II. Vocabulary practiceexercises

1. Complete the statements:

1. Management is the process of

a. making decisions about alternative sources and uses of funds

b. receiving, protecting, and lending money

c. coordinating resources to meet organizational goals

d. attracting suitable candidates for an organization’s job

2. The primary management function, the one on which all others depend is

a. organizing

b. leading

c. planning

d. controlling

3.Total quality management was first adopted by

a. American companies

b. Japanese companies

c. German companies

d. Russian companies

4. Comparing your company’s processes and products to the standards of the

world’s best companies and working to match or exceed those standards

is known as

a. employee involvement

b. benchmarking

c. continuous improvement

d. customer focus

5. Communication, or exchanging information, is the most important

a. conceptual skill

b. technical skill

c. administrative skill

d. interpersonal skill

6. A key managerial activity requiring conceptual skill is

a. interacting with employees and managers

b. acquiring and analyzing information

c. organizing people

d. decision making

7. Top managers set

a. strategic goals, which focus on broad issues

b. tactical objectives, which focus on departmental issues

c. operational objectives, which focus on short-term issues

d. an organization chart to coordinate and control the company’s work

8. At the middle management level are

a. president, vice-president, chief executive officer

b. supervisor, department head, office manager

c. head of accounting, factory manager, division manager

d. operating employees

9. The power to make decisions, issue orders, carry out actions, and allocate

resources to achieve the organization’s goals is called

a. responsibility

b. accountability

c. delegation

d. authority

10. A diagram showing how employees and tasks are grouped and where the

lines of communication and authority flow is termed

a. organization structure

b. management pyramid

c. organization chart

d. span of management

11. Line-and-staff organization

a. establishes a clear line of authority flowing from the top down

b. groups jobs into departments and larger units

c. facilitates communication across departments

d. combines specialization with management control

2. Choose the right word or word-combination and put it in the

sentence:

1. communication skills; 2. motivating; 3. span of management;

4.controlling;5. manager; 6. authority; 7. leadership; 8. decision making; 9. TQM; 10. line-and-staff organization; 11. vision; 12. make a decision; 13. accountable to;14.responsible for; 15. hierarchy; 16. elaborate;

1. A number of different terms are often used instead of the term “…….. .”,

including “director”, “administrator”, and “executive”.

2. Almost everything a manager does involves ……….. . When a problem

exists a manager has to ………. to solve it.

3. Managers need to distinguish between ……… - the ability to make

someone do something – and ……. – the ability to inspire someone to do

something.

4. Effective leaders are good at ……., giving employees a reason to do the

job and to put forth their best performance.

5. Managers use their technical skills for the ………. function, comparing

where they are with where they should be.

6. When planning, managers working in those organizations that practice

....... must take into account employee involvement, customer focus,

benchmarking, and continuous improvement.

7. Why do organizations like Microsoft, Ford, and the United Way exist? Like

most organizations, they were formed in order to realize a ……., a realistic,

credible, and attractive view of the future that grows out of and improves

upon the present.

8. Regardless of the field you’re in or the career you choose, your chances of

being hired by an organization are better if you possess strong ……. .Your

ability to receive, evaluate, use, and pass on information affects your

company’s success, as well as your own.

9. The manager of production is ……. total production performance and is …. the vice president of manufacturing.

10. When a large number of people report directly to one person, that person

has a wide ……. .

11. The activities of most large organizations are too ……. to be organized

in a single rigid ……. , and require functional organization, usually with

production, finance, marketing, and personnel departments. Such an

organization system is called ……. .

