The international manager

In recent years, many companies have expanded globally. They have done this through mergers, joint ventures and co-operation with foreign companies. Because of this globalization trend, many more employees are working abroad in managerial positions or as part of a multinational team.

Although it is common nowadays for staff to work abroad to gain experience, many people have difficulty adapting to the new culture. The failure fate in the US multinationals is estimated to be as high as 30% and it costs US business $3 billion a year.

Two typical failures have been described in the journal Management Today. The first example concerns a German manager with IBM who took up a position as product manager in England. He found that at most lunchtimes and especially on Fridays, many members of staff went to the pub. “I stopped that right away”, he says. “Now they are not allowed off the premises. It didn’t make me very popular at the time but it is not good for efficiency. There is no way we would do that in Germany. No way”.

The second example is about American manager who came to France on a management assignment. He was unable to win the trust of his staff although he tried all kinds of ways to do so. He set clear goals, worked longer hours than everybody, participated in all the projects, visited people’s offices and even took employees out to lunch one by one. But nothing seemed to work. This was because the staff believed strongly that the management were trying to exploit them.

The German manager’s mistake was that he hadn’t foreseen cultural differences. IBM had a firm rule about drinking during working hours. It was not allowed. He didn’t understand that staff in other countries might be more flexible in applying the rule.The American manager used the ways he was familiar with to gain the staff’s trust. To them he seemed more interested in getting the job done than in developing personal relationships.

Exercise 2. Read the text and write suitable heading to each paragraph.

Exercise 3. Listen to the text and give True or False answers [Part III p. 172],

[1, T. 7. 5, p. 130].

		TRUE	FALSE
1	When Paul Feldman started his business he thought that 95% of the people would pay for their bagels.
2	Paul Feldman started his business in Kazakhstan
3	Smaller offices are more honest than big ones.
4	When the weather is unusually good, more people pay for their bagels.
5	Before Christmas and Thanksgiving people are more honest

Exercise 4. Retell the main idea of the listened text.

Exercise 5. Discuss on the given situation.

1. Are you ambitious? Why or why not?

2. Do you have a career plan? Where do you want to be in 10 years’ time?

3. Which of the following would you prefer to do?

a) work one company during your career

b) work for several different companies

c) work yourself

Exercise 6. Speak on the given topic «If you are managing people from different cultures, what qualities and skills do you need?»

Exercise 7. Write reasons; choose the six most important from the list. To be a good manager why do you have these skills:

1. like people

2. enjoy working with others

3. give orders

4. listen to others

5. make suggestions

6. judge people’s abilities

7. plan ahead

8. be good with numbers

9. make good presentations

10. persuasive

Exercise 8. The phrases below all include the word career. Match them to their correct meanings.

1. career ladder a) something you do in order to progress in your job

2. career break b) ideas you have for your future career

3. career move c) period of time away from your job to, for example, look after children.

4. career plan d) chances to start/improve your career

5. career opportunities e) series of levels that lead to better and better jobs

1. Choose the right variant. A ______ is a type of product made by a particular company.

a) service

b) brand

c) motto

d) jingle

2. Choose the right variant. _____a person who works in the same company as you.

a) head

b) colleague

c) customer

d) client

3. Choose the right variant. ____ working for the company for six months now, he never seems to know what to do.

a) in order to

b) even though

c) despite

d) though

4. Choose the right variant. _______ his lack of experience, he became a successful businessman.

a ) although

b) in order to

c) even though

d) in spite of