Reading Comprehension Set 159

Directions (1-12): Read the following passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the five given alternatives.

Management education gained new academic stature within US Universities and greater respect from outside during the 1960s and 1970s. Some observers attribute the competitive superiority of US corporations to the quality of business education. In 1978, a management professor, Herbert A. Simon of Carnegie Mellon University, won the Nobel Prize in economics for his work in decision theory. And the popularity of business education continued to grow since 1960’s and the MBA has become known as the passport to the good life.

By the 1980s, however, US business schools faced critics who charged that learning had little relevance to real business problems. Some went so far as to blame business schools for the decline in US competitiveness.

Amidst the criticisms, four distinct arguments may be discerned. The first is that business schools must be either unnecessary or deleterious because Japan does so well without them. Underlying these arguments is the idea that management ability cannot be taught-one is either born with it or must acquire it over years of practical experience. A second argument is that business schools are overly academic and theoretical. They teach quantitative models that have little application to real world problems. Third, they give inadequate attention to shop floor issues, to production processes and to management resources. Finally, it is argued that they encourage undesirable attitudes in students, such as placing value in the short term, on bottom line targets, while neglecting longer term developmental criteria. In summary, some business executives complain that MBA’s are incapable of making day-to-day peritoneal decisions, unable to communicate and to motivate people, and unwilling to accept responsibility for following through implementation plans. We shall analyze these criticisms after having reviewed experiences in other countries.

In contrast to be the expansion and development of business education in the United States and more recently in Europe, Japanese business schools graduate no more than two hundred MBA’s each year. The Keio Business School (KBS) was the only graduate school of management in the entire country until the mid 1970s and it still boasts the only two-year masters programme. The absence of business schools in Japan would appear in contradiction with the high priority placed upon learning by its Confucian culture. Confucian colleges taught administrative skills as early as 1630 and Japan wholeheartedly accepted Western learning following the Meiji restoration of 1868 when hundreds of students were dispatched to universities in the U.S.A., Germany, England and France, to learn the secrets of western technology and modernization. Moreover, the Japanese educational system is highly developed and intensely competitive and can be credited for raising the literary and mathematical abilities of the Japanese to the highest level in the world.

Until recently, Japanese corporations have not been interested in using either local or foreign business schools for the development of their future executives. Their in-company-training programmers have sought the socialization of newcomers, the younger the better. The training is highly specific and those who receive it. Have neither the capacity nor the incentive to quit. The prevailing belief says Imai, is that management should be borne out of experience and many years of effort and not learnt from educational institutions. A 1960 survey of Japanese senior executives confirmed that a majority (54%) believed that managerial capabilities can be attained only on the job and not in universities.

However, this view seems to be changing, the same survey revealed that even as early as 1960, 37% of senior executives felt that the universities should teach integrate professional management. In the 1980s, a combination of increased competitive pressures and greater multi-nationalisation of Japanese business are making the Japanese take a fresh look at Management Education.

Q1. The 1960s and 1970s can best be described as a period

(a) when quality business education contributed to the superiority of US corporations.

(b) when the number of MBA’s rose from under 5,000 to over 50,000.

(c) when management education gained new academic stature and greater respect.

(d) when the MBA became more disreputable.

(e) people realized that management ability cannot be taught.

Q2. According to the passage,

(a) learning, which was useful in the 1960s and 1970’s became irrelevant in the 1980s.

(b) management education faced criticisms in the 1980s.

(c) business schools are insensitive to the needs of industry.

(d) by the 1980s, business schools contributed to the decline in US competitiveness.

(e) prevailing beliefs regarding educational institutions.

Q3. The growth in the popularity of business schools among students was most probably due to

(a) Herber A. Simon, a management professor winning the Nobel Prize in economics.

(b) the gain in academic stature.

(c) the large number of MBA degrees awarded.

(d) a perception that it was a ‘passport to the good life’.

