Self-study
Consultant: The dramatic improvements in productivity achieved during the Industrial Revolution resulted in large part from standardization of processes and procedures coupled with centralization of planning and decision making. ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ████ ███████ ████████ █████ ████████████ ██ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
How have many already productive companies further improved their productivity by implementing less centralized planning and decisionmaking, even though more centralization has been known to lead to huge increases in productivity?
Objective
The correct answer should suggest a difference between the already productive companies and the average company that could explain why the already productive companies can increase their productivity more through less centralization.
13.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███████████
a
Most companies still ███ ██ ███████ ████████████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ███████████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ████████ ███████
What most companies do doesn’t explain why the already productive companies we’re concerned with in the stimulus can increase productivity through less centralization.
b
Increased productivity is ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ███████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ████████████ █████████ ██ █████
This might provide another reason companies may want less centralization, but doesn’t help explain how companies can become more productive through les centralization.
c
Most of the █████████ ██ ██████████ ████████████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ███████
Even if most increase in productivity has occurred through technology, we still know some companies have increased productivity through less centralization. This answer doesn’t explain how this happened.
d
The innovations of ███ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████████ ████ █████████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████
This answer tells us what’s happening in companies in which individual employees already have complete individual control. This doesn’t relate to the already productive companies we’re concerned with in the stimulus, which are giving their employees more and more control.
e
Increases in productivity ██ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ █████ █████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ █████ █████ █████
Once a company is already highly productive, further productivity comes from individual employees’ ideas. This could be why less centralization (and greater autonomy for employees) is how already productive companies become more productive.