Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the option that best fits each of the following questions from 31 to 40.
CHANGE IN BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS
1. The forces driving change in organisations can be compared to winds - ranging from mild breezes to powerful gales. [I] During this time, wealth was created within an agriculturally based society influenced by local markets and factors like weather. People could predict life’s cycles, which, although often at a subsistence level, were manageable and stable. [II]
2. Stronger winds of change arrived with the Industrial Revolution, marking the shift to the industrial age. This period, which lasted until around 1945, was characterised by technological innovations that reduced the need for agricultural labor and enabled the mass production of goods. [III] Organisations were structured along mechanistic lines of rigid hierarchies and strong controls to manage predictable demand and supply. The goal was to produce more and meet the growing demand for manufactured goods.
3. As time passed, organisations faced new challenges. [IV] In the neo-industrial age, consumer preferences became more diverse, and supply began to outstrip demand. Companies sought new markets abroad, and competition intensified. In the West, a transition occurred from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-oriented one, where organisations prioritized enhancing product value instead of merely boosting output levels. This period marked the beginning of what Goodman (1995) refers to as the ‘value-oriented’ time.
4. Today, in the post-industrial age, change is accelerating. The pace of innovation and globalisation is increasing, making the future harder to predict. According to Nadler and Tushman (1999), we are witnessing a profound transformation in organisational strategies, structures, and scope. By 2020, predictions suggested that 25-30% of the workforce would be temporary, and many employees would work from home.
5. Though forecasting the future is uncertain, one thing is clear: organisational change is inevitable and rapid. For instance, Mannesmann (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 organisational world is changing at a fast rate - even if the direction of change is not always predictable. Consequently, it is crucial that organisational managers and decision makers have a good grasp of and are able to analyse the factors which trigger organisational change.
(Adapted from IELTS Practice Test Plus 3)