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  3. Though not the ideal shape for a Christmas stocking, this slim little volume

Though not the ideal shape for a Christmas stocking, this slim little volume

游客2023-12-17  16
问题    Though not the ideal shape for a Christmas stocking, this slim little volume could nevertheless make a welcome seasonal gift. Launched in Britain at the end of October, and covering just under 100 pages (with paragraphs inset almost to the middle of the page), it is not much more than an extended essay. But it presents an interesting idea eloquently and clearly, offering digestible brain food amid a surfeit of turkey and television.
   The author, Gerard Fairtlough, was a senior executive with Shell for many years before he left in 1980 to found a new biotechnology company called Celltech--recently bought by UCB, a Belgian group, for over $2 billion. He knows how businesses are run both well-established organisations, such as Shell, in which it can be hard to see an alternative to "the way things are done around here", and new start-ups, where the founders’ enthusiasm can evaporate if it has to be corralled into an organogram.
   The author’s thesis is that we are all addicted to hierarchy--partly because that is how we are hardwired, as are our simian cousins, but also because we do not realise there are other ways to run organisations. "The hegemony of hierarchy," writes Mr. Fairtlough, "makes us think the only alternative is disorganisation. we only compare hierarchy with anarchy or chaos."
   There are, he says, two alternatives to hierarchy (hence the title of the book). One is heterarchy; the other, "responsible autonomy".  Heterarchy is the form of structure commonly found in professional service firms, the partnerships of accountants or lawyers in which key decisions are taken by all the partners jointly. With responsible autonomy "an individual or a group has autonomy to decide what to do, but is accountable for the outcome of the decision." "Accountability," says Mr. Fairtlough, "is what makes responsible autonomy different from anarchy."
   The author says that hierarchy is so entrenched it will take years before there is any significant change. But he perhaps gives too little credit to the many companies that have moved (and are still moving) along the spectrum from hierarchy to responsible autonomy. BP, for example, a huge multinational, has managed to devolve authority to much smaller units in recent years and has decimated the staff in its headquarters. Toyota, likewise, evolved towards greater autonomy as it discovered that the only effective way to carry out its famous "just-in-time" system of stock control was by delegating responsibility for ordering stock to the person closest to the coal face. The fact that these are among the most successful companies in the world today strengthens Mr. Fairtlough’s case.
   The author has not just written a book, he has also set up a publishing firm to produce it. But Triarchy Press is not a vanity publisher, It exists because Mr. Fairtlough believes that traditional business-book publishers are too focused on engineering bestsellers. He wants Triarchy Press to provide a sort of transition, a way books can test the water, at low cost, to see how the public responds. If they get a warm reception they can subsequently be given the full publishing treatment. The danger is that the public will not notice. For first they have to find their way to a website: www. TriarchyPress. co. uk. [br] According to the book reviewer, what is the practical situation of the structure of companies?
选项 A、Hierarchy is not the only way.
B、Many companies have found other alternatives.
C、It will take a long time to change the existing structure.
D、Heterarchy seems to be better than responsibly autonomy.
答案 A
解析 细节题。文章中提到本文作者观点的地方只有一处，即第五段第二句，前文提到Gerard认为公司要想在运营方式方面有较大的改变还需很长时间，紧接着作者给出了自己的观点，即现在很多公司已经在向 responsible autonomy方面转变，接着给出了BP、Toyota等公司作为具体例证，可见本文作者认为等级制度不是公司唯一的运营方式，但并没有认为很多公司已经找到了出路，排除[B]，答案为[A]。
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