4. Analyzing personality types and identifying strengths and weaknesses.

There are four functions that we all perform: thinking, intuiting, feeling and

sensing. There is one dominant function in each of us. Speak about yourself.

Thinker enjoys tackling problems by using logical analysis; is sceptical of projects unless backed up with sound, rational arguments; is a methodical worker; is strong on analysis but weak on implementing solutions.

Sensor is good at getting things done; is often impatient with the planning stage; feels at home with routine work; has a lot of common sense and is practical; works hard and is usually well organized; is energetic and single-minded.

Intuitor enjoys playing with the ideas and theories; is good at seeing the ‘overview’, but misses the detail; is creative and has a strong imaginative sense; often gets hunches about things that turn out to be correct.

Feeler enjoys human company; assesses people on their personal values, not technical skills; is warm and sympathetic; is perceptive about people’s moods, feelings and reactions; may overlook blatant (evident) facts in favour of ‘gut feelings’.

Listening

You are going to hear a group of four managers who work together and talk about themselves and each other. Classify each manager according to one of Carl Jung’s types.

Role play

Northern Oil Products LTD (NOP) recently carried out a survey of their managers’ attitude to their jobs. Questionnaires were sent to 500 middle and senior managers, and completed anonymously. The responses to some of the questions are summarized in the following table.

Study the table and do the role play which follows.

Number of respondents: 500 yes/ no/ don’t know/

Feel that they are satisfied with their jobs. 250 210 40

Feel that their salary reflects 380 75 45

the responsibility of their position.

Feel that they could do a better job 180 255 65

in another position within the company.

Feel that their abilities and skills have 248 223 29

not been fully used by the company.

Feel that they have been overlooked for 334 155 11

promotion.

Feel that the working conditions in 405 85 10

the company are satisfied.

Feel that the company offers sufficient 178 280 42

opportunities for staff development.

Feel that they would be able take a job 23 463 14

with another company if they had the opportunity.

Feel that the company shows a caring 52 300 148

attitude to its managers.

Feels that their job offers variety and challenge. 272 202 26

Instructions Work in groups of two or three. First, make comments about the survey’s results, as in the examples below. Use the expressions given in the table. When you have finished making comments about the survey, discuss the following questions.

Communication skills – Talking about statistics

very few of, almost none of, hardly any of; quite a few of, a large number of, a lot of, almost a quarter of, slightly less than a third of, just fewer than half of, a little under three quarters of, about / roughly / approximately 35 % of, just more than half of, well over 50 % of, at least half of, the vast majority of, nearly all of, virtually all of.

e.g. Half the managers are satisfied with their job.

Just over 60 % think that they’ve been overlooked for promotion.

The majority of the managers are satisfied with the company’s working

conditions.

Questions:

1. What conclusions can you draw about the company and its management from the results of the survey?

2. What proposals would you make if you were Director of Personnel to improve the attitudes of NOP’s managers towards their jobs?

Company’s performance

Describing trends in graphs and charts

up / noun/ an increase; a rise; an improvement; a growth;

/ verb / to increase; to rise; to improve; to grow; to go up; to take off;

to shoot up; to peak; to reach a peak;

down /noun / a fall; a drop; a decline;

/ verb / to fall; to drop; to decline; to go down; to fall off; to reach a low peak;

no change to remain stable; to level off; to stay at the same level;

key phrases to rise from 1 million pounds to 3 million pounds;

to fall from 5 million pounds to 4 million pounds;

to increase by 50 %

to drop by 10 %

Notes on prepositions

We use ‘to fall by’ (with a verb) and ‘a fall of’ ( with a noun)

For example: Exports fell by 6%.

Exports fell steadily, in November they stood at $400 million, a

fall of 6 % on the day.

We use ‘ to rise to' ( with a verb) and ‘a rise to’ ( with a noun)

For example: It continued to rise in the early afternoon to 3412.

Useful phrases

(with nouns) a rapid / sharp / dramatic / substantial (increase)

a slow / gradual / steady (decline)

a small / slight (drop)

(with verbs) to (increase) rapidly / sharply / dramatically / substantially /

slowly etc.

to double / triple / quadruple