List of top Decision Making Questions asked in XAT

Direction:Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Arti, CEO of an FMCG company, was under pressure from the Board of Governors (BoG) to increase diversity in the workforce. The board wanted the company to hire candidates with vision impairment*, as it believed that they contributed to organizations in many unique ways.
The CEO was apprehensive of hiring visually impaired candidates; she was not sure about the feasibility of accommodating them in the current setting. Moreover, Arti was unsure as to how the visually impaired could contribute meaningfully to the organization.
(* A person, with a vision impairment in a range of 60-100 percent, is referred to as a visually impaired person. A person with 100 percent vision impairment cannot see at all.)
Arti wanted to follow the suggestion given by the Board of Governors; however, she was not sure if the company was ready to accommodate candidates with 100 percent visual impairment. Also, the concern of involving such employees in meaningful activities was constantly bothering her. Hence, she constituted a committee to come up with recommendations that would help the company in hiring 100 percent visually impaired employees
After two months of deliberations, the committee came up with the following recommendations:
1). Hire visually impaired employees unconditionally as it is any company’s social responsibility
2). Hire visually impaired employees in the activities they can contribute
3). Ensure visually impaired friendly office space, food courts, restrooms, parking etc.
4). Allow guide dogs to assist employees with 100 percent vision impairment in the office premises
Which of the following options will BEST allay concerns as well as be fair to all stakeholders?

Direction:Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Arti, CEO of an FMCG company, was under pressure from the Board of Governors (BoG) to increase diversity in the workforce. The board wanted the company to hire candidates with vision impairment*, as it believed that they contributed to organizations in many unique ways.
The CEO was apprehensive of hiring visually impaired candidates; she was not sure about the feasibility of accommodating them in the current setting. Moreover, Arti was unsure as to how the visually impaired could contribute meaningfully to the organization.
(* A person, with a vision impairment in a range of 60-100 percent, is referred to as a visually impaired person. A person with 100 percent vision impairment cannot see at all.)
Suresh refuses to be served coffee by visually impaired baristas, but he does believe in donating to the visually impaired. The following statements could explain why Suresh does not want to be served by visually impaired baristas.
1). He thinks that the visually impaired are inefficient at serving coffee.
2). His parents have taught him to donate, instead of accepting services from challenged individuals.
3). He believes that his refusal to be served will have adverse consequences.
4). He feels joyous amongst visually impaired; sharing his life and caring for them.
From the following, choose the option that BEST explains Suresh’s biased behaviour.

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the TWO questions that follow.
The CEO of the Jamshedpur Tea Factory (JTF) was in a quandary over employees skipping work. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to identify employees who faked illness to skip work. The work of the employees was complex and intricate, and they had to report to eight supervisors. “Faking illness” made it difficult for JTF to judiciously decide on “Promotion” and “Training” of employees. An employee could only be promoted on the completion of a multi-skilling training program. Further, to be nominated for the training program, an employee must be recommended by a minimum of six supervisors. JTF wanted to promote only sincere and deserving employees.
Which of the following policies will be MOST prone to error while selecting deserving and sincere employees?

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
In recent years, complaints of sexual harassment at “Fair Consulting” had increased exponentially. Fair Consulting had a gender-neutral, anti-sexual harassment policy and a committee to adjudicate on complaints. During the hearing of complaints, allegations and counter-allegations would fly thick and fast. This made it difficult for the adjudicating committee to conclusively decide on the complaints.
Fair Consulting was mulling over three interventions to reduce sexual harassment cases in the workplace. They are:
1). Educate employees about the company’s anti-sexual harassment policy
2). Profile employees with a propensity to engage in acts of sexual harassment
3). Discipline sexual offenders
Which of the following options will the employees find LEAST ostracizing?

