UNIT 2.

HUMAN RESOURCES The most critical resource wears shoes and walks out the door around five oclock every day. Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom, Stockolm School of Economics I. Match the business cards with the job descriptions: 1. I buy all the things that the company needs.F 2. I check the accountants work.N 3. My job is to make sure that the company has a good image.L 4. My job is to find and test new products.H 5. Im in charge of the people who sell our products.K 6. I type letters, file papers and make appointments for my boss.E 7. I have general responsibility for the whole company.A 8. I make sure we have the products which people want to buy.J 9. I look after the companys money.C 10. I do the books and prepare the balance sheets.D 11. Im the companys people manager.B 12. I make the products which the company sells.I 13. Im responsible for everything when the boss is away.G 14. Im the person with the most important position in the company.M a. John Sutton Managing Director c. Dietrich Hoffmeister Finance Director e. Li Wan Secretary g. Francois Barbot Assistant General Manager i. Jim Hicks Production Manager k. Santi Brunello Sales Director m. Mark Greenfield Chief Executive Officer b. Linda Gabbiadini Human Resource Director d. Alice Hernandez Chief Accountant f. Lena Johansson Purchasing Manager h. Yuri Mankovich Director of Research and Development j. Padrig Byrne Marketing Director l. Kate Hogg Public Relations Manager n. Jean Picard Internal Auditor

II. Combine one word from the box on the left with one word from the box on the right so as to obtain word partnerships related to organisational behaviour. Then, complete the sentences below. 1. human G 2. incentive F 3. promotion A a. prospects b. burnout c. benefits

4. appraisal I 5. fringe C 6. job L 7. leadership H 8. executive B 9. sickness K 10. selection F 11. motivation E 12. change D

d. management e. theory f. scheme g. resources h. qualities i. interview j. procedure k. record l. satisfaction

1. These days people talk about HUMAN RESOURCES rather than personnel. 2. Stress and overload are both common causes of EXECUTIVE BURNOUT . 3. Rates of pay, recognition and opportunities for personal growth contribute to overall JOB SATISFACTION . 4. Demotivated employees tend to have a fairly poor SICKNESS RECORD and are prone to absenteeism. 5. An APPRAISAL INTERVIEW is one way of monitoring employee performance and personal development. 6. FRINGE BENEFITS include health insurance, a company car and contributory pension plan. 7. For hardworking and ambitious young managers there are excellent PROMOTION PROSPECTS. 8. To get into Harvard Business School you have to go through a rigorous . 9. Essential LEADERSHIP QUALITIES include decisiveness and the ability to get the most out of employees. 10. Many companies operate an SELECTION SCHEME- commissions, bonuses and so on. 11. According to one MOTIVATION THEORY giving people more autonomy is better than a higher salary. 12. In a global market in which nothing stays the same CHANGE MANAGEMENT has a crucial role to play. III. Read the sad story of Pedro Brown. Then match the idioms with their meaning: 1. Pedro Brown was on the ball.F 2. He had a good track record. I 3. He had a good nose for sale. L 4. And he usually played his cards right. G 5. But success went to his head. A 6. He began to lose his touch. K 7. He was always up to his eyes in work. B 8. He started trying to pass the buck. H 9. And then he put his foot in it. C 10. The boss gave him a piece of his mind. J 11. Nobody put him in the picture any more.E 12. And in the end he was fired.D

a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k. l.

He began to have too good an opinion of himself. He had too many things to do. He made a big mistake. He lost his job. He was not told what was happening. He was a clever employee, he knew what was going on. He made the right decisions. He passed responsibility to other people. His job experience was good. He talked to him very directly. He started to make mistakes. He was a natural salesman.

