By fostering an environment where employees could propose and implement their own solutions, CEO Sarah Chen discovered that her teams...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
By fostering an environment where employees could propose and implement their own solutions, CEO Sarah Chen discovered that her teams became increasingly self-directed and innovative. This management approach produced results that were notably more _______ than those achieved through traditional hierarchical oversight.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
conventional
supervised
autonomous
structured
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'By fostering an environment where employees could propose and implement their own solutions,' |
|
| 'CEO Sarah Chen discovered that her teams became increasingly self-directed and innovative.' |
|
| 'This management approach produced results that were notably more' |
|
| [MISSING WORD] |
|
| 'than those achieved through traditional hierarchical oversight.' |
|
Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Visual Structure Map:
[MANAGEMENT APPROACH] Sarah's method: Employee-led solutions → [TEAM OUTCOME] Teams became self-directed + innovative → [RESULTS COMPARISON] Results more [BLANK] than traditional hierarchical oversight
Main Point: Sarah Chen's employee-empowerment approach produced notably different results compared to traditional top-down management.
Argument Flow: The passage presents a cause-and-effect relationship where giving employees autonomy to create solutions led to more self-directed and innovative teams, which in turn produced results that contrasted significantly with traditional hierarchical management outcomes.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The word we need must describe results that logically flow from self-directed and innovative teams
- Since these teams can propose and implement their own solutions, the results should reflect that independence and self-governance
- The word should also create a meaningful contrast with traditional hierarchical oversight, which implies top-down control and external management
conventional
- Conventional means traditional or standard
- This doesn't contrast with traditional hierarchical oversight - it would actually align with it
supervised
- Supervised means overseen or managed by others
- This is essentially the same as hierarchical oversight, not a contrast
- Makes no logical sense in context
autonomous
- Autonomous means self-governing or independent
- Perfectly matches the logical flow: employee-led solutions → self-directed teams → autonomous results
- Creates the ideal contrast with hierarchical oversight
structured
- Structured means organized or systematic
- Both traditional hierarchical systems and employee-led systems can be structured
- Doesn't create a meaningful contrast