5. Translate the following sentences into English

1. Мотивация – это внутренняя сила, побуждающая людей работать для достижения целей организации, тем самым удовлетворяя личные потребности.

2. Задача руководителя (менеджера) состоит в том, чтобы создать возможности для служащих удовлетворять их потребности в полной мере в качестве вознаграждения за их работу и мастерство.

3. Фредерик Тейлор полагал, что служащие работают только за деньги, и он доказывал, что оплата должна быть связана с производительностью. Теория Тейлора породила сдельную систему оплаты труда (piece payment).

4. Теория Дугласа МакГрегора основывалась на концепции о том, что работники могут вести себя как ответственные члены организации, когда им ясно, что осуществление организационных целей принесёт им личные выгоды.

5. Это приводит к преданности и верности фирме и к общему желанию хорошо выполнять работу.

6. Абрахам Маслоу предполагал, что люди стремятся осуществить пять основных потребностей: физиологические потребности, потребности в безопасности, социальные потребности (принадлежность к социальной группе), потребности в уважении и признании заслуг, потребности в самореализации.

Reading 3.

You will read the text about some forms of performance appraisal of employees.

Most organizations have some form of performance appraisal of their employees. The appraisals are usually carried out once a year. The manager makes an evaluation of the performance of the subordinate. This involves finding out a form or writing a report on the person concerned. After this, there is a meeting at which the two parties discuss the appraisal. A performance appraisal is, then, a judgment on how well a person is doing his work.

Appraisals help organizations to reward staff properly. They are useful when decisions have to be made about salary increases and bonuses. In addition, they are needed when managers are considering transferring or promoting staff. In these situations, they provide up-to-date information about an individual’s performance, skills and career objectives.

An important purpose of appraisals is to give the subordinate feedback on how he is performing. The manager can talk to the subordinate about the strengths and weaknesses of his performance. He can also discuss how the subordinate can learn to work more effectively.

At appraisal interview, subordinates can not only talk about their future, but also seek guidance from the manager. The interview may help them to think more realistically about their goals. Besides doing this, it gives the subordinate the opportunity to ask the manager for further training.

There are many methods of evaluating a person’s performance at work. Some of the better-known methods are described below.

A traditional method has been to give a “rating”. The subordinate’s evaluation is based on traits – qualities - that he shows in his work. Subordinates are judged on such things as: knowledge of the job, reliability, cooperation, initiative, quality of work, sense of responsibility, productivity and punctuality.

The manager rates the subordinate by marking a letter or figure on a scale. For example, the rating could be A-E, where A indicates outstanding and E - unsatisfactory.

However, the most popular form of appraisal, in Britain and the United States, is Management by Objectives. This appraisal is based on a person’s performance, and how well he is achieving his goals. The manager and the subordinate agree on a certain number of objectives, which should be achieved in a given period of time. The focus is on results, not personality traits. The subordinates can be judged on such things as: number of sales calls, number of new customers contacted, number of wholesalers stocking new product, sales of product, customer complaints, service calls, etc.

Another appraisal method is worth mentioning too. This is the Critical Incident Method. With this system, the manager keeps a record of good and unsatisfactory examples (incidents) of a person’s work. These are kept in a file and reviewed with the manager when the interview takes place. An advantage of the system is that the manager has to think about the subordinate’s performance throughout the year. Furthermore, specific examples of the person’s work can be looked at and discussed at the appraisal interview.

In spite of the need for performance appraisals, people do not like them. Many managers see appraisals as their most unpleasant duty and those who are appraised rarely have a good word to say for the system used by their organization. One problem is that the manager is expected to criticize the subordinate and to give guidance at the same time. However, it is not easy for a manager to combine those roles. Many people are naturally suspicious of appraisals. They think managers are trying to find out their weaknesses, so they are on the defensive. Moreover, managers are often unwilling to say that a subordinate’s performance has been “outstanding” or “bad”. So, the individual is described as being “just above average”. This means that high fliers in the organization do not get a good enough evaluation while the work of poor performers may be over-valued. Finally many managers do not like to criticize, in writing, a subordinate with whom they are working closely, day-to-day.

Appraisal can be a valuable process. At the interview, the manager should act as a guide to the subordinate, not as a judge. The purpose of the interview should be to discuss how the individual can “grow” in the organization, and make an effective contribution. The situation allows both parties to review the work of the individual, fix realistic targets, and plan that person’s career development.

Comprehension / interpretation

1. What is performance appraisal?

2. Why do organizations carry out appraisals?

3. What is the main purpose of any appraisal?

4. What is the main difference between the rating and the Management by Objectives methods of appraisal?

6. If the Critical Incident Method is used, what does the superior have to do before the performance appraisal interview takes place?

7. Why do some people think that the Critical Incident Method is fairer than the others mentioned?

8. Why do very good employees often complain about their performance appraisals?

9. Which of the three systems of appraisal mentioned in this article do you think is the best for a) the manager? b) the employee?

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