Question

(Questions 115 to 117): The year 2004 was a great year for Top-Cloth cotton mill. Manufacturing towels for the export market and employing more than 2000 workers, the company had an impressive growth in sales and profits. The Chairman felt that employees were entitled to a share in the profits, and it was proposed that the employee mess be air-conditioned. The proposal was discussed in a meeting attended by, among other senior officials, the marketing director, the personnel director and the finance director. The proposal was based on the fact that the shop floor of the mill often had temperatures in excess of 40 degrees C with a relative humidity of 99%. The air-conditioned mess would represent management's appreciation of the employees' hard work.

At the end of 2005, management reviewed the mill's performance. Profits were higher, and employee attrition was negligible. The Chairman decided that employees deserved additional recognition for their fine work. Since the mess had already been air-conditioned, the Chairman wanted to know if the employees appreciated this sort of action. In the course of discussion, the Chairman asked the personnel director to send a questionnaire to a sample of fifty employees and obtain their reaction to the air-conditioned mess. The management agreed to decide only after obtaining the feedback from the employees.

The personnel director mailed a simple form to fifty employees, asking them for the following information: "Please state your reaction to the air-conditioned mess." Of the fifty forms mailed, forty-six were returned. The answers received were as follows:

Reaction	Frequency
"I did not know it was air-conditioned."	16
"I never eat there"	8
"If management can spend money like that, they should pay us more"	6
"I wish the entire mill was air-conditioned."	8
"The mess is for management employees."	4
"It is OK."	2
Miscellaneous comments	2

117. This decision-making situation best highlights:

• A. managerial short-sightedness in decision making
• B. managerial benevolence in sharing profits among the workers
• C. managerial incompetence in handling a negative feedback in employee survey
• D. inefficient infrastructure management

Hint:

Look at the case as a whole, not just the flawed survey step: the Chairman's repeated motive is to reward employees for good results.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Questions like this ask for the theme of the whole case, not a critique of one weak step inside it. It helps to ask what management is actually trying to do across the story, from the air-conditioning gesture to the later feedback survey.

1. Managerial short-sightedness: the mill's underlying business, exports and profit growth, is doing well throughout the case; nothing suggests management ignored the future. This does not fit.
2. Managerial benevolence in sharing profits: the Chairman explicitly felt employees were "entitled to a share in the profits" and later wanted to give "additional recognition" after another good year. Both actions come from management voluntarily passing on gains to workers. This matches the whole arc of the story.
3. Managerial incompetence in handling negative feedback: the survey was indeed poorly designed, but that is one narrow step in the story, and the responses were mixed rather than sharply negative, many were neutral or simply unaware. This describes a detail, not the situation as a whole.
4. Inefficient infrastructure management: nothing in the passage says the mill's infrastructure was run inefficiently.

Taken end to end, the case is about a management that keeps choosing to share the company's success with its workforce. That is generosity or benevolence, not a flaw in decision-making or infrastructure.

Let's summarize:

• The Chairman's motive throughout is rewarding employees for good performance.
• The survey's weak design is a side detail, not the main theme of the case.
• No evidence points to short-sightedness or infrastructure inefficiency.

So the situation is best described as managerial benevolence in sharing profits among the workers.