单选题 What does a firm depend on if it wants to develop and not to be thrown out of the markets? You may say the firm should have some advantages of its own to stand still in the fierce competitive battle field of the commerce. And this is quite true. If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work force skills, American firms have a problem. Human resource management is not traditionally seen as the centre to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill acquisition is considered an individual responsibility. Labor is simply another factor of production to be hired/rented at the lowest possible cost--must as one buys raw materials 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 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, is 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 and managerial employees. And the limited investments that are 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 Ger many than it is in the United States. More time is required before 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.

单选题 Which of the following applies to the human resource management of American companies?
A. They hire people with the least possible money regardless of their skills.
B. They see skill gaining as their employees' own business.
C. They prefer to hire self-trained workers.
D. They only hire skilled workers because of keen employment competition.

单选题 What is the position of the executive of human resource management in an American firm?
A. He is one of the most important executives of the firm.
B. His post is likely to disappear when new technologies have been introduced.
C. He has no say in making important decisions of the firm.
D. He is directly under the chief financial executive.

单选题 The money most American firms put in work force training mainly goes on______.
A. technological and managerial staff
B. workers who will run new equipment
C. workers who lack basic background skills
D. top executives

单选题 Why is there a slow pace of technological change in American firms?
A. New equipment in America is more expensive.
B. American firms don't pay enough attention to on-the-job training of their work.
C. The decision-making process in American firms makes them less responsive to techno logical changes.
D. The professional staff of American firms are less paid and so less creative.

单选题 What is the main idea of the passage?
A. American firms' human resource management strategies affect their competitive capacity.
B. Human resource management is a key factor in a firm's survival.
C. The cost of work training in America is higher than that in Japan and Germany.
D. American firms are different from Japanese and German firms in human resource management.