- DI & DS
- English Language
- GK
-
Intelligence & CR
- Alphabet & Number Ranking
- Analytical Reasoning
- Blood Relations Test
- Coding - Decoding
- Comparision of Ranks
- Direction Sense Test
- Mathematical Operation / Number Puzzles
- Series
- Sitting Arrangement
- Statement and Arguement
- Statement and Conclusion
- Statement and Course of Action
- Statement-Assumption
- Syllogism
-
Mathematical Skills
- Average
- Calender
- Clocks
- Geometry
- Height and Distance
- Logarithms
- Mensuration
- Mixtures and Alligations
- Number System
- Percentage
- Permutation and Computation
- Probability
- Profit and Loss
- Ratio and Proportion
- Set Theory
- Simple calculations
- Simple Equations
- Simple Interest and Compound Interest
- Time and Work
- Time, Speed and Distance
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115.
The relationship between competition and innovation has been the subject of some debate. Some argue that in a competitive situation any enterprise can earn only normal profit and therefore no enterprise would have the resources for undertaking meaningful research and development. They believe that only an enterprise earning monopoly profit would be able to accumulate the resources needed for it. However, the counter-argument is that though a monopolist may have the resources for innovation, it does not have the motivation to do so in the absence of any competitive pressure. On the other hand, the prospect of monopoly profit is an incentive for innovation. Schumpeter argues that even if existing monopolists earn such profits in the short run, in due course outsiders would enter the market and erode the monopoly. In his view, therefore shortterm monopoly power need not cause concern.
This brings us to the interface between competition law and IPR. A debate rages here as well. An IPR, such as a patent or a copyright, confers a monopoly on the IPR holder for a given period of time. Since a monopoly right is prone to abuse, tension arises between the IPR and competition law, one conferring a monopoly, the other wary of it. At the fundamental level, competition law does not challenge the IPR itself; it respects IPR as being necessary for rewarding innovation, for providing an incentive to others, particularly competitors, to innovate or to improve existing innovation and, equally importantly, to bring into the public arena innovations that might otherwise remain only in the private domain. Without the protection offered by IPR, others would be able to free ride on the innovation and the innovator would not be able to secure returns on his investment.
The concern that competition authorities have regarding IPR is not in the inherent right itself, but in the manner of the exercise of that right, whether restrictions e being introduced that go beyond the protection of the IPR and result in throttling competition. Usually these concerns arise in the licensing of the IPR by the holder thereof. Thus, the two legal systems at a fundamental level have commonality of goals, but at the operational level, particularly in the short run, 3 two systems can seem to be pulling in different directions and the interface 1 become difficult to manage.
In this knowledge era, technological advances are exploding. The quantum of w knowledge 01' new technology added in the last few decades alone might perhaps be more than in the entire history of mankind. The role of technological advances in our lives and in business is now immense. This is, particularly true areas like biotechnology, medicine, information technology and communications technology. Correspondingly, the number of patents, copyrights and other forms [PR has also grown in geometrical progression. This makes the issue of managing interface more difficult but equally more important and pressing than ever before. In competition law, it has emerged as one of the most important areas demanding attention from-competition authorities, governments and regulators.
IPRs have certain special economic characteristics:
1. The fixed costs in producing intellectual property are typically high requiring substantial investment in research facilities and scientific talent.
2. The risk in these investments is also high as many research products may turn out to be unfruitful.
3. Though costly to produce, intellectual property can be easily copied or misappropriated and the marginal costs in doing so are very low.
4. Intellectual property often depends upon other intellectual property for its successful
commercial exploitation.
These characteristics explain an IPR holder's special concerns for protecting his It by incorporating conditions and restraints that would ensure his property cot copied. For example, some of the restrictions are cross-licensing agreements, tying, exclusive dealing and exclusive territories.
On the other hand, there are practices or constraints which are not directly required for protecting IPR and restrict competition in unjustifiable ways. Some of the objectionable practices are patent pooling, grant back, refusal to deal, payment of royalty after expiry of patent period, condition that the licensee will not challenge the validity of IPR and using tie-in by the IPR holder to gain access in other product markets.
