Vocabulary:
delegate responsibilities - делегировать ответственность
cross-communication - перекрестное общение
decision-making - принятие решения
sound - разумный
long-range planning - перспективное/ долгосрочное/
планирование
Comprehension questions:
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Why was the corporation restructured?
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How are decisions made within the corporation?
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What is the function of the Board?
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What are the advantages gained from the restructuring of the corporation?
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What should be done to make management more flexible and dynamic?
Task12: Describe the structure of the company. Use: to be at the head of, to be in charge of, to be responsible for.
Example: The Production Manager is at the head of the Production Department. He is in charge of factory organization, research and development.
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COLLINS Ltd. Chairman Managing Director |
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Production Manager |
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Marketing Manager |
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Export Manager |
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Administration Manager |
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Finance Manager |
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- factory organization, research and development - health and s |
afety,
etc.|
- homesales - publicity - customer relations, etc. |
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- accounts - wages - insurance, etc.
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- shipping - overseas sales - |
publicity|
- personnel - purchasing - transport, etc.
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Task 13:
A. Study the memo below and pay attention to the following:
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Memos are used only inside the company.
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They should include the following headings: To/ From/ Date/ Subject.
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They should be short and include only useful information.
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Points should be arranged in logical order. In longer memos it is normal to number different points.
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Memo style is formal or neutral.
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It is usual to end with your initials rather than a signature.
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MEMO
To: All department heads From: Patricia Marchand, General Manager
Date: 18 April Subject: Visit of German agent Please note that Katya Schmidt, our German agent, will be visiting the company on Friday, 26 April. There will be a meeting on that day at 11:30 a.m. in the Boardroom, which you should all attend. Mrs. Schmidt will be presenting her marketing plan for expanding sales in the German market. If you wish to join us for lunch at a local restaurant, please let me know as soon as possible.
PM
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B. You are the financial director at Maestro Music Company. Your PA, Charlotte Collins, has some problems in her job. Look at the notes and write a memo to Emma Ashby, the Human Resources manager. Explain the problems and suggest action.
Subject: Charlotte Collins
Position: Personal Assistant
Problem:
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Has got too much work
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Works late every evening
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Salary isn’t high enough
Action:
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Employ a part-time assistant to help
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Increase her salary
Memo
To: ……………………………………………………………………………………..
From: ………………………………………………………………………………….
Date: …………………………………………………………………………………...
Subject: Charlotte Collins, Finance department
My personal assistant, Charlotte Collins, is not happy in her job. She is a very good PA, and I do not want her to leave the company.
The problem is …
I think we should …
Task 14: Study the letter below and pay attention to the following:
Salutation:
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When you don’t know the name of the recipient:
Dear Sir/Madam (Br E)
Ladies and Gentlemen (Am E)
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When you know the name of the recipient:
Dear Mr / Mrs / Ms / Miss Winch
(BrE,AmE)
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For a formal letter it is a good idea to put the topic of the letter as a heading:
/Re: /
Endings:
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When you don’t know the name of the recipient:
Yours faithfully (BrE)
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When you know the name of the recipient:
Yours sincerely
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Sign the letter, then print your name and position under your signature.
Common abbreviations:
Re: - regarding (about)
Enc. – documents are enclosed with the letter
Cc: - copies circulated (the names of the people who receive a copy of the letter)
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TM Breweries GmbH ______________________________ Baubergerstr 17 80991 Munich
Ms Teresa Winch Vending Machines Inc Box 97 New York 19 February
Dear Ms Winch
Re: South East Asian opportunities
I was very pleased to have met you again in Munich last week. I hope you enjoyed yourself and felt that your visit was useful. I found our discussion about the activities of your organization in Korea very interesting. It seems to me that there are a lot of ways in which our organizations could work together to our mutual advantage in South East Asia. I have enclosed a brochure with further information about our products. I propose that we get together soon to discuss the matter in more detail. I hope this suggestion is of interest and look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Katherine Sell Sales Manager
Enc. product brochure
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Task 15: Lay out the parts of the letter according to the rules you have studied.
1) Ms Jing Peng
36 Hersham Rd
Alton-on-Thames
Surrey
KT13 JR
2) Enc. Contract
3) Re: Job application
4) Please sign and return a copy of the contract enclosed to confirm acceptance of this offer. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
5) We are pleased to inform you that you have been successful in your application for the position of secretary to the managing director at Tilly’s Trinkets.