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
In recent years, complaints of sexual harassment at “Fair Consulting” had increased exponentially. Fair Consulting had a gender-neutral, anti-sexual harassment policy and a committee to adjudicate on complaints. During the hearing of complaints, allegations and counter-allegations would fly thick and fast. This made it difficult for the adjudicating committee to conclusively decide on the complaints.
The CEO of Fair Consulting wanted the adjudicating committee to reduce the number of errors while deciding on sexual harassment complaints. The employees suggested that the committee could do the following to reduce errors in judgement.
1). Listen to the arguments of both the complainant and the accused together
2). Listen to the arguments of both the complainant and the accused separately
3). Involve a member of women’s commission
4). Take the help of a retired judge
5). Hire a forensic expert to verify evidences
From the following, choose the MOST effective sequence that would help the committee to arrive at the right decision.

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
In recent years, complaints of sexual harassment at “Fair Consulting” had increased exponentially. Fair Consulting had a gender-neutral, anti-sexual harassment policy and a committee to adjudicate on complaints. During the hearing of complaints, allegations and counter-allegations would fly thick and fast. This made it difficult for the adjudicating committee to conclusively decide on the complaints.
Of late, the adjudicating committee received a complaint from a junior female consultant. Her immediate boss cracked a bawdy joke about her in the office tuck shop. When the committee probed the alleged misconduct, they identified an independent witness. She agreed to give her testimony to the committee: however, she was unsure if she would like to be identified either by the complainant or the accused. The convenor of the committee was confused about the stance to be taken on the witness’s concern.
Which of the following will be the BEST stance to be taken by the convenor?

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
During the floods of 2018-2019, a group of philanthropists led by Niyabuddin, wished to open free food centre for the needy. Their motto was that “no human should be hungry.” Nothing gives more satisfaction to the philanthropists than to see the hungry eat to the fullest.
Post Covid-19, the group started a food centre by the name Win Borne Life Care Food (WBLCF) in a small town called Palakkad. The centre started gaining popularity as the number of people enjoying free meals increased over time. Initially, WBLCF offered a standardized menu consisting of idli, upma, puttu for breakfast, curd rice for lunch, and idli or upma for supper. Six women were employed by WBLCF to prepare all the meals. As the number of diners increased, they started expecting a variety in the menu.
At WBLCF, not all the diners eat "free": while two-thirds of diners get free food, one-third would donate some amount to a transparent charity box kept at the entrance. For example, a man donated Rs. 500 after consuming two idlis, and a woman approached Niyabuddin and inquired about donating 10 kilogrammes of rice. Those who could not afford to donate, were often seen prostrating worshipfully in front of the charity box.
Some caring individuals made monetary donation while others donated rice, fruits and vegetables to WBLCF. Further, the centre received enquiries from many locals on how they could contribute to the cause.
As the centre was lauded for its philanthropic work by people of the town, Niyabuddin intended to replicate the initiative in the nearby districts. However, he is concerned about the cost that goes into running the centre. Almost 75 percent of the donated amount goes into buying the cooking ingredients, while the rest goes into paying salaries, operations and maintenance costs.
From the following, choose the MOST important challenge that Niyabuddin has to overcome to sustain WBLCF.

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
During the floods of 2018-2019, a group of philanthropists led by Niyabuddin, wished to open free food centre for the needy. Their motto was that “no human should be hungry.” Nothing gives more satisfaction to the philanthropists than to see the hungry eat to the fullest.
Post Covid-19, the group started a food centre by the name Win Borne Life Care Food (WBLCF) in a small town called Palakkad. The centre started gaining popularity as the number of people enjoying free meals increased over time. Initially, WBLCF offered a standardized menu consisting of idli, upma, puttu for breakfast, curd rice for lunch, and idli or upma for supper. Six women were employed by WBLCF to prepare all the meals. As the number of diners increased, they started expecting a variety in the menu.
At WBLCF, not all the diners eat "free": while two-thirds of diners get free food, one-third would donate some amount to a transparent charity box kept at the entrance. For example, a man donated Rs. 500 after consuming two idlis, and a woman approached Niyabuddin and inquired about donating 10 kilogrammes of rice. Those who could not afford to donate, were often seen prostrating worshipfully in front of the charity box.
Some caring individuals made monetary donation while others donated rice, fruits and vegetables to WBLCF. Further, the centre received enquiries from many locals on how they could contribute to the cause.
As the centre was lauded for its philanthropic work by people of the town, Niyabuddin intended to replicate the initiative in the nearby districts. However, he is concerned about the cost that goes into running the centre. Almost 75 percent of the donated amount goes into buying the cooking ingredients, while the rest goes into paying salaries, operations and maintenance costs.
Niyabuddin realised that on some days the food was wasted while on other days diners went back hungry. He sought advice from a consultant friend on how to reduce wastage. The consultant suggested the following:
1). Launch a mobile app so that diners can pre-inform their arrival to WBLCF.
2). Ask diners who enjoy free meal to distribute excess food to hungry on streets
3). Ask diners to eat less as it is good for health
4). Preach people to eat less
5). Ration amount of food to be served to the diners
Which of the above ideas will not be consistent with the core ethos of WBLCF?

