(
Revised
Unit 1 from English for Managers by E.Tikhova and E.Tolstikova)
WARM-UP POINT
Divide the following styles of behaviour into pairs of opposites:
a. being group oriented
b. being cautious and careful
c. being decisive and able to take rapid individual decisions
d. being individualistic
e. being assertive, authoritative, ruthless and competitive
f. being happy to take risks
g. being good at listening and sensitive to other people's feelings h. being intuitive
i. being logical, rational and analytic
j. liking consensus and conciliation
Which five of the above styles do you think are generally
preferable for managers?
Now look at the following list of qualities. Which are the most important for a manager?
k. being competent and efficient in one's job
l. being friendly and sociable
m. being a hard worker
n. being persuasive
o. having good ideas
p. being good at communicating
q. being good at motivating people
r. being good at taking the initiative and leading other people
Make a list of the five most important qualities from a. to r.
Which of these qualities do you think you have? Which do you lack? Which could you still learn?
Which do you have to be born with?
THEORY-1 POINT
WHAT IS MANAGEMENT
1.
The need for effective managers has never been greater. We are living in an era of accelerating global competition. Pressures from foreign companies are causing many managers to reassess their approaches as they strive to be successful in a formidable competitive environment. More than ever, managers operating both globally and domestically require the best ideas that the field of management has to offer in order to gain a competitive edge.
2
For most of us, organizations are an important part of our daily lives. By organization, we mean two or more persons engaged in a systematic effort to produce goods or services. We all deal with organizations when we attend classes, deposit money at the bank, buy clothing, and attend a movie. Our lives are indirectly affected by organizations through the products we use.
3
Management is the process of achieving organizational goals by engaging in the four major functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. This definition recognizes that management is an ongoing activity, entails reaching important goals, and involves knowing how to perform the major functions of management. These functions are crucial to effective management. In this section, we provide a brief overview of the four functions (see Figure 1-1). Then we consider how they relate to other major aspects of managerial work.
4
Planning is the management function that involves setting goals and deciding how best to achieve them. This function also includes considering what must be done to encourage necessary levels of change and innovation.
Organizing is the management function that focuses on allocating and arranging human and non-human resources so that plans can be carried out successfully. Through the organizing function managers determine which tasks are to be done, how tasks can best be combined into specific jobs, and how jobs can be grouped into various units that make up the structure of the organization. Staffing jobs with individuals who can successfully carry out plans is also part of the organizing function
Leading is the management function that involves influencing others to engage in the work behaviours necessary to reach organizational goals. Leading includes communicating with others, helping to outline a vision of what can be accomplished, providing direction, and motivating organization members to put forth the substantial effort required.
Controlling is the management function aimed at regulating organizational activities so that actual performance conforms to expected organizational standards and goals. To do the necessary regulating, managers need to monitor ongoing activities, compare the results with expected standards or progress toward goals, and take corrective action as needed.
Figure 1-1. The interactive nature of the management process
The Management Process
5
While the four major functions of management form the basis of the managerial process, there are several additional key elements in the process. As Figure 1-2 shows, work methods and managerial roles, as well as work agendas, feed into the core management functions. A manager's knowledge base and key management skills are other important factors that contribute to high performance (goal achievement). The management process applies not only to profit-making organizations, but also to not-for-profit organizations.
6
A not-for-profit organization (sometimes called a nonprofit organization) is organization whose main purposes centre on issues other than making profits. Common examples are government institutions, educational institutions, cultural institutions, charitable institutions, and many health-care facilities.
Nature of Work Agenda
7
A work agenda is a loosely connected set of tentative goals and tasks that a manager is attempting to accomplish.
Work agendas provide rough guidelines within which managers operate in determining how to orient their various activities and roles. There are three main factors that are likely to have an impact on a manager's work agenda: demands, constraints, and choices.
Job demands are the activities a manager must do in a job. For example, managers usually have responsibilities related to the major goals and plans of the organization (such as achieving a 10 percent increase in sales) that are difficult to ignore.
Job constraints are the factors, both inside and outside the organization, that limit what a manager can do. Constraints include such variables as resource limitations, legal restrictions, union contract provisions, technological limitations, and the degree to which the work of a manager's unit is defined.
Job choices are work activities that the manager can do but does not have to do. For example, without a directive to do so, a manager might initiate a proposal to develop a
computerized customer service tracking system. Thus work agendas tend to reflect, at least to some extent, the personal preferences and career objectives of individual managers.
