Do you know these words?

managerial	управленческий
skill	мастерство, умение
to succeed	преуспевать, уметь успех
interpersonal	межличностный
conceptual	концептуальный, понятийный
prerequisite	предпосылка
to accomplish	выполнять, доводить до конца
inner	внутренний
respective	соответственный
to assign	предназначать, назначать
to interact	взаимодействовать
interaction	взаимодействие
to involve	вовлекать, затрагивать
obvious	очевидный, явный
capacity	способность
to fit together	рассматривать в совокупности
holistic	целостный
to suffer	страдать
turnover	текучесть кадров, рабочей силы
dissatisfaction	неудовлетворительность, недовольство
boring	надоедливый, скучный
to conclude	делать вывод
to anticipate	предвидеть
to predict	предсказывать
explosion	зд. быстрый рост
to take advantage of smth.	воспользоваться чем-либо

1. Answer these questions:

1. What types of skills do managers possess?

2. What skills are necessary to accomplish specialized activities?

3. How do managers acquire technical skills?

4. Are interpersonal skills important for managers? Why?

5. How do top managers spend their time at work?

6. What are conceptual skills? For what type of managers are they especially important?

7. Are diagnostic skills useful in favourable or in unfavourable situations? Give examples of such situations.

8. How are managerial skills connected with the progress up the organizational ladder?

2. Define the part of speech of the words having one stem. Translate the words into Russian.

Person – personable – personal – interpersonal – personality – personally – personnel

Success – to succeed – successful – successfully

Technical – technique – technology – technological

Concept – conception –conceptual

To analyze – analyst – analysis – analytical

Skill – skilled – skilful

3. Match the synonyms from the columns. Translate the verbs into Russian and try to remember.

to motivate	a. to make possible
to accomplish	b. to have
to complete	c. to comprise
to possess	d. to investigate
to predict	e. to stimulate
to enable	f. to finish
to include	g. to carry out
to succeed	h. to foretell
to allow	i. to permit
to study	j. to prosper

4. Match the types of skills and their definitions:

Technical skills	The ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate both individuals and groups.
Interpersonal skills	The manager’s ability to think in the abstract.
Diagnostic and analytic skills	The ability to visualize the most appropriate response to a situation.
Conceptual skills	Skills, necessary to accomplish specialized activities

5. Choose the words from the list to complete the sentences:

aspects, interaction, causes, subordinates, relationships, abstract, interacting, problems

1. Managers spend considerable time … with people both inside and outside the organization.

2. Conceptual skills depend on the manager’s ability to think in the … .

3. Top managers spend little time in actual operating situations and are concerned with broader … of the organization.

4. The manager reassigned the supervisor to a position that required less … with other people.

5. These managers spend much of their time training … and answering questions about work-related … .

6. Managers need the mental capacity to understand various cause-and-effect … in the organization fit together.

7. Diagnostic and analytic skills enable managers to define the problem and recognize its possible … .

6. Translate the sentences into English:

1. Менеджерам нужны разные виды способностей для успешной деятельности.

2. Технические навыки приобретаются сначала в университетах и колледжах, а затем в реальных ситуациях на работе.

3. Опыт межличностного общения очень важен в работе менеджеров, так как им приходится проводить много времени, общаясь с людьми.

4. Прежде чем решать проблему, менеджер должен проанализировать её.

5. Менеджерам необходимо понимать различные причинно-следственные связи внутри организации.

6. Умение мыслить абстрактно позволяет менеджеру принимать не ограниченные узкими рамками решения, которые служат организации в целом.

7. Профессия менеджера требует большего взаимодействия с людьми, чем другие профессии.

7. Translate the sentences into Russian and learn some more information about the importance of different types of skills:

1. All three levels of management must have strong human skills because they all must get things done through people.

2. Ironically individuals often are promoted into first-level management because they have good technical skills without adequate consideration being given to the adequacy of their human skills.