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
During the floods of 2018-2019, a group of philanthropists led by Niyabuddin, wished to open free food centre for the needy. Their motto was that “no human should be hungry.” Nothing gives more satisfaction to the philanthropists than to see the hungry eat to the fullest.
Post Covid-19, the group started a food centre by the name Win Borne Life Care Food (WBLCF) in a small town called Palakkad. The centre started gaining popularity as the number of people enjoying free meals increased over time. Initially, WBLCF offered a standardized menu consisting of idli, upma, puttu for breakfast, curd rice for lunch, and idli or upma for supper. Six women were employed by WBLCF to prepare all the meals. As the number of diners increased, they started expecting a variety in the menu.
At WBLCF, not all the diners eat "free": while two-thirds of diners get free food, one-third would donate some amount to a transparent charity box kept at the entrance. For example, a man donated Rs. 500 after consuming two idlis, and a woman approached Niyabuddin and inquired about donating 10 kilogrammes of rice. Those who could not afford to donate, were often seen prostrating worshipfully in front of the charity box.
Some caring individuals made monetary donation while others donated rice, fruits and vegetables to WBLCF. Further, the centre received enquiries from many locals on how they could contribute to the cause.
As the centre was lauded for its philanthropic work by people of the town, Niyabuddin intended to replicate the initiative in the nearby districts. However, he is concerned about the cost that goes into running the centre. Almost 75 percent of the donated amount goes into buying the cooking ingredients, while the rest goes into paying salaries, operations and maintenance costs.
Niyabuddin wanted to conserve local recipes that can be used to prepare mouth-smacking dishes for the diners.
Which of the following could be the BEST way to conserve local recipes?

Direction: Go through the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
To prepare a dish (e.g., Dosa- Sambhar, Idli-chutney, Rajma-Chawal, Mawa-Bati), the chef has to finish nine activities, some of which could be done simultaneously, while others could not be done simultaneously (see diagram). One of the challenges faced by the chef was to precisely calculate the preparation time of a dish and communicate the waiting time to the customers.
However, based on the past data, the chef had an idea about approximate time taken to complete each activity. He had noted down the best (optimistic), worst (pessimistic) and most likely (most commonly observed) time to finish each of the nine activities. Further, the chef realised that frequency of occurrence of most likely time was 66.666%, and the frequency of occurrence of pessimistic and optimistic times were 16.666% each. The diagram below shows the activities involved and the table shows the optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely times for each activity. Time is indicated in minutes in the table below.
Customer dissatisfaction is the difference of actual waiting time (AWT) and expected waiting time (EWT). AWT is the actual time spent by customer before being served the dish. EWT of the customer is the time communicated by the chef.
What is the minimum waiting time (EWT) that the chef should communicate to minimise customer dissatisfaction?

