Stars Without the Stripes Reading Answers

Dec 20, 2022

Stars Without the Stripes Reading Answers contains a write up about the management of cultural diversity and different models for management. Stars Without the Stripes Reading Answers comprising 13 different types of questions. Candidates in this IELTS Section will be shown various question types with clear instructions. Stars Without the Stripes Reading Answers comprises three types of questions: Matching heading, sentence completion, and Choose the correct option. For Matching heading in IELTS Reading passage, candidates need to thoroughly go through each passage. For sentence completion, candidates need to skim the passage for keywords and understand the concept. To choose the correct option, candidates must read the IELTS Reading passage and understand the statement provided. To gain proficiency, candidates can practice from IELTS reading practice test.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Stars Without the Stripes Reading Answers

Managing cultural diversity is a core component of most masters programs these days. The growth of Japanese corporations in the sixties and seventies reminded us that there were other models of business than those taught by Harvard professors and US-based management consultants. And the cultural limits to the American model have more recently been in underlined by developments in Russia and central Europe over the past decade.
Yet in Britain, we are still more ready to accept the American model of management than most other European countries. As a result, UK managers often fail to understand how business practices are fundamentally different on the Continent. One outcome is that many mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and joint ventures between British and European companies do not achieve their objectives and end in tears. Alternatively, managers may avoid a merger or joint venture which makes sense from a hard-nosed strategic point of view because they fear that different working practices will prevent their goals from being achieved.
Essentially, Anglo-Saxon companies are structured on the principles of project management. In the eighties, companies were downsized, with tiers of management eliminated. In the nineties, management fashion embraced the ideas of business process re-engineering, so organizations were broken down into customer-focused trading units. Sometimes these were established as subsidiary companies, at other times as profit-and-loss or cost centers.
Over the past ten years, these principles have been applied as vigorously to the UK public sector as to private-sector corporations. Hospitals, schools, universities, social services departments, as well as large areas of national government, now operate on project management principles — all with built-in operational targets, key success factors, and performance-related reward systems.
The underlying objectives for this widespread process of organizational restructuring have been to increase the transparency of operations, encourage personal accountability to become more efficient at delivering service to the customer, and directly relate rewards to performance.
The result is a management culture which is entrepreneurially oriented and focused almost entirely on the short term, and highly segmented organizational structures — since incentives and rewards are geared to the activities of their own particular unit.
This business model has also required the development of new personal skills. We are now encouraged to lead, rather than to manage by setting goals and incentive systems for staff. We have to be cooperative team members rather than work on our own. We have to accept that, in flattened and decentralized organizations, there are very m limited career prospects. We are to be motivated by target-related rewards rather than a longer-term commitment to our employing organization.
This is in sharp contrast to the model of management that applies elsewhere in Europe. The principles of business process re-engineering have never been fully accepted in France, Germany, and the other major economies; while in some Eastern European economies, the attempt to apply them in the nineties brought the economy virtually to its knees, and created huge opportunities for corrupt middle managers and organized crime. Instead, continental European companies have stuck to the bureaucratic model which delivered economic growth for them throughout the twentieth century. European corporations continue to be structured hierarchically, with clearly defined job descriptions and explicit channels of reporting. Decision making, although incorporating consultative processes, remains essentially top-down.
Which of these two models is preferable? Certainly, the downside of the Anglo- American model is now becoming evident, not least in the long-hours working culture that the application of the decentralized project management model inevitably generates. Whether in a hospital, a software start-up or a factory the breakdown of work processes into the project—driven targets leads to over-optimistic goals and underestimates of the resources needed. The result is that the Success of projects often demands excessively long working hours if the targets are to be achieved.
Further, the success criteria, as calibrated in performance targets, are inevitably arbitrary and the source of ongoing dispute. Witness the objections of teachers and medics to the performance measures applied to them by successive governments. This is not surprising. In a factory producing cars the output of individuals is directly measurable, but what criteria can be used to measure output and performance in knowledge-based activities such as R&D labs, government offices, and even the marketing departments of large corporations?
The demands and stresses of operating according to the Anglo-American model seem to be leading to increasing rates of personnel burn-out. it is not surprising that managers queue for early retirement. In a recent survey, just a fifth said they would work to 65. This could be why labor market participation rates have declined so dramatically for British 50 year-olds in the past twenty years.
By contrast, the European management model allows for family-friendly employment policies and working hours directives to be implemented. lt encourages staff to have a long-term psychological commitment to their employing organizations. Of course, companies operating on target-focused project management principles may be committed to family-friendly employment policies in theory. But, if the business plan has to be finished by the end of the month, the advertising campaign completed by the end of next week, and patients pushed through the system to achieve measurable targets, are we really going to let down our ’team’ by clocking out at 5 p.m. and taking our full entitlement of annual leave? Perhaps this is why we admire the French for their quality of life.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation
Questions 1-4:
Do the following statements agree with the writer’s views in the Reading Passage? Write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the state does not agree with the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage

Question 1. Attempts by British and mainland European firms to work together often fail.

Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: “ UK managers often fail to understand how business practices are fundamentally different on the Continent”
Keywords: UK managers, business practices, fundamentally different on the Continent
Keyword Location: Para 2, lines 2-3
Explanation: UK managers frequently fail to appreciate the distinctions, which prevents them from cooperating, as a result of the variations in business procedures that exist between continents.

Question 2. Project management principles discourage consideration of long-term issues.

Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: ” The result is a management culture which is entrepreneurially oriented and focused almost entirely on the short term, and highly segmented organizational structures — since employee incentives and rewards are geared to the activities of their own particular unit.
Keywords: management culture, entrepreneurially oriented, segmented organizational structures
Keyword Location: Para 6, line 1-2
Explanation: Because the management culture is short-term oriented, it ensures that entrepreneurial culture is represented and discourages consideration of long-term difficulties.

