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  3. Though not the ideal shape for a Christmas stocking, this slim little volume

Though not the ideal shape for a Christmas stocking, this slim little volume

游客2023-12-17  52
问题    Though not the ideal shape for a Christmas stocking, this slim little volume could nevertheless make a welcome seasonal gift. Launched in Britain at the end of October, and covering just under 100 pages (with paragraphs inset almost to the middle of the page), it is not much more than an extended essay. But it presents an interesting idea eloquently and clearly, offering digestible brain food amid a surfeit of turkey and television.
   The author, Gerard Fairtlough, was a senior executive with Shell for many years before he left in 1980 to found a new biotechnology company called Celltech--recently bought by UCB, a Belgian group, for over $2 billion. He knows how businesses are run both well-established organisations, such as Shell, in which it can be hard to see an alternative to "the way things are done around here", and new start-ups, where the founders’ enthusiasm can evaporate if it has to be corralled into an organogram.
   The author’s thesis is that we are all addicted to hierarchy--partly because that is how we are hardwired, as are our simian cousins, but also because we do not realise there are other ways to run organisations. "The hegemony of hierarchy," writes Mr. Fairtlough, "makes us think the only alternative is disorganisation. we only compare hierarchy with anarchy or chaos."
   There are, he says, two alternatives to hierarchy (hence the title of the book). One is heterarchy; the other, "responsible autonomy".  Heterarchy is the form of structure commonly found in professional service firms, the partnerships of accountants or lawyers in which key decisions are taken by all the partners jointly. With responsible autonomy "an individual or a group has autonomy to decide what to do, but is accountable for the outcome of the decision." "Accountability," says Mr. Fairtlough, "is what makes responsible autonomy different from anarchy."
   The author says that hierarchy is so entrenched it will take years before there is any significant change. But he perhaps gives too little credit to the many companies that have moved (and are still moving) along the spectrum from hierarchy to responsible autonomy. BP, for example, a huge multinational, has managed to devolve authority to much smaller units in recent years and has decimated the staff in its headquarters. Toyota, likewise, evolved towards greater autonomy as it discovered that the only effective way to carry out its famous "just-in-time" system of stock control was by delegating responsibility for ordering stock to the person closest to the coal face. The fact that these are among the most successful companies in the world today strengthens Mr. Fairtlough’s case.
   The author has not just written a book, he has also set up a publishing firm to produce it. But Triarchy Press is not a vanity publisher, It exists because Mr. Fairtlough believes that traditional business-book publishers are too focused on engineering bestsellers. He wants Triarchy Press to provide a sort of transition, a way books can test the water, at low cost, to see how the public responds. If they get a warm reception they can subsequently be given the full publishing treatment. The danger is that the public will not notice. For first they have to find their way to a website: www. TriarchyPress. co. uk. [br] The phrase "test the water" in the last paragraph probably means ______.
选项 A、ask questions.
B、check answers.
C、have a try.
D、cross a river.
答案 C
解析 语义理解题。由题干定位至末段第四句，语义理解题需要联系上下文进行语义分析，因此需从首句着手，该句提到Gerard为这本书成立了一家出版公司。第三句和第四句提到其初衷：他希望自己的出版公司能够担当一个过渡的角色，以低成本test the water，看看公众的反应如何。显然后面的不定式短语to see how the public responds 表目的，正是对test the water的解释，故[C]为答案。
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