4. Now, check how well you understood the main points of the text by answering the following questions.

1. What unites all kinds of organizations?

2. According to the writer, what is the main duty of the head of any organization?

3. What is a classic definition of a manager’s role?

4. Why do some people disagree with Henry Fayol’s definition of the role of management?

5. How do the activities of managers at different levels differ?

6. What are the five basic manager’s operations according to Peter Drucker?

7. What skills do managers need to perform their tasks?

8. Do you think staff should like their manager? Why (not)?

Practically thinking

5. Now, try to put the theory about manager’s functions you have read above into practice.

Read a real-life situation in the UK company Leyland Trucks and:

a) Give examples of the five operations of management suggested by Drucker.

b) Explain how the management at Leyland attempted to:

- give employees more responsibility

- improve communication.

Leyland Trucks, the UK's largest commercial vehicle maker, enjoyed great success in the 1990s after its management buyout in 1993. This was to a large extent the result of innovative management. The workplace culture was transformed. The company conducted a survey which found employees thought they were not being given enough responsibility for their work. Management practices were also heavily criticized.

Employees who used to follow instructions exactly were given responsibility to generate their own production improvements. The contributions of workers were also recognized. Certificates of achievement were handed out for good work. Suggestions for improvements received a £1 shopping voucher and a thank you from management. One idea was for litter bins to be suspended on the production line near each lorry cab. Rubbish used to accumulate in the cabs during assembly and contractors were hired to clean them at the end of the line. Now rubbish is binned during production.

At one end of the factory was a new 15,000 square feet space cleared for assembly of Izuzu N series trucks. In the old days a team of engineers would have been put on the reorganization. Instead, employees were asked to look at the problem and shop-floor teams devised their own plan. One result was a reduction of work in progress by between £180,000 and £200,000. Another production process called ‘zigzagging’, where teams move between two parallel production lines, was also devised by shop-floor employees. Allister Butler, manufacturing engineering manager, says: “I guess that in our minds we didn't trust the people on the shop floor. The one thing we have learned is that the real experts are those who build the trucks”.

The old system of working involved groups led by a foreman and overseen by an inspector who checked work. Today work teams have a coordinator, who is paid the same as other members of the team. Clocking in and off was abandoned. There has also been a big improvement in communications, using a variety of methods including regular question-and-answer sessions between the chief executive and groups of employees. The production line is stopped for two hours every month to allow teams to discuss ideas. Improvements can be measured in a variety of ways. The plant's break-even figure for truck production has dropped from 11,500 vehicles to between 5,500 and 6,000 over 8 years. Defects per vehicle fell from 27-28 to 4-5 over 9 years. Managers believe the regime can be improved further to achieve the company’s stated goal of making 20,000 trucks, up from an expected 9,200 in 2003.

Adapted from the Financial Times

Point for discussion