In some merger cases where the merged parties are the only two having IPR over the same product, the competition authority's concern is that this could lead to market power in the hands of the merged parties in that product market. For example, in the merger of Ciba-Geigy with Sandoz, the two were among the very few entities capable of commercially developing a broad range of gene therapy products. The competition authority agreed not to block the merger only after the merging parties agreed to certain compulsory licensing conditions. Similarly with Glaxo and Welcome: both had products in the US' Food and Drug Administration approval process for treating migraine with an oral dosage; the competition authority had difficulty in agreeing without conditions that would mitigate the merged parties' market power.
[1] Which of the following statements is false regarding the relationship between competition and Intellectual Property Right (IPR)?
(1) Cross-licensing agreements protect the IPR holder against free riders of innovation
(2) Mergers and acquisitions increase the risk of creating monopolists in the area of an
innovation
(3) Monopolists have the money and motivation to engage in research and development
(4) At the fundamental level competition law does not challenge IPR[2] Which set of risks are most relevant to developing intellectual property for a commercial organization?
(1) cost, redundancy, imitation, cross dependence
(2) investment, free riders, monopoly, mergers
(3) cost, exclusive dealing, tying, patent pooling
(4) all of the above are risks
[3] Which statement alludes to the inherent contradiction between IPR and competition?
(1) IPR confers monopoly to the holder and this encourages others to innovate as they do not have access to a particular intellectual property
(2) IPR creates monopolies and this reduces competition in the market
(3) IPR inhibits competition in the long term perspective
(4) All are correct[4] For competition authorities which is one of the most difficult responsibility to fulfil:
(1) Encourage small players in the market to innovate
(2) Create suitable regulations so that IPR holder does not abuse market power owned
(3) Create suitable regulatory mechanism to mitigate two merged IPR holders acquired market power
(4) Deal with the malpractice of patent pooling and grant back[5] Some malpractices that are linked to IPR are:
(1) Piracy, Plagiarization, Copyright
(2) Hoarding, Misrepresentation, Trespassing
(3) Piracy, Hoarding, Copyright
(4) Plagiarization, Piracy, Trespassing[6] To which ideological framework does the concept of IPR belong to:
(1) Capitalism
(2) Socialism
(3) Free economy
(4) License Raj[7] GATT/WTO and TRIPS agreement encourages:
(1) Biodiversity
(2) Biopiracy
(3) Genetic engineering
(4) All threeasked in FMS
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116.
I urge a 16th amendment, because "manhood suffrage", or a man's government, is civil, religious, and social disorganization. The male element is a destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the material and moral world alike, discord, disorder, disease, and death. See what a record of blood and cruelty the pages of history reveal! Through what slavery, slaughter and sacrifice, through what inquisitions and imprisonments pains and persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the soul of humanity has struggled for centuries, while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have been dead alike to love and hope!
The male element has held high carnival thus far; it has fairly run riot from the beginning, overpowering the feminine element everywhere, crushing out all the diviner qualities in human nature, until we know but little of true manhood and womanhood, of the latter comparatively nothing, for it has scarce been recognized as a power until within the last century. Society is but the reflection of man himself, untempered by woman's thought; the hard iron rule we feel alike in the church, the state and the home. No one need wonder at the disorganization, at the fragmentary condition of everything, when we remember that man, who represents but half a complete being, with but half an idea on every subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all sublunary matters.
People object to the demands of those whom they choose to call the strong-minded, because they say "the right of suffrage will make the women masculine". That is the difficulty in which we are involved today. Though disfranchised, we have few women in the best sense; we have simply so many reflections, varieties and dilutions of the masculine gender. The strong, natural characteristics of womanhood are repressed and ignored in dependence, for so long as man feeds woman she will try to please the giver and adapt herself to his condition. To keep a foothold in society, woman must be as near like man as possible, reflect his ideas, opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices and vices. She must respect his statutes, though they strip her of every inalienable right and conflict with that higher law written by the finger of God on her own soul.
She must look at everything from its dollar-and-cent point of view, or she is a mere romancer. She must accept things as they are and make the best of them. To mourn over the miseries of others, the poverty of the poor, their hardships in jails, prisons, asylums, the horrors of war, cruelty, and brutality in every form, all this would be mere sentimentalizing. To protest against the intrigue, bribery, and corruption of public life, to desire that her sons might follow some business that did not involve lying, cheating and, a hard, grinding selfishness would be arrant nonsense.
