Иностранный язык в сфере профессиональной деятельности (Intercultural Business Skills). Учебное пособие по английскому языку

6.If the boss (not criticize) his secretary in public, she never would have left the company.

7.If I lost interest in what she was saying, I (transfer) my attention to the photograph on the wall behind her.

8.Life can be very difficult if you (share) an office with someone you (dislike).

9.Comment on the following, giving your reasons: what sorts of problems can

arise in relationships between people who work together?

1.Being in a team means that everyone is in the same position.

2.Some team-members can end up displaying surprising leadership skills.

3.The barriers between people in a team soon disappear.

4.Sometimes personal interests must give way to those of the group.

5.Certain people have a very caring attitude towards weaker teammembers.

6.You can be anxious about whether you’re making a positive contribution.

7.People often find themselves confronting their fears in these situations.

8.Taking important decisions for other people can be quite a challenge.

9.Being in a team with strangers is very different from being with people you know.

10.It’s important to be a good listener and to say what you think.

DISCUSSION

10. Study the following.

To find out what someone’s job is you say “What do you do?”

Here, Kerstin talks about her job: “I work for a large European car maker. I work on car design, in fact, I run the design department and I manage a team of designers: 20 people work under me. It’s very interesting. One of my main responsibilities is to make sure that new model designs are finished on time. I’m also in charge of design budgets. I deal with a lot of different people in the company. I’m responsible for co-ordination between design and production: I work with managers at our manufacturing plants”.

Note:

–in charge of + noun or V-ing;

–responsible for + noun or V-ing

Several more people speak about their ways of working.

Kevin: “I’m an office worker in an insurance company. It’s a nine-to-five job with regular working hours. The work isn’t very interesting, but I like to be able to go home at a reasonable time. We all have to clock in and clock out every day. In this company, even the manager have to, which is unusual!”

Note: You also say clock on and clock off.

81

Alice: “I’m in computer programming. There’s a system of flexitime in my company, which means we can work when we want, within certain limits. We can start at any time before eleven, and finish as early as three, as long as we do enough hours each month. It’s ideal for me as I have two young children.”

Note: BrEng: flexitime; AmEng: flextime.

John: “I work in a car plant. I work in shifts. I may be on the day shift one week and the night shift the next week. It’s difficult changing from one shift to another. When I change shifts, I have problems changing to a new routine for sleeping and eating.”

Ann: “I’m a commercial artist in an advertising agency. I work in a big city, but I prefer living in the country, so I commute to work every day, like thousands of other commuters. Working from home using a computer and the Internet is becoming more and more popular, and the agency is introducing this: it’s called teleworking. But I like going into the office and working with other people around me.”

11. Which person (1–5) is most likely to do each of the five things (a–e)? Give reasons.

1)a software designer in an Internet company. Has to be in the office

2)an office worker in a large, traditional manufacturing company

3)a manager in a department store in a large city. Lives in the country

4)a construction worker on a building site where work goes on 24 hours

a day

5) a technical writer for a city computer company. Lives in the country

a)work in shifts

b)work under a flexitime system

c)telecommute

d)commute to work

e)clock on and off at the same time every day

12. Answer the following questions.

If you work/worked...

1.What do/did you do? What are/were you in charge of? What are/were your responsibilities?

2.What time do/did you leave for work? How long does/did it take you to get to work? What time do/did you arrive at work? Do/did you take a lot of time off work?

3.Do/did you have a nine-to-five job? Do/did you have to clock on and off? Is/was there a flexitime system in your organization? Are/were there people who do/did shiftwork in your company?

If you don’t work...

1.What sort of job would you like to do?

2.What routine would you like to have?

82

3.What sort of working hours would you like to have if you worked?

4.Would you like to work from home?

READING

13. Read text 12 quickly and decide which of the following titles would suit it best.

1.Dealing with conflict.

2.Rules of relationships.

3.Managing your staff.

Text 12. WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

Getting on well with colleagues, as anyone who works in an office knows, is a vital element in our working lives. Many office jobs involve a great deal of time spent talking. One British study of 160 managers, for example, found that they spent between one third and 90 per cent of their time with other people.

“Working relationships”, write social psychologists Michael Argyle and Henderson, “are first brought about by the formal system of work, but are elaborated in several ways by informal contacts of different kinds... It is essential for such relationships to develop if co-operation at work is to succeed.” And good relationships at work, research shows, are one of the main sources of job satisfaction and well-being.

Are there any “rules of relationships” that might be useful as general markers of what to do and what not to do in your dealings with others?

