ECONOMIC ENGLISH FOR UPPER INTERMEDIATE

UNIT 6 ARE YOU READY TO BECOME

A MANAGER ?

OBJECTIVES:
• become aware of their managerial abilities and skills
• understand what are the skills and abilities that should be improved
• become aquainted with the managerial tasks
• improve specific vocabulary and notions
• past tense, past perfect tense simple and continuous

I Answer the questions before reading the text:

1. Are you familiarised with the job of a manager?
2. Can anybody become a manager?
3. Write down some features that you consider necessary for an efficient manager
apart from the professional ones.

The best specialists do not always make the best managers. Indeed, a move up,
often means going from competence to incompetence. Although in some ways, a
specialist is capable of becoming a manager, because of strong analitycal skills, other
factors make the move difficult. Following are some of the most important matters
you should consider:
Potential and promovability
Do you have the capacity and ability to learn the skills? Training and special
courses will help. But it is more important for you to establish a good record as a
specialist. Management will look first at what you have done to see if you have been
a "winner". "Has this person been in tough situations and if so, how did he handle
them?"
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Assessment
Learn what your superior thinks, what are your strong points and weak points.
How is each affecting your work performance? Are you a responsible person ?
If you accept responsibility, other people will more readily look to you for
leadership? Being responsible means being accountable and answerable.
Motivation
Money isn't the key motivator for many managers. If you decide you want to
be a manager for status or money, you may fail. Good managers are motivated
by the challenge to organize and run jobs. They feel a sense of
accomplishment when they can get others to do as much or more than they
could do by themselves. They also believe in change. They want to see
progress. They feel unconfortable if problems are not tackled. They do not feel
at ease if they must go along with conditions as they are. Good managers also
have missions. They know their purpose in life.
Career
The more difficult it is for you to plan your career, the more you need to learn
about youself. You need to decide what you want out of life. Your move to a
managerial position will involve your whole family. It can mean a drastic
change in your life style. You will probably give up some of your old friends -
certainly you will be making new ones. You may have to work long hours,
either at the office or at home. Your take-home pay may not increase
significantly at first, yet you may feel it necessary to raise your standard of
life. You must force youself to consider your career and then see what your
next step should be.
Attitude
How you really feel toward management in general should be considered. You
must agree with all the basic goals of management to the extent of seeing the
position as "we" function rather than "they" one, as the manager is responsible
for all the work in the department, and he cannot solely place the blame for the
poor performance on an individual.
Managers must also be willing to acknowledge that they are not perfect and
that they make mistakes. Thus, they avoid conflicting, defensive reactions of
the subordinates.
The best managers have a positive attitude. They are positive about what they
want and what they expect from the others.
Self awareness
Are you aware of the difference between assertiveness and agressiveness? Do
you know when and how to be assertive? A manager who is properly assertive
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can make things happen, handle difficult human relations problems, get ideas
across and provide the leadership that will result in achieving organisational
goals.

Interest in subordinates
A mature manager creates an environment in which his subordinates develop
fully. Such a manager is aware that subordinates' problems, both on and off the
job, that affect their performance. So their problemns are his or her problems
too.
Leadership
Management by leadership is the style the most sought after by every
company. This type of manager is sensitive to the feelings of others and
participates with subordinates in discussions leading to department decissions.
Good leadership is not just giving orders. But, efective managers facilitate the
accomplishments of their subordinates. That is true leadership.
Communication
Listening is more than just hearing. In addition, managers must help their
people to do a better job by listening, as it requires an active use of the ears,
eyes and mind. By building trust and iproving two-way communications,
managers are able to get problems out in the open and provide guidance to
solving them.

