Difficulty: Medium
Correct Answer: QSPR
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This sentence arrangement question presents four statements about internal problems that organisations face, such as arrogant managers, inwardly focused employees, bureaucratic cultures and lack of leadership. Your task is to arrange P, Q, R and S in an order that creates a logically connected paragraph. Such para-jumble questions check your understanding of logical progression, cause and effect, and the natural way in which ideas are grouped in English prose.
Given Data / Assumptions:
The sentences are:
- Q: Arrogant managers can overevaluate their current performance and competitive position, listen poorly and learn slowly.
- S: Inwardly focused employees can have difficulty seeing the very forces that present threats and opportunities.
- P: Bureaucratic cultures can smother those who want to respond to shifting conditions.
- R: And the lack of leadership leaves no force inside these organizations to break out of the morass.
We must find the most coherent order among the given options.
Concept / Approach:
A coherent paragraph often starts by describing a prominent problem, then adds related problems, and finally gives a summarising or concluding sentence. Here, each of Q, S and P introduces a different type of internal blockage, while R begins with 'And the lack of leadership', which sounds like a concluding, cumulative problem leading to overall stagnation or 'morass'. Therefore, R is likely to be the last sentence. Among the remaining ones, Q naturally introduces top-level management issues, followed by issues with employees and culture.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Notice that R starts with 'And the lack of leadership', signalling that it adds a final point to an existing list. It is therefore suited to be the concluding sentence.
Step 2: Examine Q: it discusses arrogant managers overevaluating performance, listening poorly and learning slowly. This strongly indicates a starting point at the management level.
Step 3: Next, S introduces another internal problem, this time focusing on employees who are inward-looking and unable to see external threats and opportunities.
Step 4: P then shifts to organisational culture: bureaucratic cultures that smother those who want to respond to changing conditions, logically following management and employee issues.
Step 5: Finally, R concludes that the lack of leadership means there is no internal force to break out of this combined morass of management, employee and cultural problems.
Verification / Alternative check:
Putting the sentences together as Q-S-P-R, we get a smooth flow: first arrogant managers, then inwardly focused employees, then stifling bureaucratic cultures, and finally the summary that without leadership there is no force to break out of this stuck condition. Alternative orders such as P-R-Q-S or S-P-Q-R either place R too early (even though it begins with 'And') or break the logical grouping of problems. Option QSPR therefore best captures a natural build-up of factors leading to organisational failure.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option PRQS is wrong because it places R second, even though 'And the lack of leadership' clearly sounds like a cumulative conclusion. Option SPQR starts with S, focusing on employees, before mentioning managers or culture, which is possible but then places R third, not as a final summing-up. Option RQPS is clearly wrong as it begins with R, which is grammatically and logically unsuitable as an opening line due to the conjunction 'And'.
Common Pitfalls:
A common mistake is to ignore conjunctions like 'And', 'But', 'However' which signal relationships between sentences. Another pitfall is to focus only on individual sentence content without considering the typical structure of organisational analysis, which often moves from top management to employees and then to culture and leadership. Always check which sentence can stand independently as an introduction and which ones must follow others due to linking words.
Final Answer:
The most logical sequence is Q S P R, corresponding to option QSPR.
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