#19 - Arbitrator: The shipping manager admits that he decide

[emilysnoddon]

For this question, I was deciding between answer choices A and D. I was under the impression that in order to justify the conclusion we needed to show that the manager should be held responsible - thus connect responsibility for being aware of the typical delays. I thought since answer choice A only included should it was not as strong as D and therefore did not justify the conclusion. Can you please clear this up for me?


Is answer D wrong because he does not directly supervise the the contractor? I didnt think this was clear from the stim. Let me know.


Thank you,

Emily

[Eric Ockert]

Emily

Undoubtedly, the problem with answer choice (D) is exactly what you describe. And you are right, it is not clear whether or not the shipping manager directly supervises the contractor. But that is the point. Answer choice (D) cannot support this argument unless you KNOW that the shipping manager directly supervises that individual. Without that knowledge, answer choice (D) doesn't necessarily apply to this stimulus.

With answer choice (A), we KNOW this problem was foreseeable according to the arbitrator since the shipping manager was "aware of the contractor's typical delays should have planned for this contingency." So if this rule give us a responsibility that managers have, and we know this shipping manager didn't meet that responsibility, that would provide some blameworthiness.

Remember, in these Principle questions the Principle in the correct answer can be broader than the specific discussion in the stimulus, as long as the facts of the stimulus would fall under that broad rule. In other words, we don't care how many other situations the rule might apply to as long it applies to this situation.

However, an answer cannot be narrower than the discussion in the stimulus.....and that is exactly the problem with answer choice (D).

Hope that helps!

[nealaguo]

One thing I'm a bit confused about is whether or not we are supposed to take the phrase "directly supervises" literally or not.

When I did this question, I took "directly supervises" to mean "in charge of/overseeing", rather than literally watching over the contractors' every move. So, D definitely seemed like the right answer to me because it would mean that the manager is responsible for the mistakes of his inferiors.

I just assumed that the phrase was meant to have a general meaning rather than a literal one - was I wrong to make this assumption?

Cheers,

[Paul Marsh]

Hi nealaguo! Your definition of "directly supervising" seems like a good one - "in charge of/overseeing". However, there is nothing in the stimulus that tells us the shipping manager is in charge of/overseeing the work of the contractor! Nowhere are we told that the the contractor is, to use your word, an "inferior" of the supervisor.

If I hire a contractor to fix the roof of my house, does that make me the direct supervisor of that contractor? No - normally we would not say that the contractor is my subordinate employee; rather he/she is an independent individual that I've hired for a particular job. The manager and the contractor in the stimulus likely have the same relationship. To speculate that they have an supervisor - supervisee relationship requires an assumption not supported by the stimulus (or by our normal understanding of what a contractor is). Therefore we can't say that the principle in Answer Choice (D) applies to the situation at hand, since we have no reason to think the manager is directly overseeing the contractor. As Eric explained nicely above, Answer Choice (A) applies neatly to the stimulus and is the better answer. Hope that helps!