Consider yourself in Vijya's position and choose an appropriate decision from the following choices.