3. Middle managers often may need to have technical skills that are at least sufficient to assist in communicating with subordinates.

4. Top managers have the greatest need to see the organization as a whole and understand how the various parts of the organization relate to one another.

5. Individuals who lack sufficient human skills usually run into serious difficulties attempting to deal with individuals inside and outside their work units.

6. Without some technical skills even upper-level managers will have difficulty fostering innovation, allocating resources efficiently, or devising strategies to stay ahead of the competition.

7. A manager needs the ability to communicate with people in order to win their trust and confidence as their leader.

8. The job may need a low or a high level of skill.

9. Lacking acting skills managers are not always able to express themselves in ways that effectively influence their co-workers, clients and partners.

7. Look at the figure and say:

1. What sources of skills are used by managers?

2. Why should these two sources be combined for successful management activity?

Figure 1: Sources of managerial skills.

Sound educational base; continued life-long educational experiences.	→	Successful acquisition and utilization of basic management skills.
↑ ↓
Initial job experiences, continued experiences through a variety of job assignments.	→

8. Answer the questions on the figure:

1. What kind of skills is the most important for top managers?

2. At which level of an organization is the importance of interpersonal skills greater?

3. Why are technical skills less important for top managers?

Figure 2: The importance of different management skills at different organizational levels.

Top managers
Middle managers
First-line managers
	Technical skills	Conceptual skills	Interpersonal skills	Diagnostic and analytic skills

8. Reply to the following statements by expressing agreement or disagreement. See the table below.

Example: Managers have to spend considerable time interacting with people.

I won’t deny it. They spend a great deal of time in meetings and on the telephone.

1. Managers need the mental capacity to understand various cause-and –effect relationships in the organization fit together.

2. As one progresses up the organizational ladder, more and more technical skills are needed.

3. Interpersonal skills don’t influence a manager’s success.

4. Diagnostic and analytic skills enable a manager to define his problem and to develop a solution.

5. The work of a manager has much in common with the work of a physician.

6. Diagnostic and analytic skills are useful only in unfavorable situations.

7. The managing director must not only give effective leadership to the people who are under his command but he also should work together with them.

8. Managers spend considerable time interacting with people both inside and outside the organization.

9. Managers develop technical skills studying at colleges and universities.

Agreement	Disagreement
Formal
I absolutely / entirely / do agree with you. I’m exactly of the same opinion. My own opinion is exactly the same. That’s quite right. You are quite right there. I can’t help thinking the same. I won’t deny it.	I disagree, I’m afraid. I disagree with you on that point. I differ from you. I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think so. That’s not the way I see it. I can’t help thinking the opposite.
Neutral
Yes, it is / does / can / has. That’s true. / True enough. Yes, I fully / partially agree. Beyond all doubt. In a way, yes. I think so.	No, he isn’t / doesn’t / can’t / hasn’t. That’s wrong. I am not sure, in fact. I’m afraid you are wrong / mistaken. Far from it. / Not at all. Just on the contrary.
Informal
How true. Too true. Looks like that. Oh, exactly. / Very likely. Of course. Sure. Certainly. OK. / Yes, indeed. Right you are. That’s it. I see. Exactly / definitely so. Undoubtedly.	Not really. No way. Impossible. / Unlikely. Surely not. / Certainly not. By no means! It won’t work! Nonsense! Rubbish and stuff! Never!

8. Make a short dialogue using the expressions from the table above and from the text.

8. Try to define the following professions using ‘can’ or ‘to be able to’ in the appropriate form. What kinds of skills should do these professions require?

Example: a linguist

A linguist is a person who studies languages and can explain their usage.

Prompts: driver, typist, journalist, writer, librarian, pop-singer, film producer, film director, camera man, shop assistant, bank clerk, manager, computer programmer, telephone operator, receptionist.

8. Think and write.

Suppose you have been appointed the dean of your department. Design a curriculum that would prepare students for their role in management. Specify your objectives and means to be used.