IV. Fill in the gaps with the right phrase from the ones given below: bank holiday, hand-picked, caring profession, vacant section, character reference, clocking-in, company car, full time, human relations, division of labour, job centre, job description, job security, labour market, made redundant, lay-off, maternity leave, middle management, minimum wage, night shift, part-time, short list, white collar, backroom boys, blue collar, compassionate leave, craft union, demarcation dispute, direct action, gap year, general strike, glass ceiling, golden handshake, in-service, girl Friday, labour force, law of diminishing returns, sick pay, staff turnover, tied cottage 1. white collar workers work in the office. 2. clocking-in time is when employees should arrive at work. 3. human relations is the study of the relationships between groups of workers in a place of work. 4. middle management is people who are below those who are in control of the company as a whole. 5. maternity leave is a period in which a woman is absent from work in the weeks before and after she gives birth. 6. The labour market is the supply of people in a particular country or area who are able and willing to work. 7. The caring profession are jobs such as nursing which involve looking after people. 8. If you work , part-time you work for only some of the day or the week. 9. If you have job security your job is likely to be permanent. 10. A full time job is done for the whole of a working week. 11. A minimum wage is the smallest amount of money that an employer is allowed to pay to employees. 12. A , job description, is provided by the employer with the job. 13. A bank holiday is an official holiday when most businesses are closed for a day. 14. A lay-off is an act of stopping employing someone.

15. A character reference is a written statement of a person's good qualities, written by someone who knows the person well, which is sent to a future employer. 16. A job description is a list of the responsibilities which you have to perform in your work. 17. A short list is a list of people who have been judged the most suitable for a job. 18. A night shift is a group of workers who work for a period during the night. 19. A job centre is a government office where unemployed people can go for information about jobs which are available. 20. blue collar workers are workers on the factory floor. 21. in-service training takes place during your time at work. 22. direct action is the use of strikes or violence as a way of trying to get what you want from an employer, instead of talking. 23. staff turnover is the amount of employees joining and leaving the company within a period of time. 24. sick pay is money given by an employer to someone who cannot work because of illness. 25. .. is a short time spent away from work for personal reasons. 26. .. are people in an organisation whose work is not seen by the public. 27. The refers to a situation in which a smaller result is achieved for an increasing amount of effort. 28. The .. is all the people who work for a particular company. 29. The is a way of organising work done by different groups of people. 30. Someone who is. has been carefully chosen for a special job or purpose. 31. In a . most people in a country refuse to work, until they are given something that they are demanding. 32. A. is an organization for workers with particular skills to represent them to the employees. 33. A.. is an amount of money paid to senior managers when they leave the company. 34. A. is a year between leaving school and starting university which is usually spent travelling or working. 35. A is a point beyond which you cannot improve your position at work. 36. A is a house owned by your employer that you can live in for as long as you are employed. 37. A.is a disagreement between trade unions about what types of work should be done by the members of each of them. 38. If someone has been ..he has lost his job. 39. The situations .of the newspaper is the part in which jobs are listed. 40. A ..is a type of secretary or general helper in an office, willing to do different types of work.

V. Translate into English: 1. Am trimis o cerere pentru acest post acum 15 zile, dar nc nu am primit niciun rspuns. 2. Muncitorii din producie au primit o mrire de salariu de 8%. 3. De cnd se face selecia candidailor pe calculator? 4. Acest program de calculator a fost special conceput pentru a satisface necesitile serviciului nostru de contabilitate. 5. Am studiat dreptul timp de trei ani iar n prezent m pregtesc pentru a obine o diplom de licen n conducerea ntreprinderii. 6. Noul director al oficiului de calcul a concediat luna aceasta mai mult personal dect predecesorul su n cinci ani. 7. Anul acesta firma noastr a instalat un sistem de supraveghere computerizat, ceea ce a provocat luna trecut declanarea unei greve n rndul muncitorilor. 8. Ai fost vreodat s vedei sucursalele noastre din provincie? 9. Stephen i-a terminat perioada de prob, dar mai are nc dreptul la un concediu de studii de 18 zile pe an. 10. Firma lui a dat faliment i el nu i+a gsit un alt post de contabil. VI. Case Study (Photocopiable Text John Allison, 2005. In Company Case Studies. Published by Macmillan Publishers Limited.) 1. In groups, discuss how mobile people are in your country is it difficult to move people to a new site several hundred kilometres away? Why / Why not? 2. Read the background information about Autoplastica. Why is Research and Development (R&D) so important? Why is Autoplasticas current R&D organisation unsatisfactory? Autoplastica was founded in 1952 in a garage in Biella, a small town in the hills of northern Italy. Today, the company has sixteen plants and 3,000 employees in nine countries and produces plastic parts for car manufacturers all over the world. Because the automobile sector is fast-moving, highly competitive and very technical, Autoplastica spends seven and a half per cent of its revenue on Research and Development. Autoplastica has a difficult decision to make. Currently its 400 Research and Development staff are divided between three teams on three different sites: Rome, the administrative headquarters Bari, the largest production site Biella, the oldest site, between Turin and Milan There are many advantages in centralising R&D but where? There are also significant disadvantages to consider.

