The managers at microfab meet and realize that they have huge costs associated with training new employees, difficulty finding someone who can take the place of lost employees, and lower productivity than they would prefer from each employee. what can they do to address this issue?
a. decrease the amount of control managers have over employees
b. decrease the number of tasks each employee performs
c. increase the number of tasks each employee performs
d. increase the number of employees under each manger
e. train the new employees themselves

b. decrease the number of tasks each employee performs

Explanation:

Obviously, the employees' work load is something that highly affects their productivity. Although it could be possible that the reason doesn't lie in the amount of work, decreasing the existing work load (number of tasks) will surely improve productivity.

Other answers are irrelevant, as the amount of control managers have usually does not affect typical jobs (except highly creative ones). Also, increasing a manager's span of control makes it harder for the manager to help each employee in several tasks.