“Universal” rules. Michael Argyle and his colleagues have found that there are such rules. Through interviews with people they generated a number of possible rules. Then they asked others to rate how important those rules were in twenty-two different kinds of relationships. These included relationships with spouses, close friends, siblings and work colleagues as well as relationships between work subordinates and their superiors.

The researchers discovered five “universal” rules that applied to over half of all these relationships.

1.Respect the other’s privacy.

2.Look the other person in the eye during conversation.

3.Do not discuss what has been said in confidence with the other person.

4.Do not criticise the other person publicly.

5.Repay debts, favours or compliments no matter how small.

This doesn’t mean that nobody breaks these rules, as we all know – it just means that they are seen as important. The “looking in the eye” rule, for example, is a crucial aspect of good social skills. It is very uncomfortable to have to talk to someone who never, or hardly ever, looks at you during the conversation. One needs to look at the person one is talking to see if they’re still attending and to monitor their reactions (if they’ve completely stopped looking at you and appear transfixed by the flowers in the window-box, it means shut

83

up). To signal interest, the listener has to look quite frequently at the person who is speaking.

Work rules. As well as these general guidelines for keeping good relationships, Argyle and his associates questioned people about rules that apply very specifically to work settings. In addition to the “universal” rules they came up with nine “rules for co-workers”.

1.Accept one’s fair share of the workload.

2.Be cooperative with regard to the shared physical working conditions (e.g. light, temperature, noise).

3.Be willing to help when requested.

4.Work cooperatively despite feelings of dislike.

5.Don’t denigrate co-workers to superiors.

6.Address the co-worker by first name.

7.Ask for help and advice when necessary.

8.Don’t be over-inquisitive about each other’s private lives.

9.Stand up for the co-worker in his/her absence.

Again, these make a lot of sense. And number 4 is an interesting one – It raises the big problem of colleagues with whom you simply don’t get on.

In one of their studies, Monika Henderson, Michael Argyle and coworkers defined four categories of work relationships.

1.Social friends: “friends in the normal sense who are known through work and seen at social events outside the work setting”‘. Research shows that up to a quarter of friends are made through work.

2.Friends at work: “friends who interact together over work or socially at work, but who are not invited home and do not engage in joint leisure activities outside the work setting”.

3.Work-mates: “people at work seen simply through formal work contacts and with whom interactions are relatively superficial and task-oriented, and not characterised by either liking or dislike”.

4.Conflict relations: “work colleagues who are actively disliked”. Disliked colleagues. Argyle and Co. have come up with a special list of

endorsed “rules for people we can’t get on with”. The main ones are:

1.Respect each other’s privacy.

2.Strive to be fair in relations with one another.

3.Don’t discuss what is said in confidence.

4.Don’t feel free to take up as much of the other’s time as one desires.

5.Don’t denigrate the other behind their back.

6.Don’t ignore the other person.

7.Repay debts, favours or compliments no matter how small.

8.Look the other person in the eye during conversation.

9.Don’t display hypocritical liking.

Argyle and Henderson also suggest: “Another approach to resolving interpersonal conflicts is increasing the amount of communication between those involved, so that each side comes to understand and to trust the other more. Suspicion and hostility are increased by ignorance of what the other is up to.”

84

Trying to get to know the other person a bit more, if you can manage it, is really quite a good approach. You might find they’re really not so bad after all.

ACTIVE VOCABULARY

14. Look at the vocabulary items below and sort them into two groups according to whether they normally carry a positive or negative connotation.

Hypocritical, ignorance, willing, conflict, compliment, cooperation, satisfaction, interesting, well-being, denigrate, suspicion, problem, superficial, criticise, fair, hostility.

15. Change each of the following adjectives by adding the appropriate negative prefix. Would you use any of the adjectives to describe yourself to your partner?

Interesting, essential, personal, comfortable, frequent, social, fair, satisfied, formal, specific, normal, cooperative, willing, possible, important.

COMPREHENSION

16. Read the text 12 again in more detail. Which of the social skills (1–3) mentioned in the article and listed below as (a–i) apply to:

1)relationships in general

2)relationships in the workplace

3)relationships with working colleagues you don’t like very much?

a)Respect for personal privacy

b)Ability to be fair

c)Maintenance of eye contact while talking

d)Avoidance of public criticism

e)Repayment of debts, favours, etc.

f)Willingness to ask for and be asked for help

g)Respect for confidentiality

h)Use of first names

i)Recognition of the other person

17. Answer the questions.

1.Do you agree with the rules mentioned in the article?

2.Are there any which conflict with cultural traditions in your country?