II. Is It True or False?

1. The best specialists always make the best managers.

T F
2. Training and special courses will help in making a good manager
T F
3. Being responsible means knowing what are your weak and strong points.
T F
4. Good managers are always motivated by money.
T F
5. The more you know about yourself, the easier to plan your career.
T F
6. Positive managerial attitude means "we position" rather than "they position".
T F
7. An agressive manager can make things move and provide the leadership that
will achieve organisational goals.
T F
8. Subordinate problems are their manager's problems too.
T F
9. Management means leadership
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T F
10. Learning means an active use of the ears, eyes and mind.
T F

About Getting One's Self Organised

III. Find a title for each paragraph and summarise the main ideas. an you add some
other items on how to get yourself organised?
...............................................……………………………………………
Organised people save time and money, make more money, and have lower
stress and frustration level. There is no right or no wrong way to get organised,
and you only need to change what you are doing if you are not happy with how
you manage your time, paper, information and space. The amount of
information continues to grow at a rapid pace, as do the number of demands on
your time. Organizing systems help you deal with everything from your paper
to your professional responsibilities, and they give you parameters on what
you keep, what to toss, and what to act on.
......................................…………………………………………………
Experts in the organizing industry agree that there are no cookie-cutter
solutions. There are many different personality types, work styles, and
environmental influences, so you must find the systems that work best for you.
.............................................……………………………………………
Organizing is a process you cannot achieve in one day. Setting up an
organizing system may be done in a few days, and then you will continuously
maintain it and work on it, one day at a time, in reaction to the world around
you. Change becomes easier, then.
...................................……………………………………………………
The best you can do is make decisions about the priorities in your life, have
your sights set on your personal activities to reach these goals. Is what you are
spending time on helping you to accomplish what you want with your life? If
the answer is no, why are you doing it?
...................................…………………………………………………….
There are several ways: regularly tossing unnecessary papers, scanning
documents and storing them electronically, eliminating subscriptions to unread
publications, and have yourself removed from mailing lists. Sincerely question
whether you need to keep each piece of paper that comes into your life. has it
served its purpose ? Does someone else have it? If needed it again, could you
get it from another source, such as the library or the Internet ?

IV.Listen to the cassette and complete the ideas:

 ECONOMIC ENGLISH FOR UPPER INTERMEDIATE

1. As the great Benjamin Franklin said, "time lost is.................................................

2. Time management is a set of relatet common-sense skills their help people
use thur time in....................

3. Keeping an activity log for several days can................................................

4. Meetings should not be held just for the sake of meeting,
only...................................
5. A lot of time is wasted waiting for others or depending on them. Always
confirm appointment and don't arrive more than 5 minutes before. If people keep you
waiting more than 15 minutes, they .....................................................
6. If you travel by plane or by train, do you use that time properly? It might be worth
.....................................................
7. If one carries out tasks that benefit neither him nor are goal-effective, they might
..................
8. The trick of creating time is ...................
By waking up one hour early every day, you can gain 10 workweeks per year.
9. Remember the two-minute rule: if you are confronted with a task that
....................................
10. If you have many places to go, try to schedule all your errands in the same day of
the week. Think of your itinerary before you leave so...................

V. Write a sincere report about your daily program. Would you suggest any
improvements? Why? Why not?

VI. Indicate what activity had been completed and what activity had been continuing
at that time:
1. By the time Helen (reach) the store, she (forget) what she wanted to buy.
2. The balance sheet (be) ready because the accountanant (be ) ill for five days.
3. By the end of the last year they (record) all the financial transactions of the
business.
4. We (wait) for an administrator appointed by the court for more than a
month, but there was still no sign of him.
5. The seeting of the board (go) on when I (decide) to get in.
6. They (treat) the contract as being valid by the time they (sell) goods under it.
7. They already (operate) the allowance from the invoice for early delivery
before the supply company (ship) the goods.
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8. When they (draft) the annual report of the company, the shareholders (be
acquainted) already with its details.
9. The secretary (ante-date) the document before she (send) it.
10. They (auction) the piece of art after it (be evaluated) by a specialist.

