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Reading 2/2:
Read the following passage and choose the letter representing your answer from the choices given.
Change in business organisations
A The forces that operate to bring about change in organisations can be thought of as winds which are many and varied. Such a period was the agricultural age, which Goodman (1995)maintains prevailed in Europe and western societies as a whole until the early 1700s. During this period, wealth was created in the context of an agriculturally based society influenced mainly by local markets (both customer and labour) and factors outside people's control, such as the weather. During this time, people could fairly well predict the cycle of activities required to maintain life, even if that life might be at little more than subsistence level.
B To maintain the meteorological metaphor, stronger winds of change blew to bring in the Industrial Revolution and the industrial age. It was characterized by a series of inventions and innovations that reduced the number of people needed to work the land and, in turn, provided the means of production of hitherto rarely obtainable goods; for organisations, supplying these in ever increasing numbers became the aim. To a large extent, demand and supply were predictable, enabling companies to structure their organisations along what Burns and Stalker (1966) described as mechanistic lines, that is as systems of strict hierarchical structures and firm means of control.
C This situation prevailed for some time, with demand still coming mainly from the domestic market and organisations striving to fill the 'supply gap'. Thus, the most disturbing environmental influence on organisations of this time was the demand for products, which outstripped supply. The saying attributed to Henry Ford that You can have any color of car so long as it is black'.gives a flavor of the supply-led state of the market. Apart from any technical difficulties of producing different colors of car. Ford did not have to worry about customers' color preferences: he could sell all that he made. Organisations of this period can be regarded as 'task-oriented, with effort being put into increasing production through more effective and efficient production
processes.D As time passed, this favorable period for organisations began to decline. In the neo-industrial age, people became more discriminating in the goods and services they wished to buy and.as technological advancements brought about increased productivity, supply overtook demand. Companies began, increasingly, to look abroad for additional markets.
E At the same time, organisations faced more intensive competition from abroad for their own products and services. In the West, this development was accompanied by a shift in focus from manufacturing to service, whether this merely added value to manufactured products, or whether it was service in-its own right. In the neo-industrial age of western countries, the emphasis moved towards adding value to goods and services what Goodman calls the value-oriented time, as contrasted with the task- oriented and products/services-oriented times of the past.
1) Which of the following forces influencing change is not within human influence?
A. customers
B. weather conditions
C. labor costs
D. agricultural pests
A. the behavior of customer
2) What is predictable for those who are of agricultural age?
B.the impact of the neighborhood market
. the series of tasks necessary to sustain life C
D. the pattern of summer's light breezes
3) Which period exhibits a stable level of organizational change?
A.The industrial age
B. The neo-industrial age
C.The agricultural age
D. The civilization age
