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Text 4

I. Listen to a native speaker and try to memorize the pronunciation of the words. Try to imitate the pronunciation.

II. How do you understand the word “management”? Read the following information and check your ideas.

MANAGEMENT

Management, not bankers nor stockholders, is the fundamental element in industry. It is good management that draws credit, that draws workers, that draws customers...

Management is the permanent function of business.

Mary Parker Follett

Management is the process of achieving organizational goals through engaging in the four major functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Although these four functions form the basis of the managerial process, several other elements contribute to understanding of how managers

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actually operate. For instance, work methods and managerial roles, as well as work agendas, feed into the management functions aimed at performance. A manager’s knowledge base and management skills also are important factors in reaching targeted performance.

Mintzberg’s famous study of top managers found that their work methods were characterized by an unrelenting pace, brevity, variety, fragmentation, and heavy use of verbal contacts and networks. In order to make sense of the voluminous data that he collected while observing the managers, Mintzberg isolated three major categories of roles: interpersonal, informational, and decisional. Within these categories, he identified 10 specific roles: figurehead, liaison, monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. To a large extent, these work methods and roles are also characteristic of managers at other levels of organizations.

On the basis of his research on general managers, Kotter found that managers channel their various efforts through the use of work agendas, which are loosely connected sets of tentative goals and tasks that a manager is attempting to accomplish. Work agendas usually develop from the demands, constraints, and choices associated with a manager’s job. As a result, work agendas tend to reflect, at least to some extent, the personal preferences and career objectives of managers.

For managers to develop work agendas, act out roles, and engage in planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, they also need a knowledge base and key management skills. These skills (technical, human, and conceptual) as well as the other elements in the management process impact performance. Performance is made up of two important dimensions: effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness is the ability to choose appropriate goals and achieve them, while efficiency is the ability to make the best use of available resources in the process of achieving goals.

III. Match the numbers to the letters. Use the given words (1 – 5) in the sentences of your own and let your partner specify what you mean using the

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 Workbook Ex. 15, 16on page 111 – 112.

IV. Discuss the following ideas and express your opinion.

Work in pairs:

1.Describe each of the major functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. For an organization to which you belong, give an example of a manager engaging in each one of these functions.

2.Suppose that you opened a ski-and-surf shop that carries clothing, skis, and other accessories for recreation at ski resorts and beaches. Assume that you have six employees. How might you use the ten roles in managing your shop?

Work in groups:

3.You are a first-line supervisor in the production department of a local concern that manufactures a variety of office products, such as staplers, binders, and cellophane-tape holders. Recently, the research department has developed an innovative small machine that binds reports in one easy operation. According to market research and early sales figures, the demand for the new machine (on which the company holds the patent) is expected to be strong because the machine produces good-looking reports at a very reasonable price. Because sales of the machine are already brisk, the company has decided to add a new product unit. The creation of the new unit will require the hiring of a new firstline supervisor to head the unit.

You, your boss (who heads the production department), and a few other first-line supervisors who also work for your boss are having a working lunch in a small room off the company cafeteria. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the basic requirements of the new job and the details that the group should be prepared to explain to job candidates. It is likely that many of the candidates will not have management experience and, hence, may be somewhat unfamiliar with the nature of managerial jobs.

Use your knowledge of the management process and managerial job types to prepare a list of the information that the group might provide to candidates.

V. Do you know how managers in different countries regard their job? Try to find such information concerning German and British companies in the text below.

A study comparing British and German approaches to management has revealed the deep gulf, which separates managerial behaviour in many German and British companies. The gap is so fundamental, especially among middle managers that it can pose severe problems for companies from the two countries, which either merge or collaborate.

The differences are shown most clearly in the contrasting attitudes of many Germans and Britons to managerial expertise and authority, according to the

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academics. German managers – both top and middle – consider technical skill to be the most important aspect of their jobs, according to the study. It adds that German managers consider they earn their authority with colleagues and subordinates from this ‘expert knowledge’ rather than from their position in the organizational hierarchy. In sharp contrast, British middle managers see themselves as executives first, and technicians second. As a result, German middle managers may find that the only people within their British partner companies who are capable of helping them solve routine problems are technical specialists who do not have management rank. Such an approach is bound to raise status problems in due course.