Direction: Go through the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
To prepare a dish (e.g., Dosa- Sambhar, Idli-chutney, Rajma-Chawal, Mawa-Bati), the chef has to finish nine activities, some of which could be done simultaneously, while others could not be done simultaneously (see diagram). One of the challenges faced by the chef was to precisely calculate the preparation time of a dish and communicate the waiting time to the customers.
However, based on the past data, the chef had an idea about approximate time taken to complete each activity. He had noted down the best (optimistic), worst (pessimistic) and most likely (most commonly observed) time to finish each of the nine activities. Further, the chef realised that frequency of occurrence of most likely time was 66.666%, and the frequency of occurrence of pessimistic and optimistic times were 16.666% each. The diagram below shows the activities involved and the table shows the optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely times for each activity. Time is indicated in minutes in the table below.
Which of the following is the MOST volatile activity for the chef?

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the TWO questions that follow.
The CEO of the Jamshedpur Tea Factory (JTF) was in a quandary over employees skipping work. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to identify employees who faked illness to skip work. The work of the employees was complex and intricate, and they had to report to eight supervisors. “Faking illness” made it difficult for JTF to judiciously decide on “Promotion” and “Training” of employees. An employee could only be promoted on the completion of a multi-skilling training program. Further, to be nominated for the training program, an employee must be recommended by a minimum of six supervisors. JTF wanted to promote only sincere and deserving employees.
The CEO was thinking of changing the policy regarding leave, training & promotion.
Which of the following will be the MOST efficient course of action for JTF and yet be fair to the employees?

Direction:Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Arti, CEO of an FMCG company, was under pressure from the Board of Governors (BoG) to increase diversity in the workforce. The board wanted the company to hire candidates with vision impairment*, as it believed that they contributed to organizations in many unique ways.
The CEO was apprehensive of hiring visually impaired candidates; she was not sure about the feasibility of accommodating them in the current setting. Moreover, Arti was unsure as to how the visually impaired could contribute meaningfully to the organization.
(* A person, with a vision impairment in a range of 60-100 percent, is referred to as a visually impaired person. A person with 100 percent vision impairment cannot see at all.)
The following arguments were presented to Arti about the candidates with vision impairment:
1).Visually impaired can do some activities better than the normal people and hence complement other employees.
2).Visually impaired can motivate other employees to work harder.
3). Visually impaired can act as a role model for other disadvantaged people in the society
4). Visually impaired can work harder to prove themselves
5). Hiring visually impaired people may enhance organizational reputation which may consequently lead to better sales.
6). Visually impaired have to be paid 20 percent extra salary.
From the above arguments, which of the following options indicate that CEO’s apprehensions are misplaced?

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Dhan, a poor but enterprising 15-year-old, resided in the world’s largest slum in a metropolitan city, along with her widowed mother. The densely packed slum housed about a million people, mostly in rickety one room tenements, connected by labyrinthine lanes and by-lanes. Dhan’s mother worked intermittently as a daily wager in a small savoury factory. For a 15-year-old, Dhan’s life was hectic. She spends two hours every day in fetching water for the household, packing breakfast and lunch for her mother. In addition, she had to prepare supper. On her mother’s insistence, Dhan also attended an evening bridge school run by an NGO. Dhan’s dream was to provide a comfortable life to her mother and take her family out of poverty. Of late, Dhan observed that the customers to a nearby tea-cum-savoury stall (TCS), were mostly the slum dwellers, who thronged the stall for its low prices and lack of alternatives. Further, Dhan gathered that the TCS could not cater to all of its customers, and the owner still made a neat Rs.800 profit per day. Dhan saw that a probable first step towards her family’s economic independence could be to own her own TCS.
Within two years of establishment, Dhan’s TCS is not only outcompeting its nearest rivals in the slum but has also earned a goodwill for the quality and taste of its products. Hence, it has become famous within the slum as “Dhan Dhana Dhan” brand. Dhan now aspires to expand the reach of her savouries into the metropolitan region. Dhan wishes to scale up her savoury production from 100 kg to 1000 kg per day while maintaining quality. Dhan realizes that her establishment does not have the space for expansion on its own.
Which of the following options will BEST help Dhan to scale up production with least investment, tightly control quality, and also protect her business interests?