In this way man has been moulding woman to his ideas by direct and positive influences, while she, if not a negation, has used indirect means to control him, and in most cases developed the very characteristics both in him and herself that needed repression. And now man himself stands appalled at the results of his own excesses, and mourns in bitterness that falsehood, selfishness and violence are the law of life. The need of this hour is not territory, gold mines, railroads or specie payments but a new evangel of womanhood, to exalt purity, virtue, morality, true religion, to lift man up into the higher realms of thought and action.
We ask woman's enfranchisement, as the first step toward the recognition of that essential element in government that can only secure the health, strength and prosperity of the nation. Whatever is done to lift woman to her true position will help to usher in a new day of peace and perfection for the race.
In speaking of the masculine element, I do not wish to be understood to say that all men are hard, selfish and brutal, for many of the most beautiful spirits the world has known have been clothed with manhood; but I refer to those characteristics, though often marked in woman, that distinguish what is called the stronger sex. For example, the love of acquisition and conquest, the very pioneers of civilization, when expended on the earth, the sea, the elements, the riches and forces of nature, are powers of destruction when used to subjugate one man to another or to sacrifice nations to ambition.
Here that great conservator of woman's love, if permitted to assert itself, as it. naturally would in freedom against oppression, violence and war, would hold all these destructive forces in check, for woman knows the cost of life better than man does, and not with her consent, would one drop of blood ever be shed, one life sacrificed in vain.
[1] This is an extract of the speech given by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1868 at Women's suffrage convention in Washington D.C. What should be the title of the speech?
(1) The Destructive Male
(2) The Power of Womanhood
(3) Woman Enfranchisement and a Better World
(4) Resurrection of Women[2] Which cluster best represents the masculine values portrayed in the passage:
(1) Individualism, Materialism, Aggrandizement, and Violence
(2) Egoism, Competition, Materialism, Greed
(3) Violence, Immorality, Competition, Anger
(4) All of the options[3] According to the passage why are women subjugated to men?
(1) Women do not have voting rights
(2) Women do not have economic power
(3) Women are intrinsically weak
(4) Both options (1) and (2) are correct[4] Which cluster portrays values of womanhood alluded to in the passage:
(1) Love, Life, Compassion
(2) Purity, Virtue, Morality
(3) Sentiments, Divinity, Forgiveness
(4) Both options (1) and (2) are correct[5] The author of the speech is:
(1) A Feminist
(2) A Man-hater
(3) An Activist
(4) A Mysogynist[6] According to the passage which statement is correct:
(1) Men are destructive and selfish and women try to clone male qualities in order to survive
(2) Men destroy and women preserve.
(3) Subjugation of women has caused societies to become cruel, selfish and destructive
(4) Women are like nature, who always try to balance[7] What is the key inference that we can make from the passage:
(1) Female values which are life sustaining have got annihilated
(2) Male values are not balanced by female values
(3) Unchecked and untempered male values have caused destruction and misery in the world
(4) All inferences are correctasked in FMS
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117.
The driving force of evolution, according to the emerging new theory, is not to be found in the chance events of random mutations but in life's inherent tendency to create novelty, in the spontaneous emergence of increasing complexity and order. Once this fundamental new insight has been understood, we can then ask: What are the avenues in which evolution's creativity expresses itself?
The answer to this question comes not only from molecular biology but also, and even more importantly, from microbiology, from the study of the planetary web of the myriads of microorganisms that were the only forms of life during the first two billion years of evolution. During those two billion years, bacteria continually transformed the Earth's surface and atmosphere and, in so doing, invented all of life's essential biotechnologies, including fermentation, photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, respiration, and rotary devices for rapid motion.
During the past three decades, extensive research in microbiology has revealed three major avenues of evolution. The first, but least important, is the random mutation of genes, the centerpiece of neo-Darwinian theory. Gene mutation is caused by a chance error in the selfreplication of DNA, when the two chains of the DNA's double helix separate and each of them serves as a template for the construction of a new complementary chain.
It has been estimated that those chance errors occur at a rate of about one per several hundred million cells in each generation. This frequency does not seem to be sufficient to explain the evolution of the great diversity of life forms, given the well-known fact that most mutations are harmful, and only very few result in useful variations.
