2015年6月六级阅读复习资料2— 公司管理

Montessori management

蒙特梭利管理

The backlash against running firms like progressive schools has begun

反对公司管理像学校改革的运动已经开始

THE INTERNSHIP, a film about two middle-aged no-hopers who land work experience at Google, is a dire offering even by the standards of Hollywood summer comedies.

《挨踢实习生》是一部关于两个有工作经验没有希望转正的中年人在谷歌的故事，即使是按好莱坞夏天喜剧的标准，这也是一部顶级作品。

But it does get one thing right: that it is rather absurd for a technology firm to provide slides for staff to play on, and to let them wear silly propeller-hats.

但有一件事情是对的：一家科技公司为员工提供幻灯片演讲是相当荒谬的，而且让他们戴上傻螺旋桨一样的帽子。

Google is not alone in its juvenile tastes.

在对青年人的口味上谷歌不是唯一一家。

Box, a Silicon Valley company, has installed swings in its headquarters.

硅谷的Box公司在其总部安装秋千。

Red Bull, an energy-drinks firm, has a reception desk in the shape of a giant skateboard in its London office.

能量饮料公司红牛在其伦敦办公室内有一个巨大的滑板样的接待桌。

Businesses of all types have moved towards sitting workers in groups in open-plan rooms, just like at nursery school.

各类企业都在逐渐为员工提供开放式办公室，就像托儿所。

Time was when firms modelled themselves on the armed forces, with officers and chains of command.

企业在模仿军队的指挥官和指挥链。

Now many model themselves on learning-through-play Montessori schools.

现在有很多通过在实践中学习蒙台梭利学校的模式。

Montessori management has plenty of supporters in the higher reaches of business.

蒙台梭利的管理拥有很多公司高层的支持。

The bosses of Google, Amazon and Wikipedia were all educated in Montessori schools.

谷歌，亚马逊和维基百科的老板都在蒙特梭利学校接受过教育。

So was Will Wright, a video-game pioneer.

视频游戏先锋威尔·赖特也是这样。

Messrs Page and Brin credit their Montessori education with their enthusiasm for thinking differently.

佩奇和布林把他们对不同思维方式的热情归于他们在蒙台梭利接受的教育。

Mr Bezos thanks it for his enthusiasm for experimentation—for planting seeds and going down blind alleys as he puts it.

Bezos先生感谢蒙台梭利是因为他对实验的热情，正如他所说的播种和减少弯路。

Mr Wright says SimCity comes right out of Montessori.

赖特先生说模拟城市正是出自蒙特梭利。

The nostrums of some management gurus sound remarkably like those of the progressive educationalists of the 1960s.

一些管理大师的秘方听起来非常像那些20世纪60年代的教育改革者。

For example Gary Hamel, of London Business School, and Jeffrey Pfeffer, of Stanford Business School, praise companies that dismantle hierarchies and encourage experimentation.

例如伦敦商学院的加里·哈默尔和斯坦福大学商学院的杰弗里·普费弗，称赞公司消除等级和鼓励试验。

It is not just rich-world businesses that are buying into this philosophy:

不只是富有的世界级企业相信这一理念：

HCL Technologies, an Indian software company, invites workers to write assessments of their bosses—and publishes them.

印度软件公司HCL邀请工人对老板进行评价并进行公开。

But it would be wrong to conclude that the success of Google and Amazon vindicates Montessori management.

但是仅用谷歌和亚马逊的成功就支持蒙特梭利管理的推断或许是错误的。

Both companies have pragmatically mixed progressive ideas with more traditional ones such as encouraging internal competition and measuring performance.

这两家公司都追求实用主义，混合了务实进取的理念，如传统的鼓励内部竞争和绩效量化。

Mr Bezos is also an enthusiastic employer of ex-military personnel.

贝索斯先生也是一位喜欢雇佣前军事人员的雇主。

As in education, where traditionalists have staged a counter-revolution against the progressives, some academics are now questioning Montessori management's basic assumptions—particularly its faith in free-flowing creativity, endless collaboration and all things open-plan.

在教育界，保守者上演了一场反改革的运动，现在一些学者质疑蒙特梭利管理的基本假设，特别是其对自由流动的创造力，无限的协作和完全开放的信念。

For example, Morten Hansen of the University of California, Berkeley studied 182 teams who were trying to win a contract on behalf of a professional-services firm.

例如，加州大学伯克利分校的莫滕·汉森研究了试图赢得代表一个专业服务公司的合同的182个团队。

He found that the more time they spent consulting others, the less likely they were to win a deal.

他发现，他们越是花更多的时间咨询别人就越不太可能赢得这笔交易。

This shows, he says, that collaboration has costs as well as benefits.

他说这说明合作有效益也有成本。