Reading Passage Question

Creative thinking, adaptability, and collaboration are part of human nature. Unfortunately, however, the hierarchical structures at workplaces unwittingly discourage these traits. Paradoxically, the preeminent organizational strategy designed to maximize efficient productivity may actually be detrimental. The long-term success of a corporation requires flexibility and new ideas to respond to ever-evolving political, social, and economic conditions.

Becoming a “flat organization” will best ensure a company’s survival. Such enterprises abolish middle management structures and instead assign most workers to the same level, with only a few superiors. In doing so, corporations must reconsider their view of employees: rather than workers reporting to a manager responsible for making decisions, non-hierarchical committees share in a decentralized decision-making process. Collaboration is encouraged and innovation is rewarded; new ideas can be implemented more quickly without requiring the traditional levels of ascension through middle management. Limiting specialization in job titles fosters flexibility as workers can take on a variety of roles depending on individual project needs, which leads to an increase in employee learning. Simply put, leaders in flat organizations have the responsibility to construct organizations in which members maximize their abilities and directly contribute to the company’s success.

“‘Creative thinking, adaptability, and collaboration are part of human nature”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage along with the answers. The candidates need to have skills in solving the English GMAT reading comprehension. The passage of this section of GMAT reading comprehension includes three questions. GMAT Reading Comprehension questions aim to identify the candidates’ proficiency in analyzing the ideas or knowledge. The candidates can improve their skills by going through the GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice questions.

Solutions and Explanation

1. Which of the following could best serve as an example of how a company might become a flat organization, as such organizations are described in the passage?

1. Outsourcing middle management to a separate company
2. Abolishing job titles and rotating responsibility for leading meetings
3. Denoting specific guidelines for approval of new ideas
4. Hiring a specialist for each stage of a project’s completion
5. Assigning each employee another employee to oversee

2. The primary purpose of the passage is

1. to compare various corporate organizational strategies
2. explain and endorse an alternative business structure
3. propose a traditional corporate approach
4. evaluate and then criticize a new method of conducting business
5. acknowledge the similarities between two management theories

3. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about hierarchical workplaces?

1. They may result in a delayed approval process for new ideas.
2. They often contain more middle managers than upper managers.
3. They maximize efficiency by promoting specialization.
4. They are more beneficial for larger companies than for smaller companies.
5. They do not allow employees to have flexible roles.

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Samples

• During the Victorian period, women writers were measured against a social GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A review of the treatment of female characters in Chinese fiction reveals that Chinese social attitudes have undergone dramatic changes GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Behind every book review there are two key figures: a book review editor and a reviewer GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Three historiographical considerations played an important role in my decision to write a history of Black women in the United States GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In recent years the early music movement, which advocates performing a work as it was performed at the time of its composition GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Those examples of poetic justice that occur in medieval GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Barbara Strozzi was a singer and composer of madrigals, aria GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were realists. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Many readers assume that, as a neoclassical literary critic, Samuel GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Scholars generally agree that the Maesta, the high altarpiece painted by Duccio for the Cathedral of Siena GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Extended debate concerning the exact point of origin of individual folktales told by Afro-American slaves GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A mysterious new material is surprising scientists with its ability to conduct electricity without resistance GMAT Reading Comprehension
• On the eve of New Year, almost every Japanese cleans his or her house. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• This year was horrible for many technology firms, but the last one was particularly dismal for Microsoft GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In the eighth century, cities in the southern Mayan lowlands began to decline, and were soon abandoned. GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Over the past century, the United States population has continued to grow GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Mitochondrial DNA from both ancient and modern chicken specimens may provide evidence GMAT Reading Comprehension
• It is perhaps not surprising that debate has arisen over bioluminescence-based biotechnologies GMAT Reading Comprehension
• During the twelfth century, the Indian author Bhaskara published a drawing of a wheel GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A supernova is a brief stellar explosion so luminous that it can briefly outshine an entire galaxy GMAT Reading Comprehension