The Assembly-Line System IELTS Reading Answers

Aug 17, 2023

The Assembly-Line System IELTS Reading Answers is a topic of the IELTS academic reading topic which includes 14 questions. The specified IELTS topic generates 3 types of questions: true/ false/ not given, choose the appropriate headings and choose the correct option from the given options. Candidates should read the IELTS Reading passage thoroughly in order to recognize synonyms, identify keywords, and answer the questions below. Candidates can further enhance their reading skills by going through IELTS reading practice papers available on the website. Candidates can use IELTS reading topics like The Assembly-Line System IELTS Reading Answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

The Assembly-Line System

Peter Drucker was one of the most important management thinkers of the past hundred years. He wrote about 40 book and thousands of articles and he never rested in his mission to persuade the world that management matters. "Management is an organ of institutions ... the organ that converts a mob into an organisation, and human efforts into performance." Did he succeed? The range of his influence was extraordinary. Wherever people grapple with tricky management problems, from big organizations to small ones, from the public sector to the private, and increasingly in the voluntary sector, you can find Drucker's fingerprints.
His first two 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. Still, the second of these books attracted attention with its passionate insistence that companies had a social dimension as well as an economic purpose. His third book, The Concept of the Corporation, became an instant bestseller and has remained in print ever since.
The two most interesting arguments in The Concept of the Corporation actually had little to do with the decentralization fad. They were to dominate his work. The first had to do with empowering" workers. Drucker believed in eating workers as resources rather than just as costs. He was a harsh critic of the assembly-line system of production that then dominated the manufacturing sector - partly because assembly lines moved at the speed of the slowest and partly because they failed to engage the creativity of individual workers.

The second argument had to do with the rise of knowledge workers. Drucker 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 had 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. In turn, politicians had to realise that knowledge, and hence education, was the single most important resource for any advanced society.
Yet Drucker also thought that this economy had implications for knowledge workers themselves. 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 who also needed to take more control of their own careers, including their pension plans.
However, there was also a hard side to his work. Drucker was responsible for inventing one the rational school of management's most successful products - "management by objectives". In one of his most substantial works, The Practice of Management (1954), he emphasized the importance of managers and corporations setting clear long-term objectives and then translating those long-term objectives into more immediate goals. He argued that firms should have an elite corps of general managers, who set these long-term objectives, and then a group of more specialized managers. For his critics, this was a retreat from his earlier emphasis on the soft side of management.

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. The trick is for managers to set long-term goals, but then allow their employees to work out ways of achieving those goals. If Drucker helped make management a global industry, he also helped push it beyond its business base. He was emphatically a management thinker, not just a business one. He believed that management is "the defining organ of all modern institutions'', not just corporations.
There are three persistent criticisms of Drucker's work. The first is that he focused on big organizations rather than small ones. The Concept of the Corporation was in many ways a fanfare to big organizations. As Drucker said,
"We know today that in modern industrial production, particularly in modern mass production, the small unit is not only inefficient, it cannot produce at all." The book helped to launch the "big organization boom" that dominated business thinking for the next 20 years. The second criticism is that Drucker's enthusiasm for management by objectives helped to lead the business down a dead end.
They prefer to allow ideas, including ideas for long-term strategies, to bubble up from the bottom and middle of the organizations rather than being imposed from on high. Thirdly, Drucker is criticized for being a maverick who has increasingly been left behind by the increasing rigor of his chosen field. There is no single area of academic management theory that he made his own.
There is some truth in the first two arguments. Drucker never wrote anything as good as The Concept of the Corporation on entrepreneurial start-ups. Drucker's work on management by objectives sits uneasily with his earlier and later writings on the importance of knowledge workers and self-directed teams. But the third argument is short-sighted and unfair because it ignores Drucker's pioneering role in creating the modern profession of management.

He produced one of the first systematic studies of a big company. He pioneered the idea that ideas can help galvanize companies. The biggest problem with evaluating Drucker's influence is that so many of his ideas have passed into conventional wisdom. In other words, he is the victim of his own success. His writings on the importance of knowledge workers and empowerment may sound a little banal today. But they certainly weren't banal when he first dreamed them up in the 1940s, or when they were first put in to practice in the Anglo-Saxon world in the 1980s.
Moreover, Drucker continued to produce new ideas up until his 90s. His work on the management of voluntary organizations remained at the cutting edge.

