Passage 2
People and Organisations: the Selection Issue　　A  In 1991, according to the Department of Trade and Industry, a record 48,000 British companies went out of business. When businesses fail, the post-mortem analysis is traditionally undertaken by accountants and market strategists. Unarguably organisations do fail because of undercapitalization, poor financial management, and adverse market conditions etc. Yet, conversely, organisations with sound financial backing, good product ideas and market acumen often underperform and fail to meet shareholders’ expectations. The complexity, degree and sustainment of organizational performance require an explanation which goes beyond the balance sheet and the “paper conversion” of financial inputs into profit making outputs. A more complete explanation of “what went wrong” necessarily must consider the essence of what an organization actually is and that one of the financial inputs, the most important and often the most expensive, is people.
　　B  An organization is only as good as the people it employs. Selecting the right person for the job involves more than identifying the essential or desirable range of skills, educational and professional qualifications necessary to perform the job and then recruiting the candidate who is most likely to possess these skills or at least is perceived to have the ability and predisposition to acquire them. This is a purely person/skills match approach to selection.
　　C  Work invariably takes place in the presence and/or under the direction of others, in a particular organizational setting. The individual has to “fit” in with the work environment, with other employees, with the organizational climate, style of work, organization and culture of the organization. Different organisations have different cultures. Working as an engineer at British Aerospace will not necessarily be a similar experience to worki