In the case of bacteria the situation is different, because bacterium divides so rapidly. Fast bacteria can divide about every twenty minutes, so that in principle several billion individual bacteria can be generated from a single cell in less than a day. Because of this enormous' rate of reproduction, a single successful bacterial mutant can spread rapidly through its environment, and mutation is indeed an important evolutionary avenue for bacteria.
However, bacteria have developed a second avenue of evolutionary creativity that is vastly more effective than random mutation. They freely pass hereditary traits from one to another in a global exchange network of incredible power and efficiency. Here is how Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan describe it:
"Over the past fifty years or so, scientists have observed that [bacteria] routinely and rapidly transfer different bits of genetic material to other individuals. Each bacterium at any given time has the use of accessory genes, visiting from sometimes very different strains, which perform functions that its own DNA may not cover. Some of the genetic bits are recombined with the cell's native genes; others are passed on again. As a result of this ability, all the world's bacteria essentially have access to a single gene pool and hence to the adaptive mechanisms of the entire bacterial kingdom. "
This global trading of genes, technically known as DNA recombination, must rank as one of the most astonishing discoveries of modern biology. 'If the genetic properties of the microcosm were applied to larger creatures, we would have a science-fiction world,' write Margulis and Sagan, 'in which green plants could share genes for photosynthesis with nearby mushrooms, or where people could- exude perfumes; or grow ivory by picking up genes from a rose or a walrus.'
The speed with which drug resistance spreads among bacterial communities is dramatic proof that the .efficiency of their communications network is vastly superior to that of adaptation through mutations. Bacteria are able to adapt to environmental changes in a few years where larger organisms would need thousands of years of evolutionary adaptation. Thus microbiology teaches us the sobering lesson that technologies like genetic engineering and a global communications network, which we consider to be advanced achievements of our modern civilization, have been used by the planetary web of bacteria for billions of years to regulate life on Earth.
The constant trading of genes among bacteria results in an amazing variety of genetic structures besides their main strand of DNA. These include the formation of viruses, which are not full autopoietic systems but consist merely of a stretch of DNA or RNA in a protein coating. In fact, Canadian bacteriologist Sorin Sonea has argued that bacteria, strictly speaking, should not be classified into species, since all of their strains can potentially share hereditary traits and, typically, change up to fifteen percent of their genetic material on a daily basis. 'A bacterium is not a unicellular organism,' writes Sonea, 'it is an incomplete cell belonging to different chimeras according to circumstances. In other words, all bacteria are part of a single microcosmic web of life'.
[1] If all human beings started behaving like bacteria, which of the following would be the most desired outcome by all humanity:
(1) Creativity and innovation will increase
(2) Greater unity in diversity
(3) Population increase
(4) We shall become identical to each other and be free of conflict[2] Which three processes are responsible for evolution:
(1) Random mutation; Rapid division of genes in bacteria; Genes exchange in bacteria
(2) Random exchange of genes in bacteria; Speedy multiplication of bacteria; Creative mutation
(3) DNA self replication; Autopoieses; Gene pool theory
(4) Chance separation of double helix; Autopoiesis; Random selection
[3] Regarding diseases caused by bacteria and virus and their eradication by medical science
which conclusion is valid?
(1) Medical science generally remains ahead of bacteria and virus
(2) Bacteria and virus are generally ahead of medical science
(3) Bacteria and virus are not only ahead, but manage to undo something that medical science have achieved
(4) Bacteria and virus, and medical science are equal[4] Which statement is true regarding the work that bacteria do for the cause of humanity:
(1) Bacteria invented many essential biotechnologies that sustain life
(2) Bacteria challenge human beings to innovate
(3) Bacteria can give important lessons to human beings about sharing and communicating
(4) All the above work are important for the cause of humanity[5] Which philosophical paradigm does the model of creativity in evolution as described in the passage derives from:
(1) Holistic world view
(2) Descartes, Darwin, Newton
(3) Ecological framework
(4) Deep Ecology[6] What are the reasons given in the passage against the theory of “random mutation”, with respect to explaining evolution?
(1) Random mutation is a slow process
(2) Most of the times random mutation is harmful for the organism
(3) Random mutation is not possible in smaller organisms
(4) (1) and (2) are correct[7] Which principle described in the passage can become the basis of science fiction:
(1) DNA recombination
(2) DNA recombination among large organism
(3) DNA recombination among very small organism
(4) Autopoietic system
asked in FMS
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118.
