2. Speak about flexibility and its types.

Flexibility is the current buzzword today. Flexibility is understood as the ability to change or be changed easily to suit a different situation. This has a number of related meanings.One type of flexibility has existed for some time in the form of flexitime or flextime, where people can choose when they work within certain limits. Then there is the flexible working of the British Airways office in the main course unit, with some of its staff hot-desking, particularly those who are homeworking, teleworking or telecommuting and only need to come into the office occasionally. A third type of flexibility is where employees are recruited on short contracts to work on specific projects, maybe part-time. Perhaps the organisation only has a core staff, and outsources or contracts out work from outside as and when required. Some management experts say that this is the future, with self-employment as the norm, and portfolio workers who have a number of different clients.

3. What is meant by "teleworking"?

Teleworking, also known as telecommuting, means using information technology and

telecommunications to replace work-related travel. Simple put, it means working at home or closer to home. With teleworking, employees work at home or perhaps at a local telework center one or more days per week. Communication is accomplished by phone, fax, modem, and teleconferencing. Nationwide, more than 20 million workers are going to work simply by picking up the phone or turning on their computers.

4. What do you know about sol company? Why is it unusual?

SOL is a Finland's Cleaning Service company which combines radical innovation with disciplined execution – a winning formula that mops up the competition. Located in a renovated film studio in the heart of Helsinki, the office explodes with color, creativity, and chaos. The walls are bright red, white, and yellow; the employees wander the halls talking on portable phones (also yellow). Few people dream about becoming a cleaner. But that doesn't mean cleaners can't find satisfaction in their work. The keys to

atisfaction, Joronen believes, are fun and individual freedom. SOL's culture is built relentlessly -- almost excessively -- around optimism and good cheer. Its cleaners wear red-and-yellow jumpsuits that reinforce the company's upbeat image. SOL's logo, a yellow happy face, is plastered on everything from her blazer to the company's stationery to its most important budget reports. Freedom means abolishing all the rules and regulations of conventional corporate life. There are no titles or secretaries at SOL, no individual offices or set working hours. The company has eliminated all perks and status symbols.

Unit 4. Change.

1. What changes have taken place in organizations recently?

2. Explain the meaning of BPR.

3. How do you understand the term 'company culture'? What issues should be included into it?

4. Speak about the changes the US and UK department stores have gone through.

1. What changes have taken place in organizations recently?

Recent years have seen massive restructuring. Companies downsized and delayered, getting rid of levels of middle-management in order to become leaner, flatter, supposedly more efficient organisations. Often the reasoning was that computer networks allow top managers instant access to information that was previously gathered and transmitted upwards by middle managers, whose other main function was to communicate executives' key messages downwards to the workforce and in this they were accused of diluting or confusing the messages, or worse. With fewer organisational layers, top managers say they can communicate more directly with front-line employees, the people who actually produce the goods or services, and deal with customers. With less direct supervision, employees have often been encouraged to make more decisions for themselves in a process of empowerment.

Another trend was re-engineering, the idea that an organisation should not change incrementally,

but should start again from scratch with no preconceptions about how things-should be done, not just in manufacturing but in all the processes that contribute to what an organization does, hence business process re-engineering, or BPR.

The human side of this, again, was that there would probably be redundancies. The people

remaining would probably feel demoralized, wondering when the next wave of change was going to come and whether it would be their turn to be thrown out.