Vocabulary

goal – цель

objective – задача, цель

short-range target – краткосрочная задача, цель на ближайшую

перспективу

long-range target – долгосрочная перспективная цель

forecasting - прогнозирование

leading – руководство

motivate – стимулировать, побуждать

deviation – отклонение

total quality management – управление тотальным качеством,

управление качеством во всех аспектах и на

каждом этапе деятельности организации

focus on smth – сосредоточивать внимание на чём либо

benchmarking – «бенчмаркинг», сравнение деятельности своей компании

с деятельностью конкурентов.

slash – сокращать, снижать

market standing – положение, занимаемое компанией на рынке

innovation – инновация, новшество

physical resources – материальные ресурсы

vision – (зд) дальновидность, проницательность

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What is management? What types of organization need management?

2. Define the four management functions.

3. What is total quality management? Clarify how total quality management is

changing the way organizations are managed.

4. Why is management so important in any business? What is the role of

individual managers in business success?

B. Managerial Skills

In order to adequately and efficiently perform their management functions, managers must possess certain skills that fall into three basic categories: interpersonal, technical, and conceptual skills.

Management is essentially a matter of organizing people. All the skills required to communicate with other people, work effectively with them, motivate them, and lead them are interpersonal skills. Because they mainly get things done through people, managers at all levels of the organization use interpersonal skills in countless situations. Encouraging employees to work together toward common goals, interacting with employees and other managers, negotiating with partners and suppliers, developing employee trust and loyalty, and fostering innovation – all these activities require interpersonal skills. All businesses are built on relationships, and all relationships flourish with good communication. Your ability to communicate increases your own productivity as well as the organization’s. Communication, or exchanging information, is the most important interpersonal skill that managers use.

A person who knows how to operate the machine, prepare a financial statement, program a computer, or pass a football has technical skills; that is, he or she has the knowledge and ability to perform the mechanics of a particular job. Technical skills are most important at lower organizational levels. However, managers at all levels use administrative skills, which are the technical skills necessary to manage an organization. Administrative skills include the ability to make schedules, gather information, analyze data, plan, and organize. Managers often develop such skills through education and then improve them by working in one or more functional areas of an organization, such as accounting or marketing.

Managers need conceptual skills to see the organization as a whole, to see it in the context of its environment, and to understand how the various parts interrelate. Conceptual skills are especially important to top managers. These managers are the strategists who develop the plans and guide the organization toward its goal. Managers like Microsoft’s Bill Gates use their conceptual skills to acquire and analyze information, identify both problems and opportunities, understand the competitive environment in which their companies operate, develop strategies, and make decisions. A key managerial activity requiring conceptual skills is decision making, which has five distinct steps: recognizing the need for a decision, analyzing and defining the problem or opportunity, developing alternatives, selecting and implementing the chosen alternative, and evaluating the results. Managers monitor the results of decisions over time to see whether the chosen alternative works, whether any new problem or opportunity arises because of the decision, and whether a new decision must be made.