Comprehension For SBI PO set – 2

Comprehension set – 2

Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem-solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organisations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles. This distinction is absolutely crucial for our purposes here: Successful transformation is 70 to 90 per cent leadership and only 10 to 30 per cent management. Yet for historical reasons, many organisations today don’t have much leadership. And almost everyone thinks about the problems here as one of managing change. For most of this century, as we created thousands and thousands of large organizations for the first time in human history, we didn’t have enough good managers to keep all those burrreaucracies functioning. So many companies and universities developed management programmes, and hundreds and thousands of people were encouraged to learn management on the job. And they did. But, people were taught little about leadership. To some degree, management was emphasized because it’s easier to teach than leadership. But even more so, management was the main item on the twentieth-century agenda because that’s what was needed. For every entrepreneur or business builder who was a leader, we needed hundreds of managers to run their ever growing enterprises. Unfortunately for us today, this emphasis on management has often been institutionalized in corporate cultures that discourage employees from learning how to lead. Ironically, past success is usually the key ingredient in producing this outcome. The syndrome, as I have observed it on many occasions, goes like this: success creates some degree of market dominance, which in turn produces much growth. After a while keeping the ever larger organizations under control becomes the primary challenge. So attention turns inward, and managerial competencies are nurtured. With a strong emphasis on management but not on leadership, bureaucracy and an inward focus take over. But with continued success, the result mostly of market dominance, the problem often goes unaddressed and an unhealthy arrogance begins to evolve. All of these characteristics then make any transformation effort much more difficult. Arrogant managers can over-evaluate their current performance and competitive position, listen poorly, and learn slowly. Inwardly focused employees can have difficulty seeing the very forces that present threats and opportunities. Bureaucratic cultures an smother those who want to respond to shifting conditions. And the lack of leadership leaves no fore inside these organizations to break out of the morass.

1. Why, according to the author, is a distinction between management and leadership crucial?

(a) Leaders are reactive whereas managers are proactive.

(b) Organisations are facing problems of not getting good managers.

(c) Organisations are pursuing the strategy of status quo.

(d) In today’s context, organizations need leaders much more than managers in transforming them.

(e) None of these

2. Why did companies and universities develop programmes to prepare managers in such a large number?

(a) Companies and universities wanted to generate funds through these programmes.

(b) A large number of organizations were created and they needed managers in good number.

(c) Organisations did not want spend their scarce resources in training managers.

(d) Organisations wanted to create communication network through trained managers.

(e) None of these

3. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE in the context of the passage?

(a) Bureaucratic culture can smother those who want to respond to changing conditions.

(b) Leadership produces change and has the potential to establish direction.

(c) Pressure on managers comes mostly from within.

(d) Leadership centres on carrying out important functions such as planning and problem-solving.

(e) Managers believe that they are the best and that their idiosyncratic traditions are superior.

4. Which of the following is not the characteristic of bureaucratic culture?

(a) Managers listen poorly and learn slowly.

(b) Managerial competencies are nurtured.

(c) Employees clearly see the forces that present threats and opportunities.

(d) Prevalence of unhealthy arrogance.

(e) Managers tend to stifle initiative and innovation.

5. Which of the following is SIMILAR in meaning to the word SMOTHER as used in the passage?

(a) suppress

(b) encourage

(c) instigate

(d) criticise

(e) attack

6. How has the author defined management?

(a) It is the process of adapting organizations to changing circumstances.

(b) It is the system of aligning people with the direction it has taken.

(c) It refers to creating a vision to help direct the change effort.

(d) Creating better performance through customer orientation.

(e) None of these

7. Management education was emphasized in the management programmes because

(a) establishing direction was the main focus of organizations

(b) motivating employees was thought to be done by managers

(c) strategies for producing change was the main focus of organizations

(d) organizations wanted to create powerful guiding coalition

(e) management was the main item of agenda in organizations

8. What is the historical reason for many organizations not having leadership?

(a) A view that leaders are born, they are not made

(b) Leaders lack managerial skills and organizations need managers

(c) Leaders are weak in carrying out traditional functions of management

(d) Leaders allow too much complacency in organizations

(e) None of these

9. In the passage, management is equated with

(a) Organisation

(b) Leadership

(c) Organisational vision

(d) Bureaucracy

(e) Managerial training

10. Why does the attention of large organizations turn inward?

(a) Their managers become arrogant.

(b) They have to keep themselves under control.

(c) Their success creates market dominance.

(d) None of these

11. Which of the following is SIMILAR in meaning of the word NURTURED as used in the passage?

(a) created

(b) developed

(c) thwarted

(d) surfaced

(e) halted

12. What, according to the author, is leadership?

(a) Process which keeps the system of people and technology running smoothly

(b) Planning the future and budgeting resources of the organization

(c) Inspiring people to realize the vision

(d) Carrying out the crucial functions of management

(e) None of these

13. Which of the following characteristics helps organizations in their transformation efforts?

(a) Emphasis on leadership but not on management

(b) A strong and dogmatic culture

(c) Bureaucratic and inward-looking approach

(d) Failing to acknowledge the value of customers and shareholders

(e) None of these

14. Why were people taught little about leadership in management programmes?

(a) Teachers were busy in understanding the phenomenon of leadership.

(b) Enough study material was not available to facilitate teaching of leadership.

(c) Focus of these programmes was on developing managers.

(d) Leadership was considered only a political phenomenon.

(e) None of these

15. Which of the following statement is/are definitely true in the context of the passage?

(A) Bureaucracy fosters strong and arroganat culture.

(B) Leadership competencies are nurtured in large-size organizations.

(C) Successful transformation in organizations is 70 to 90 per cent leadership.

(a) Only A and B (b) Only A and C

(c) Only B and C (d) Only B

(e) Only C

Answer key:

1. (d) 2. (b) 3. (d) 4. (c) 5. (a) 6. (c) 7. (e) 8. (e) 9. (d) 10. (b) 11. (b) 12. (c) 13. (e) 14. (c) 15. (b)