6) As agreed in the interview, we would like you to start on 1 October in our Wardour Street office. Your starting salary will be £20,000 per annum. You can take 20 days annual leave.
7) Tilly’s Trinkets Ltd
62 Wardour Street
London WC1
8) Cc: Elaine de Groove
Managing Director
9) Karine Gillbert
HR Manager
10) Dear Ms Peng
11) 3 August
12) Yours sincerely
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
TEXT 1: WHAT MANAGERS ACTUALLY DO
by Kathryn M. Bartol
One of the most famous studies of managers was conducted by management scholar Henry Mintzberg, who followed several top managers around for 1 week each and recorded everything that they did. Mintzberg was interested in documenting what managers actually do on the job. After following the senior managers around for days, he came to some interesting conclusions about their work methods and about several major roles that managers play.
Work Methods. The actual work methods of the managers differed quite drastically from popular images of managers as reflective, systematic planners who spend considerable quiet time in their offices pouring over formal reports.
Unrelenting Pace. The managers worked at an unrelenting pace. They began working from the moment they arrived at the office in the morning and kept working until they left at night. Rather then taking coffee breaks, the managers usually drank their coffee while they attended meetings, which averaged eight each day. Similarly, lunches were almost always eaten in the course of formal or informal meetings. When the managers were not in meetings, they had to handle their average of 36 pieces of mail per day as well as other matters that landed on their desk or were communicated by telephone or e-mail.
Brevity, Variety, and Fragmentation. The managers work was characterized by brevity, variety, and fragmentation. The managers handled a wide variety of issues throughout the day, ranging from awarding a retirement plaque to discussing the bidding on a multy-million-dollar contract. Many of their activities were surprisingly brief. For example, about half the activities that Mintzberg recorded were completed in less than 9 minutes, and only 10 percent took more than 1 hour. Telephone calls tended to be short, lasting an average of 6 minutes; work session at the managers desk and informal meetings averaged 15 and 10 minutes, respectively. The managers experienced continual interruptions from telephone calls and subordinates. Leaving meetings before the end was common. As a result of the fragmentation and interruptions, a number of top managers save their major thinking about planning and important issues for times outside the normal workday. For example, Susan Kind of Steuben does much of her major reading, thinking, and planning at the office after 6 p.m. when the workday pace slows. In the process, she puts in a total of about 60 to 70 hours of work per week.
Verbal contacts and Networks. The managers showed a strong preference for verbal communication, preferring to communicate through phone conversations and informal and formal meetings rather than depending on more formal memos and reports. For obtaining and transmitting information, they relied heavily on networks. A network is a set of cooperative relationships with individuals whose help is needed in order for a manager to function effectively. The network of contacts included superiors, subordinates, peers, and other individuals inside the organization, as well as numerous individuals outside. Some of the contacts were personal, such as friends and peers. Others were experts, such as consultants, lawyers, and insurance underwriters. Still others were trade association contacts, customers, and suppliers. Because of their position, managers also tended to receive unsolicited information that was sometimes helpful. So managers need to develop a major network of contacts in order to have influence and to operate effectively.
From Management
TEXT 2: HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
by Malcom Surridge
Despite all the advantages in technology, and fears about computers or robots taking over jobs, businesses will never be able to do without people. People bring to a business more than just a pair of hands. They bring:
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Their knowledge, ability to think and their ideas.
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Their skills, expertise and experience.
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Their time and energy.
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Their personalities, humour, enthusiasm and expectations.
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Their culture, values and beliefs.
No other sources can offer such a variety of gifts in such a small package – not even the microchip.
This variety makes ‘people’ the most complex of the resources used in any organization. The complexity is a benefit in the main, but it creates difficulties in management. There are two approaches to the problem:
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The personnel management approach
Firstly, there is the personnel management approach. This tends to focus on the organization’s employees and operates in the interest of each individual as well as the entire workforce. The approach is concerned with the techniques and skills of finding the best people for a given job, negotiating their contracts of employment, training them, endevouring to satisfy their needs at work, and looking after their personal needs as a ‘social service’. At the same time, the personnel manager would represent management’s policy and communicate each side’s view to the other. It has been argued that the role of the personnel manager differs from other managers of other departments in that she or he serves not only the employers, but also acts in the interest of employees.
b) The human resources management approach
Secondly, there is the human resources management (HRM) approach. HRM is much more strategically orientated, and aims to ensure the company has the right number of the right sort of people to fulfill both short and long-term plans. The HRM manager sees the line manager as the day-to-day personnel manager whilst she or he is more concerned with the workforce as a whole, and the direction in which it is taking the firm.
