UNIT 1 – MANAGEMENT

Question 1: Name the five tasks of a manager as listed by Peter Drucker.

• Planning, organizing, integrating, measuring performance and developing people.

Question 2 Planning – senior managers and directors set objectives and decide how to accomplish them – via developing strategies, plans and precise tactics, allocating resources of people and money

Question 3 Organizing – analysing and classifying the activities of an organization and relations among them → dividing work into manageable activities and individual tasks → selecting the right people to achieve them

Question 4 Integrating – managers practise the social skills of motivation and communication → they communicate the objectives to people responsible for attaining them, form teams, decide promotion and pay, supervise the subordinates

Question 5 Measuring performance – seeing whether the objectives set by the company, groups or individuals are being achieved

Developing people – both subordinates and themselves

Management is a matter of organizing people – managing relations with business partners, workers, investors, suppliers…, introducing innovations, making difficult decisions

Management is not entirely scientific, it’s a combinations of skill and art. Great managers are rare, not everybody has the skill to put technique in practice.

Vocabulary:

To manage – manager- managerial – manageable

To qualify – quality

To differ / differentiate (differ something) – difference – different

Under-organized → badly organized

Under-developed countries, unprofitability

To measure – measurement – measurer

Disabled x unable

To analyse – analysis, analyses (thesis, crisis)

Consultant – person who provides expert advice to a company

Crisis – situation of danger or difficulty

Innovation – a new idea or method

Objective – something you plan to do or achieve

Public sector – section of economy under government’s control

Strategy – a plan for achieving success

Subordinate – a person with less important position

Promotion – being raised to higher or more important position

ALLOCATE RESOURCES – DEAL WITH CRISES – MAKE DECISIONS – PERFORM TASK – MEASURE PERFOMANCE – SET OBJECTIVES – SUPERVISE SUBORDINATES

UNIT 2 –WORK AND MOTIVATION

Question 6: What does theory X assume?

• Theory X assumes that people are naturally lazy and will avoid work and responsibility if possible. They need to be closely supervised, controlled, threatened (e.g. losing job) and rewarded with monetary incentives. It is mostly applied in large-scale manufacturing.

Question 7: What does theory Y assume?

• Theory Y assumes that most people have psychological need to work and given the right conditions (job security, rewards), they will be creative, ambitious and self-motivated (satisfaction of doing a good job). It is applicable in modern companies to skilled professionals (knowledge workers) like managers and specialists.

Question 8: Why did Abraham Maslow criticize theory Y?

• McGregor’s theory is based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. While X relates to lower needs (food, shelter), Y relates to higher ones (esteem, self-actualization). However, Maslow, having seen theory Y in practice discovered that there are people who are not creative, do not seek responsibility and want to be lead and controlled.

Question 9: What does Frederick Herzberg refer to as ‘satisfiers’?

• Based on his psychological research, Herzberg argues that factors, often considered as incentives, are in fact mere ‘hygiene factors’ that do not motivate workers. Their existence merely ‘satisfies’ the workers. (good wages, job security, sick pay, good labour relations, good working conditions, paid holidays and a pension)

Question 10: What does Frederick Herzberg refer to as ‘motivators’?

• On the contrary of the satisfiers, motivators are those factors that motivate people to do a better job. (having a challenging and interesting job, recognition, responsibility, promotion)

How to make necessarily unskilled and mechanical jobs less boring?

• Give the works some responsibilities (as a part of a team)

• Encourage job rotation

• Importance and identifying with corporate culture

• Being best in the field, or eco-friendly and such

Vocabulary:

Incentive (стимул) – disincentive

Unskilled jobs / skilled jobs

Certainty, burden of responsibility

Labour relations, sick pay(пособие)

Repetitive(повторяющийся)

Checkout till

To encourage/ discourage – courage – courageous

Pay (monthly) / wage (hourly)

Benefits, bonuses

To subside (dotovat) – subsidy (governmental)

Remuneration (salary, commission, bonuses, perks привелегии)

Working conditions, working relations

Job security

Vacations/ holidays x vacancies (vacancy- volné místo)

Challenging job, job rotation

Sufficient/ insufficient

TAKE FOR GRANTED – ON THE CONTRARY

UNIT 3 – COMPANY STRUCTURE

Question 11: What is ‘Wikinomics’ principle and how can it change future of companies?

• Wikinomics is a principle of cooperation and using resources outside of company (workers, scientist). In future it could present serious problem to full-time employment.

Question 12: How are traditionally many organizations structured?

• Traditionally, most companies have pyramidal or hierarchical structure with direсt chain of command.

Question 13: Name all the types of company structures.

• The chain of command, functional structure, Matrix management, teams

Question 14: What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in a team?

• The group is autonomous and shares ideas and cooperates, but they are not always good at decision making and usually require a strong leader.

Question 15: When can Matrix management become disadvantageous?

• When it becomes quite complex, you have to eventually give priority in decision making to one department and that can create rivalry between departments.