Vocabulary 2

1. Match up each of the words and phrases in A to its synonym or an explanation for it in B. Use your dictionary if necessary.

A B

organization	to make a choice
work-related	qualified
to make a decision	a company that sells the same goods or services as another company
reason
to face	to try to be more successful
competitor	to take action to do smth
costs	to influence
to compete	connected with work
skilled	personnel
to deal with	to provide what is necessary
issue	work that is done to keep sth in good condition
to affect
complex	to meet
to meet the needs	to discover
workforce	existing
to be concerned with	to involve
maintenance	common
to find	problem
general	cause
current	company
to concern	difficult
	to give attention to smth because it is important
	expenses

Pre-listening task

Work in small groups. Discuss which of the following can be immediate reasons for the increased role of HRM.

HRM is becoming more and more important to business because...

1. presently, business operations require the use of new technology.

2. companies with relatively high labour costs can compete with companies that have low labour costs only by having skilled employees.

3. it is HRM that deals with finding skilled work force.

4. experienced employees demand high payment for their work.

5. human resource managers take care of training qualified employees.

6. many companies have to make laws affecting employment decisions.

7. laws relating to employment are too difficult to understand.

8. HRM can arrange that an organization keeps to existing laws that have to do with employment decisions.

Listening

^{T1 1} The text you are going to hear explains why human resource management is important. Listen to it and answer the questions.

1. What are hrm programs aimed at?

2. What is the key reason for the ever-increasing role of employment decisions?

3. What is special about foreign competitors?

4. How can companies with rather high labour costs compete?

5. Why do human resource managers have to give special attention to laws involved in making employment decisions?

6. What kind of employees is required by the use of new technology in business operations?

7. How is HRM connected with the introduction of new technology into business operations?

Discussion

Work in small groups. Say which of the following suggestions would be appropriate activities or inappropriate activities for a human resource manager.

If I were a human resource manager...

1. ... I would be responsible for lowering labour costs.

2. ... I would have to make laws affecting employment decisions.

3. ... I would make every effort to meet the needs of the organization for an effective work force.

4. ... I would fire unqualified employees.

5. ... I would try to find skilled employees in the general work force.

6. ... I would be in charge of developing skills in current employees.

Reading

1. Skim through text 2 and think of the suitable title.

TEXT 2

A basic activity of HR managers is collecting information to use in making job-related decisions about individuals. Most HR programs use some combination of three types of information: job characteristics, worker qualifications, and job performance.

Job analysis is the systematic process of gathering information about important work-related aspects of a job. It identifies the first of two types of information, which includes the tasks that make up the job; the worker knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed on the job; the information, equipment, and materials used; and the working conditions.

Table 1 provides some example task statements and KSAs that are appropriate for the position of regional sales manager.

Performance appraisal, discussed in a later section, is the process of collecting the third type of information, job performance of individual employees.

Table 1