Question

Read the following caselet and answer the question that follows.

Mr. Rajiv Singhal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Loha India Ltd. (a steel manufacturing company), had just been visited by several other directors of the company. The directors were upset with the recent actions of the company president, Mr. Ganesh Thakur. They demanded that the board consider firing the president.

Mr. Thakur, recently appointed as president, had undertaken to solve some of the management-employee problems by dealing directly with individuals as often as possible. The company did not have a history of strikes or any other form of collective action and was considered to have a good work culture. However, Mr. Thakur felt that by dealing directly with individuals, he could show the management's concern for the employees. An important step Mr. Thakur took was to negotiate the wages of the supervisors with each supervisor one on one. In these negotiation meetings he did not involve anyone else, including the Personnel Department which reported to him, so that he could take an unbiased decision. After negotiation, a wage contract was drawn up for each supervisor. He felt this would recognise and reward the better performers. Mr. Thakur carried out this process for most of the supervisors, except those working the night shift. For them he drew up the contracts on his own, benchmarking the night shift supervisors' wages against the day shift supervisors' wages.

For several days, Ram Lal, a night shift supervisor, had been trying to get an appointment with Mr. Thakur about his wages. He was upset, not only because he could not see the president, but also because there had been no discussion about his wage contract before it was put into effect. As a family man with six dependents, he felt his weekly wage should be higher than what he had been given.

Last Thursday afternoon, Ram Lal stopped by the president's office and tried to see him. Mr. Thakur's secretary refused his request on the grounds that Mr. Thakur was busy. Angry, Ram Lal walked into the president's office and confronted the startled Mr. Thakur with his demand for a better wage. Mr. Thakur stood up and told Ram Lal to get out of his office and raise his grievance through the official channel. Ram Lal took a swing at the president, who in turn punched Ram Lal on the jaw and knocked him unconscious.

Which of the following managerial attributes does Mr. Thakur seem to lack the most?

• A. Emotional instability under pressure
• B. Proactive problem solving
• C. Ethical behaviour
• D. Emotional stability under pressure

Hint:

Focus on how Mr. Thakur reacted physically to Ram Lal's outburst, not on his earlier planning of the wage process.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

This question is best solved by matching the final confrontation scene against what each option actually claims, since the caselet gives us one very specific, very physical event to judge Mr. Thakur by.

1. Emotional instability under pressure: this names a trait he displayed, losing composure and hitting Ram Lal, not a trait he lacks. The question asks what he lacks, so a trait he clearly showed cannot be the answer.
2. Proactive problem solving: earlier in the caselet, Mr. Thakur was the one who started the entire wage negotiation initiative on his own, showing he can be proactive. The failure in the final scene is not a lack of initiative, so this does not fit either.
3. Ethical behaviour: punching an employee is certainly bad conduct, but the caselet's framing is about a manager losing his composure in an unplanned, tense moment, which is a self-control issue rather than a deliberate ethical breach.
4. Emotional stability under pressure: an unannounced, angry visitor confronting him about wages is exactly the kind of pressure a manager must handle calmly. Mr. Thakur instead let the situation spiral into a physical fight, which is the clearest possible sign that he lacks composure under pressure.

Since the option describing a trait he showed cannot double as the trait he lacks, and the other two distractors describe qualities the caselet does not actually connect to this scene, the option about missing emotional stability under pressure is the one that directly explains his loss of control.

Let's summarize:

• Do not confuse a displayed trait (instability) with the missing trait the question is asking about (stability).
• Match the option to the specific scene the question points to, not to the character's behaviour earlier in the story.

So Mr. Thakur most lacks emotional stability under pressure.