Motivating Employees Under Adverse Conditions Reading Answers
The IELTS Reading section analyzes students’ proficiency in reading skills. The IELTS exam is based on assessing students' proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening of the language. The IELTS Reading section is for analysing how well students read the given passage and answer the questions from the passage. The IELTS academic reading consists of a passage on a given topic which students need to complete within 60 minutes for responding to 40 questions for 3-4 passages. In order to ace this section students need to be prepared from the IELTS Reading Sample Papers effectively. Motivating Employees Under Adverse Conditions Reading Answers is a topic which candidates can find useful. The question types included within this passage are as follows:
- Choose the correct heading
- Yes/No/Not Given
- Match Group with description
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Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
Motivating Employees Under Adverse Conditions Reading Answers
THE CHALLENGE
It is a great deal easier to motivate employees in a growing organisation than a declining one. When organisations are expanding and adding personnel, promotional opportunities, pay rises, and the excitement of being associated with a dynamic organisation create Slings of optimism. Management is able to use the growth to entice and encourage employees. When an organisation is shrinking, the best and most mobile workers are prone to leave voluntarily. Unfortunately, they are the ones the organisation can least afford to lose- those with the highest skills and experience. The minor employees remain because their job options are limited.
Morale also surfers during decline. People fear they may be the next to be made redundant. Productivity often suffers, as employees spend their time sharing rumours and providing one another with moral support rather than focusing on their jobs. For those whose jobs are secure, pay increases are rarely possible. Pay cuts, unheard of during times of growth, may even be imposed. The challenge to management is how to motivate employees under such retrenchment conditions. The ways of meeting this challenge can be broadly divided into six Key Points, which are outlined below.
KEY POINT ONE
There is an abundance of evidence to support the motivational benefits that result from carefully matching people to jobs. For example, if the job is running a small business or an autonomous units within a larger business, high achievers should be sought. However, if the job to be filled is a managerial post in a large bureaucratic organisation, a candidate who has a high need for power and a low need for affiliation should be selected. Accordingly, high achievers should not be put into jobs that are inconsistent with their needs. High achievers will do best when the job provides moderately challenging goals and where there is independence and feedback. However, it should be remembered that not everybody is motivated by jobs that are high in independence, variety and responsibility.
KEY POINT TWO
The literature on goal-setting theory suggests that managers should ensure that all employees have specific goals and receive comments on how well they are doing in those goals. For those with high achievement needs, typically a minority in any organisation, the existence of external goals is less important because high achievers are already internally motivated. The next factor to be determined is whether the goals should be assigned by a manager or collectively set in conjunction with the employees. The answer to that depends on perceptions of the culture, however, goals should be assigned. If participation and the culture are incongruous, employees are likely to perceive the participation process as manipulative and be negatively affected by it.
KEY POINT THREE
Regardless of whether goals are achievable or well within management’s perceptions of the employee’s ability, if employees see them as unachievable they will reduce their effort. Managers must be sure, therefore, that employees feel confident that their efforts can lead to performance goals. For managers, this means that employees must have the capability of doing the job and must regard the appraisal process as valid.
KEY POINT FOUR
Since employees have different needs, what acts as a reinforcement far one may not for another. Managers could use their knowledge of each employee to personalise the rewards over which they have control. Some of the more obvious rewards that managers allocate include pay, promotions, autonomy, job scope and depth, and the opportunity lo participate in goal-setting and decision-making.
KEY POINT FIVE
Managers need to make rewards contingent on performance. To reward factors other than performance will only reinforce those other factors. Key rewards such as pay increases and promotions or advancements should be allocated for the attainment of the employee’s specific goals. Consistent with maximising the impact of rewards, managers should look for ways to increase their visibility. Eliminating the secrecy surrounding pay by openly communicating everyone’s remuneration, publicising performance bonuses and allocating annual salary increases in a lump sum rather than spreading them out over an entire year are examples of actions that will make rewards more visible and potentially more motivating.
KEY POINT SIX
The way rewards are distributed should be transparent so that employees perceive that rewards or outcomes are equitable and equal to the inputs given. On a simplistic level, experience, abilities, effort and other obvious inputs should explain differences in pay, responsibility and other obvious outcomes. The problem, however, is complicated by the existence of dozens of inputs and outcomes and by the Fact that employee groups place different degrees of importance on them. For instance, a study comparing clerical and production workers identified nearly twenty inputs and outcomes. The clerical workers considered factors such as quality of work performed and job knowledge near the top of their list, but these were at the bottom of the production workers’ list. Similarly, production workers thought that the most important inputs were intelligence and personal involvement with task accomplishment, two factors that were quite low in the importance ratings of the clerks. There were also important, though less dramatic, differences on the outcome side. For example, production workers rated advancement very highly, whereas clerical workers rated advancement in the lower third of their list. Such findings suggest that one person’s equity is another’s inequity, so an ideal should probably weigh different inputs and outcomes according to the employee group.
