Reading Comprehension 27 Sept

Generation after generation, all civilizations have passed on virtually the same set of values: honesty, integrity, dedication, respect for others, etc. But when persons operate in groups or as employees in organizations, there is a large gap between the set of values people think they hold and practice, and what others see them practicing. There is also a big gap between the values wanted and the values upheld by groups. According to Sudha, HR expert, who has arrived at these conclusions after 18 years of work in the field, there is another dilemma in this behavioral area. She says, “There is a tug of war between traditional family ideals, emerging values in the changing society and the practices of people.” Sudha, who has conducted training and organization development workshops for private, public, NGOs and the government sectors, has been specially focusing on values and institution building, personal effectiveness, group development, team building and leadership and organizational culture surveys. In her workshops on value clarification for executives, she found that the first-level awareness that people have of their own values is more idealistic and at a macro level, more like the principles of life that are taught in childhood. In the second stage, when they are given a set of values and asked to choose some cherished values, family happiness tops the list, followed by achievement, inner harmony, responsibility and freedom. In the third stage, things take a very different shape with the day-to-day life and self-oriented items gaining high ranks and the idealistic items not finding a place in the first five ranks. Executives often believe that they cannot practice the values that they want to because of circumstances, constraints, pressures, etc., in work organizations. At the societal level, they feel that there is a general degeneration or erosion of values in society. Q1 . The real test of values, integrity and honesty of an individual comes when he (a) Has to work in groups (b) Has to meet a deadline

(c) Interacts with members of the community (d) Befriends other people (e) Works in collaboration with his superiors Q2 There is a variance in ‘the values wanted and the values upheld by groups.’ This means that (a) The values upheld by individuals undergo a change incredulously (b) There is a disparity between what most people are and actually present themselves to be (c) There is a difference in the values that people yearn for and actually embrace (d) The values upheld by people depend on their mindset (e) Values cannot be upheld by an individual because they change according to times q.3. . Sudha feels that there is a dilemma in the type of values to be upheld. By this she means that (a) Every person has his own understanding of values and thus he acts accordingly (b) Modern society paints a grim picture of an individual and his concept of morality (c) Individuals have different values as opposed to those working in a group (d) The concept of morality has changed with advances in technology (e) There is a conflict between the traditional values that one has upheld and the emerging ideals ANSWERS: 1A 2C 3E