3. Listen to a conversation between two Autoplastica engineers, and complete the notes in the table. The gaps are labelled in the order they occur in the conversation. Solution do nothing Advantages f. nobody will Disadvantages b. difficult to

c. spend a fortune . h. no space to. centralise R&D in Rome, d. save a lot of a. to upgrade and expand Bari or Biella m. concentrate .in the labs is one existing centre e. a lot of people will . n. quicker and easier than. build new R&D centre g. build .. like a crash some R&D staff will refuse test lab, a paint shop, a pre- to move production line j. will cost . i. and a new .. ! k. will take to o. good international build .. q. just think about the .. p. give us a lot and all the . with our customers

l. spend the money on ..

ITALY 4. Work in groups of four. You are going to take part in a meeting to decide which solution to choose. Each take a role: A, B, C or D. A. Head of R&D, Bari (31 years with Autoplastica) You are completely hostile to the idea of centralisation. The present system works perfectly well, why change it? You are worried that you could lose your job if R&Deadline: is centralised. Although you are the most experienced head of R&D, your age could be a problem. You have a nice house by the sea near Bari, your teenage children go to a good school and your partner works for the town council. You cannot imagine moving away from Bari and you are sure most of your best engineers will have the same reaction. C. Head of R&D, Biella (15 years with Autoplastica) You believe that centralisation is essential for the future of the company. You are strongly in favour of a new purpose-built R&D facility and you think you have a good chance of becoming the director of the new centre. You have a house in Biella, B. Head of R&D, Rome (3 years with Autoplastica) You are prepared to move, but only to a major city you like city life and you hate the country. You are not married and its easier to meet people in a big city. You are younger and have less experience than the other heads of R&D you are worried that you will have less influence in a centralised organisation. However, if the other heads of R&D leave the company, it could be an opportunity for promotion for you.

D. International Director of R&D (2 years with Autoplastica) Centralising R&D is your top priority. It is your job to chair the meeting and to make sure that everyone understands all the arguments and expresses their opinions. Above all, you want to obtain agreement between your three heads of R&D on how

but you are getting divorced so you want to move. Your new partner lives near Milan, so you would like the new site to be there. You believe it will be easier to recruit good young engineers in the industrial north than in Bari or Rome. However, if you are the new centre director, you are ready to negotiate.

and where to centralise. Your office is in Rome. You will need to visit the new centre frequently, so good communications and easy access are essential for you, but it is important that you appear completely objective. You have not yet decided who will be the new centre director.

5. With a similar choice to make, the French company Plastic Omnium decided to build a new 20 million-euro R&D centre on a green-field site close to Lyon airport. Read the article. Do you think the company made the right decision? In 2002, Plastic Omnium opened Sigmatech, its new international research and development centre near Lyon. The 15,000-square-metre, 20 million-euro site houses engineering and design offices as well as state of-the-art laboratories. Sigmatech is located on a Greenfield site close to Lyons international airport and high-speed train station, just a few miles from Frances densest motorway network. R&D teams moved from Oyonnax, Langres and Levallois to the new site, which offers 450 staff and their families easy access to Frances second city as well as excellent quality of life in the surrounding countryside.