سوال ۵۱ کنکور ارشد مدیریت کسب‌وکار (MBA) ۱۴۰۵

Answer: option 2 — by which. A preposition + relative pronoun (حرف اضافه + ضمیر موصولی) links the process to the means of influencing people: managers influence others by this process, so the relative form is the process by which managers influence others.

• 1) by that: relative that cannot immediately follow a fronted preposition. It can be used only with the preposition left later in the clause, as in the process that they work by.
• 2) by which: which refers to the process, and by expresses means; the following clause already has its subject, managers.
• 3) with that: again puts relative that directly after a preposition; it also misses the intended by this process relationship.
• 4) that which: means roughly the thing which when used independently; here it duplicates the existing noun process and supplies no means relationship.

Exam trick: With an inanimate antecedent, a fronted preposition takes which, never relative that.