In the annals of investing, Warren Buffett stands alone. Starting from scratch, simply by picking stocks and companies for investment, Buffett amassed one of the epochal fortunes of the twentieth century. Over a period of four decades more than enough to iron out the effects of fortuitous rolls of the dice, Buffett outperformed the stock market, by a stunning margin and without taking undue risks or suffering a single losing year. Buffett did this in markets bullish and bearish and through economies fat and lean, from the Eisenhower years to Bill Clinton, from the l950s to the l990s, from saddle shoes and Vietnam to junk bonds and the information age. Over the broad sweep of postwar America, as the major stock averages advanced by 11 percent or so a year, Buffett racked up a compounded annual gain of 29.2 percent. The uniqueness of this achievement is more significant in that it was the fruit of old-fashioned, long-term investing. Wall Street’s modern financiers got rich by exploiting their control of the public's money: their essential trick was to take in and sell out the public at opportune moments. Buffett shunned this game, as well as the more venal excesses for which Wall Street is deservedly famous. In effect, he rediscovered the art of pure capitalism, a cold-blooded sport, but a fair one. Buffett began his career, working out his study in Omaha in 1956. His grasp of simple verities gave rise to a drama that would recur throughout his life. Long before those pilgrimages to Omaha, long before Buffett had a record, he would stand in a comer at college parties, baby-faced and bright-eyed, holding forth on the universe as a dozen or two of his older, drunken fraternity brothers crowded around. A few years later, when these friends had metamorphosed into young associates starting out on Wall Street, the ritual was the same. Buffett, the youngest of the group, would plop himself in a big, broad club chair and expound on finance while the others sat at his feet. On Wall Street, his homespun manner made him a cult figure. Where finance was so forbiddingly complex, Buffett could explain it like a general-store clerk discussing the weather. He never forgot that underneath each stock and bond, no matter how arcane, there lay a tangible, ordinary business. Beneath the jargon of Wall Street, he seemed to unearth a street from small-town America. In such a complex age, what was stunning about Buffett was his applicability. Most of what Buffett did was imitable by the average person (this is why the multitudes flocked to Omaha). It is curious irony that as more Americans acquired an interest in investing, Wall Street became more complex and more forbidding than ever. Buffett was born in the midst of depression. The depression cast a long shadow on Americans, but the post war prosperity eclipsed it. Unlike the modern portfolio manager, whose mindset is that of a trader, Buffett risked his capital on the long term growth of a few select businesses. In this, he resembled the magnates of a previous age, such as J P Morgan Sr.
As Jack Newfield wrote of Robert Kennedy, Buffett was not a hero, only a hope; not a myth, only a man. Despite his broad wit, he was strangely stunted. When he went to Paris, his only reaction was that he had no interest in sight-seeing and that the food was better in Omaha. His talent sprang from his unrivaled independence of mind and ability to focus on his work and shut out the world, yet those same qualities exacted a toll. Once, when Buffett was visiting the publisher Katharine Graham on Martha’s Vineyard, a friend remarked on the beauty of the sunset. Buffett replied that he hadn't focused on it, as though it were necessary for him to exert a deliberate act of concentration to "focus" on a sunset. Even at his California beachfront vacation home, Buffett would work every day for weeks and not go near the water. Like other prodigies, he paid a price. Having been raised in a home with more than its share of demons, he lived within an emotional fortress. The few people who shared his office had no knowledge of the inner man, even after decades. Even his children could scarcely recall a time when he broke through his surface calm and showed some feeling. Though part of him is a showman or preacher, he is essentially a private person. Peter Lynch, the mutual-fund wizard, visited Buffett in the 1980s and was struck by the tranquility in his inner sanctum. His archives, neatly alphabetized in metal filing cabinets, looked as files had in another era. He had no armies of traders, no rows of electronic screens, as Lynch did. Buffett had no price charts, no computer - only a newspaper clipping from 1929 and an antique ticker under a glass dome. The two of them paced the floor, recounting their storied histories, what they had bought, what they had sold. Where Lynch had kicked out his losers every few weeks, Buffett had owned mostly the same few stocks for years and years. Lynch felt a pang, as though he had traveled back in time. Buffett’s one concession to modernity is a private jet. Otherwise, he derives little pleasure from spending his fabulous wealth. He has no art collection or snazzy car, and he has never lost his taste for hamburgers. He lives in a commonplace house on a tree-lined block, on the same street where he works. His consuming passion - and pleasure - is his work, or, as he calls it, his canvas. It is there that he revealed the secrets of his trade, and left a self-portrait.
