Buzz
Today, we have more strategies for time management, project coordination, and self-organization than ever before in human history. We're constantly advised to organize our companies, home lives, weeks, days, and even our sleep to enhance productivity. Each week, numerous seminars and workshops worldwide promote the idea that structuring life leads to success.
This mindset has also infiltrated the thinking of business leaders and entrepreneurs, especially appealing to self-proclaimed perfectionists obsessed with getting everything right. The proliferation of business schools and graduates over the past 50 years emphasizes effective organization.
B Ironically, however, the number of business that fail has also steadily increased. Work-related stress has increased. A large proportion of workers from all demographics claim to be dissatisfied with the way their work is structured and the way they are managed.
This raises the question: what's gone awry? Why does the pursuit of organization, promising increased productivity on paper, often fall short in reality?
C This has been a problem for a while now. Frederick Taylor was one of the forefathers of scientific management. Writing in the first half of the 20th century, he designed a number of principles to improve the efficiency of the work process, which have since become widespread in modern companies. So the approach has been around for a while.
D New research suggests that this obsession with efficiency is misguided. The problem is not necessarily the management theories or strategies we use to organise our work; it’s the basic assumptions we hold in approaching how we work. Here it’s the assumption that order is a necessary condition for productivity. This assumption has also fostered the idea that disorder must be detrimental to organizational productivity. The result is that businesses and people spend time and money organising themselves for the sake of organising, rather than actually looking at the end goal and usefulness of such an effort.
E What’s more, recent studies show that order actually has diminishing returns. Order does increase productivity to a certain extent, but eventually the usefulness of the process of organisation, and the benefit it yields, reduce until the point where any further increase in order reduces productivity. Some argue that in a business, if the cost of formally structuring something outweighs the benefit of doing it, then that thing ought not to be formally structured. Instead, the resources involved can be better used elsewhere.
F In fact, research shows that, when innovating, the best approach is to create an environment devoid of structure and hierarchy and enable everyone involved to engage as one organic group. These environments can lead to new solutions that, under conventionally structured environments (filled with bottlenecks in term of information flow, power structures, rules, and routines) would never be reached.
G In recent times companies have slowly started to embrace this disorganisation. Many of them embrace it in terms of perception (embracing the idea of disorder, as opposed to fearing it) and in terms of process (putting mechanisms in place to reduce structure).
For instance, Oticon, a major Danish producer of hearing aids, adopted what it termed a ‘spaghetti’ structure to diminish the organization’s rigid hierarchies. This entailed abandoning formal job titles and granting employees significant autonomy over their time and projects. This approach initially proved highly successful, leading to noticeable enhancements in workforce efficiency across all areas of the enterprise.
Similarly, the former chairman of General Electric championed disorganization, advocating for the concept of the ‘boundaryless’ organization. Once more, this involved breaking down barriers between different segments of a company, promoting virtual collaboration and flexible work arrangements. Companies like Google and numerous other tech firms have embraced (at least in part) these flexible structures, empowered by technology and strong corporate values that foster unity among employees.
H A word of warning to others thinking of jumping on this bandwagon: the evidence so far suggests disorder, much like order, also seems to have diminishing utility, and can also have detrimental effects on performance if overused. Like order, disorder should be embraced only so far as it is useful. But we should not fear it – nor venerate one over the other. This research also shows that we should continually question whether or not our existing assumptions work.
Questions 1-8
Reading Passage has eight sections, A-H
Select the appropriate heading from the list below for each section.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i Complaints about the impact of a certain approach
ii Fundamental beliefs that are in fact incorrect
iii Early recommendations concerning business activities
iv Organisations that put a new approach into practice
v Companies that have suffered from changing their approach
vi What people are increasingly expected to do
vii How to achieve outcomes that are currently impossible
viii Neither approach guarantees continuous improvement
ix Evidence that a certain approach can have more disadvantages that advantages
- Section A
- Section B
- Section C
- Section D
- Section E
- Section F
- Section G
- Section H
Questions 9-11
Finish the sentences below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-11 on your answer sheet.
9 Numerous training sessions are aimed at people who feel they are not ………………………. enough.
10 Being organised appeals to people who regard themselves as ……………………………
11 Many people feel ……………………….. with aspects of their work.
Questions 12-14
Do the statements below agree with the information in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 12-14 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
12 Both businesses and people aim at order without really considering its value.
13 Innovation is most successful if the people involved have distinct roles.
14 Google was inspired to adopt flexibility by the success of General Electric.
Answers:- vi (Đoạn A, “We are told that…achieve this” -> Những điều con người mong muốn để sắp xếp lại trật tự nơi công sở)
- i (Đoạn B, “Ironically, … are managed” -> Tác giả than phiền về các vấn đề có thể gặp phải khi áp dụng phương pháp đó)
- iii (Đoạn C, “Writing in the first half of the 20th century…” -> từ ngày xưa đã có recommendations)
- ii ( Đoạn D, “New research suggests…misguided” -> Thông tin bị sai lệch)
- ix (Đoạn E, “What’s more, recent studies showed…” -> Bằng chứng về những tác hại nhiều hơn là mặt lợi)
- vii (Đoạn F, “These recommendations … never be reached” -> Những điều này không thể nào thực hiện được)
- iv (Đoạn G, “Danish manufacturer…” -> Tổ chức đã thực hiện phương pháp này)
- viii (Đoạn H, “This research also shows that … assumptions work” -> Không có sự đảm bảo rằng những phương pháp này sẽ thành công)
- Productive (Đoạn A, “We are told that we ought to organize our company, our home life, our week, our day and seven our sleep, all as a means to becoming more productive.”)
- Perfectionists (Đoạn A, “This rhetoric has also crept into the thinking of business leaders and entrepreneurs, much to the delight of self-proclaimed perfectionists with the need to get everything right.”)
- Dissatisfied (Đoạn B, “A large proportion of workers from all demographics claim to be dissatisfied with the way their work is structured and the way they are managed.”)
- TRUE (Đoạn D, “The result is that…such an effort -> Con người quan tâm đến việc xây dựng trật tự doanh nghiệp hơn là mục tiêu cuối cùng -> Khớp với câu hỏi)
- FALSE (Đoạn F, “In fact,…one organic group” -> Mọi người cần phải chung tay góp sức mới dẫn đến thành công chứ không phải chỉ làm tốt vai trò riêng rẽ -> Trái ngược với câu hỏi)
- NOT GIVEN (Không có thông tin về việc Google được truyền cảm hứng với General Electric)
