Home / Aptitude Tests / Verbal Reasoning / The theme of the pas...

The theme of the passage is
...

Organisations are institutions in which members compete for status and power. They compete for resources of the organisation, for example finance to expand their own departments, for career advancement and for power to control the activities of others. In pursuit of these aims, groups are formed and sectional interests emerge. As a result, policy decisions may serve the ends of political and career systems rather than those of the concern. In this way, the goals of the organisation may be displaced in favour of sectional interests and individual ambition.

These preoccupations sometimes prevent the emergence of organic systems. Many of the electronic firms in the study had recently created research and development departments employing highly qualified and well paid scientists and technicians. Their high pay and expert knowledge were sometimes seen as a threat to the established order of rank, power and privilege. Many senior managers had little knowledge of technicality and possibilities of new developments and electronics. Some felt that close cooperation with the experts in an organic system would reveal their ignorance and show their experience was now redundant.