Father of Modern Management Reading Answers

Sayantani Barman

Dec 14, 2022

Father of Modern Management Reading Answers contains six passages and 14 different types of questions. Candidates will be shown various question types with clear instructions in this IELTS Section. Father of Modern Management Reading Answers comprises three types of questions: Matching heading, sentence completion, and Choose the correct option. For the Matching heading, candidates need to thoroughly go through each passage. For sentence completion, candidates need to skim the IELTS Reading passage for keywords and understand the concept. To choose the correct option, candidates must read the IELTS Reading passage and understand the statement provided. Candidates can practice more from the IELTS reading practice test to gain accuracy in this section.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Father of Modern Management Reading Answers

  1. It’s been said that Peter Drucker invented the discipline of management. Before he wrote his first book on the topic, he knew of only two companies in the world with management development programs. Ten years after the book’s publication, 3,000 companies were teaching the subject. Widely considered as the father of “modem management,” he wrote 39 books and countless scholarly and popular articles exploring how humans are organized in all sectors of society—business, government and the nonprofit world. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to a world economic power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning.

  2. Drucker has said that writing is die foundation of everything he does. In 1937, he published his first book, which was written in Europe. The End of Economic Man: A Study of the New Totalitarianism examined the spiritual and social origins of fascism. In 1940, before the United States entered World War n, he wrote The Future of Industrial Man, in which he presented his social vision for the postwar world. In 1943, General Motors asked Drucker to study its management practices. Drucker accepted and spent 18 months researching and writing the 1945 book. Concept of the Corporation.
  3. The concepts Drucker introduced in the 1940s and 1950s have endured. In 1954, Drucker wrote his first book that taught people how to manage. Tided The Practice of Management, it introduced the concept of “management by objectives”. Management by objectives require managers to establish goals for theft subordinates and devise means of measuring results. Workers are then left alone to perform as they will and measure theft performance. Drucker wrote, “It is not possible to be effective unless one first decides what one wants to accomplish. He went on to explain that every worker must be given the tools “to appraise himself, rather than be appraised and controlled from the outside. Management by objectives has become an accepted business concept and is probably Drucker’s most important contribution. Drucker issued challenges to junior, middle and senior management: ‘The very term “middle management” is becoming meaningless [as some] will have to learn how to work with people over whom they have no direct line control, to work transnationally, and to create, maintain, and run systems-none of which are traditionally middle management tasks. “It is top management that faces the challenge of setting directions for the enterprise, of managing the fundamentals.
  4. Drucker interviewed executives and workers, visited plants, and attended board meetings. While the book focused on General Motors, Drucker went on to discuss the industrial corporation as a social institution and economic policy in the postwar era. He introduced previously unknown concepts such as cooperation between labor and management, decentralization of management, and viewing workers as resources rather than costs. Drucker saw people as a resource, and considered that they would be more able to satisfy customers if they had more involvement in then jobs and gained some satisfaction from doing them. Drucker claimed that an industrial society allows people to realize their dreams of personal achievement and equal opportunity-the need to manage business by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value. This concept of management by objectives forms the keynote of his 1954 landmark The Practice of Management. He referred to decentralization as ‘a system of local self government, in which central management tells division managers what to do, but not how to do it. The young executives are given the freedom to make decisions — and mistakes — and learn from the experience. Top leaders at General Motors disliked the book and discouraged their executives from reading it. Many other American executives criticized Concept for its challenge to management authority.
  5. Drucker wasn’t immune to criticism. The Wall Street Journal researched several of his lectures in 1987 and reported that he was sometimes loose with facts. Drucker was off the mark, for example, when he told an audience that English was the official language for all employees at Japan’s Mitsui trading company. And he was known for his prescience. Given the recent involvement of the US government with financial companies, he was probably correct in his forecast when he anticipated, for instance, that the nation’s financial center would shift from New York to Washington, others maintain that one of Drucker’s core concepts-“management by objectives” -is flawed and has never really been proven to work effectively. Specifically, critics say that the system is difficult to implement, and that companies often wind up overemphasizing control, as opposed to fostering creativity, to meet their goals. Drucker didn’t shy away from controversy, either.
  6. Throughout his career, Drucker expanded his position that management was “a liberal art and he infused his management advice with interdisciplinary lessons including history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, culture and religion. He also strongly believed that all institutions, including those in the private sector, had a responsibility for the whole society. “The fact is,” Drucker wrote in 1973, “that in modem society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, especially in business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will.” In his books, lectures and interviews, the emergence of knowledge workers is only one of the demographic changes Drucker warns businesses to prepare for. Others include a decreasing birth rate in developed countries, a shift in population from rural to urban centers, shifts in distribution of disposable income and global competitiveness. Drucker believes these changes will have a tremendous impact on business. Drucker held a profound skepticism of macroeconomic theory and contended that economists of all schools fail to explain significant aspects of modem economies. Business “gums” have come and gone during the last 50 years, but Drucker’s message continues to inspire managers. During the 1990s, Drucker wrote about social, political and economic changes of the” postcapitalist” era, which he says are as profound as those of the industrial revolution. In Managing for the Future: The 1990s and Beyond (1992), Drucker discussed the emergence of the “knowledge worker” — whose resources include specialized learning or competency rather than land, labor or other forms of capital.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation
Question 14-19

Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list below.
Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

List of Heading

  1. The popularity and impact of Drucker’s work
  2. Finding fault with Drucker
  3. The impact of economic globalization
  4. Government regulation of business
  5. Early publication of Drucker’s
  6. Drucker’s view of balanced management
  7. Drucker’s rejection of big business
  8. An appreciation of the pros and cons of Drucker’s work
  9. The changing role of the employee

Question. 14. Paragraph A

Answer: i
Supporting Statement
: "The range of influence was extraordinary. Wherever people grapple with tricky management problems from big to small ones, from public to private, and increasingly in the voluntary sector, you can find Drucker's fingerprint ”
Keywords
: influence
Keyword Location
: para A, line 5
Explanation
: Anyone with complex management issues, whether they work for a large or small company, in the public or private sector, or in a publicly or privately organization, can find a solution in Drucker's works.

Question. 15. Paragraph B

Answer: v
Supporting Statement
: “His first two economic books – The End of Economic Man (1939) and The Future of Industrial Man (1942) had their admirers, including Winston Churchill, but they annoyed academic critics by ranging so widely over so many different subjects. ”
Keywords
: first two economics
Keyword Location
: Para B, line 1
Explanation
: The End of Economic Man (1939) as Well as the Future of Industrial Man (1942), Drucker's first two books, received both praise and criticism from a wide audience.

Question. 16. Paragraph C

Answer: viii
Supporting Statement
: “The first had to do with empowering workers.”
Keywords
: empowering
Keyword Location
: Para C, line 3
Explanation
: Drucker opposed the assembly line production method that predominated at the time in the manufacturing industry. He also claimed that the employees needed to increase their knowledge. The boss needs to stop treating the employees like human machines and start letting them function like brain workers.

Question. 17. Paragraph D

Answer: vi
Supporting Statement
: “In one of his most substantial works, The Practice of Management, he emphasized the importance of managers and corporations setting clear long term objectives and then translating those long term objectives into more immediate goals.”
Keywords
: emphasized
Keyword Location
: Para D, line 4
Explanation
: He suggested that the businesses needed both a group of more specialist managers and an elite corps of general managers who would set these long-term goals.

Question. 18. Paragraph E

Answer: ii
Supporting Statement
: “There are three persistent criticisms of Drucker’s work”
Keywords
: Criticism
Keyword Location
: Para E, line1
Explanation
:  His focus on large companies at the expense of smaller ones was his initial point of criticism. He was also blamed for guiding the company towards a dead end with his zeal for management by objectives.

Question. 19. Paragraph F

Answer: vii
Supporting Statement
: “There is some truth in the first two arguments", "But the third arguments are short-sighted and unfair because it ignores Drucker's pioneering role in creating the modern profession of management"
Keywords
: Truth in the first two arguments, the third argument is short-sighted and unfair
Keyword Location
: Para F, line 1
Explanation
: The work of Drucker has both benefits and drawbacks. It has been said in this paragraph that the man and his opinions are debatable. His management of nonprofit organizations has consistently been state-of-the-art..