Read the following scenario and answer the three questions that follow.
Ashraf has been working at a cybersecurity company called NuTech Pvt. Ltd. for seven years. Having missed a promotion in the previous appraisal cycle, Ashraf is anxious about it in the upcoming cycle. Ashraf is aware that the HR head is meeting the top management to discuss promotions sometime soon. (At NuTech, the HR head recommends names for promotions to the top management based on inputs from the functional teams.)
On a Friday afternoon, Ashraf receives an email from Sridevi, the HR head. It reads, “Hi, I need an urgent favour from you; please respond if you are free.” It was the first time that Sridevi ever contacted him. Surprised, Ashraf immediately replies back saying, “Sure! How can I help you, Sridevi? Regards, Ashraf.” In a couple of minutes, he receives a reply: “Ashraf, I am in the middle of an important meeting, but have to urgently send gift vouchers worth ₹50,000 to one of our important clients. If you could, please purchase and send the gift vouchers to the email address given below, at the earliest.” Ashraf , without any delay, sends gift vouchers worth ₹50,000 to the given email address.

Read the following scenario and answer the three questions that follow.
The occasion was a hyper publicised switch-on ceremony of solar power facilities on an island, with many villages, in the Bay of Bengal. PK was the brand ambassador of a Multinational Company (MNC) that wasbanking heavily on this CSR initiative to strengthen its presence in India. For the millions of fans, enamoured by the aging super star’s Robinhood like onscreen exploits, the pre-event speech of PK was their first glimpse into his off-screen persona. After an emotional speech that extolled the virtues of electricity as a driver of wellbeing & need for inclusive growth, PK with a flourish of his hand hit the button to remotely switch on the solar power facilities. Tens of media cameras stationed in all the island villages, started beaming live feed across the world. Quickly, the event turned from one of joy to something of shock and horror, as all the thatched households on the island caught fire. A few villagers were seriously injured in the fire. Watching the coverage, PK slapped the MNC representative standing next to him, on live camera, and collapsed on a couch with his head in his hands.

Read the following scenario and answer the question .
Churna is a peaceful village, surrounded by thickly forested high hills that isolate it from the rest of the world. Agriculture is the main occupation of the Churna villagers. Moreover, the forests provide seasonal fruits, tubers, medicinal herbs, and other forest produce in abundance. For all material needs not produced locally, the Churna villagers depend on Tendua, a faraway town.
Once a month, the Churna women would arduously trek with the surplus produce to Tendua. In the Tendua market, they convey the virtues of their produce through a beautiful song and dance routine. Reputed for their hard-bargaining skills, they always manage to extract a premium barter from the traders, more than fulfilling all their other material needs.

Read the following scenario and answer the three questions that follow.
Rohini is one of the most popular faculty members in the finance department, known for her in-class engagement with students. Every year, she offers an elective Financial Risk and Derivatives Management in the fourth term which gets subscribed by about hundred students. This year, owing to Covid-19, she is forced to teach the course online, that too, in the fifth term. The fifth term is notorious for its non-negotiable teaching slots. To enable her teaching, Rohini uses her favourite laptop, Maplebook Lite, sold by Maple.
Rohini converts her family bedroom into a “working room” because of the strong wifi signals. The room is mostly used by Rohini for taking her classes; however, Rinku, her husband, also uses it for running his meetings. Rohini has two children, aged 5 and 8, who use the living room as their playground. During meetings and classes, the working room is shut to save it from unwanted disturbance and noises from the living room.
It is 3:10 p.m. and Rohini’s penultimate session of the course is going to end in twenty minutes. As usual, Rinku enters the room with a cup of Darjeeling tea. Just before entering, he asks his kids to stop playing for some time. He quietly places the teacup on Rohini’s study table and exits the room, leaving the door ajar. As soon as he leaves, a tennis ball comes thundering inside, crashing into her Maplebook monitor. The monitor breaks and Rohini’s class ends abruptly, much before the scheduled time.

