Directions (Q.Nos.1– 8): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Can India make it to a leadership position in the new millennium or will it retain the ‘fast-train- going slow’ image of the last 50 odd years? Most people believe that the potential for our country to succeed is huge. They are also disappointed at the inability to convert the natural advantages we possess into tangible benefits. The recent success of our InfoTech industry globally has reinforced the belief that when we put our mind to it we can and do succeed. Now, the expectation is that this success will be replicated in other areas. There is no doubt that India’s future will be driven by the intellectual capital of its people. Even though many of the billion Indian people are and will continue for the foreseeable future to live in a third-world setting, there are many Indians with the skills, ability and aspiration to prosper and flourish in a third- world environment. It is, therefore, likely that India will, at the same time, belong to both the First and Third worlds. That First world environment will be powered increasingly by knowledge workers and brain ware. India clearly has the numbers. It needs to invest in training and skill-building and also encourage entrepreneurship and risk-taking. I have no magic recipe to convert India’s people power into a competitive advantage on global basis. Also, I am nowhere near qualified to address macro issues like universal education and school curricula. Therefore, I have to shrink the issue into a familiar framework of ‘growing our people’. It is imperative that Indian businesses pay more than lip service to the empowerment of their employees. We have to break the ‘do-as-you-are-told’ mentality which inhibits creativity and promotes the culture of servitude long after our ‘foreign masters’ are gone. Together with empowerment, there has to be a culture of personal accountability so that everyone realizes the necessity of valuing commitment.
In all areas of activity, seniority and hierarchies (if any) must be based purely on merit. Seniority, like respect, must be earned and not’ termed’, i.e., based on the length of service. Future organizations will be based on communities and interaction between individuals and teams both within and outside the organization. The work environment, both with respect to physical space as well as culture, must be barrierless /boundaryless, allowing the ‘impromptu’ and regular interaction across workgroups/teams. Organizations must accept that empowerment and personal accountability should go hand in hand with a degree of tolerance for mistakes and failures. Mistakes and failures are good learning opportunities for our people and should be regarded as such unless repeated. Tolerance would also provide a safety net for those prepared to take risks, a quality rarely seen among Indian executives today but crucial to succeed in the new economy. Organizations must be as transparent as possible with their employees. Both good and bad news must be shared. Often organizations and their leadership wrongly believe that the employees are not interested in certain information or more arrogantly, decide that information is best withheld, as it is beyond the comprehension of their employees. Knowledge sharing must be pushed at all levels through a carrot-and-stick approach. Those who continuously hoard knowledge must be weeded out. Everyone must come to work thinking that they will learn and add to their skills. Performance management must be institutionalized to give everyone a clear understanding of organizational goals, team goals, the individual’s role or goals within a team, rewards which follow from meeting goals and career opportunities in the organization. Encourage a sense of commitment to the community among your employees. Apart from making them feel good about themselves it also affords opportunities for them to work as teams in a non-work environment. Above all, make work fun. If people, however talented, show up at work because it is a lob’, then they are unlikely to realize their full potential. The above is not an exhaustive list for each organization to get the best out of its people. But if each organization addresses some of these issues then people will grow individually and collectively. This is bound to have a beneficial effect on harnessing and driving their intellectual capital.
1.The author attributes success of India in InfoTech (4)
(1) do-as-you-are-told mentality
(2) lazy and intolerant attitude of Indians
(3) growing global economy
(4) realizing the latent intellectual capital
(5) None of the above
2.Which of the following is the best way for industry to organizations to be transparent? (1)
(1) Share both good and bad news at all levels
(2) Share only that information which employees can understand
(3) Share only good news and withhold bad news
(4) Only relevant information should be shared
(5) None of the above
3.The ‘carrot-and-stick’ method will realize which of the following objectives? (4)
(1) The accountability of the employees will improve
(2) The confidential information will remain as guarded secret
(3) There will be improvement in the skill of employees
(4) The free flow of knowledge and information will improve
(5) None of the above
4.Which of the following measures, if adopted, according to the passage, will make employees value commitment’?’Strengthening the skills II. Giving necessary instructions III. Fixing accountability (2)
(1) II and III
(2) I and III
(3) All of these
(4) Either I or II and III
(5) None of these
5.The phrase “fast-train-going-slow” in the passage refers to Following the old policies of governance II. Not realizing the inbuilt potential (2)
(1) Only I
(2) Only II
(3) Either I or II
(4) Neither I nor II
(5) Both I and II
6.Which of the following provides good learning opportunities? (5)
(1) High level of tolerance for failure
(2) Repeating the mistakes till learning takes place
(3) Overlooking the mistakes of the employees
(4) Making efforts not to do the same mistake again
(5) None of the above
7.The phrase “seniority, like respect, must be earned” refers to (3)
I.The seniority must reflect the expertise and knowledge.
II.The earning of seniority should be related to length of services.
III.Merit should decide seniority.
(1) II and III
(2) I and II
(3) I and III
(4) All of these
(5) Neither I nor II and III
8.Which of the following best describes the word `framework’ as used in the passage? (3)
(1) Working within frame
(2) Fixing frame for the assigned work
(3) The basic premise
(4) Devising a defined work culture
(5) None of the above