Figure 1-2.
Performance
(goal
achievement)
Work
Agenda
Work Methods and Roles
8
We have discussed management in terms of four broad functions. We can look beyond these functions to identify a number of specific roles that managers may fill at various times. You are already familiar with some of the crucial roles required of managers - because you are already a veteran of many different relationships that have evolved over your life thus far! In your ties with your family, friends, classmates, and co-workers, sometimes you lead, sometimes you act as a go-between or liaison, and sometimes others look to you as a symbol of some worthwhile trait such as honesty or willingness to work hard. In these same relationships, you monitor what is going on outside the relationship, share information with your partners, and even act as a spokesperson for them. Furthermore, you sometimes take the initiative, sometimes handle disagreements, sometimes allocate resources such as money, and sometimes negotiate with your collaborators.
Henry Mintzberg has carefully studied what managers do. In his book "The Nature of Managerial Work" he describes the manager's agenda as consisting of precisely the ten activities discussed above. Mintzberg refers to the first three as interpersonal roles of a manager, the next three as informational roles, and the final four as decisional roles.
Managerial Knowledge, Skills, and Performance
9
For managers to develop work agendas, act out roles, and engage in planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, they need a sound knowledgebase and key management skills.
A knowledge base can include information about an industry and its technology, company policies and practices, company goals and plans, company culture, the personalities of key organization members, and important suppliers and customers.
In addition to having a knowledge base, managers need certain skills to carry out the various functions of management. A skill is the ability to engage in a set of behaviours that are functionally related to one another and that lead to a desired performance level in a given area. For managers, three types of skills are necessary: technical, human, and conceptual.
Technical skills are skills that reflect both an understanding of and a proficiency in a specialized field. For example, a manager may have technical skills in accounting, finance, engineering, manufacturing, or computer science.
Human skills are skills associated with a manager’s ability to work well with others, both as a member of a group and as a leader who gets things done through others. Managers with effective human skills are typically adept at communicating with others and motivating them to develop themselves and perform well in pursuit of organizational goals.
Conceptual skills are skills related to the ability to visualize the organization as a whole, discern interrelationships among organizational parts, and understand how the organization fits into the wider context of the industry, community, and world. Conceptual skills, coupled with technical skills, human skills, and a knowledge base, are important ingredients in organizational performance.
( From MANAGEMENT by James A. F. Sioner. R.Edward Freeman, Daniel HGilberl)
What is organization?
What is management?
What are the four major functions of management?
What is a work agenda?
What three types of skills are necessary for managers?
PUZZLE-1 POINT
Paraphrase the following sentences
More than ever, managers operating both globally and domestically require the best ideas that the field of management has to offer in order to gain a competitive edge. (sec. l)
Our lives are indirectly affected by organizations through the products we use. (sec.2)
Work methods and managerial roles, as well as work agendas, feed into the core management functions. (sec.5)
We can look beyond these functions to identify a number of specific roles that managers may fill at various times. (sec.8)
Conceptual skills are skills related to the ability to discern interrelationships among organizational parts. (sec.9)
TRANSLATION-1 POINT
Translate the following sentences from English into Russian
Pressures from foreign companies are causing many managers to reassess their approaches as they strive to be successful in a formidable competitive environment (sec. 1)
This definition recognizes that management is an ongoing activity, entails reaching important goals, and involves knowing how to perform the major functions of management. (sec. 3)
Leading is the management function that involves influencing others to engage in the work behaviours necessary to reach organizational goals. (sec. 4)
A nonprofit organization is an organization whose main purposes centre on issues other than making profits. (sec. 6)
A skill is the ability to engage a set of behaviours that are functionally related to one another and that lead to a desired performance level in a given area. (sec. 9)
SUMMARY-1 POINT
►Translate the phrases below into Russian and make them stick in your mind. Use as many of them as possible to summarize Theory 1:
accelerating global competition
to reassess one’s approach
to gain a competitive edge
to set goals
to reach goals
to perform functions
to encourage change and innovation
to carry out plans
to allocate and arrange human resources
to determine a task
to staff jobs with individuals
to be aimed at smth
to conform to smth
to form the basis of the managerial process
to contribute to smth
not-for-profit organizations/ nonprofit organizations
charitable organizations
work agenda
to attempt to accomplish
job demands
job constraints
job choices
to initiate a proposal
to act as a liaison
to share information
to handle disagreements
to negotiate with collaborators
to need a sound knowledge base
in pursuit of organizational goals
to be important ingredients in organizational performance
PUZZLE-2 POINT
Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right
1. Manage
a) management (n) 1) relating to the work of a manager
b) manager (n) 2) possible to control or deal with
c) to manage (v) 3) the people who control a company
d) managerial (adj) 4) a person who is employed to
control, organize, and direct
part or all of a business or organization
e) manageable (adj) 5) a woman who runs a shop or
restaurant
f) manageress (n) 6) to be in charge or in control
of an organization, a
department, a project, etc.
