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Question 5 – 8:
This passage is based on an article written in 2000.
The traditional model of employer-employee relations in the United States was a 1
“psychological contract” in which employees made long-term commitments to 2
organizations in exchange for long-term job security, training and development, and 3
internal opportunities for promotion. Beginning mainly with the recession in the early 4
1970’s, this paradigm began to unravel. Organizations began using extensive downsizing 5
and outsourcing to decrease the number of permanent employees in the workforce. Among 6
employees this situation has resulted in a decided shift in desire: in stead of working their 7
way up in an organization, many now prefer to work their way out. Entrepreneurship at 8
the small business administration are now the fastest-growing majors in business schools. 9
Several factors have generated movement from the old paradigm to the new one. 10
Organizations have had legitimate and pressing reasons to shift to a new paradigm of 11
employer-employee relations. Large numbers of permanent employees make it difficult 12
for organizations to respond quickly to downturns in demand by decreasing payroll costs. 13
The enormous rights in wrongful discharge suites has created incentives for organizations 14
to use temporary, contract, and leased employees in order to distance themselves from 15
potential litigation problems. Moreover, top management is under increased pressure 16
from shareholders to generate higher and higher levels of return on investment in the 17
short run, resulting in declines in hiring, increases in layoffs, and shortage of funds for 18
employee development. 19
At the same time, a lack of forthrightness on the part of organizations has led to 20
increased cynicism among employees about management’s motivation and competence. 21
Employees are now working 15 percent more hours per week than they were 20 years ago, 22
but organizations acknowledge this fact only by running stress-management workshops 23
to help employees to cope. Sales people are being asked to increase sales at the same time 24
organizations have cut travel, phone, and advertising budgets. Employees could probably 25
cope effectively with changes in the psychological contract if organizations were more 26
forthright about how they were changing it. But the euphemistic jargon used by executives 27
to justify the changes they were implementing frequently backfires; rather than 28
engendering sympathy for management’s position, it sparks employees’ desire to be 29
free of the organization all together. In a recent study of employees’ attitudes about 30
management, 49 percent of the sample strongly agreed that “management will take 31
advantage of you if given the chance.”
Question 8:
The passage suggests that organizations’ movement to the “new paradigm” (line 11) is
based in part on the expectation that wrongful discharge suites against employers are?
A. less likely to be filed by non-managerial employees than by managers
B. less likely to be filed by leased employees than by contract employees
C. less likely to be filed by contract employees than by permanent employees
D. more likely to be filed by employees with a long history in the organization than
by newer hirers
E. more likely to be filed in small organizations than in large ones
选c，没有问题，一个对比。
可是怎么翻译呢？
是否是“对于合同员工的裁员比对永久员工的裁员的不正当的程度要低啊？“
谢谢！ | 
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发表于 2004-9-3 21:14:00
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