Rapid changes in technology and increasing international competition have led employers to

seek new strategies for producing goods and providing services. These changes require a high performance organization where all workers have more responsibility and decision-making functions. Such organizations need employees who are well trained and possess the skills and knowledge necessary for their new functions. In addition, as learning becomes an integral part of the work itself, workers will need to be better prepared to avail themselves of training and learning opportunities in the workplace.

One challenge faced by educators and employers is how to prepare students for their changing roles in the workplace and how to ensure that the economy uses the full capacity and potential of our youth. At a point in our history when education beyond high school is increasingly viewed as necessary to meet the educational and skill requirements of many current and emerging careers, approximately one half of U.S. youth do not attend college and about half of those who do will not complete their studies. For many of these youth, particularly those who are members of the growing underclass, the transition between school and work has become problematic. Many graduate from high school with few or no job-related skills; often their academic preparation is weak. Those who drop out before high school graduation, many of them caught up in an inescapable world of poverty, fare worse with even more limited job and career prospects. Until the age of 25, these youth are likely to move from job to job, usually in the service sector of the economy where they find jobs that are low-skilled, poorly paid, and offer few opportunities for further training or advancement.

The result for some young people is a life of poverty. For many others the prospect is employment that pays less than a living wage and offers neither self-respect nor a future. Unemployment rates among all youth are high (twice that for adults) and not responsive to economic upturns. The official 1991 unemployment rates for high school graduates below the age of 24 was 13 percent for whites, 17 percent for Hispanics, and 29 percent for blacks. In reality, these frighteningly high rates are probably even worse. If young people drop out of school, their prospects for not getting a job are one out of four, and their employment prospects do not improve with time.

As is mentioned in the passage, a high performance organization is one ______.

A．which seeks new strategies for producing goods and providing services

B．in which workers play more active roles

C．in which workers rather than the executives make the decisions

D．which increases its competitiveness by hiring only skilled workers