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The Development of Organizations
A The forces that operate to bring about change in organizations can be thought of as winds which are many and varied - from small summer breezes that merely disturb a few papers, to mighty howling gales which cause devastation to structures and operations, causing consequent reorientation of purpose and rebuilding. Sometimes, however, the winds die down to give periods of relative calm, periods of relative organizational stability. 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 labor) 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 little more than subsistence level.
B To continue with the meteorological metaphor, stronger winds of change blew to bring in the Industrial Revolution and the industrial age. Again, according to Goodman, this lasted for a long time, until around 1945. 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 goods that were previously difficult to obtain; for organizations, supplying these goods in ever-increasing numbers became the aim. To a large extent, demand and supply were predictable, enabling companies to structure their organizations 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 carried on for some time, with demand still coming mainly from the domestic market and organizations striving to fill the “supply gap.” Thus, the environmental influence with the greatest impact on organizations of this time was the demand for products, which outstripped supply. The saying attributed to Henry Ford that “You can have any color of the car so long as it is black,” gives a sense of the supply-led state of the market. Apart from any technical difficulties in producing different colors of the 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 the effort being put into increasing production through more effective and efficient production processes.
D As time passed, this favorable period for organizations 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, organizations faced more intense 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 served 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.
F Today, in the post-industrial age, most people agree that organizational life is becoming ever more uncertain, as the pace of change quickens and the future becomes less predictable. Two US academics, Nadler and Tushman wrote in 1999, “Poised on the eve of the next century, we are witnessing a profound transformation in the very nature of our business organizations. Historic forces have converged to fundamentally reshape the scope, strategies, and structures of large enterprises.” At a less general level of analysis, Graeme Leach, Chief Economist at the British Institute of Directors, claimed in the Guardian newspaper (2000) that, “By 2020, the nine-to-five rat race will be extinct and present levels of self-employment, commuting and technology use, as well as age and sex gaps, will have changed beyond recognition.” According to the article, Leach anticipates that: “In 20 years time, 20-25 percent of the workforce will be temporary workers and many more will be flexible...25 percent of people will no longer work in a traditional office and...50 percent will work from home in some form.” Continuing to use the “winds of change” metaphor, the expectations of damaging gale-force winds bringing the need for rebuilding that takes the opportunity to incorporate new ideas and ways of doing things.
G Whether all this will happen is arguable. Forecasting the future is always fraught with difficulties. For instance, Mannermann (1998) sees future studies as part art and part science and notes, “The future is full of surprises, uncertainty, trends, and trend breaks, irrationality and rationality, and it is changing and escaping from our hands as time goes by. It is also the result of actions made by innumerable more or less powerful forces.” What seems certain is that the organizational world is changing at a fast rate - even if the direction of change is not always predictable. Consequently, it is crucial that organizational managers and decision makers are aware of and able to analyze the factors which trigger organizational change.
Reading Passage Vocabulary
A The forces that operate to bring about change in organizations can be thought of as winds which are many and varied - from small summer breezes that merely disturb a few papers, to mighty howling gales which cause devastation to structures and operations, causing consequent reorientation of purpose and rebuilding. Sometimes, however, the winds die down to give periods of relative calm, periods of relative organizational stability. 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 labor) 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 little more than subsistence level.
B To continue with the meteorological metaphor, stronger winds of change blew to bring in the Industrial Revolution and the industrial age. Again, according to Goodman, this lasted for a long time, until around 1945. 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 goods that were previously difficult to obtain; for organizations, supplying these goods in ever-increasing numbers became the aim. To a large extent, demand and supply were predictable, enabling companies to structure their organizations 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 carried on for some time, with demand still coming mainly from the domestic market and organizations striving to fill the “supply gap.” Thus, the environmental influence with the greatest impact on organizations of this time was the demand for products, which outstripped supply. The saying attributed to Henry Ford that “You can have any color of the car so long as it is black,” gives a sense of the supply-led state of the market. Apart from any technical difficulties in producing different colors of the 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 the effort being put into increasing production through more effective and efficient production processes.
D As time passed, this favorable period for organizations 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, organizations faced more intense 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 served 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.
F Today, in the post-industrial age, most people agree that organizational life is becoming ever more uncertain, as the pace of change quickens and the future becomes less predictable. Two US academics, Nadler and Tushman wrote in 1999, “Poised on the eve of the next century, we are witnessing a profound transformation in the very nature of our business organizations. Historic forces have converged to fundamentally reshape the scope, strategies, and structures of large enterprises.” At a less general level of analysis, Graeme Leach, Chief Economist at the British Institute of Directors, claimed in the Guardian newspaper (2000) that, “By 2020, the nine-to-five rat race will be extinct and present levels of self-employment, commuting and technology use, as well as age and sex gaps, will have changed beyond recognition.” According to the article, Leach anticipates that: “In 20 years time, 20-25 percent of the workforce will be temporary workers and many more will be flexible...25 percent of people will no longer work in a traditional office and...50 percent will work from home in some form.” Continuing to use the “winds of change” metaphor, the expectations of damaging gale-force winds bringing the need for rebuilding that takes the opportunity to incorporate new ideas and ways of doing things.