[1] “Saddle shoes and Vietnam”, as expressed in the passage, refers to:
I. Denier cri and Vietnam war
II. Growth of leather footwear industry and Vietnam shoe controversy
III. Modern U.S. population and traditional expatriates
IV. Industrial revolution and Vietnam Olympics
V. Fashion and Politics
(1) I and V
(2) II and IV
(3) III and V
(4) II and III
[2] Identify the correct sequence:
I. Depression -> Eisenhower -> Microsoft
II. California -> New York -> Omaha
III. J.P.Morgan -> Buffett -> Bill Gates
IV. Mutual funds -> Hedge funds -> Brokers
(1) I and II
(2) I and III
(3) II and IV
(4) III and IV[3] Choose the most appropriate answer: according to the author, Warren Buffett was
I. Simple and outmoded
II. Against planned economy and technology
III. Deadpan
IV. Spiritually raw
(1) I and IV
(2) II and IV
(3) III and IV
(4) I and IIIasked in IIFT
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119.
When people react to their experiences with particular authorities, those authorities and the organizations or institutions that they represent often benefit if the people involved begin with high levels of commitment to the organization or institution represented by the authorities. First, in his studies of people's attitudes toward political and legal institutions, Tyler found that attitudes after an experience with the institution were strongly affected by prior attitudes. Single experiences influence postexperience loyalty but certainly do not overwhelm the relationship between pre-experience and postexperience loyalty. Thus, the best predictor of loyalty after an experience is usually loyalty before that experience. Second, people with prior loyalty to the organization or institution judge their dealings with the organization’s or institution's authorities to be fairer than do those with less prior loyalty, either because they are more fairly treated or because they interpret equivalent treatment as fairer.
Although high levels of prior organizational or institutional commitment are generally beneficial to the organization or institution, under certain conditions high levels of prior commitment may actually sow the seeds of reduced commitment. When previously committed individuals feel that they were treated unfavourably or unfairly during some experience with the organization or institution, they may show an especially sharp decline in commitment. Two studies were designed to test this hypothesis, which, if confirmed, would suggest that organizational or institutional commitment has risks, as well as benefits. At least three psychological models offer predictions of how individuals’ reactions may vary as a function of (1) their prior level of commitment and (2) the favorability of the encounter with the organization or institution. Favorability of the encounter is determined by the outcome of the encounter and the fairness or appropriateness of the procedures used to allocate outcomes during the encounter. First, the instrumental prediction is that because people are mainly concerned with receiving desired outcomes from their encounters with organizations, changes in their level of commitment will depend primarily on the favorability of the encounter. Second, the assimilation prediction is that individuals' prior attitudes predispose them to react in a way that is consistent with their prior attitudes.
The third prediction, derived from the group-value model of justice, pertains to how people with high prior commitment will react when they feel that they have been treated unfavorably or unfairly during some encounter with the organization or institution. Fair treatment by the other party symbolizes to people that they are being dealt with in a dignified and respectful way, thereby bolstering their sense of self-identity and self-worth. However, people will become quite distressed and react quite negatively if they feel that they have been treated unfairly by the other party to the relationship. The group-value model suggests that people value the information they receive that helps them to define themselves and to view themselves favorably. According to the instrumental viewpoint, people are primarily concerned with the more material or tangible resources received from the relationship. Empirical support for the group-value model has implications for a variety of important issues, including the determinants of commitment, satisfaction, organizational citizenship, and rule following. Determinants of procedural fairness include structural or interpersonal factors. For example, structural determinants refer to such things as whether decisions were made by neutral, fact-finding authorities who used legitimate decision-making criteria. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the interactive effect of individuals (1) commitment to an organization or institution prior to some encounter and (2) perceptions of how fairly they were treated during the encounter, on the change in their level of commitment. A basic assumption of the group-value model is that people generally value their relationships with people, groups, organizations, and institutions and therefore value fair treatment from the other party to the relationship. Specifically, highly committed members should have especially negative reactions to feeling that they were treated unfairly, more so than (1) lesscommitted group members or (2) highly committed members who felt that they were fairly treated.