Question 3. There are good opportunities for promotion within segmented companies.

Answer: No
Supporting Sentence: ” We have to accept that, in flattened and decentralized organizations, there are very m limited career prospects. We are to be motivated by target-related rewards rather than a longer-term commitment to our employing organization.”
Keywords: flattened and decentralized organizations, limited career prospects, motivated
Keyword Location: Para 7, line 4-5
Explanation:There are extremely few career opportunities in flat organizations.

Question 4. The European model gives more freedom of action to junior managers.

Answer: No
Supporting Sentence: ” European corporations continue to be structured hierarchically, with clearly defined job descriptions and explicit channels of reporting. Decision making, although incorporating consultative processes, remains essentially top-down.”
Keywords: European corporations, hierarchically, job descriptions, explicit channels of reporting
Keyword Location: Para 8, last 3 lines
Explanation: The decision-making procedures of European organizations are consultative as well as based on a top-down strategy due to their hierarchical organizational structure.

Questions 5-10:
Complete the summary below. Choose the answers from the box and write the corresponding words in boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet. There are more choices than spaces, so you will not need to use all of them.
List of words:
argument, temperature, reach, manufacturing, increasing, able, office, pressure, negative, predict, declining, agreement, discussion, no, willing, unwilling.

Adopting the US model in Britain has had negative effects. These include the (5)……… ……….. hours spent at work, as small sections of large organizations struggle to (6)………………. unrealistic short-term objectives. Nor is there (7)………………. on how to calculate the productivity of professional, technical, and clerical staff, who cannot be assessed in the same way as (8)……………… employees. In addition, managers within this culture are finding the (9)………………….of work too great, with 80% reported to be (10)………………………. to carry on working until the normal retirement age.

Question 5:

Answer: Increasing
Supporting Sentence: The demands and stresses of operating according to the Anglo-American model seem to be leading to increasing rates of personnel burn-out
Keywords: demands and stresses
Keyword Location: Para 11, lines 1-2
Explanation: The tensions and demands are growing as a result of the rate of employee burnout under the US-based style of operations.

Question 6:

Answer: Reach
Supporting Sentence: This could be why labor market participation rates have declined so dramatically for British 50 year-olds in the past twenty years.
Keywords: labor market participation, declined, British 50 year-olds
Keyword Location: para 11, last lines
Explanation: The cause of the sharp drop in labor market productivity levels for British 50-year-olds

Question 7:

Answer: Agreement
Supporting Sentence: encourage personal accountability to become more efficient at delivering service to the customer, and directly relate rewards to performance.
Keywords: personal accountability, efficient, delivering service, rewards to performance
Keyword Location: para 5, lines 2-4
Explanation: fostering individual responsibility among staff members, despite the fact that there is no consensus over the basis for judging productivity.

Question 8:

Answer: Manufacturing
Supporting Sentence: since employee incentives and rewards are geared to the activities of their own particular unit
Keywords: employee incentives, rewards, geared to the activities
Keyword Location: Para 6, lines 3-4
Explanation: The employees cannot be evaluated or graded in the same manner as employees' productivity

Question 9:

Answer: Pressure
Supporting Sentence: The demands and stresses of operating according to the Anglo-American model seem to be leading to increasing rates of personnel burn-out
Keywords: demands and stresses, Anglo-American model
Keyword Location: Para 11, lines 1-2
Explanation: The American model of businesses are under a lot of work pressure, which raises the rates of employee burnout.

Question 10:

Answer: Unwilling
Supporting Sentence: it is not surprising that managers queue for early retirement
Keywords: managers queue for early retirement
Keyword Location: Para 11, lines 2-3
Explanation: Because of the stress of working for US-style businesses, employees line up for early retirement and are afterwards hesitant to work.

Questions 11-12:
Complete the notes below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage for each Answer.

Working conditions in mainland Europe are in practice more likely to be

Answer: Family-friendly
Supporting Sentence: “The European management model allows for family-friendly employment policies and working hours directives to be implemented.”
Keywords: European management model, family friendly, employment policies
Keyword Location: Para 12, lines 1-4
Explanation: In Europe, working conditions are very family-friendly.

UK managers working to tight deadlines probably give up some of their

Answer: Annual Leave
Supporting Sentence: “If the business plan has to be finished by the end of the month, the advertising campaign completed by the end of next week, and patients pushed through the system to achieve measurable targets, are we really going to let down our ’team’ by clocking out at 5 p.m. and taking our full entitlement of annual leave”
Keywords: business plan, advertising campaign, achieve measurable targets
Keyword location: Para 12, lines 5-7
Explanation: Many employees are forced to work long hours, which prevents them from taking annual leaves.

Question 13:
Choose the correct letter A, B, C, or D. Which of the following statements best describes the writer’s main purpose in Reading Passage?

to argue that Britain should have adopted the Japanese model of management many years ago
to criticize Britain’s adoption of the US model, as compared to the European model.
to propose a completely new model that would be neither American nor European
to point out the negative effects of the existing model on the management of hospitals in Britain.

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: “ The cultural limits to the American model have more recently been underlined by developments in Russia and central Europe over the past decade.Yet in Britain, we are still more ready to accept the American model of management than most other European countries. As a result, UK managers often fail to understand how business practices are fundamentally different on the Continent.”
Keywords: cultural limits to the American model, developments in Russia and central Europe
Keyword location: para 1, lines 4-6
Explanation: Due to UK managers' lack of familiarity with other continents' business methods, the cultural limitations of the American model that the European model embraced have come under fire

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