In 1985 when a Japan Air Lines (JAL) jet crashed, its president, Yasumoto Takagi, called each victim’s family to apologize, and

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问题     In 1985 when a Japan Air Lines (JAL) jet crashed, its president, Yasumoto Takagi, called each victim’s family to apologize, and then promptly resigned. And in 1987, when a subsidiary of Toshiba sold sensitive military technology to the former Soviet Union, the chairman of Toshiba gave up his post.
    These executive actions, which Toshiba calls "the highest form of apology", may seem bizarre to US managers. No one at Boeing resigned after the JAL crash, which may have been caused by a faulty Boeing repair.
    The difference between the two business cultures centers around different definitions of delegation. While US executives give both responsibility and authority to their employees, Japanese executives delegate only authority—the responsibility is still theirs. Although the subsidiary that sold the sensitive technology to the Soviets had its own management, the Toshiba top executives said they "must take personal responsibility for not creating an atmosphere throughout the Toshiba group that would make such activity unthinkable, even in an independently run subsidiary. "
    Such acceptance of community responsibility is not unique to businesses in Japan. School principals in Japan have resigned when their students committed major crimes after school hours. Even if they do not quit, Japanese executives will often accept primary responsibility in other ways, such as taking the first pay cut when a company gets into financial trouble. Such personal sacrifices, even if they are largely symbolic, help to create the sense of community and employee loyalty that is crucial to the Japanese way of doing business.
    Harvard Business School professor George Lodge calls the ritual acceptance of blame "almost a feudal (封建的) way of purging (清除) the community of dishonor", and to some in the United States, such resignations look cowardly. However, in an era in which both business and governmental leaders seem particularly good at evading responsibility, many US managers would probably welcome an infusion (灌输) of the Japanese sense of responsibility. If, for instance, US automobile company executives offered to reduce their own salaries before they asked their workers to take pay cuts, negotiations would probably take on a very different character. (359 words)
Why did the chairman of Toshiba resign his position in 1987?

选项 A、Because in Japan, the leakage of a state secret to Russians is a grave crime.
B、Because he had been under attack for shifting responsibility to his subordinates.
C、Because in Japan, the chief executive of a corporation is held responsible for the mistake made by its subsidiaries.
D、Because he had been accused of being coward towards crises that were taking place in his corporation.

答案C

解析 本题属于细节题。从第三段的第二句可得知答案。美国主管将责任和职权同时给雇员,而日本主管只是将职权下放给雇员,责任仍然留给自己。这一句的“delegate”意思是“授权,把……委托给别人”。因此在日本,即使子公司出错,公司总经理也要承担责任。
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