Exercises

1. Discuss the following questions.

1. Why is internal communication so important?

2. When does communication become a genuine tool for improving the bottom line?

3. What are some communication techniques?

4. How did British Petroleum Oil move its internal communication and what was the result?

5. What kind of company is British Petroleum Oil?

6. What factors made imperative the need for culture change in British Petroleum Oil?

7. How did the dialogue between the BP Oil management and staff start?

8. What makes a good communicator according to the European division?

9. What investigation did the Far Eastern group carry out?

10. What was the ‘brown bag lunches’ technique like?

11. Why did head office communication forums become popular with BP Oil?

12. What communication did BP Oil create?

13. What communication tools did BP Oil use?

14. What role did communication professionals begin to play in BP Oil?

15. What kind of review did BP Oil complete after downsizing head office?

II. Say what the following refer to in the text of the article under the headlines:

Communication and leadership: the BP Oil experience

…this …(para 1, line 3)

…this…(para 2, line 4)

1 The right attitude (see Figure 2.2)

…them…(line 3)

They…(line 4)

The virtuous circle

These…(para 4, line 2)

…them… (para 4, line 7)

…they…(para 5, line 7)

III. Match the following definitions with the word-combinations below.

the most important group of people who apprehend a particular kind of information	hold someone in high esteem
amount of money that a business makes	perform well
complete an action or activity in a skilful or effective way	an umbrella
not to tell someone about something because you want to keep it secret from them	keep someone in the dark
series of actions characterized by the ability to both send and receive messages	block to communication
comments about how well or how badly someone is doing something, which are intended to help them do it better	feedback
get qualities that make people believe you are honest, fair, and reliable	timeliness, openness and honesty
an honest way of speaking and behaving in the situations happening at the most suitable time	cascade
informing people about someone or something and considering differences and similarities of the facts	gain trust and credibility
make it possible for a process of giving information to start again after it has stopped	unblock communication channels
occasion when a group of people meet to learn about a particular subject	province of human resources
create a set of principles that you use when you are forming your decisions and judgments	bottom line
a lot of specific things of the same general type	workshop session
regard someone with admiration and respect	internal communication
the process of giving information within an organization	grapevine
subject area of the department within a company that is responsible for employing and training people	provide a framework
flow down in large amounts	debrief
something that stops the process of giving information or of making emotions or ideas known to someone report about an important job one has just done spreading information from one person to another through conversation	sharing and comparing information key audience two-way process

4. Complete the words.

1. He keeps a careful eye on the b______ l______.

2. You’ve k______ us totally i___ t___ d______ about what happened that night.

3. Thanks to the UN’s t______, a crisis was avoided.

4. Newsgroups enable patients to s______ i_______ and offer each other support.

5. This new concession could u______ talks aimed at ending the strike.

6. We can reach these markets through our existing distribution c______.

7. Einstein’s research p______ much of the theoretical f______for particle physics.

8. The u______ term ‘computer-aided design’ includes a wide range of different techniques.

9. She has always been h______ i___ h___ e___by fellow actors.

10. Dark hair c______ to her shoulders.

11. There was recently held a small-business w______ s______ on combating drug use in the workplace.

12. We launched a customer survey to obtain a f______ on customer perception of our products, service and performance.

13. We believe we have the h______ r______, the management resources and the capital for this project.

14. The measures are necessary to restore public t______ in the futures markets.

15. The family finances are his wife’s p______.

16. The returning bomber crews were d______.

17. I heard on the g______ that you left your job.

4. Translate the following word-combinations from Russian into English consulting the article.

Чистая прибыль; внутриорганизационные коммуникации; двусторонний процесс; обратная связь; своевременность, открытость и честность; почивать на лаврах; делиться информацией и сопоставлять факты; разблокировать коммуникационные каналы; заседание рабочей группы; разрабатывать стратегические принципы; иметь высокий авторитет; работа с кадрами; направлять информационное послание; ключевые аудитории, слухи, доклад о выполнении работы.

4. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English using active vocabulary.

1. Это средство повышения чистой прибыли.

2. Вряд ли можно ожидать высоких показателей труда занятых, если людей держать в неведении.

3. Коммуникация – это двусторонний процесс, состоящий в равной мере из говорения и слушания.

4. В тех случаях, когда занятые видят, что в результате обратной связи руководством были приняты конкретные меры, то процесс коммуникации приобретает доверительный характер.

5. Основные принципы коммуникации – это своевременность, открытость и честность.

6. Процесс изменения внутрикорпоративной культуры мог бы не сдвинуться с места, если бы компания British Petroleumимела возможность почивать на лаврах.

7. Целью изменения корпоративной культуры был переход от скрытности к открытости; от отношений, при которых информация олицетворяет власть, к отношениям, при которых необходимость делиться информацией и сопоставлять факты, становится естественной.

8. Совокупность таких явлений, как: низкая результаты труда, проведение опроса занятых, внедрение системы электронной почты, – дала возможность компании British Oilразблокировать каналы коммуникации между руководством и занятыми.

9. Оживлённые дебаты во время заседания рабочей группы и неоспоримая правдивость основного послания руководства помогли администрации осознать тот факт, что коммуникация – это ключевой процесс, требующий управления; и от него зависит доходность компании.

10. В то время, как головной офис был занят разработкой стратегических принципов, менеджеры на местах осуществляли процесс коммуникации.

11. Исполнительный директор имел высокий авторитет среди занятых.

12. Их ключевой аудиторией всегда были состоятельные люди в возрасте до тридцати лет.

13. Это область работы с кадрами.

14. В течение последующих двух лет это информационное послание направлялось аналитикам, прессе и занятым.

15. К числу факторов, блокирующих коммуникацию, относится отсутствие целенаправленного воздействия на ключевые аудитории.

4. Give the bilateral translation of the following dialogue.

1. Для чего нужна коммуникация? – The short answer is that if staff do not know what they are doing and why, they are less likely to perform well. People do perform well if they are briefed in a timely and honest way.

2. Является ли внутриорганизационная коммуникация столь существенной для руководства? Представляет ли она собой средство чистой прибыли? – Internalcommunicationisavaluablemotivator.It is the corporate glue that helps build teams, reinforces pride in working for a company and encourages people to work that bit harder to beat the competition.

3. Какое информационное послание необходимо для занятых? – Management now understands the need to make messages as simple and memorable as possible, not to use head office jargon and they are turning to professionals for help.

4. Translate the following text from English into Russian.

The term internal publics, refers to staff at all levels and are the company’s greatest resource – its people.

There is no doubt that effective management-employee relations, which can help to develop a climate of trust, will contribute to overall job performance. The goals of employee communication – or internal PR – are to establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and the employees on whom its success or failure depends.

It is clear that the perceptions that staff have of their own organisation cannot be left to chance. As employees are also representatives of their organisation what they say about their place of work to others and their overall attitudes to it all reflect on the organisation itself.

It is important to identify whose responsibility internal communications is. For example, both personnel and PR officers have interests in internal communications; although from different perspectives. There may be times, for instance, during industrial action, when they find themselves in conflict. There is no doubt that internal communication is a task of the public relations people but it is one that is shared with other groups, in particular with those staff working in human resources.

Internal communication is usually handled through the publication of house journals and newssheets, though the recent introduction of intranet communication is already starting to make a huge and important impact.

Internal publications have a number of broad aims:

• Keeping employees informed

• Providing staff with information necessary to performance

• Encouraging improvement and motivation

• Improving employee morale

• Acknowledging success

The overall objective of effective internal PR is willing, highly motivated support for the organisation and its objectives from its staff.

(Jefkinshttp://nwapa.spb.ru/ftxt/0310/chapter_6.html RR http://– Ch. 19 p.p. 335-343)