Task 5. Read the text about the ideal scientific supervisor and say which of these traits your supervisor possesses. The Ideal Scientific Supervisor

Several scientific efforts have been made in the United States to establish the personality structure of the ideal scientific supervisor. Ladislas Farrago in his book “War of Wits” lists ten groups of character traits which a good scientific supervisor is supposed to possess:

1. His morale must be high and he must be genuinely interested in the job ahead.

2. He must be energetic, zealous, and enterprising.

3. He must be resourceful, and a quick thinker. He must know how to deal with things, people, and ideas. He must be proficient in some occupational skill.

4. He must be emotionally stable: capable of endurance under stress.

5. He must have the ability to get along with other people, and to work as a member of a team.

6. He must know how to inspire collaboration, to organize, administer, and lead others. He must be willing to accept responsibility.

7. He must have a passion for lecturing and research, and know how to do it.

8. He must be able to get hold of the required equipment ahead of others.

9. He must be agile, strong and daring.

10. He must be able to memorize details, evaluate his observations, and relate them to the greater complex things.

Task 6. Get ready to speak about your studies and trainings as master students,

your research work. You should include the following:

• your trainings as manager (economist, … … ) at … ;

• mention the courses you are studying (general engineering and special subjects, social sciences and humanities), your favorite classes and those you dislike if any, and try to explain why; what kind of courses (practical or discussion classes, vocational trainings) you would like to have, etc.;

• describe your research work and the methods you apply;

• share your intentions relative to the job you would like to obtain (tackle with) or activities you would like to deal with (be engaged in).

Task 7. I. Many universities and other institutes of higher education teach Business Studies or Management Studies.

A) What do you think these courses involve? B) How useful do you think such courses are? С) Would you consider following this type of course? Give reasons for your answer.

II. Read the following extract from a book on management skills. Does it change any of your answers to the questions in exercise I?

The Harvard Business School, on the east coast of America, is one of the best respected centres for management education in the United States.

Robert Heller gives his view of its success rate in his book The New Naked Manager.

Executives, the most intensively educated group of adults in society, are very possibly educated to the least effect. The teaching of executives has been the best-paying branch of education, and by a very long way. It has also been a soft market; only a few heretical voices have ever questioned whether you can really teach executives, that is, make them better at their jobs by any general course of instruction, short or long.

Although executives should be numerate (and many are not), they don't require skills in higher algebra, and many great businesses have been created by men who all but count on their fingers. 20 A story tells of two schoolboy friends, one brilliant at maths, one innumerate to the point of idiocy, who meets much later when the first is a professor and the second a multi-millionaire. Unable to control his curiosity, the professor asks the figure-blind dunderhead how he managed to amass his fortune. It's simple,' replies Midas. 'I buy things at a dollar and sell them for two dollars, and from that 1% difference I make a living.' The business world is full of successful one-percenters who live, not by their calculators, still less their personal computer, but by knowing the difference between a buying price and a selling price. It is also full of clever fools who work out elaborate discounted cash flow sums to justify projects and products that a one-percenter would laugh out of sight.

The clever fool syndrome would explain why one controversial study of Harvard Business School students found that, after a flying start, the alumni (presumably among the ablest young men of their 40 day) gradually slipped back to the general level inside their chosen management hierarchies. A Harvard graduate has no reason at all to suppose that he will manage more effectively than a less instructed contemporary. The Harvard man can only claim that he is more highly educated; and high education and high achievement in practical affairs don't necessarily go together. John F Kennedy found that assembling America's brightest brains in Washington neither got bills through Congress nor avoided the Bay of Pigs; and many companies have discovered that business-school diplomas are a thin defence against incompetence.

An overwhelmingly large proportion of the highest and best American executives did study business. All this proves is that an overwhelmingly large proportion of business-minded undergraduates got the real message, which is that a diploma will be good for their careers, starting with starting salaries. It does not follow that the education was of any other direct I benefit either to the executive or his firm. Nor does it follow, of course, that the schooling was wasted. As a general rule, the wise man recruits the finest intelligence he can find; and good minds are far better for good training. The question is only whether academic training in subjects that seem to have some connection with management is the best education for managing, and that is something that nobody can prove either way.

III. Think of a suitable title for the extract.

IV. Answer these questions.

1) What point is the author making when he tells the story of the two schoolboy friends? 2) How successful does the author feel that graduates of the Harvard business school are when they actually work in business? 3) Did J F Kennedy choose his political advisers wisely, according to the author? 4) What point is the author making in the final paragraph? 5) Which phrase or sentence in the extract best illustrates the author's overall argument?

