After the Second World War, unionism in the Japanese auto industry was company-based, with separate unions in each auto company. Most company unions played no independent role in bargaining shop-floor issues or pressing autoworkers' grievances. In a 1981 survey, for example, fewer than 1 percent of workers said they sought union assistance for work-related problems, while 43 percent said they turned to management instead. There was little to distinguish the two in any case: most union officers were foremen or middle-level managers, and the union's role was primarily one of passive support for company goals. Conflict occasionally disrupted this cooperative relationship--one company union's opposition to the productivity campaigns of the early 1980s has been cited as such a case. In 1986, however, a caucus led by the Foreman's Association forced the union's leadership out of office and returned the union's policy to one of passive cooperation. In the United States, the potential for such company unionism grew after 1979, but it had difficulty taking hold in the auto industry, where a single union represented workers from all companies, particularly since federal law prohibited foremen from joining or leading industrial unions.
The Japanese model was often invoked as one in which authority decentralized to the shop floor empowered production workers to make key decisions. What these claims failed to recognize was that the actual delegation of authority was to the foreman, not the workers. The foreman exercised discretion over job assignments, training, transfers, and promotions; worker initiative was limited to suggestions that fine-tuned a management-controlled production process. Rather than being proactive, Japanese workers were forced to be reactive, the range of their responsibilities being far wider than their span of control. For example, the founder of one production system, Taichi Ohno, routinely gave department managers only 90 percent of the resources needed for production. As soon as workers could meet production goals without working overtime, 10 percent of remaining resources would be removed. Because the "OH! NO!" system continually pushed the production process to the verge of breakdown in an effort to find the minimum resource requirement, critics described it as "management by stress."
It can be inferred that the author of the passage sees which of the following as the primary advantage to companies in implementing the "OH! NO!" system?
It permitted the foreman to take initiative.
It minimized the effort required to produce automobiles.
It ensured that production costs would be as low as possible.
It allowed the foreman to control the production process.
It required considerable worker empowerment to achieve managers' goals.
题目分析:
题目释义:
细节题目
考点:
推断(Inference)
旨在考察我们对文章的深度理解,以及逻辑推断能力。
运用“OH NO”系统的优势定位在“Because the "OH! NO!" system continually pushed the production process to the verge of breakdown in an effort to find the minimum resource requirement, critics described it as "management by stress."” 文中只有这句话说明了“OH NO”系统的好处。就是能发现最小的资源需求。
选项分析:
A选项:它阻止了领班的首创精神。定位在“What these claims failed to recognize was that the actual delegation of authority was to the foreman, not the workers.”。由此可见,这个系统是给予领班权力的,阻止的是工人。
B选项: 它最小化了生产汽车所需要的努力。文中没有提到生产汽车。
C选项:Correct. 它确保了产品的成本最小化。解释同“考点”。
D选项:它让领班来控制生产过程。定位在“worker initiative was limited to suggestions that fine-tuned a management-controlled production process.”由此可见,这一类的东西是让工人对生产过程提建议的,不是完全让领班控制。
E选项:它需要给工人重要的授权来达到管理者的目标。这个选项基本说反了。举这个例子的目的真是要说明工人在日本的自动工业中是不会被授予重要的权力的。
B选项: 它最小化了生产汽车所需要的努力。文中没有提到生产汽车。 <-- 这老师简直是来搞笑的,整篇讲的都是auto industry unionism
我理解(硬理解)可能是oh no 这个例子里没有提到汽车?他只是说到这是一个产品
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A选项题干中是permit,不是inhibit,所以不是阻止了首创精神吧,解析写错了。ps: take initiative一般不认为是首创精神,而是积极主动或者说自主决定
Because the "OH! NO!" system continually pushed the production process to the verge of breakdown in an effort to find the minimum resource requirement, critics described it as "management by stress."
OH NO······ in an effort to find the minimum resourse requirment→解读句子结构,to表目的,考察的既是目的