13. The sales manager of a small plastics company has some problems.
Work with a partner and write down a solution to each of his problems.
e.g. We’re spending too much on office supplies. I think he should use a cheaper supplier.
a) Read the situations below. In each situation the foreign business person makes a “cultural mistake. What do you think the mistake is?
Brazil
Sophie Harperis a British businesswoman. She is having lunch with Felipe Marques, a senior manager of a company in Rio de Janeiro. She wants to make a deal. She takes some documents out of her briefcase and gives them to Mr. Marques. She then starts explaining the contents in detail. Mr. Marques doesn’t seem very interested.
Indonesia
Ruth Klein works for an Australian travel company and wants to make an agreement with an Indonesian hotel chain. She has a meeting with a senior manager of the Gulf Hotel. She’s going to wear her favourite outfit, a bright red pants suit.
Saudi Arabia
Mark West works for a Canadian business magazine. He is in Saudi Arabia to do some research, and is invited to the home of a Saudi businessman for dinner. The house is beautifully furnished, and before the dinner, Mark walks around the living room admiring the furniture, carpets, and ornaments.
Germany
Marty Pinkerman is an American businessman. He works for a pharmaceuticals company that wants to import some German products into the USA. He is in Frankfurt and meets Hans Schmidt, a senior manager of DPR Pharmaceuticals, for the first time. After the introductions, Marty begins using the manager’s name.
b)What are some cultural mistakes made by visitors in your country? Identify three mistakes and offer some advice on how to avoid making them.
Management
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1) Read the article. What are the good traits of a manager?
One of the earliest thinkers on management was an American engineer called F/W/ Taylor. He worked in a large steel factory in America. Taylor believed that the purpose of management was to increase efficiency. The good manager, therefore, had to:
increase productivity
reduce costs
increase revenue
Taylor published an important book called “Scientific management” in 1911. In this book he argued that the secret of good management was to define the jobs that had to be performed by factory workers. He studied the most efficient factory workers as they carried out various jobs. He observed very carefully the exact physical movements that they made when they were working. Then he trained the other workers in the factory to perform their jobs in the same way.
Taylor's methods were followed by other analysts. Some of these developed “scientific” procedures for selecting the best workers, and introduced special payment schemes to reward productivity.
Taylor's scientific management was very popular with factory managers, but sometimes it could lead to problems with factory workers.
Scientific management had assumed that workers could be motivated to work harder by offering them more money. However, the Hawthorne studies showed that there were other factors that motivated workers, such as how managers treated them. That is, so called “Hawthorne effect” - the social effect of organisations on productivity.
Before the 1950s most writers on management were managers and business men. They wrote about their own experiences. Since then, however, most writers on management have been academics in universities. Studies of management have come from a wide variety of disciplines. Some of the approaches that have been developed are shown below.
The empirical and case approach looks at management fro the point of view of experience. It tries to understand why some managers fail, and why others succeed. The main disadvantage of this approach is that it does not result in the formation of principles of management. The interpersonal behaviour approach is also known as the “human relations” approach. It focuses on the psychological elements in management. It is concerned with issues like worker motivation and job satisfaction. The group behaviour approach is similar to the interpersonal behaviour approach. It focuses on the psychological elements in group behaviour. It is concerned with issues like group decision-making and social norms. The decision theory approach focuses on managerial decision-making. It studies the variety of ways in which managers take decisions. The systems approach focuses on the relationship between individual businesses and the outside environment. The situational approach examined the specific situations in which managers act. It argues that there is no “best” way to do something, because circumstances are always changing. The managerial roles approach studies the actual behaviour of managers, in oder to discover what they really do at work.
Do you think it is possible to teach someone the “best” way to:
a. drive a car?
b. play a sport?
c. perform a manual task?
How would you feel if you had to work in a factory organised on the Taylor system?
a
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Satisfied because I know I'm doing my job in the most efficient way
possible.
b
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Angry because I'm not allowed to think for myself.
Which statement is correct?
a. Taylor thought the job of managers was to increase efficiency.
b. Taylor thought the job of managers was to decrease productivity.
c. Taylor thought the job of managers was to reduce revenue.
What is the “Hawthorne effect?”
match the approaches to management in column A with the correct definitions in column B.
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B |
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