5. From the context, explain what each of the following means:

soft market (line 11), heretical (line 12), dunderhead (line 25), amass (line 25), successful one-percenters (line 29), alumni (line 38).

5. Choose four of five phrases from the extract that you think would be useful to learn. Compare the phrases you have chosen with those of a partner and explain why you selected them.

Task 8. Business people, scientists, researchers, academic workers, governors sometimes have to give presentations to other companies or other company employees about new projects, the aims of the company, financial reports, the results of research, ...

1. Look at this list of guidelines for giving presentations and decide which good rules to follow are.

a) Keep your voice deep and slow b) Try to vary the pace с) Use short sentences and simple vocabulary d) Keep your hands in your pockets or fold your arms to hide nerves e) Tell a couple of jokes to liven things up a bit f) Address the most important people in the room and ignore the rest g) Pause occasionally to give your audience time to think h) Give a summary of what you are going to say at the beginning of your presentation and again at the end i) Use visual aids such as an overhead projector or flip chart j) Read straight from a prepared script k) Steer clear of jargon, abbreviations and statistics as much as possible l) Make sure both you and your audience are clear as to the purpose of the presentation: decide what you want them to know or do as a result of it m) Structure the talk carefully and make sure the audience follows your stages.

Give a short presentation to the class on a subject of your choice, for example your your academic studies. Present technical/economic, management or research fields that attract you, and describe them briefly. Try to find the information of such kind in some original sources.

Structure the talk as follows:

• opening/introductory remarks

• summary of contents of talk

• main substance

• conclusion

• invite any questions

You may find some of these phrases useful:

The purpose of this presentation is...

As far as... is concerned,

.. .is of secondary importance

Let me give you a broad outline...

Perhaps I should start by refreshing your memories as to ..., in particular...

This may give you some indication of...

This chart details some encouraging/depressing trends...

To sum up...

Finally...

Secondly...

I'll now move on to.

In other words...

First of all

Next

May I begin by... Our priorities are… As you know, As a whole...

SUPPLEMENT

READER

Methods of Research

Research methods are traditionally distinguished into: theoretical and empirical.

Theoretical methods involve analysis and synthesis, generalization, abstract thinking, definitions making, modeling and etc.

Empirical methods include monitoring, reporting methods (questionnaire, public opinion poll, interview, testing), experiment and etc.

Scientific method is not a recipe: it requires intelligence, imagination, and creativity. In this sense, it is not a mindless set of standards and procedures to follow, but is rather an ongoing cycle, constantly developing more useful, accurate and comprehensive models and methods. For example, when Einstein developed the Special and General Theories of Relativity, he did not in any way refute or discount Newton's Principia. On the contrary, if the astronomically large, the vanishingly small, and the extremely fast are reduced out from Einstein's theories — all phenomena that Newton could not have observed — Newton's equations remain. Einstein's theories are expansions and refinements of Newton's theories and, thus, increase our confidence in Newton's work.

A linearized, pragmatic scheme is sometimes offered as a guideline for proceeding:

1. Define the question

2. Gather information and resources (observe)

3. Form hypothesis

4. Perform experiment and collect data

5. Analyse data

6. Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis

7. Publish results

8. Retest (frequently done by other scientists)

It is essential that the outcome be currently unknown. Only in this case does the eventuation increase the probability that the hypothesis be true. If the outcome is already known, it's called a consequence and should have already been considered while formulating the hypothesis.

The Role of Communication in Management

We noted earlier the variety of activities that fill a manager's day. Meetings, telephone calls and correspondence are all a necessary part of every manager's job - and all clearly involve communication. On a typical Monday, Nolan Archibald, CEO of Black & Decker, attended five scheduled meetings and two unscheduled meetings, had fifteen telephone conversations, received 29 letters, memos and reports and dictated ten letters. The opening incident provides a sober reminder of how important such communication can be.

As a starting point for understanding the importance of communication in management, recall the variety of roles that managers must fill. Each of the ten basic managerial roles would be impossible to fill without communication. Interpersonal roles involve interacting with supervisors, subordinates, peers and others outside the organization. Decisional roles require managers to seek out information to use in making decisions and then communicate those decisions to others. Informational roles focus specifically on the acquiring and disseminating of information.

Communication also relates directly to the basic management functions of planning, organizing and controlling. Environmental scanning, integrating planning-time horizons and decision making, for example, all necessitate communication. Delegation, coordination and organization change and development also entail communication. Developing reward systems and interacting with subordinates as a part of the leading function would be impossible without some form of communication. And communication is essential to establishing standards, monitoring performance and taking corrective actions as a part of control. Clearly, communication is a pervasive part of virtually all managerial activities. "Management in Practice" provides another important perspective on the importance of communication and how AT & T is working to cope with it.