The suggestion that all the secretaries assigned to the bureau chiefs of a certain agency be transferred to a newly established unit would most probably result in:

• A. the development of understudies for bureau chiefs would be greatly hampered
• B. the bureau chiefs would be burdened with much of the routine work that is now performed by their secretaries
• C. typing and stenographic work would be performed less expeditiously and with frequent delays
• D. the quality of the stenographic and typing work performed by the secretaries would deteriorate

Answer: (D)

Transferring all secretaries away from the bureau chiefs breaks the immediate, context-rich support those chief–secretary pairs rely on. Secretaries develop a precise sense of each chief’s dictation, preferred formatting, deadlines, and working style. When they move to a centralized unit, that day-to-day, chief-specific knowledge is lost, so stenographic and typing work becomes more prone to misinterpretation, formatting errors, and delays. The quality of these tasks hinges on responsiveness and familiarity with the person receiving the work, and centralizing the secretaries undermines that direct, nuanced understanding, making output less accurate and reliable. While the other effects might occur to some degree, the most likely and direct consequence is a decline in the quality of stenographic and typing work.