GMAT Reading Comprehension - In Recent Years Much Attention has been Paid to Distilling those Factors that Create a Positive Work Environment

Reading Passage Question

In recent years much attention has been paid to distilling those factors that create a positive work environment for corporate employees. The goal ultimately is to discover what allows some companies to foster high employee morale while other companies struggle with poor productivity and high managerial turnover. Several theories have been posited, but none has drawn as much interest from the corporate world, or has as much promise, as value congruence, which measures the "fit" between an employee's values and those of co-workers and the company itself.

Value congruence can be broken into three main subcategories: person-environment ("P-E"), person-person ("P-P"), and perceptual fit ("PF"). Person-environment congruence refers to a harmony between the personal values of the employee and corporate culture of the company in which he or she works. Someone with a high P-E congruence feels personally in tune with his company's stated policies and goals. Conversely, someone with a low P-E congruence feels a sense of disharmony between his own values and the stated policies and goals of his company. A high P-P congruence indicates a sense of solidarity with one's co-workers in terms of shared values and goals. A low P-P congruence indicates a sense of isolation from co-workers brought about by an absence of shared values. Finally, strong PF suggests a strong correspondence between the values that an employee perceives his company to have (whether or not the company actually does) and the values that his co-workers perceive the company to have (again, whether or not it actually does). A weak PF implies that an employee's perception of his company's values differs significantly from that of his co-workers.

Research has shown that P-E and PF congruence are important measures of employee satisfaction, commitment, and likelihood of turnover, although P-P congruence has little bearing on these parameters. Moreover, PF is especially important in establishing harmonious relations between workers and managers. These measures give corporations a robust paradigm on the basis of which to create long-term personnel plans and productivity growth targets: in particular, P-E and PF congruence allow companies to discover dysfunctional work relationships and clarify misperceived company policies and goals. With these tools in hand, companies can look forward to increased employee satisfaction and, ultimately, improved company performance.

“In recent years much attention has been paid to distilling those factors that create a positive work environment”- is a comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 3 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. According to the passage, which of the following was a motivation in the creation of the system of value congruence?

A) a desire to minimize the liability of upper management for employee dissatisfaction
B) a desire to help companies to improve their internal harmony
C) a desire to allow employees to increase their earning potential
D) a desire to foster awareness of factors influencing managerial success
E) a desire to eliminate discrepancies between a company’s goals and the values of its employees

2. The passage suggests that perceptual fit congruence would be most useful in determining which of the following?

A) whether a company ought to make its policies and goals more transparent
B) whether a company ought to provide sensitivity training for its management
C) whether a company ought to create more opportunities for interaction among workers
D) whether a company ought to address employee grievances more directly
E) whether a company ought to implement a more elaborate orientation program for new employees

3. The primary focus of the passage is on which of the following?

A) Comparing a new theory of corporate performance to a discredited theory and predicting the usefulness of the new theory.
B) Illustrating a new approach to measuring employee satisfaction through a detailed analysis of a particular case.
C) Challenging an old view of employee commitment and suggesting that a new paradigm is necessary.
D) Promoting a new method of measuring the likelihood of corporate success by explaining its benefits
E) Defending a proposed system of corporate analysis through examples of its success.

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Samples

• GMAT Reading Comprehension- New Observations about the Age of Some Globular Clusters in Our Milky Way Galaxy
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Until recently most astronomers believed that the space between the galaxies in our universe was a near-perfect vacuum
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- JIT stands for Just-In-Time. More than a standardized methodology or systematic process, it is a philosophy
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Seeking a competitive advantage, some professional service firms
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- The Pioneers of the Teaching of Science Imagined that its Introduction into Education
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- But Man is Not Destined to Vanish
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Critics have Long been Puzzled by the Inner Contradictions of Major Characters in John Webster’s Tragedies.
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- A Fundamental Principle of Pharmacology is that all Drugs have Multiple Actions.
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- What is the Biggest Lesson from the Great Depression?
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Social learning in animals is said to occur when direct or indirect social interaction facilitates the acquisition of a novel behavior.
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Many Politicians, Business Leaders, and Scholars Discount the Role of Public Policy
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Most Recent Work on the History of Leisure in Europe has been based on the Central Hypothesis
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Although numbers of animals in a given region may fluctuate from year to year, the fluctuations are often temporary
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- On the surface, the Conquest of the Aztec Empire by Herman Cortes
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Coral Reefs Are One of the Most Fragile, Biologically Complex
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- The career of trumpeter Miles Davis was one of the most astonishingly productive that jazz music has ever seen.
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- A One-Child Policy was Implemented in China in 1979
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- The Extinction of the Dinosaurs thought to be Caused by an Asteroid Impact
• GMAT Reading Comprehension- Extensive research has shown that the effects of short-term price promotions on sales