The prediction that people will react especially negatively when they previously felt highly committed but felt that they were treated unfairly also is consistent with the literature on psychological contracts. Rousseau suggested that, over time, the members of work organizations develop feelings of entitlement, i.e., perceived obligations that their employers have toward them. Those who are highly committed to the organization believe that they are fulfilling their contract obligations. However, if the organization acted unfairly, then highly committed individuals are likely to believe that the organization did not live up to its end of the bargain.
[1] The hypothesis mentioned in the passage tests at least one of the following ideas.
(1) People continue to show loyalty only if they were initially committed to the organization.
(2) Our experiences influence post-experience loyalty but certainly underwhelm the relationship between pre-experience and post-experience loyalty.
(3) Pre-experience commitment always has inverse relationship with the post-experience commitment.
(4) None of these ideas are being tested by the hypothesis.[2] There is only one term in the left column which matches with the options given in the second column. Identify the correct pair from the following table: a Instrumental 1 Better outcome leads to more commitment. b Assimilation 2 Prior belief is instrumental in deciding about the post encounter commitment. c Group-value 3 Sense of value gets jeopardized that leads to negative attitude. d Institutional 4 Deals mainly with tangible outcomes.
(1) a-1 and 4
(2) b-3 and 4
(3) c-2 and 4
(4) d-1 only
[3] For summarizing the passage, which of the following is most appropriate::
(1) The study explored how citizens’ commitment to legal authorities changed as a function of their initial level of commitment and their perceptions of how fairly they were treated in their recent encounters with legal authorities.
(2) The influence of individuals' prior commitment to an institution on their reactions to the perceived fairness of decisions rendered by the institution was examined.
(3) Given the generally positive consequences to organizations of having committed employees, it may be that unfair managerial practices would begin to alienate the very employees that the organization would least wish to alienate.
(4) The passage aims at understanding how people define happiness and these definitions include instrumental view-points.
asked in IIFT
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120.
People are continually enticed by such "hot" performance, even if it lasts for brief periods. Because of this susceptibility, brokers or analysts who have had one or two stocks move up sharply, or technicians who call one turn correctly, are believed to have established a credible record and can readily find market followings. Likewise, an advisory service that is right for a brief time can beat its drums loudly. Elaine Garzarelli gained near immortality when she purportedly "called" the 1987 crash. Although, as the market strategist for Shearson Lehman, her forecast was never published in a research report, nor indeed communicated to its clients, she still received widespread recognition and publicity for this call, which was made in a short TV interview on CNBC. Still, her remark on CNBC that the Dow could drop sharply from its then 5300 level rocked an already nervous market on July 23, 1996. What had been a 40-point gain for the Dow turned into a 40-point loss, a good deal of which was attributed to her comments.
The truth is, market-letter writers have been wrong in their judgments far more often than they would like to remember. However, advisors understand that the public considers short-term results meaningful when they are, more often than not, simply chance. Those in the public eye usually gain large numbers of new subscribers for being right by random luck. Which brings us to another important probability error that falls under the broad rubric of representativeness. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman call this one the "law of small numbers.". The statistically valid "law of large numbers" states that large samples will usually be highly representative of the population from which they are drawn; for example, public opinion polls are fairly accurate because they draw on large and representative groups. The smaller the sample used, however (or the shorter the record), the more likely the findings are chance rather than meaningful. Yet the Tversky and Kahneman study showed that typical psychological or educational experimenters gamble their research theories on samples so small that the results have a very high probability of being chance. This is the same as gambling on the single good call of an advisor. The psychologists and educators are far too confident in the significance of results based on a few observations or a short period of time, even though they are trained in statistical techniques and are aware of the dangers.