3. Match the words on the left with their equivalents on the right:

1. leading a) supervise

2. target b) increase

3. staff department c) choice

4. determine d)supervisory manager

5. accomplish e) in charge of

6. evaluate f) span of control

7. authority g) expertise

8. slash h) exchange of information

9. physical resources i) pyramidal structure

10. foster j) lead

11. alternative k) direction

12. oversee l) power

13. responsible for m) functional department

14. accountable to n) crucial

15. specialized knowledge o) complete

16. elaborate p) report to

17. fall short q) aim

18. chart r) encourage

19. forecasting s) tangible resources

20. span of management t) reduce

21. communication u) leave much to be desired

22. enhance v) decide

23. guide . w) diagram

24. vital x) estimate

25. hierarchical structure y) carefully worked out

26. first-line manager z) predicting

4. Translate the following groups of words into English:

Основная функция управления; прогнозировать грядущие тенденции; претворение плана в жизнь; стимулировать работников; если результаты не оправдывают ожиданий; выполнять четыре основных функции; принципы управления; оптимальный уровень качества; соответствовать стандартам и превосходить их; играть решающую роль в любой деятельности; социальная ответственность; нести ответственность за организацию на всех уровнях управления; сочетание дальновидности, опыта, мастерства и решительности; умения и навыки управления; искусство межличностных отношений; вести переговоры с партнёрами; умение общаться; обмен информацией; составлять расписание; конкурентное окружение; разрабатывать стратегию и принимать решения; сосредоточивать внимание на широких проблемах; ставить тактические задачи; управляющие низшего звена; ставить производственные задачи; стратегические цели; иметь полномочия для принятий официальных решений; делегировать полномочия и ответственность; подотчётность; организационная схема крупной производственной компании; отчитываться перед кем-то; отчитываться за что-то; цепь инстанций; оставлять желать лучшего; более усовершенствованная система; жёсткая вертикальная иерархия; распределять различные виды работ по отделам; координировать все задания между отделами и подразделениями; достигать цели.

5. Read the whole text and then complete the organization chart:

I think we have a fairly typical organization for a manufacturing firm. We’re divided into Finance, Production, Marketing, and Human Resources departments.

The Human Resources department is the simplest. It consists of two sections. One is responsible for recruitment and personnel matters, the other is in charge of training.

The Marketing department is made up of three sections: Sales, Sales Promotion, and Advertising, whose heads are all accountable to the marketing manager.

The Production department consists of five sections. The first of these is Production Control, which is in charge of both Scheduling and Materials Control. Then there’s Purchasing, Manufacturing, Quality Control, and Engineering Support. Manufacturing contains three sections: Tooling, Assembly, and Fabrication.

Finance is composed of two sections: Financial Management, which is responsible for capital requirements, fund control and credit, and Accounting.

III. SPEECH PRACTICE EXERCISES

1. Styles of Management.

Managing people well can lead to better results and higher productivity for the company, but this can be difficult to do. People respond differently to different styles of management.

1) Divide the following styles of behavior into pairs of opposites. Which five of these styles do you think are generally preferable for managers?

a. being group oriented

b. being cautious and careful

c. being decisive and able to take rapid individual decisions

d. being individualistic

e. being assertive, authoritative, ruthless, and competitive

f. being happy to take risks

g. being good at listening and sensitive to other people’s feelings

h. being intuitive

i. being logical, rational, and analytic

j. liking consensus and conciliation

Dr. Armand Feigenbaum, a noted authority on total quality systems, uses a Chinese proverb to explain the qualities of a superior leader : ”A bad leader is somebody from whom the people turn away. A good leader is somebody whom the people turn toward. A great leader is someone of whom the people say, “We did it ourselves.”

2) Now look at the following list of qualities. Which are the most important for a manager?

k. being competent and efficient in one’s job

l. being friendly and sociable

m. being a hard worker

n. being persuasive

o. having good ideas

p. being good at communicating

q. being good at motivating people

r. being good at taking the initiative and leading other people

3) Make a list of the five most important qualities from a. to r.

Which of these qualities do you think you have? Which do you lack?

Which could you still learn? Which do you have to be born with?

Do any of these qualities seem to you to be essentially masculine or feminine?

2. Cultural Stereotypes and Management.

a) You have probably heard jokes like this (British) one:

What is the difference between heaven and hell? In heaven, the French are the cooks, the Germans are the engineers, the British are the politicians, the Swiss are the managers, and the Italians are the lovers. In hell, the British are the cooks, the French are the managers, the Italians are the engineers, the Germans are the politicians, and the Swiss are the lovers.

(If to add color to this joke, in hell the Russians could be responsible for hell's utilities, while the Chinese would be the total quality management teachers.)

Do you find such stereotypes amusing or offensive? Is there any truth in national stereotypes? Do cultural habits have an effect on business practices and management styles?

b) Match up the following adjectives into pairs of opposites:

arrogant chaotic generous hospitable lazy lively narrow-minded individualistic quiet relaxed conservative trustworthy

hard-working devious noisy tolerant mean modest progressive public-spirited reserved serious unfriendly well-organized

Do you think any of these descriptions could apply, in general, to the people in your country, or neighbouring countries?

c) More seriously, which countries or parts of the world do you think the following descriptions might apply to? Do stereotypes help or hinder business relationships? Are they unfair?

1. They believe that personal relationships and friendships are more

important than rules and formal procedures.

2. They believe that rules are very important, and exceptions shouldn’t be

made for friends.

3. They’re collectivist, so they dislike the idea of one person in a group

earning much more than his or her colleagues.

4. They’re efficient, punctual, and highly organized.

5. They’re great believers in analysis, rationality, logic, and systems.

6. They’re individualistic, so paying people according to their performance is

highly successful.