(e) is better that the American system

Q4. A criticism that management education did not face was that:

(a) it imparted poor quantitative skills to MBAs.

(b) it was unnecessary and deleterious.

(c) it was irrevocably irrelevant.

(d) it inculcated undesirable attitudes in students.

(e) when quality business education contributed to the superiority of US corporations.

Q5. US business schools faced criticism in the 1980s because:

(a) of the decline in Japanese competitiveness.

(b) many critics felt that learning had little relevance to business problems.

(c) people realized that management ability cannot be taught.

(d) MBAs were unwilling to accept responsibility for implementation on the shop floor.

(e) management education faced criticisms in the 1980s.

Q6. The absence of business schools in Japan

(a) is due to the prevalent belief that management ability can only be acquired over years of practical experience.

(b) was due to the high priority placed on learning as opposed to doing in Confucian culture.

(c) is hard to explain for the proponents of business education.

(d) contributed a great deal to their success in international trade and business.

(e) it inculcated undesirable attitudes in students.

Q7. The Japanese were initially able to do without business schools as a result of:

(a) their highly developed and intensively competitive education system.

(b) dispatching hundreds of students to learn the secrets of western technology and modernization.

(c) their highly specific in-company training programmes.

(d) prevailing beliefs regarding educational institutions.

(e) a perception that it was a ‘passport to the good life’.

Q8. The Japanese modified their views on management education because of:

(a) greater exposure to U.S. MBA programmes.

(b) the need to develop worldwide contacts and become Americanised.

(c) the outstanding success of business schools in the U.S. during the 1960’s and 1970s.

(d) a combination of increased competitive pressures and greater multinationalisation of Japanese business.

(e) their highly specific in-company training programmes.

Q9. Training programmes in Japanese corporations have

(a) been based upon Confucian culture.

(b) sought the socialization of newcomers.

(c) been targeted at people who have neither the capacity not the incentive to quit.

(d) been teaching people to do menial tasks.

(e) is better that the American system

Q10. The author argues that

(a) Japanese do not do without business schools as in generally perceived.

(b) Japanese corporations do not hire MBAs because of traditions of universal and rigorous academic education, lifelong employment and strong group identification.

(c) Placing MBAs in operational and menial tasks is a major factor in Japanese business success.

(d) U.S. corporations should emulate the Japanese and change the way new recruits are inducted.

(e) their highly developed and intensively competitive education system.

Q11. The main difference between U.S. and Japanese corporations is:

(a) that one employs MBAs, the other does not.

(b) that U.S. corporations do not employ Japanese people.

(c) the U.S. corporations pay more to fresh recruits.

(d) in the process of selecting and orienting new recruits.

(e) their highly specific in-company training programmes.

Q12. The author argues that the Japanese system

(a) is better that the American system

(b) is highly productive and gives corporate leadership a long-term view as a result of its strong traditions.

(c) is slowly becoming Americanised.

(d) succeeds without business schools, whereas the U.S. system fails because of it.

(e) Japanese corporations do not hire MBAs because of traditions of universal and rigorous academic education, lifelong employment and strong group identification.

Directions (13-15): Pick out the most effective pair of words from the given pair of words to make the sentence/ sentences meaningfully complete.

Q13. Few professions can ______ the sheer variety and constant _________ of being a doctor.

(a) like, struggle

(b) share, enthusiast

(c) match, challenge

(d) draw, workload

(e) studious, respect

Q14. The organization ________ to popularize Indian classical music among the youth which has lost ________ with its cultural roots.

(a) endeavours, touch

(b) wishes, interest

(c) efforts, experience

(d) exerts, intrigue

(e)  cited, reason

Q15. One of the major critiques of the examination system is that it _________ to a spirit of _______ competition among the students.

(a) results, defective

(b) accompanies, adequate

(c) develops, intense

(d) leads, unhealthy

(e) polite, basic

Answer & Explanation