Personnel assistant should prepare an agenda of the meeting.

Managing Director: You are going to hold a meeting. The agenda includes the following: your company is about to launch a new product. But there appeared a few problems. One of them is a strike. You would like to review the whole situation regarding flextime. You don’t want to introduce flextime for all departments in the company.

Production Manager: You want your people to have flextime.

Personnel Manager: You don’t agree to stop the flextime arrangements in your department. But you are against the flexible hours in the production department.

17. Production Manager and Personnel Manager should submit a report to the Managing Director based on his/her decision about the flextime system.

TEXTS FOR READING AND DISCUSSION

TEXT A

1. Read the text and c omplete the table:

manager’s	responsibilities	roles

Manager’s Responsibilities [61]

People are the most expensive resources. If people’s skills are right, the rest of the whole job becomes easier. Any staff will be more motivated, which will bring joy into the workplace as well as improve efficiency and cost effectiveness. People spend so much of their life at work: enjoying work means enjoying life.

“Being an effective manager means being a saint, as it is likely that you are expected to manage a variety of people in a fair, unbiased, just and consistent way… You are expected at all times to be fair and to manage without prejudice, although it is impossible to avoid times when you feel prejudiced, when you do pre-judge how a person will act or respond to your requests… you can manage people more effectively, recognizing that people are individuals and their behavior can vary…you … need to care, manage conflict or deal with contentious situations… free and empower your staff and… avoid making assumptions about them… recognize the difference between team members who are incompetent or incapable and those who may need to discipline”.[62]

Actually all managers perform as many roles as possible in order to help his company move forward to the stated goals. In any situation they have to work through people and with people. In other words, they are conductors of communication. Managers communicate with all the people who are their clients, suppliers, representatives, and customers. Besides, they tackle problems with people who are outside the company. In either event, they solve personal and social matters.

Certainly, managers at all the managerial levels have to communicate with each other. This is inevitable.

Besides, managers are responsible of the tasks they set. They are in charge of their employees’ actions and plans. In other words, they are expected to accomplish more goals than their subordinates, to be accountable for the greatest achievements.

It is very important for a manager to balance between goals and needs. They have to set priorities in order to save their time. Each manager has to strike a balance between various goals and needs. He needs effective time management.

A manager has to be an analytical thinker. He has to analyze a problem, examine its components and come up with a solution. Besides, managers should be able to view the entire task in the abstract and relate it to others. Thus, thinking of a particular task in relation to its larger implications is a complicated matter. It is a manager who has to think conceptually.

Managers can act as mediators. Settling fights and quarrels require managers ‘skills and tact. They have to be more careful handling disputes and arguments in order not to be dismayed to find the right decision.

Managers are diplomats. They may represent their company as well as units in dealing with clients, customers, contractors etc.

Managers are symbols. They may represent their company’s successes and failures.

Managers are decision-makers. Certainly, there can be a lot of problems in the company: financial, difficulties with employees, problems with orders etc. A manager is always considered to be responsible for the right and wise solution.

In other words, managers are peers, superiors, and subordinates at one and the same time. The ability to recognize the appropriate role to be played and to change roles readily is one mark of effective manager.[63]

3. Answer the questions:

 

1. How do you understand the term “management”?

2. Describe manager’s key activities.

3. What are managerial responsibilities? Give so-called “real” examples: describe a business activity of a famous businessman or a person who you know well.

 

 

TEXT B

Decision-making

 

Read the collocations.

 

make/take a decision

come to/reach a decision about

final decision

big decision

difficult/hard/tough decision

Use these phrases in your own sentences

 

Read the text.

 

Decision-making and strategic management thinking [64]

Decision-making is the process if identifying and selecting a course of action to solve a specific problem. It is usually the manager who must decide what action to take. Managers’ decisions are like the framework within which other employees take a decision and act. Managers take different types of decisions under different circumstances. They decide where to locate their new office, how to motivate the staff, when to schedule their corporate party.

Managers have to vary their approach to decision making, depending on different situations. There can be programmed and nonprogrammed decisions. Programmed decisions are decisions made in accordance with habits, rules and routine problems. Nonprogrammed decisions are those that deal with unusual or exceptional problems, e.g. such problems as how to allocate a company’s resources, how to improve the relationships inside the staff.

Decision – making is closely connected with problem solving. These parts are key parts in a manager’s activity.

Usually the problem-solving process consists of some stages. First of all, investigate the situations: define the problem, identify the decision objectives, i.e. decide what would constitute a good solution, diagnose the causes; develop alternatives: finding creative and imaginative alternatives; evaluate alternatives and select the best one; implement the decision.

To be effective as a leader, you must develop skills in strategic thinking. Strategic thinking is a process whereby you learn how to make your business vision a reality by developing your abilities in team work, problem solving, and critical thinking. It is also a tool to help you confront change, plan for and make transitions, and envision new possibilities and opportunities.

Strategic thinking is like making a movie. Every movie has a context (or story), which it uses to get you to experience a certain outcome (an emotion, in this case) at the end of the movie. Strategic thinking is much the same that it requires you to envision what you want your ideal outcome to be for your business and then works backwards by focusing on the story of how you will be able to reach your vision.

 

Answer the questions.

1. How do you understand decision-making and problem-solving process?

2. Contrast programmed and nonprogrammed decisions.

3. Describe the problem – solving process. Give examples.

4. Submit a good description of a real decision-making and problem-solving process.

 

STOP and CHECK 6

 

Do the tasks below. There are two points for each correct answer.

1. Put the following sentences into the Passive Voice.

 

1. They sent them well-written reports before the deadline.

2. Managers give orders and their subordinates carry them on.

3. They will send Nick to Moscow next week.

4. He gave the definition of management in the 19th century.

5. Have they finished this meeting?

6. She is preparing the annual report.

7. They will build up customer loyalty by gaining their trust.

8. Many students have attended that lecture on Economics.

9. They always connect their main problem with competition.

10. She is holding a meeting in the next room.