7. They like to spend time getting to know people before doing business with

them.

8. They place great stress on personal relations, intuition, emotion, feeling,

and sensitivity.

9. They seem to be very disorganized, but on the other hand, they get their

business done.

10. They’re very keen to find a consensus and to avoid confrontations.

11. They’re very short-term oriented, thinking only of quarterly results.

3. Verb and preposition combinations are often useful for describing

skills and personal qualities. Match the verbs 1 to 7 with the

prepositions and phrases a) to g).

A good manager should:

1. respond a)in their employees’ abilities

2. listen b) to a deputy as often as possible

3. deal c) to employees’ concerns promptly

4. believe d) with colleagues clearly

5. delegate e) with problems quickly

6. communicate f) in regular training

7. invest g) to all suggestions from staff

4. Managerial skills: decision-making.

Which ideas below do you agree with? Which do you disagree with?

Why?

1. Before making a decision:

a) write down the pros. and cons. с) have a sleep or a rest

b) try to reduce stress d) consult a horoscope

2. If a choice has cost you a lot of time and money, stick to it.

3. Rely on the past to help you make a decision.

4. Reduce all decisions to a question of money.

5. Be totally democratic in group decision-making

Marion Haynes, a well-known writer on decision-making, recommends eight steps for making decisions. Use her approach to the role play below.

1 Discuss and analyze the situation. 5Think of alternatives.

2 Define the problem. 6Decide how to evaluate them.

3 Set an objective. 7Evaluate alternatives.

4 State what is essential and desirable 8Choose among alternatives

You are board members in a manufacturing firm which employs 500 people. As your company is making a loss, you must cut costs. Hold a meeting to choose oneof the following options. State what action you intend to take.

* Cut factory workers’ wages by 10% *Make 50 employees redundant

* Reduce everyone’s salary by 8% *Pay no end-of-year bonuses

5. Managerial skills: resolving conflict.

Read the suggestions below about ways of dealing with conflict. Put each of them under one of the following headlines: either DoorDon’t.

1 Be positive when handling problems.

2 Get angry from time to time with difficult team members.

3 Delay taking action, if possible.

4 Try to see the problem from the point of view of the team.

5 Be truthful about how you see the situation.

6 Encourage open and frank discussion.

7 Try to ignore tensions within the team.

8 Bring potential conflict and disagreement into the open.

9 Give special attention to team members who are creating problems.

10 Persist with “impossible people” – you may win them over.

11 Try to find “win-win” solutions.

12 Make sure you know who the influential members are.

6. Managerial skills: negotiating.

a) Three key skills in negotiating are

1 signalling (drawing attention to what you’re about to say)

2 checking understanding

3 summarising

Study the examples of each in the Useful language box.

Useful language:

Signalling

I’d like to make a suggestion. I think we should leave this point and come

back to it later. I want to ask a question. How are we going to pay for this?

Checking understanding

Sorry, could you repeat that? Are you saying you don’t have that quantity in stock? So what you’re saying is your will…

Summarizing

Can we just summarize the points we’ve agreed so far? OK, so we’re agreed. You’ll pay for delivery and get everything to us by the end of June.

b) Now read the negotiation between the Commercial Director of a car

manufacturer and the General Manager of a business equipment firm.

Underline any examples of signaling, checking understanding, or

summarizing.

Director - We’re willing to give you a 12% discount on our list price if you

buy over 30 vehicles – that’s OK. It’ll mean you’ll be paying just

under $14,400 for each vehicle. But that’s providing you don’t

have any special requirements which cost us more money.

Manager - Special requirements? What do you mean exactly?

Director - Oh, I don’t know, if you want the interior of the car to be changed,

for example. The price we’ve agreed is for our standard model.

Or if you wanted a modification which costs money, more storage compartments, for example.

Manager - Right. It’s true, some of our top sales staff can be fussy. I don’t

know though, we’d still like a 12% discount, given the size of our

order.

Director - Mmm, OK, let me make a suggestion. We give you 12% but if

someone wants extras or a modification, we’ll offer you a 10%

discount on that car. That’s fair enough, isn’t it?

Manager - OK. So you’re saying you will modify the car if we ask you to?

Director - Exactly.

Manager - Right then, let’s see what we’ve got. The price will be $14,400,

providing there are no extras or modifications to the interior. You’ll

make small changes if we ask you to, but reduce the discount by

2%.

Director - That’s it. OK, let’s talk about delivery now.

7. Be ready to work on the projects offered below:

1.The Four Basic Functions Necessary for the Organization’s Success.

2. Managerial Skills.

3. Managerial Structure.

4. The Organization’s Structure.