Note how readily people over generalize the meaning of a small number of supporting facts. Limited statistical evidence seems to satisfy our intuition no matter how inadequate the depiction of reality. Sometimes the evidence we accept runs to the absurd. A good example of the major overemphasis on small numbers is the almost blind faith investors place in governmental economic releases on employment, industrial production, the consumer price index, the money supply, the leading economic indicators, etc. These statistics frequently trigger major stock- and bond-market reactions, particularly if the news is bad. Flash statistics, more times than not, are near worthless. Initial economic and Fed figures are revised significantly for weeks or months after their release, as new and "better" information flows in. Thus, an increase in the money supply can turn into a decrease, or a large drop in the leading indicators can change to a moderate increase. These revisions occur with such regularity you would think that investors, particularly pros, would treat them with the skepticism they deserve. Alas, the real world refuses to follow the textbooks. Experience notwithstanding, investors treat as gospel all authoritative-sounding releases that they think pinpoint the development of important trends. An example of how instant news threw investors into a tailspin occurred in July of 1996. Preliminary statistics indicated the economy was beginning to gain steam. The flash figures showed that GDP (gross domestic product) would rise at a 3% rate in the next several quarters, a rate higher than expected. Many people, convinced by these statistics that rising interest rates were imminent, bailed out of the stock market that month. To the end of that year, the GDP growth figures had been revised down significantly (unofficially, a minimum of a dozen times, and officially at least twice). The market rocketed ahead to new highs to August l997, but a lot of investors had retreated to the sidelines on the preliminary bad news. The advice of a world champion chess player when asked how to avoid making a bad move. His answer: "Sit on your hands”. But professional investors don't sit on their hands; they dance on tiptoe, ready to flit after the least particle of information as if it were a strongly documented trend. The law of small numbers, in such cases, results in decisions sometimes bordering on the inane. Tversky and Kahneman‘s findings, which have been repeatedly confirmed, are particularly important to our understanding of some stock market errors and lead to another rule that investors should follow.
[1] Which statement does not reflect the true essence of the passage?
I. Tversky and Kahneman understood that small representative groups bias the research theories to generalize results that can be categorized as meaningful result and people simplify the real impact of passable portray of reality by small number of supporting facts.
II. Governmental economic releases on macroeconomic indicators fetch blind faith from investors who appropriately discount these announcements which are ideally reflected in the stock and bond market prices.
III. Investors take into consideration myopic gain and make it meaningful investment choice and fail to see it as a chance of occurrence.
IV. lrrational overreaction to key regulators expressions is same as intuitive statistician stumbling disastrously when unable to sustain spectacular performance.
(1) Only I
(2) Only IV
(3) II and III
(4) Only III[2] The author of the passage suggests the anomaly that leads to systematic errors in predicting future. Which of the following statements does not best describe the anomaly as suggested in the passage above?
I. The psychological pressures account for the anomalies just like soothsayers warning about the doomsday and natural disasters and market crashes.
II. Contrary to several economic and financial theories investors are not good intuitive statistician, especially under difficult conditions and are unable to calculate the odds properly when making investments choices.
III. Investors are swamped with information and they react to this avalanche of data by adopting shortcuts or rules of thumb rather than formally calculating odds of a given outcome.
IV. The distortions produced by subjectively calculated probabilities are large, systematic and difficult to eliminate even when investors are fully aware of them.
(1) Only I
(2) Only IV
(3) I and III
(4) II and IV
[3] “Tversky and Kahneman’s findings ... lead to another rule that investors should follow”. Which rule is the author talking about?
I. Not to be influenced by short term and occasional record of a money manager, broker, analysts, or advisor, no matter how impressive.
II. To accept cursory economic or investment news without significant substantiation but supported by statistical evidence even if limited in data sufficiency.
III. In making decisions we become overly immersed in the details of a particular situation and consider all the outcomes of similar experience in our past.
IV. None of the above.
(1) Only IV
(2) Only I
(3) Only III
(4) I, II, and III[4] According to the passage which statement written below is farthest in explaining the meaning of the passage above?
I. Market letter writers have been wrong in their judgments many a times but they continue to express their opinion as dramatic predictions and well time call results in huge rewards to analysts, journalist and popular writers.
II. Public opinion polls are fairly accurate because they are based on randomly selected diminutive representative groups and hence are more meaningful than intuitive statistics of an outcome.
III. People generally limit the need for hefty statistical evidence as it satisfies their intuition without reflecting the reality.
IV. None of the above.
(1) Only IV
(2) Only II
(3) II and III
(4) Only Iasked in IIFT
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