《2022-2023年考博英语-对外经济贸易大学模拟考试题（含答案解析）第37期》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《2022-2023年考博英语-对外经济贸易大学模拟考试题（含答案解析）第37期（35页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、2022-2023年考博英语-对外经济贸易大学模拟考试题（含答案解析）1. 案例题Toyota RecallsToyota Motor has always been fanatical about frugality, and for many years that was good for both the company and its customers. This is a Japanese carmaker that routinely turned down the heat at its employee dormitories during working hours and
2、 labeled photocopy machines with the cost per copy to discourage overuse. Its engineers collaborated with suppliers to extract cost-savings without compromising quality. Yet by the middle of the last decade Toyotas virtue had become a vice.So say current and former auto executives who are trying to
3、grasp how Toyota, with its gold-plated reputation for engineering excellence, slipped up on such a scale, with 8 million cars recalled due to mechanical failures linked by U.S. regulators to 51 deaths. Before company officials knew that runaway acceleration was causing crashes, one of these executiv
4、es says, a simple manufacturing process would sometimes ignite small fires in a component as a direct result of comer-cutting, it was just one early sign that the focus on cost reduction had gone too far.Those production mishaps occurred in 2006, a year after company President Katsuaki Watanabe boas
5、ted about having squeezed more than $10 billion from global operating costs in the previous six years this despite an impressive run of profit growth and global maricet share gains in the middle of the last decade. Then Toyota pushed even harder for more cuts. It asked suppliers to design parts for
6、its Camiy midsize sedan that were 10% cheaper and 10% lighter. The companys top U.S. executive, Jim Press, warned his bosses in Japan that vehicle quality was slipping, according to a slide presentation U.S. Senate investigators unearthed in their sudden-acceleration probe. But his warning had no ap
7、parent effect.The redesigned Camry brought out in 2006 had an embarrassing flaw in its headliner, the fabric and composite lining that covers the inside roof of the car. Under pressure to cut costs, the lead Camry supplier, Toyota-afTiliated Toyota Boshoku, chose a carbon fiber material that hadnt b
8、een approved by Toyota engineers, according to an executive who worked on the redesign. The headliner is made by compressing layers of materials together using a certain amount of heat to mold it. In this case, the carbon fiber required so much heat that the headliner would catch fire.Toyota fixed t
9、hat problem, but when a North American parts supplier interested in working with the automaker did a teardown of a 2007 Camry, its engineers were surprised by how much the traditional Toyota craftsmanship had been watered down by years of nips and tucks. The padding in the ceiling of the car, though
10、 compliant with safety regulations, had been thinned out to save money. A tray for sunglasses used a flimsier type of plastic than previous models. “It was a bare-bones car at that point,” says one executive who declined to be identified for fear of harming business ties with Toyota.Toyota insists i
11、ts focus on cost hasnt hurt consumers. “Its not true that by reducing cost you automatically reduce quality, said Jim Wiseman, Toyotas vice-president for North American corporate communications. “Every automaker has to stay competitive relative to price.”True, but probably not with the intensity Toy
12、ota brought to cost-cutting and rapid expansion under three successive presidents: Hiroshi Okuda (1995-1999), Fuji Cho (1999-2005), and Watanabe (2005 to 2009). Toyota executives will spend years mopping up after their mess.At last count, the company faced 109 class actions and 32 individual cases f
13、iled in courts in the U.S. and Canada. (In a well-publicized incident on Mar. 8, the owner of a 2008 Prius lost control of his car on a California interstate highway and had to be rescued by police.)What are the causes for Toyotas global recalls? Identify both the direct and deeper causes.(8 points)
14、This case illustrated the problems of the goal attainment view of organizational effectiveness. Define organizational effectiveness and discuss the limitations of the goal attainment view.(10 points)What do you think an organization can learn from Toyotas lessons in achieving organizational effectiv
15、eness? (8 points)【答案】The direct causes are mechanical failures linked by U.S. regulators to 51 deaths and the deeper causes are that Toyota Motors focus on cost reduction had gone too far, so that the quality of its vehicle slipped.Organizational effectiveness is the concept of how effective an orga
16、nization is in achieving the outcomes the organization intends to produce, and the limitation of goal attainment view is that we sometimes set some goals which are beyond our current capacity.From Toyotas lessons in achieving organizational effectiveness, an organization can learn that we should not set any goal which is beyond our current capacity or sacrifice something, such as the quality of vehicle mentioned in this passage, to attain so