Question 20-23:

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet, write

YES- if the statement agrees with what is stated in the passage
NO- if the statement counters what is stated in the passage
NOT GIVEN- if the statement is no relevant information given in the passage

Question. 20. Drucker believed the employees should enjoy the same status as the employers in a company.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: The reading text omits providing the necessary details.

Question. 21. Drucker argued the managers and politicians will dominate the economy during a social transition

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: The reading text omits providing the necessary details.

Question. 22. Drucker support that workers are not simply put themselves just in the employment relationship and should develop their resources of intelligence voluntarily

Answer: YES
Supporting Statement
: “Druckers argued that the world is moving from an economy of goods to an economy of knowledge- and from a society dominated by an industrial proletariat to one dominated by brain workers. He insisted that this has profound implications for both managers and politicians. Managers had to stop treating workers like cogs in a huge inhuman machine and start treating them as brain workers”
Keywords
: cogs,Brain workers
Keyword Location
: para C, line 12
Explanation
: Drucker stated that businesses should not treat their employees like cogs in impersonal machines, but should instead give them the freedom to use their minds while at work.

Question. 23. Drucker’s work on management is out of date in modern days

Answer: NO
Supporting Statement
: “The Concept of the Corporation, become an instant bestseller and has remained in print ever since“
Keywords
: bestseller and remained in print ever since
Keyword Location
: Para B, line 6
Explanation
: Drucker's third book, which is still in print, demonstrates how in-demand his management writing is.

Question 24-25:

Choose TWO letters from A-E
Write your answers in boxes 24 and 25 on your answers sheet
Which TWO of the following are true of Drucker’s views?

  1. High-rank executives and workers should be put in balanced positions in management practice
  2. Young executives should be given chances to start from low-level jobs
  3. More emphasis should be laid on fostering the development of the union
  4. Management should facilitate workers with tools of self-appraisal instead of controlling them from the outside force
  5. Leaders should go beyond the scope of management details and strategically establish goals.

Question 24:

Answer: A
Supporting Statement
: “They had to come to terms with the fact that they were neither bosses nor workers, but something in between: entrepreneurs who had responsibility for developing their most important resource, brainpower and also who needed to take more control of their own careers, including their pension plans."
Keywords
: Bosses, workers
Keyword Location
: para C, line 16
Explanation
:  According to Drucker, employees and employers should not behave like leaders and subordinates but rather should both use their knowledge to advance the organization.

Question 25:

Answer: E
Supporting Statement
: "For Drucker, it was all perfectly consistent: if you rely too much on empowerment you risk anarchy, whereas if you rely too much on command- and -control you sacrifice creativity."
Keywords
: if you rely too much on empowerment you risk anarchy, whereas if you rely too much on command- and -control you sacrifice creativity
Keyword Location
: Para D, line 8
Explanation
: In order to accomplish their goals, leaders must use creativity and go above and beyond the management principles.

Questions 26-27:

Choose TWO letters from A- E
Write your answers in boxes 26 and 27 on your answers sheet
Which TWO of the following are mentioned in the passage as criticisms to Drucker and his views?

  1. His lectures focus too much on big organizations and ignore the small ones.
  2. His lectures are too broad and lack being precise and accurate about the facts
  3. He put a source of objectives more on corporate executives but not on average workers
  4. He acted much like a maverick and did not set up his own management groups
  5. He was overstating the case for knowledge workers when warning business to get prepared

Question 26:

Answer: A
Supporting Statement
: “.. he focused on big organizations rather than small ones.”
Keywords
: Big organization, small ones
Keyword Location
: para E, line 2
Explanation
: Drucker received criticism for focusing exclusively on large companies as opposed to more modest ones.

Question 27:

Answer: C
Supporting Statement
: “The second criticism is that Druker’s enthusiasm for management by objectives helped to lead the business down a dead end.”
Keywords
: management by objectives
Keyword Location
: para E, line 7
Explanation
: Drucker received criticism for his zeal for management goals that contributed to a company's downfall.

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