Balancing the two approaches
These two approaches are not to be seen as competing philosophies which are mutually exclusive – HRM actually evolved through personnel management. In most companies the personnel function contains elements of the two.
From People, Marketing and Business
TEXT 3: STYLES OF EXECUTION
by Christopher Lorenz
A study comparing British and German approaches to management has revealed the deep gulf which separates managerial behaviour in many German and British companies. The gap is so fundamental, especially among middle managers, that it can pose severe problems for companies from the two countries which either merge or collaborate. The findings are from a study called ‘Managing in Britain and Germany’ carried out by a team of German and British academics from Mannheim University and Templeton College, Oxford.
The differences are shown most clearly in the contrasting attitudes of many Germans and Britons to managerial expertise and authority, according to the academics. This schism results, in turn, from the very different levels of qualification, and sorts of career paths, which are typical in the two countries.
German managers – both top and middle – consider technical skill to be the most important aspect of their jobs, according to the study. It adds that German managers consider they earn their authority with colleagues and subordinates from this ‘expert knowledge’ rather than from their position in the organizational hierarchy.
In sharp contrast, British middle managers see themselves as executives first and technicians second. As a result, German middle managers may find that the only people within their British partner companies who are capable of helping them solve routine problems are technical specialists who do not have management rank.
Other practical results of these differences include a greater tendency of British middle managers to regard the design of their departments as their own responsibility, and to recognize them more frequently than happens in Germany. German middle managers can have ‘major problems in dealing with this’, the academics point out, since British middle managers also change their jobs more often. As a result, UK organizations often undergo ‘more or less constant change’.
Of the thirty British middle managers in the study, thirteen had held their current job for less than two years, compared with only three in Germany. Many of the Britons had also moved between unrelated departments or functional areas, for example from marketing to human resources. In contrast, all but one of the Germans had stayed in the same functional area. Twenty of them had occupied their current positions for five years or more, compared with only five of the Britons.
The researchers almost certainly exaggerate the strengths of the German pattern; its very stability helps to create the rigid attitudes which stop many German companies from adjusting to external change. But the authors of report are correct about the drawbacks of the more unstable and less technically oriented British pattern. And they are right in concluding that the two countries do not merely have different career systems but also, in effect, different ways of doing business.
From the Financial Times
TEXT 4: THE INTERNATIONAL MANAGER
by Schneider and Barsoux
In recent years, many companies have expanded globally. They have done this through mergers, joint ventures and co-operation with foreign companies. Because of this globalization trend, many more employees are working abroad in managerial positions or as a part of a multicultural team.
Although it is common nowadays for staff to work abroad to gain experience, many people have difficulty adapting to the new culture. The failure rate in US multinationals is estimated to be as high as 30% and it costs US business 3 billion dollars a year.
Two typical failures have been described in the journal Management Today. The first example concerns a German manager with IBM who took up a position as a product manager in England. He found that at most lunchtimes and especially on Fridays, many members of staff went to the pub. ‘I stopped that right away,’ he says. ‘Now they are not allowed off the premises. It didn’t make me very popular at the time but it is not good for efficiency. There is no way we would do that in Germany. No way.’
The second example is about an American manager who came to France on a management assignment. He was unable to win the trust of his staff although he tried all kinds of ways to do so. He set clear goals, worked longer hours than everybody, participated in all the projects, visited people’s offices and even took employees out to lunch one by one. But nothing seemed to work. This was because the staff believed strongly that the management were trying to exploit them.
The German manager’s mistake was that he hadn’t foreseen the cultural differences. IBM had a firm rule about drinking during working hours. It was not allowed. He didn’t understand that staff in other countries might be more flexible in applying the rule.
The American manager used the ways he was familiar with to gain the staff’s trust. To them, he seemed more interested in getting the job done than in developing personal relationships. By walking around and visiting everyone in their offices, perhaps he gave the impression that he was ‘checking up’ on staff. His managerial approach strengthened their feeling of exploitation.