Other practical results of these differences include a greater tendency of British middle managers to regard the design of their departments as their own responsibility, and to reorganize them more frequently than happens in Germany. German middle managers can have ‘major problems in dealing with this’, the academics point out, since British middle managers also change their jobs more often. As a result, UK organizations often undergo ‘more or less constant change’. Of the thirty British middle managers in the study, thirteen had held their current job for less than two years, compared with only three in Germany. Many of the Britons had also moved between unrelated departments or functional areas, for example from marketing to human resources. In contrast, all but one of the Germans had stayed in the same functional area. Twenty of them had occupied their current positions for five years or more, compared with only five of the Britons.

The researchers almost certainly exaggerate the strengths of the German pattern: its very stability helps to create the rigid attitudes, which stop many German companies from adjusting to external change. But the authors of the report are correct about drawbacks of the more unstable and less technically oriented British pattern. And they are right in concluding that the two countries do not merely have different career systems but also, in effect, different ways of doing business.

VI. Are these statements true, false or not given in the text above?

a)British and German approaches to management are very similar.

b)British middle managers consider technical skill to be the most important aspect of their jobs.

c)UK organizations often undergo ‘more or less constant change’.

d)German managers are conscientious.

e)British managers occupy their current positions for five years or even more.

f)The UK and Germanyhave different career systems.

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VII. Collect information about Russian managers’ job and then complete table 2.

VIII. Can you add something to the following statements?

Henri Fayol (1841 - 1925) was unknown to American managers and scholars until his most significant work, General and Industrial Management, was translated into English in 1930. He attempted to systematize the practice of management to provide guidance and direction to other managers. These are some principles, or guidelines, for effective management.

Division of labor. A high degree of specialization should result in efficiency. Both managerial and technical work are amenable to specialization.

Authority. Authority is needed to carry out managerial responsibilities: the formal authority to command and personal authority deriving from intelligence and experience.

Discipline. People in the organization must respect the rules that govern the organization.

Unity of command. Each subordinate should report to one and only one superior.

Unity of direction. Similar activities in an organization should be grouped together under one manager.

Subordination of individuals to the common good. Interests of individuals should not be placed before the goals of the overall organization.

Remuneration. Compensation should be fair both to employees and to the organization.

Centralization. Power and authority should be concentrated at the upper levels of the organization as much as possible.

Scalar chain. A chain of authority should extend from the top to the bottom of the organization and should be followed at all times.

Order. Human and material resources should be coordinated so that they are in the required place at the required time.

Equity. Managers should be kind and fair when dealing with subordinates. Stability. High turnover of employees should be avoided.

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Initiative. Subordinates should have the freedom to take innovative.

Text 5

I. Listen to a native speaker and try to memorize the pronunciation of the words. Try to imitate the pronunciation.

II. Read and make up a list of the main notions concerning:

a) top management, b) middle management and c) first-line management.

LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT

Each organization can be represented as a three-story structure.

Each story corresponds to one of the three general levels of management: top management, middle management, and first-line management. At the basic level of this pyramid there are operating employees.

A top manager is an upper-level executive who guides and controls the overall activities of the organization. Top managers constitute a small group. They are generally responsible for the organization’s planning and developing its mission. They also determine the firm’s strategy and its major policies. It takes years of hard work as well as talent and good luck, to reach the ranks of top managers. They are president, vice president, chief executive officer, and member of the Board.

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A middle manager is a manager who implements the strategy major policies handed down from the top level of the organization. Middle managers develop tactical plans, policies, and standard operating procedures, and they coordinate and supervise the activities of the first-line managers. Titles at the middle-management level include division manager, department head, plant manager, and operation manager.

TOP MANAGEMENT

MIDDLE MANAGEMENT

FIRST-LINE MANAGEMENT

OPERATING EMPLOYEES

A first-line manager is a manager who coordinates and supervises the activities of the operating employees. First-line managers spend most of their time working with employees, answering questions, and solving day-to-day problems. Most first-line managers are former operating employees who, owing to their hard work and potential, were promoted into management. Many of today’s middle and top managers began their careers on this first management level. Common titles for first-line managers include office manager, supervisor, foreman, and project manager.

Operating employees are not managers. They are qualified and nonqualified persons working for the organization. For their labour or services they get salaries or wages. They represent the work force of the organization.

III. Work in pairs. Find in the text above sentences with the words from I and put questions to these words/word combinations. Ask each other (in turn) the questions and answer them.

IV. Complete the crossword using the English equivalents of the given words:

1)управление;

2)покупатель;

3)руководить; управлять;

4)главный;

5)основной;

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