Read the following scenario and answer the question .
Saradeep was the proprietor of Saradeep & Sons Pvt. Ltd., an auto parts manufacturing company. He had three children--Taapsi, Kesar and Sandeep. His wife passed away when Sandeep, the youngest kid of the family, was only eight years old. Taapsi, being the eldest sibling, was more of a mother to Kesar and Sandeep.
Taapsi and Kesar joined Saradeep’s business right after college because Saradeep trusted them immensely. He once told Kesar, “I want key positions to be held by the people I trust."
Saradeep wanted Sandeep also to join his business like Kesar and Taapsi. Saradeep felt that Sandeep had a strong business sense, probably the best among his three children. Hence, Saradeep wanted Sandeep to take his higher education in business studies. However, Sandeep had other aspirations; he wanted to become a lawyer. Of late, he was offered admission to the prestigious National Law School, Bengaluru. As soon as he received the admission offer, he rushed to share this news with his family members.

Read the following scenario and answer the question.
Himaja was among the top ten students of her Business Management batch. She got placed in a reputed strategy consulting firm during campus placements. She was delighted to work under Nirmal, her superior, who was known for grooming many stars in the organisation. Nevertheless, he was also regarded as a hard taskmaster. Though she was a fresh recruit, she longed to be in a client-facing role.

Read the following scenario and answer the question.
Amish is the marketing head of an e-commerce firm named FillInCart (FICT). Recently, FICT signed a contract with a top celebrity to endorse their firm. A few months later, the celebrity was signed as the ambassador to promote tourism in a small country, Wadiya, ruled by a dictator. The dictator, in his zeal to bring peace to the region, brutally supressed an armed uprising in Wadiya. He is currently facing sanctions, imposed by a few countries. When the news of the celebrity’s association with Wadiya becomes public, calls for boycott of FICTstart trending on social media.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
A powerful, intelligent king Vanamali once ruled over an ancient kingdom, Vanarajya. The kingdom was known for its high mountains and sprawling plains, and ninety percent of its land was under forest cover. Trade in forest produce was the mainstay of its economy, supported by subsistence agriculture. With the increase of population, over time the forest in the plains was cleared for agriculture. The forest in the mountains continued to supply nutrient-enriched water and abundant forest produce to the plains. As a result, agricultural yields were bountiful. The plains prospered as compared to the mountains.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
Two industrial towns, Jayanagar and Ramnagar, about 15 kms. apart, are similar in land area, population, ethnic diversity and per capita incomes.
Jagdeep Singh owns a bakery named Le Baguette in Jayanagar. He specializes in croissants, masala bread and whole wheat bread; eggless cakes are also a favorite.
Among the four bakeries in Jayanagar, Jagdeep’s bakery with a market share of 30% is second only to the oldest Le Croissant bakery whose market share is 40%. Le Croissant commands a loyal customer base and does not offer eggless varieties.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
Rakesh, who hailed from Dhanbad, worked in Jamshedpur with SPCIL, a government construction company.Although HR policies concerning job security & work-life balance attracted Rakesh to SPCIL, over time he found his work monotonous with no growth opportunities. However, the proximity to Dhanbad enabled him to visit his parents at his convenience.
Recently Rakesh applied to Grow and Prosper (G&P), a multinational company engaged in construction related operations, making inroads into many Indian states. G&P interviewed Rakesh and offered him three times his current salary at SPCIL.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
When Deepti opened the package, she was aghast.She received cotton pillow covers instead of satin pillow covers,she had ordered.Deepti ordered them for her father from a popular e-commerce website that hosted products of many sellers.
Confused,Deepti contacted the seller’s office using the details given on the package.The seller’s representative profusely regretted and promised to send the satin pillow covers at no extra cost. He added that Deepti need not return the cotton covers she received.Deepti happily accepted the deal.
A few days later,Deepti received another package from the seller.Unfortunately,this package also contained cotton pillow covers.Completely disillusioned with the seller’s professionalism,Deepti decided to put to use these cotton pillow covers also.