Introduction: Courses of Action | General Intelligence and Reasoning for SSC CGL PDF Download

Statement and Course of Action

A Course of Action refers to a practical and feasible step to be taken in response to a situation that has occurred or is about to happen. In these types of questions, a scenario is presented, and various possible courses of action are proposed. The task is to identify the correct course of action that can either mitigate the problem or enhance the situation. The chosen course of action should be realistic and applicable to real-life circumstances.

Basic Points to be Considered while Choosing a Correct Course of Action

To solve these questions, the candidates are advised to keep in mind the following important points.

• #1: Simple problem must have simple course of action and not a complicated one which may create more problems than to solve or reduce it.
• #2: The correct course of action should be a positive step towards the solution of the problem rather harsh and undemocratic.
• #3: If any course of action is followed with word 'only' it makes action weak.
• #4: In most of the cases, a situation has more than one course of action, but they are never exclusive to each other. So, the answer should be both follow or not either of them follows.

Examples

Direction (Example Nos. 1-2) Each Example given below has a statement followed by two courses of action numbered I and II. You have to assure everything in the statement to be true and on the basis of the information given in the statement, decide which of the suggested course of action logically follows for pursuing.
Give Answer
(a) If only I follows
(b) If only II follows
(c) If either I or II follows
(d) If both I and II follow

Example 1: Statement:  If the retired professors of some institutes are also invited to deliberate on restructuring of the organisation, their contribution may be beneficial to the institute.
Courses of Action
(I) Management may seek opinion of the employees before calling retired professors.
(II) Management should involve experienced people for the systematic restructuring of the organisation.
Ans: (b)
We know it very clearly that retired professors have lost of experience and can give valuable suggestions. Hence, management should involved such experienced people. seeking permission from the employees is not the right course of action.

Example 2: Statement: Incessant rain for the past several days has posed the problem of overflowing and flood as the river bed is full of silt and mud.
Courses of Action
(I) The people should be made aware about the eminent danger over radio/television.
(II) The silt and mud from the river bed should be cleared immediately after receding of water level.
Ans: (d)
Each of the courses will provide relief to the victims. Hence, both the given course of action will improve the solution.

Example 3. Statement:   Nuclear power cannot make a country secure.
Courses of Action
(I) We should stop further increasing our nuclear power.
(II) We should destroy out nuclear capability.
(III) We should focus on improving diplomatic relations.
(a) Only I follows
(b) Only II follows
(c) Only III follows
(d) I and II follow
Ans: (c)
Action (I) is not a good action, because nuclear power can be used in power generation. Destroying nuclear capability will raise another problem, so (II) is also not good. Action (III) is a good option to secure a country.