WRITTEN REFLECTION

18. In groups of three, discuss some possible rules for relationships in the classroom. Agree on ten rules and write them out in leaflet form to be displayed for the whole class to see.

For example:

Rules of relationships in class

85

1.Always listen to other people and value their opinions, even if they are different from you own.

2.If you are late to a lesson, try not to interrupt the work of the class.

3.…………………………………………………………………………

SPEAKING

19. What sort of personality do you have? Are you a good team member? For each pair of boxes below, tick the one you feel best reflects your personality:

20.Compare your personality profile with a partner’s one. In what ways are you

different?

21.What contribution do you think you would make to a team? What difficulties might you have as a team member?

22.What helps people to work together successfully as a team?

Lesson 2. NEGOTIATOR QUALITIES, TYPES of PRESENTATION

interest in one of its software programs. The Nigerian company has invited the US company to Nigeria to demonstrate its software.

86

The US company has been very successful domestically, but this will be the first time it has ever ventured into the international business world. The company would like to expand and begin to build status in the international community. Being successful with this negotiation would help the company very much.

The top managers have come together to plan a business strategy for the Nigerian business trip. They must also decide who is the most appropriate person to send to Nigeria to represent the company. The person chosen must be a highly competent negotiator, able to persuade the Nigerians that the company’s software is the best in the market and exactly what the Nigerian company needs. Therefore, they must think very carefully about the qualities of the person they send.

What does the Nigerian company want the US company to do? Why is it so important for the US company to get a contract with the Nigerian company? What must the US negotiator be able to do in Nigeria?

VOCABULARY

1. Often the same base can be used in verb, noun, and adjective form. Complete the following chart with the missing noun and verb forms.

2. Complete the following sentences with the correct verb, noun, or adjective form from the chart above. Use one form of each word base, and do not repeat any words.

1.The manager must ___________ any extended vacation an employee

requests.

2.The management does a great job ___________ their employees for overseas positions.

3.___________ successfully in the international business field, you must have many qualified employees.

4.The businesswoman’s speech is very ___________. She convinced everyone that her product was the best on the market.

87

5.Yelena is a very successful marketing artist. She can ___________ new product labels almost overnight.

6.Petra Delgigo is a very ___________ supervisor. She works thirteen hours a day and never takes lunch. She is hoping to be made manager soon.

7.Many businesspeople have no ___________ of overseas business practices. This is why they fail so often.

8.Mr. Grey is not a ___________ worker. He never finishes his jobs and he is always late for work.

LANGUAGE EXPANSION

3. In English it is common to talk about winning or losing negotiations, and terminology used for negotiation is often the same as that used for sports. The expressions in the left-hand column below are used for both sports and negotiation.

Match the expressions (1–6) to their sports definitions (a–f).

d) friendly play between the two teams before the game to get to know each other

e) the other person or team

f)strategy you use to try to win a game

4.Now use the expressions in their negotiation sense by completing the following sentences.

Last year the Christmas Company of Canada tried to negotiate a deal with a Mexican department store. The negotiations took place in Mexico, giving the Mexican team the __________. The Canadian team brought many gifts and samples of their products to give to their __________. This was done as an effort to show cooperation and to __________. After the two teams __________

on how the negotiations would go, they began talking about money. The Mexican team had a definite __________ that included keeping the Canadian team waiting for weeks for a decision. In the end, the Canadian team decided they could not wait anymore and went back to Canada. In this case, both teams

__________ because no deal was made.

DISCUSSION

88

2.Based on the chart, what person or people do you think would be most appropriate to send to Nigeria? Does this choice differ from your group’s initial choice?

3.Who would be the least appropriate person to send? Why?

WRITTEN REFLECTION

8. Imagine that you decided to send Ted Conway alone to Nigeria. What do you think would have happened? What reaction would Ted Conway have had? What reaction would the Nigerian team have had? What could they have done to rectify the situation and continue with negotiations?

Write one paragraph describing the problems that would have occurred and another paragraph discussing what could have been done to resolve the problem. To help you organize your plan, review the issues in the above chart. When you have finished, share your paragraphs with the class.

SPEAKING

9. Study negotiator qualities.

In some countries people with personal and social connections will be able to get in the door faster than people with no connections. In other countries, people with extensive technical knowledge will make a greater impression on the other team than those with personal connections. In almost all countries, negotiating in teams is more common than negotiating with only one person. Even the United States is turning more to team negotiating as US companies realize its advantages.

Read the following information about negotiators around the world. Check the qualities you think are most important for a negotiator to have in order to negotiate successfully in your country and your classmates country. Share your information with your classmates.

Negotiator qualities from around the world:

90