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  3. What does a firm depend on if it wants to develop and not to be thrown out of the markets? You may say the firm should have some

What does a firm depend on if it wants to develop and not to be thrown out of the markets? You may say the firm should have some

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问题      What does a firm depend on if it wants to develop and not to be thrown out of the markets? You may say the firm should have some advantages of its own to stand still in the fierce competitive battle field of the commerce. And this is quite true. If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work force skills, American firms have a problem. Human resource management is not traditionally seen as the centre to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill acquisition is considered an individual responsibility. Labor is simply another factor of production to be hired/rented at the lowest possible cost--must as one buys raw materials or equipment.
     The lack of importance attached to human resource management can be seen in the corporate pecking order. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always second in command. The post of head of human resource management is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer. By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human resource management is central--usually the second most important executive, after the CEO, is the firm’s hierarchy.
     While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work force, in fact, they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japanese or German firms. The money they do invest is also more highly concentrated on professional and managerial employees. And the limited investments that are made in training workers are also much more narrowly focused on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies.
     As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example, take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany (as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Ger many than it is in the United States. More time is required before equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is a slower pace of technological change. And in the end the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can’t effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear.
Why is there a slow pace of technological change in American firms?
选项 A、New equipment in America is more expensive.
B、American firms don’t pay enough attention to on-the-job training of their work.
C、The decision-making process in American firms makes them less responsive to techno logical changes.
D、The professional staff of American firms are less paid and so less creative.
答案B
解析 事实细节题。根据文章第四段倒数第三句。但是论述的原因在第二、三段。其中包括对人才管理部门不重视，对工人培训投资较少，投资面过窄(只培训工人做下一项工作所需的技术，而不是培训工人的基本技能以便使他们能接受新知识)。因此，只有选项B符合题意。选项A、C和选项D文章未涉及。
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