7) the control or
organization of people,
a business, a department of
a firm, a project, or
a process
Complete the following sentences with an appropriate term from the left column
1. The fall in profits was a result of bad ______________.
2. The company has taken on a new marketing ________________.
3. She started work as a sale assistant in a shoe shop but soon became the ______________________.
4. He decided to apply for a _________________ position.
5. He _________________ a team of 15 staff.
6. The hotel is now under new ______________________.
7. How well organizations achieve their goals depends on ___________________ performance - the manager's effectiveness and efficiency.
8. Employees work harder if they believe ______________ is concerned about their welfare.
9. As _________________, people carry out the functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling.
2. Compete
a) competition 1) process of being competitive
b) compete 2) related to, based on, or decided
by competition
c) competitor 3) the rivalry among buyers and
among sellers in the purchase
and sale of resources and products
d) competitive 4) a person or company that offers
the same or better goods and
services as another and
therefore competes for the
same customers
e) competitiveness 5) succeed in doing better than
another person or company
6) The person or people competing
Complete the following sentences with an appropriate term from the left column
1. The is very fierce.
2. Producers in a market must constantly look for new and attractive goods and services to win a larger share of the market.
3. in the book trade did their best to undercut each other's prices.
4. There was a lot of ____________for the job.
5. It's difficult _______ with low-priced imports.
6. motivates producers to improve the quality and increase the variety of goods and services.
7. This firm is one of our biggest _________________.
8. It’s important to keep a _______________edge.
9. Stockbrokers_______________with one another for the public business. They try to make their services more attractive than the _________________.
10. ___________________ is the relative standing of one competitor against other competitors.
11. As a rule, the more _______________ the industry and the more homogeneous the product, the greater the
pressure to keep .
PUZZLE-3 POINT
Complete the text using these verbs:
analyse communicate contribute divide form
improve measure commercialise perform risk
select train understand use work out
You want me to explain what management is? Well, I guess I can manage that! Actually, management as we (1)…………………..it today is a fairly recent idea. Most economists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example, wrote about factors of production such as land, labour and capital, and about supply and demand, as if these were impersonal and objective economic forces which left no room for human action. An exception was Jean-Baptiste Say, who invented the term "entrepreneur", the person who sees opportunities to (2) ……………….resources in more productive ways.
Entrepreneurs are people who are alert to so-far undiscovered profit opportunities. They perceive opportunities to (3)…………….new technologies and products that will serve the market better than it is currently being served by their competitors. They are happy to (4)………………………………………………..their own or other people's capital. They are frequently unconventional, innovative people. But entrepreneurship isn't the same as management, and most managers aren't entrepreneurs.
So, what's management? Well, it's essentially a matter of organizing people. Managers, especially senior managers, have to set objectives for their organization, and then (5)………………………………………………how to achieve them. This is true of the managers of business enterprises, government departments, educational institutions, and sport teams, although for government services, universities and so on we usually talk about administrators and administration rather than managers and management. Managers (6)………………… the activities of the organization and the relations among them. They (7)……………………………………………….the work into distinct activities and then into individual jobs. They (8)………………people to manage these activities and perform the jobs. And they often need to make the people responsible for performing individual jobs (9)………………. effective teams.
Managers have to be good at communication and motivation. They need to (10) ................................................................. the organization's objectives to the people responsible for attaining them. They have to motivate their staff to work well, to be productive, and to (11)…………………….something to the organization. They make decisions about pay and promotion.
Managers also have to (12) the performance of their staff, and to ensure that the objectives and performance targets set for the whole organization and for individual employees are reached. Furthermore, they have to (13)……………………… and develop their staff, so that their performance continues to (14)………………….
Some managers obviously (15) these tasks better than others. Most achievements and failures in business are the achievements or failures of individual managers.
When you have checked your answers, translate the highlighted expressions into your own language.
‘THEORY-2’ POINT