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  3. If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work force skills, American firms have a problem. Human management is not tradit

If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work force skills, American firms have a problem. Human management is not tradit

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问题     If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work force skills, American firms have a problem. Human management is not traditionally seen as a central to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill acquisition is considered as individual responsibility. Labor is simply another force of production to be hired/rented at the lowest possible cost, which is a must as one buys raw material or equipment.
    The lack of importance attached to human resource management can be seen in the corporate pecking order. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always the second in command. The post of head of human resource management is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer. By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human resource management is central — usually the second most important executive, after the CEO, in the firm’s hierarchy.
    While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work force, in fact, they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japanese or German firms. The money they do invest is also more highly concentrated on professional or managerial employees. And the limited investments that made in training workers are also much more narrowly focused on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies.
    As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany(as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Germany than it is in the United States. More time is required before equipment is up and running at the speed with which new equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is a slower pace of technological change. And in the end the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can’t effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear.
Why is there a slow pace of technological change in American firms?
选项 A、New equipment is more expensive in America.
B、American firms don’t pay enough attention to on-the-job training of their workers.
C、The decision making process in American firms makes them less responsive to technological changes.
D、The professional staff of American firms are less paid and so less creative.
答案B
解析 细节推断题。根据题干关键词a slow pace与原文尾段第三句中的limit the speed with对应，据此定位答案。原句中的extensive retraining generates costs与选项B对应。故答案为B。
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