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-ix, in box 14-19 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings:

The popularity and impact of Drucker's work
Finding fault with Drucker
The impact of economic globalization
Government regulation of business
Early publications of Drucker
Drucker's view of balanced management
An appreciations of the pros and cons of Drucker's work
The changing role of the employee

Question 14: Paragraph A

Answer: i
Supporting statement: “...Wherever people grapple with tricky management problems, from big organizations to small ones, from the public sector to the private…”
Keywords: grapple, tricky, management, problems, organizations, public, sector, private
Keyword Location: para A, line 5
Explanation: According to the writer, the range of Drucker's influence was extraordinary. Wherever people grapple with tricky management problems, from big organizations to small ones, from the public sector to the private sector, and increasingly in the voluntary sector, you can find Drucker's fingerprints.

Question 15: Paragraph B

Answer: v
Supporting statement: “...His first two books - The End of Economic Man (1939) and The Future of Industrial Man (1942) - had their admirers, including Winston Churchill, …”
Keywords: books, End of Economic Man, The Future of Industrial Man, Winston Churchill, admirers
Keyword Location: para B, line 1
Explanation: According to the writer, Ducker's first two 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. His third book, The Concept of the Corporation, became an instant bestseller and has remained in print ever since.

Question 16: Paragraph C

Answer: ix
Supporting statement: “...the first had to do with empowering" workers…”
Keywords: empowering, workers
Keyword Location: para C, line 3
Explanation: According to the writer, the first argument had to do with empowering" workers. Drucker believed in eating workers as resources rather than just as costs. The second argument had to do with the rise of knowledge workers. Drucker argued that the world is moving from an "economy of goods" to an economy of "knowledge".

Question 17: Paragraph D

Answer: vi
Supporting statement: “...Drucker was responsible for inventing one the rational school of management's most successful products - "management by objectives"…”
Keywords: Drucker, inventing, rational, school, management, successful, product, objectives
Keyword Location: para D, line 2
Explanation: According to the writer, Drucker was responsible for inventing one the rational school of management's most successful products - "management by objectives".

Question 18: Paragraph E

Answer: ii
Supporting statement: “...there are three persistent criticisms of Drucker's work…”
Keywords: three, persistent, criticisms, Drucker's, work
Keyword Location: para E, line 1
Explanation: According to the writer, there are three persistent criticisms of Drucker's work. The first is that he focused on big organizations rather than small ones. The Concept of the Corporation was in many ways a fanfare to big organizations. The second criticism is that Drucker's enthusiasm for management by objectives helped to lead the business down a dead end. Thirdly, Drucker is criticized for being a maverick who has increasingly been left behind by the increasing rigor of his chosen field. There is no single area of academic management theory that he made his own.

Question 19: Paragraph F

Answer: viii
Explanation: According to the writer, Drucker is criticized for being a maverick who has increasingly been left behind by the increasing rigor of his chosen field. There is no single area of academic management theory that he made his own.

Questions 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 to what is stated in the passage
NOT GIVEN - if there 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: No relevant information has been provided in the passage in order to support the said statement. Therefore, we can clearly conclude the statement as an invalid one.

Question 21: Drucker argued the managers and politicians l dominate the economy during a social transition

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: “...The second argument had to do with the rise of knowledge workers…”
Keywords: second, argument, rise, knowledge, workers
Keyword Location: para C, line 6
Explanation: According to the writer, the second argument had to do with the rise of knowledge workers. Drucker 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.

Question 23: Drucker's work on the management is out of date in moderns days

Answer: no
Supporting statement: “...If Drucker helped make management a global industry, he also helped push it beyond its business base…”
Keywords: Drucker, management, global, industry, business, base
Keyword Location: para D, line 8
Explanation: According to the writer, if Drucker helped make management a global industry, he also helped push it beyond its business base. He was emphatically a management thinker, not just a business one. He believed that management is "the defining organ of all modern institutions'', not just corporations.

Questions 24 - 25

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

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

Question 24:

Answer: A
Explanation: The author encourage allowing ideas to emerge from the centre and bottom of the organisations rather than having them imposed from above, including suggestions for long-term strategies.

Question 25:

Answer: E
Explanation: The author encourage allowing ideas to emerge from the centre and bottom of the organisations rather than having them imposed from above, including suggestions for long-term strategies.

Questions 26 - 27

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

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

Question 26:

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “...the first is that he focused on big organizations rather than small ones.…”
Keywords: first, focused, big, organization, small
Keyword Location: para E, line 2
Explanation: According to the writer, the first persistent criticism is that he focused on big organizations rather than small ones. The Concept of the Corporation was in many ways a fanfare to big organizations. As Drucker said, "We know today that in modern industrial production, particularly in modern mass production, the small unit is not only inefficient, it cannot produce at all."

Question 27:

Answer: C
Explanation: According to the writer, the concept of the corporation was in many ways a fanfare to big organizations.

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