- •What are the fundamental concepts of management?
- •What are the most important processes/resources in an organization?
- •What is the role of a procedure?
- •What are the reasons for the existence of organizations and why are they so important to us?
- •What managerial styles do you find the most/the least efficient?
- •What are the major approaches to organizing a company?
- •What are the functions of major departments in a traditional company?
- •16. What does it mean to be efficient/well-organized?
- •17. How could one use swot approach to improve one’s image/profile and enhance one’s career development?
- •18. What are the most important techniques of managing one’s time effectively?
- •20. What are the most common types of problem people and how do experienced managers deal with them?
- •21. What types of relation can there exist between an employee and a manager? What is collective bargaining?
- •22. What perks do efficient employees receive? What other kinds of motivation can you mention?
- •23. Why is it necessary to hold meetings? What types of meetings can you mention? What documents are specially drawn up for the meeting?
- •24. What papers do you need to apply for a job and give a good impression? What are the main types of interviews?
- •25. What does a contract cover? What does it guarantee?
- •26. What types of messages are most commonly used in business?
- •27. What are the stages of business negotiations? What verbal and non-verbal communication skills are required when talking to people in business situations?
- •28. What are some ‘golden rules’ of writing business letters?
- •29. What are the major stages of writing a report? What is the structure of a report?
- •30. How do the customers find out about the range of goods offered by the firm and their prices?
- •32. What does it mean ‘to think marketing’? What does swot mean?
- •33. What aspects of a product do they focus on in marketing?
- •34. What does it mean ‘to position a product’?
- •35. What are advantages and disadvantages of personal selling?
- •36. What are the best strategies in pricing?
- •37. What is a marketing mix?
- •38. What does one get royalties/fees/tips/salary/wages for?
- •39. What is the most typical channel of distribution?
- •40. What are the main stages of a products life-cycle?
- •41. What are the most efficient types of advertising?
- •42. What are the most efficient promotion techniques?
- •43. What is the role of an intermediary (a retailer, a distributor, etc.)?
- •44. What kinds of stores are there in big cities?
- •45. What are the most typical metaphors of culture?
- •46. What is the difference between high and low context culture?
- •47. What is the difference between a stereotype and a cultural generalization?
- •48. What countries belong to high/low context cultures?
16. What does it mean to be efficient/well-organized?
To be efficient/well-organized means:
To be highly-qualified (which means to have an appropriate degree, professional training and retraining courses, working experience, relevant skills, also it can be international experience, research interests, participation in International Professional Associations);
To manage one’s time effectively (which means to delegate tasks to subordinates, use prioritizing, have ability to focus on the most important tasks);
To be well-presented (which means to have an image/appearance appropriate to the situation, to look and sound appropriate, avoid overdressing; a person shouldn’t be good-lookers).
17. How could one use swot approach to improve one’s image/profile and enhance one’s career development?
The SWOT analysis is a tool for evaluating (estimating, assessing) oneself (and also other people, the situations, any events and objects).
One should identify and estimate his or her Strengths (strong points), Weaknesses (weak points), Opportunities and Threats. It is critical neither to overestimate nor to underestimate these factors.
To develop one’s career successfully one should expose his or her strengths and cover his or her weaknesses. To cover weaknesses means:
Try to avoid situations where weaknesses are exposed;
Ask to advice;
Develop personality (training and retraining);
If one feels under pressure and doesn’t use his or her strengths he or she even can find another job.
18. What are the most important techniques of managing one’s time effectively?
There are two most important techniques which can help to manage one’s time effectively:
Delegating;
Prioritizing.
Delegating is an authorizing subordinates to make certain decisions.
Prioritizing is a process of ranking tasks of their priority and focusing on the most important tasks.
20. What are the most common types of problem people and how do experienced managers deal with them?
There are two common types of problem people:
Authoritarian person;
Defensive person.
Authoritarians talk too much and don’t listen enough. They assume that people are basically lazy, can’t be trusted and must not be allowed to make their own decisions because they would get it wrong. Authoritarians expect unswerving obedience and for someone with ideas and initiative it can be very frustrating. Doing nothing is not a good idea – unless it suits you to have someone taking all the decisions and telling you what to do.
To deal with such people a manager should try to modify the situation. The key lies in understanding what sort of situation triggers their authoritarian behavior (risk of chaos, violation of a non-negotiable matter, insubordination). One will reduce the problem if one is compliant on the issues that are sacrosanct and non-negotiable, but otherwise assertive. A useful approach is to assume that it’s all right to do things until told otherwise. This will give you some space for initiative, and you can win their trust slowly – but make sure that any initiatives you take do not jeopardize the orderliness which the authoritarian holds so dear.
Defensive people do not accept responsibility for their actions, and therefore never learn from their experience. Nothing is ever their fault; there is always a seemingly plausible explanation.
The best way to tackle a defensive person is to choose a time when he or she has made a mistake and invite him or her to join you in analyzing why it happened and what should be done to avoid it happening again. A softly-softly approach is essential to stop the defensive barriers being raised.