G Whether all this will happen is arguable. Forecasting the future is always fraught with difficulties. For instance, Mannermann (1998) sees future studies as part art and part science and notes, “The future is full of surprises, uncertainty, trends, and trend breaks, irrationality and rationality, and it is changing and escaping from our hands as time goes by. It is also the result of actions made by innumerable more or less powerful forces.” What seems certain is that the organizational world is changing at a fast rate - even if the direction of change is not always predictable. Consequently, it is crucial that organizational managers and decision makers are aware of and able to analyze the factors which trigger organizational change.
IELTS Academic Reading Tips for Success
Tips to improve your reading speed
Keep in mind, having a slow reading speed makes skimming or scanning a reading passage more difficult. The process of quickly skimming through a reading passage for specific keywords or main ideas is a requirement for you to employ successful reading strategies to improve your IELTS reading score. In other words, skimming and scanning are critical skills to ensure you complete all questions in the allotted time frame.
IELTS Reading Strategies
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Step 1: Read questions first
One of the most common mistakes that candidates make when approaching the reading exam is reading every single word of the passages. Although you can practice for the exam by reading for pleasure, "reading blindly" (reading without any sense of what the questions will ask) will not do you any favors in the exam. Instead, it will hurt your chances for effectively managing your time and getting the best score.
The main reason to read the questions first is because the type of question may determine what you read in the passage or how you read it. For example, some question types will call for the "skimming" technique, while others may call for the "scanning" technique.It is important to answer a set of questions that are of the same question type. You'll need to determine which question type you want to tackle first. A good strategy would be to start with the easier question type and move on to more difficult question types later. The Easiest question types are the ones where you spend less time reading. For example, the Matching Heading question type is an easier one because you only need to find the heading that best describes the main idea of a paragraph. An example of a difficult question type would be Identifying Information. For this question type, you'll need to read each paragraph to find out if each statement is TRUE, FALSE, or NOT GIVEN according to the passage.
Here is a table that lists the difficulty levels for each question type. Use this table as a reference when choosing which question type you want to tackle first.
Difficulty level Question Type Easy Sentence Completion
Short answerMedium Matching Features
Multiple choice
Matching Headings
Summary, Table, Flow-Chart CompletionDifficult Matching Sentence Endings
Matching Information
Identifying Information (TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN)
Identifying Viewer's claims (YES/NO/NOT GIVEN)
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Step 2: Read for an objective
After you've read the questions for the passage, you will be able to read for an objective. What does this mean? For example, if you come across a question that includes the year "1896", you can make a note of when this year comes up in the text, using it to answer the question later on. There are two reading techniques that will help you stay on track with reading for an objective. The first one, skimming, is best defined as reading fast in order to get the "gist", or general idea, or a passage. With this technique, you are not stopping for any unfamiliar words or looking for specific details. The second technique, scanning, is best defined as reading for specific information. With this technique, you are not reading for the overall gist, but rather, specific information. Notice how each of these techniques has a specific objective in mind. This will help you find information more quickly.
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Step 3: Take notes
As you're reading for an objective, you should also be making notes on the margins of the passage, placing stars next to key information, or underlining things that you believe will help you answer the various questions. This will make it easier for you to check back when you are asked certain things in the questions. Choose whichever note-taking system is right for you - just make sure you do it!
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Step 4: Answer wisely
After you've read the questions, read the passage, and have taken any appropriate notes, you you should have located the part of the text where you where you need to read carefully. Then just read carefully and think critically to determine the correct answer.
IELTS Reading Question Types
The IELTS reading test contains many different question types:
| Matching Headings | IELTS Reading Lesson: Matching Headings |
| Matching Information | IELTS Reading Lesson: Matching Information |
| Matching Features | IELTS Reading Lesson: Matching Features |
| Summary Completion | IELTS Reading Lesson: Summary Completion |
| Identifying Information | IELTS Reading Lesson: Identifying Information |
| Identifying Writer's claims | IELTS Reading Lesson: Identifying Writer's claims |
| Multiple Choice | IELTS Reading Lesson: Multiple Choice |
| Short Answer | IELTS Reading Lesson: Short Answer |
| Match Sentence Ending | IELTS Reading Lesson: Match Sentence Ending |
| Sentence Completion | IELTS Reading Lesson: Sentence Completion |
| Table Completion | IELTS Reading Lesson: Table Completion |