VII. Put the verbs in brakets in the right form of the Past Tense or Past tense
Continuous:

1. Adam Smith (1723-8o)... the concept of working capital (introduce).

2. He...the origins of wealth creation ... the benefits of free trade.(explain/advocate)
3. He... the economic relationship between the classes: workers, who... their living by
wage labour; capitalists who ... income from profits and landlords whose income ...
from rent.(analyse / earn / derive / derive)
4. Supply and demand in each class ... prices, (determine).
5. The "Marginalists" of the late 19th century ... value against scarcity alone, this
remaining the basis of neoclassical school (define)
6. He always... his agent the commission in time.(pay).
7. Last century these copmpanies ... soft commodities, such as grain, cofee, cocoa,
wool, cotton, jute, rubber on comodity markets.(trade)
8. When we began the meeting the accountants still ... the loss. (calculate)
9. When I called, the new board members .... to setting out the new priorities.(work)
10 When he arrived, I... to debug the program of my PC.(try)

VIII. Rearrange the texts in a logical order. What will be your criteria? Find an
appropriate title for the text:

a) Within the life span of today's old-timers, our society has become a "society of
organizations" In this century, the major social tasks have come to be performed
in and through an organized institution - business enterprises, large and small;
school systems; colleges and universities; hospitals; research laboratories;
governments.
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b) Management may be the most important innovation of this century - and the one
the most directly affecting the young educated people in colleges and universities
who will be tomorrow's "knowledge workers" in managed institutions, and their
managers the day after tomorrow.

c) Of course many a large and complex business enterprise started from a one-man
shop. But beyond the first steps growth soon entails more than a change in size.
At some point (and long before the business becomes even 'fair-sized' ) quantity
turns into quality. At this point "owners" no longer run their own business even
if they are the sole proprietors. They are then in charge of a business enterprise -
and if they do not rapidly become managers they will soon cease to be the
owners and be replaced, or the business will go under and disapear.

d) The roots of the disciplines of management go back 15o years. But management
as a function, management as a distinct work, management as a discipline and
area of study - these are all products of this century.

IX. Translate into English:

A.
Oamenii pot fi imediat şi uşor cântăriţi de îndată ce consimt să intre pe tărâmul
dificultăţilor.(H.Balzac)
Când îţi alegi personalul, fă în aşa fel încât firma să nu depindă de o singură
persoană, cu atât mai puţin de tine însuţi. (Paul Hawken - Cum să dezvolţi o
afacere, edit. Şt şi Tehn, 1995)
Când intri în afaceri te bucuri de o simpatie pe care poţi să o păstrezi tot
timpul; dacă începutul îţi este cartacterizat de calitate şi adevar, nu va trebui să
te opreşti, căci nu va fi nevoie. Dar, după ce ai început să nu le mai spui
clienţilor adevărul, sau dacă nu ai facut-o de la inceput, vei constata cât este de
dificil să te relansezi în afaceri (Paul Hawken)

B.
În Grecia de acum 25 de secole, afacerile băneşti se dovedeau deosebit de
rentabile datorită practicării unor dobânzi excesive. Costul banilor se stabilea
prin înţelegerea părţilor, de fapt, după cum impuneau cămătarii. Nici legile lui
Solon nu au domolit principiul dobânzilor libere, fără plafon. Din documentele
rămase rezultă că un cămatar socotit moderat, percepea la împrumuturi de o zi
venituri de peste 6o% pe an.
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Templele din Grecia s-au ocupat timp de secole de afaceri băneşti, dobândind
o considerabilă capacitate financiară. Când Solon a căpătat puteri spre a
reforma statul,

pretutindeni se întindeau borne marcând drepturile de ipotecă ale aristocraţilor

creditori asupra pământurilor micilor proprietari ajunşi datornici. Pentru
neplata obligaţiunilor, tot mai mulţi ajungeau sclavi sau luau calea pribegiei iar
pământul şi puterea se concentrau in mâna câtorva imbogăţiţi. Solon îngăduie
împrumutul şi dobânda, însă este desfiinţat sclavajul pentru datorii.