Section 2
Solution and Explanation
Questions 14-18:
Reading Passage contains six Key Points.
Choose the correct heading for Key Points TWO to SIX from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings:
- Ensure the reward system is fair
- Match rewards lo individuals
- Ensure targets are realistic
- Link rewards to achievement
- Encourage managers to take more responsibility
- Recognise changes in employees’ performance over time
- Establish targets and give feedback
- Ensure employees are suited to their jobs
Question 14:
Answer: vii.
Supporting Sentence: Managers should ensure that all employees have specific goals and receive comments on how well they are doing in those goals.
Keyword: Managers, endure, employees, goals, comments.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, Line 1
Explanation: In addition to individual targets, the managers must also give suitable responses regarding the quality of work done by the employees.
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Question 15:
Answer: iii.
Supporting Sentence: Regardless of whether goals are achievable, if employees see them as unachievable, they will reduce their effort.
Keyword: Goals, achievable, employees, unachievable, reduce, effort
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, Line 1
Explanation: The managers must make certain that the varied targets given to the employees are attainable.
Question 16:
Answer: ii.
Supporting Sentence: Since employees have different needs, managers could personalise the rewards over which they have control.
Keyword: Employees, needs, managers, personalise, rewards, control.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 6, Line 1
Explanation: It is advisable that the managers should somewhat customise the rewards given to the different employees.
Question 17:
Answer: iv.
Supporting Sentence: Managers need to make rewards contingent on performance.
Keyword: Managers, rewards, contingent, performance.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 7, Line 1
Explanation: It is always advisable that the managers must give benefits to the employees on the basis of their work.
Question 18:
Answer: i.
Supporting Sentence: The way rewards are distributed should be transparent.
Keyword: Way, rewards, distributed, transparent.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, Line 1
Explanation: It is always advisable that all employees must be awarded in an unbiased manner.
Questions 19-24:
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 6-11 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
Question 19. A shrinking organisation tends to lose its less skilled employees rather than its more skilled employees.
Answer: No
Supporting Sentence: When an organisation is shrinking, the best and most mobile workers are prone to leave voluntarily.
Keyword: Organisation, shrinking, best, mobile, workers, voluntarily.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, Line 4
Explanation: The finest employees of any firm tend to resign voluntarily when such organisations decline considering that they do not find any drive or motivation to remain in the company.
Question 20. It is easier to manage a small business than a large business.
Answer: Not Given
Question 21. High achievers are well suited to team work.
Answer: No
Supporting Sentence: High achievers will do best when the job provides moderately challenging goals and where there is independence and feedback.
Keyword: High achievers, best, job, moderately challenging goals, independence, feedback.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Line 5
Explanation: The high achieving employees tend to work independently so as to accomplish relatively challenging targets where they are able to receive feedback as well
Question 22. Some employees can feel manipulated when asked to participate in goal-setting.
Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: Employees are likely to perceive the participation process as manipulative and be negatively affected by it.
Keyword: Employees, perceive, participation process, manipulative, negatively affected.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, Line 7
Explanation: In case the employees are given the opportunity to engage in goal-setting, they might consider the process as being unscrupulous.
Question 23. The staff appraisal process should be designed by employees.
Answer: Not Given
Question 24. Employees’ earnings should be disclosed to everyone within the organisation.
Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: Eliminating the secrecy surrounding pay by openly communicating everyone's remuneration will make rewards more visible and more motivating.
Keyword: Eliminating, secrecy, pay, openly communicating, remuneration, rewards, visible, motivating.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 7, Line 5
Explanation: The disclosure of individual salaries and bonuses of all employees within the firm will serve as a strong motivation for the same.
Questions 25-27:
Look at the following groups of workers (Questions 25-27) and the list of descriptions below.
Match each group with the correct description, A-E.
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 25-27 on your answer sheet.
List of Descriptions:
- They judge promotion to be important.
- They have less need of external goals.
- They think that the quality of their work is important.
- They resist goals which arc imposed.
- They have limited job options.
Question 25. High achievers
Answer: B.
Supporting Sentence: For those with high achievement needs, the existence of external goals is less important.
Keyword: High achievement, existence, external goals, important
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, Line 2
Explanation: In case of employees with high goals, the presence of any sort of external goals is insignificant.
Question 26. Clerical workers
Answer: C.
Supporting Sentence: Clerical workers considered factors such as quality of work performed near the top of their list.
Keyword: Clerical workers, factors, quality, work, performed, top, list.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, Line 4
Explanation: According to the clerical workers, the quality of the work was their top priority.
Question 27. Production workers
Answer: A.
Supporting Sentence: Production workers rated advancement very highly.
Keyword: Production workers, advancement, highly
Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, Line 7
Explanation: According to the production workers, promotion in jobs was among their top priorities.
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