When managers work in foreign countries, they may find it difficult to understand the behaviour of their employees. Moreover, they may find that the techniques which worked at home are not effective in their new workplace.
From Managing Across Culture
TEXT 5 : LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
by Julia Clerk
In business today, it’s not what managers know, but who they can be.
According to the philosophy of Wharton Business School, the qualities sought in today’s business leaders are very different from those needed in the past, when the emphasis was on traditional management disciplines such as finance, accounting, marketing and strategy.
These days, the focus is much more on personal qualities sometimes called “heroic,” such as the willingness to take risks, courage, team - building, sensitivity to other cultures and creativity.
Mike Useem, professor of management and director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, says that factors bringing about this change include intensifying competition, globalizing markets and pressure by institutional investors to build companies that are more flexible and customer – focused.
“Leadership is at its best in this era when the vision is strategic, the voice persuasive, the results tangible, ” says Mr. Useem. “And in a world where cycle times are shortening, companies increasingly require an ability to make fast and accurate decisions. A capacity to drive a fast – moving organization and to be a quick mover has also become an essential skill for leadership.”
General management theory at Harvard Business School once focused on the administration of large, complex and relatively stable businesses. Nowadays, the Harvard curriculum advocates a much broader range that encompasses all those who create, shape, adapt and manage enterprises large and small, new and old, in highly dynamic, global environments.
Some of the key initiatives in Harvard’s current MBA program include entrepreneurship and leadership responsibilities in which students are encouraged to “develop action plans that are organizationally effective and ethically sound as well as economically attractive.”
Says Otis W. Baskin, dean of Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and Management: “Businesses seek leaders who can lead change, not just react to or manage change. This requires a capacity for innovative thinking and the flexibility to work with others – in other words, being open to consider the ideas and contributions of others.”
Besides change and uncertainty, business leaders of today and tomorrow face an increasingly global arena. In response, the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University now offers the Duke MBA Global Executive, which Fuqua calls “an entirely new model of management education.”
On the age – old question of whether leaders are born or made, George Daly, dean of New York University’s Stern School, says : “Some qualities displayed by leaders – tenacity, for example – are innate, while others can be learned. We feel the best way the skills can be learned is through interaction with variety of leadership styles as exemplified by particular people.”
From the International Herald Tribune
UNIT 3
MONEY AND BANKING
Do you know?
The word money is derived from the Latin moneta, which was one of the names of Juno, the Roman goddess whose temple was used as a mint.
Notes:
goddess Juno – богиня Юнона
temple – храм
mint – монетный двор
Text 1: MONEY
Most of us use money every day. We see it, touch it, and spend it. But how many of us can define it adequately? Usually money is defined too narrowly. Some define it as the currency of a nation; others think of it in terms of legal tender; still others often refer to it as the medium of exchange. Such definitions, however, automatically exclude large portions of our money. To include all segments of our money supply, we must use a broad definition. Thus, we can say that money is anything that is commonly accepted in exchange for other goods and services.
Commodity money refers to the use of some commodity as money. Many commodities – such as stones, shells, various crops, metal, and paper – have served as money in various countries of the world. American history reveals that tobacco, corn, beads, warehouse receipts, and bank notes, in addition to metal coin and paper currency, have served as money. In fact, many of these monies were given the status of legal tender, which means that they were acceptable for the payment of debts, both public and private.
There are two basic types of modern money, each of considerable importance: token money and paper money. Token or metallic money consists of coins – a special type of commodity money in which a metal such as gold, silver, or copper is used. Paper money takes the form of bills and notes. It may or may not be backed by gold or silver. Although the United States has had various types of commodity money in its history, all American currency today is in the form of paper money and coins.
Every Nation Has Its Currency
Every nation has its own supply of currency. In all nations, currency is alike in four important ways. What are the four common features of currency?
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Currency must be easy to carry and must take up little space. People must be able to carry it with them for everyday use.
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Currency must be based on a system of units that are easy to multiply and divide. That is, it should not take too long to figure out the number of coins and bills needed to exchange for any article.
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Currency must be durable, or last a long time. It should not wear out too quickly or fall apart. People must be able to keep currency until they are ready to spend it.
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Currency must be made in a standard form and be guaranteed by the nation’s government. In this way, all people can be certain that their coins and bills will be accepted by everyone else in exchange for goods and services.