MA Modiriat Reading Comprehension

PASSAGE 1:

Sustainable human resource management (HRM), perceived as challenging the dominant models of strategic HRM, concerns the adoption of HRM strategies and practices to achieve simultaneously financial, social, environmental, and HR regeneration goals, to satisfy diverse stakeholders competing demands and, increasingly, national legislative requirements of sustainability performance reporting. Tensions are placed at the center of sustainable HRM’s analysis, as stakeholders’ demands are contrasting, when seen individually, but yet interrelated, as part of an integrated whole.

The paradox perspective of sustainable HRM is useful in identifying several HRM paradoxes and proposing different coping strategies. However, the role of organizational actors, their cognition and strategy-making action, has been completely ignored in a highly conceptual paradoxical analysis of sustainable HRM. Drawing on the cognitive theory (and cognitive framing) and the practice theory (and strategy-as-practice), this paper contributes by bringing organizational actors back into the analysis, proposing three interrelated processes, namely, activating individual cognitive frames, creating collective dominant frames, and strategizing through enacting strategy-making activities, to address the theoretical gaps and extend the paradox perspective of sustainable HRM

1- According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

1) The paradox perspective of the dominant models of strategic HRM is useful in proposing different coping strategies.

2) Sustainable (HRM) is perceived to challenge the dominant models of strategic HRM.

3) The dominant models of strategic HRM are perceived to challenge Sustainable (HRM).

4) The paradox perspective of sustainable HRM is no more useful in identifying HRM paradoxes.

2- According to the passage, which goals are intended to be concurrently achieved through the adoption of HRM strategies and practices?

1) Financial, social, and instructional

2) Cultural, political, and environmental

3) Cultural, political, and instructional

4) Financial, social, and environmental

3- The word “their” in paragraph 2 refers to————–.

1) organizational actors

2) coping strategies

3) HRM paradoxes

4) stakeholders'

4- The study reported in the passage draws on—————–.

1) the cognitive theory and Human Relations Theory

2) constructivism and Human Relations Theory

3) the cognitive theory and the practice theory

4) constructivism and the practice theory

5-The study reported in the passage proposes all of the following interrelated processes ЕХСЕРТ ———–.

1) creating collective dominant frames

2) activating individual cognitive frames

3) strategizing through enacting strategy-making activities

4) using mathematical techniques to analyze and understand the relationship between managers and employees

PASSAGE 2:

An employee who is engaged typically has a positive state of mind relating to their work and shows vigor, dedication, and absorption in their work. Previous research suggests that more engaged employees tend to have greater well-being and better job performance. Previous research also suggests that a certain style of leadership known as engaging leadership involving leaders who fulfill employees’ need for autonomy, feeling competent, and feeling cared for may boost employee engagement. However, most studies of workplace leadership styles have focused on a single point in time, without analyzing potential effects over time.

To provide new insights, Mazzetti and Schaufeli explored the impact of an engaged leadership style on work engagement and team effectiveness of 1,048 employees across 90 teams within a Dutch workplace. Participants each took two surveys, one year apart, which included questions about their supervisors’ level of engaging leadership, their own work engagement, and other personal and team characteristics.

Statistical analysis of the responses suggests that supervisors perceived as engaged leaders in the initial survey did indeed enhance employee engagement as captured in the second survey. This impact appeared to occur via a boost in employees’ personal psychological resources of optimism, self-efficacy, and flexibility— these results are in line with evidence from previous studies.

Similarly, engaged leaders appeared to enhance team effectiveness by boosting team resources, which consisted of performance feedback, trust in management, and communication. Team resources also appeared to affect individual employee engagement.

6- What is the passage mainly about?

1) The effect of engaged leadership on employee engagement

2) A review of previous research on leadership styles

3) Questions about employees' absorption in work

4) Ways of improving engaged leadership

7- Engaged leadership fulfills employees’ need for all of the following EXCEPT ———.

1) feeling competent

2) feeling cared for

3) superiority

4) independence

8- How is Mazzetti and Schaufeli’s study different from previous studies?

1) It allowed more room for the employees to freely express their ideas.

2) It analyzed the effect of engaged leadership over time.

3) It included a more engaging sample.

4) It included more teams.

9- Mazzetti and Schaufeli’s study showed that the positive impact of engaged leadership was manifested through an increase in employees’ personal psychological resources of ————-.

1) optimism, resiliency, and self-efficacy

2) optimism, self-efficacy, and flexibility

3) self-regulation, autonomy, and flexibility

4) self-regulation, resiliency, and self-efficacy

10- According to the passage, team resources consist of————-.

1) performance feedback, trust in management, and communication

2) individual employee engagement, joint partnership, and communication

3) performance feedback, trust in management, and participation in decision-making

4) individual employee engagement, joint partnership, and participation in decision-making

PASSAGE 3:

The idea of “systems” has been discussed in almost all disciplines since its origin in the 17th century including physics, biology and chemistry, and was eventually used for explanations in ecology, engineering, economics, anthropology, sociology, and cybernetics. It has emerged as a meta-discipline and as a meta-language (Checkland & Scholes, 1999). Using the idea of systems, Checkland (1981 to date) provides the seminal work on “systems-thinking.”

“Systems-thinking” is about consciously organized thinking processes (Arnold & Wade,

2015; Checkland, 1981). Systems-thinking is a world view which allows appreciation of holistic systems, having interconnections between the elements of which systems-thinking is made of, called system-components. This includes human and non-human elements of the system, encompassing physical, natural, social, economic, cultural and cognitive attributes, established in the form of the wider, linked processes between the users (human) and technologies or structures (non-human) of the system (Clegg, 2000).

As a core concept, systems-thinking is an idea of the “adaptive whole.” As a whole, a system has its own emergent properties, layered structure, and processes of communication and control (Arnold & Wade, 2015; Checkland, 1981). Systems-thinking involves several principles, which on their own are looked upon as disciplines of systems-thinking.

Anderson and Johnson (1997) provide the basic principles of systems-thinking.

First, the “Big Picture” principle demands widening one’s perspective to find a more effective solution (e.g., in stressful times, one tends to focus on the immediate, most pressing problem and this perceives only the effects of changes elsewhere in the system). Therefore, one should step back to look at the bigger picture and investigate the source of the problem, which would more likely identify a more effective solution.

11- The passage mentions all of the following disciplines in which the idea of “systems” was used for their explanations EXCEPT ————-.

1) economics

2) engineering

3) geography

4) anthropology

12- The underlined “It” in paragraph 1 refers to ————-.

1) origin

2) cybernetics

3) meta-discipline

4) the idea of "systems"

13- The word “seminal” in paragraph 1 is similar in meaning to ————-.

1) traditional

2) sensational

3) influential

4) conventional

14-The paragraph following the passage will most probably discuss ————–.

1) the second principle of systems-thinking

2) stepping back to look at the bigger picture

3) a more effective solution

4) the source of the problem

15-Where does the following sentence best fit into the passage?

These system-components contribute to properties such as drivers, outcomes and

feedbacks, and can be applied to problems of multiple disciplines.

1) End of paragraph 1

2) End of paragraph 2

3) End of paragraph 3

4) End of paragraph 4

MA Modiriat Reading Comprehension

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