Skills: Introducing yourself

15

Two business people are talking about their work and their reasons for attending a language course. Make up questions putting the words below in the right order.

Exmple: What does your company do?

Match the questions to the answers.

1._____

I work for Milliken – it’s a big private American company.

2._____

We manufacture textiles and chemicals.

3._____

Our headquarters are in Spartanburg, South Carolina in the USA.

4._____

Because it’s an American company and most of our meetings are held in

English.

5._____

I’ve been studying it for about six months.

6._____

I’m an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Lybrand.

7._____

For the last five years or so.

8._____

I’m in charge of mergers and acquisitions in Eastern Europe.

9._____

I need to improve my English and a colleague recommended this course.

10._____

Yes, I’m having a great time.

Speaking about your job, tasks or typical problems you have to solve, you can use the following words and word partnerships.

to take part in to consist of to involve to be involved in to deal with

16

Read the statements and complete them with the appropriate words given above. You have to change the form of the verb if it is necessary.

Main Job

Eg. My jog involves answering calls from customers who are having problems with their software. It also ____ working with sales reps from time to time.

Other tasks

He isn’t ____ developing new programs. But when programmers are preparing new versions of old products, he ____ in the discussions.

Typical problems

He ____ installations issues, password problems, bugs, etc.

Role play

You are a manager attending an exhibition of office equipment. You meet another manager. You start talking about your businesses.

Before starting a conversation, read the following:

1.Choose a company or business organization. It may be real or imaginary.

2.Introduce yourself; say who you work for, what your position is in the organization and how long you have worked for it.

3.Give the following information:

a)what kind of business organization it is (e.g. private, public, sole trader, partnership)

b)its main business activities

c)location of its head office, branches / subsidiaries

d)turnover, profits, size of workforce, etc.

4.Give any information about yourself, your job and the organization.

Unit 2. Company culture

“Every company has two organizational structures: the formal one is written on the charts; the other one is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization”.

Harold S.Geneen (former President and CEO of

International Telephone and Telegraph Corp.)

17

Read the text and speak on corporate values the companies can have.

Culture of an organization is created by a number of things. It is created by people who work in the organization, by its management systems which exist in an organization, and often it is created by the style of the leadership of that organization.

Due to their protestant culture such countries as Canada, the USA, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavian countries are essentially individualist not collectivist. People from these countries see themselves as single independent actors, not as group members. In such cultures, status has to be achieved. A young, dynamic, aggressive manager with an MBA (a Master in Business Administration degree) can quickly rise in the hierarchy. In most Latin and Asian cultures, on the contrary, status automatically belongs to the boss, who is in his fifties or sixties. This is particularly true in Japan, where companies traditionally have a policy of promotion by seniority.

One of the most extensive pieces of research into cultural differences was carried out by Geert Hofstede, while he was working for IBM in Holland. After gathering the data from over 100,000 surveys in 40 countries, he identified four main groups of differences which had an impact on the way people did business.

Individualist or collectivist societies – (behavior towards the group)

In an individualist society, people are only expected to look after themselves or their family. In a collectivist society, people are seen as part of a group, which expects them to be committed and loyal in return for lifelong protection. The USA and the UK are clear examples of individualist societies, whereas Japan and Spain are collectivist societies.

Power and distance – (the way people perceive power differences and differences in status)

Another important difference relates to the way power is shared between bosses and subordinates. French and South-East Asian managers have considerably more power than their subordinates and are reluctant to delegate responsibilities. German and British managers, however, tend to give a greater degree of independence to their employees.

Masculinity / Femininity – (behavior according to characteristics associated with the genders)

‘Masculine’ cultures favour individuals who are ambitious and assertive. They also value people who can take the initiative and who desire to get recognition by doing a job well. Japan, and to a lesser extent Italy, are examples of this kind of culture.