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1.The Managing Director and a team of senior executives

2.An industrial psychologist, who has carried out a number of tests.

The candidates have also had lunch with the interviewing team and the industrial psychologist. The wife of Bernard Wheeler was present at the lunch.

Below are the candidates’ curricula vitae, extracts from the psychologist’s reports and the interviewing team’s notes.

Extract from psychologist’s report on Jim Collier

Mr Collier is a man of very high intelligence. He is creative, imaginative, and very good at problem-solving. When put under pressure, he kept cool and showed a sense of humor. Although he appears to be calm and cheerful, he is an emotional person. He is deeply dissatisfied with his personal life. He is still upset and shaken by the breakdown of his marriage to his English wife. Note: during interview it came out that he had been expelled from the schools for indiscipline.

Extract from interviewing team’s notes on Jim Collier

Super-confident – at times almost aggressive; extremely ambitious – wants to have own car-manufacturing company one day; frank and outspoken in opinions; believes that “winning is the only thing that matters in life”; seemed to be a relaxed, calm personality; but admitted he could “blow his top” if people didn’t do their job properly; in a letter of reference, a previous employer suggested he was “charming, but

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could be very moody when he didn’t get what he wanted – not an easy person to work with”.

Extract from psychologist’s report on Bernard Wheeler

Mr Wheeler has above-average intelligence. He is a logical person with good powers of reasoning. He has planned his life carefully and knows where he is going. He is not particularly creative. When put under pressure, he became ill-at-ease and finally lost his temper. He is devoted to his family. As he says, “They come before everything”. He is serious, with no apparent sense of humor. Perhaps this is because he was an only child, and his parents separated when he was young.

Extract from interviewing team’s notes on Bernard Wheeler

…gave long, thoughtful replies; knew a great deal about Victor – well-prepared for interview; a patient man, polite but didn’t take to him very much – not particularly likable, but showed strength of character; wishes to leave Volkswagen because of personality clash with his Works Manager; when questioned on this he said, “I prefer not to discuss the matter”; main ambition: to become a company director; in letters of reference, described as “efficient”, “dependable” and “self-reliant”.

Note: At the lunch, his wife didn’t shine – nervous, unsure of herself and of limited conversation.

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Instructions

Working in groups of two or three, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the two candidates. Decide who should be offered the position, noting the reasons for your choice. Compare your decision with that of the other groups.

Unit 2 Company structure

Words to remember:

to launch ( to start, to found, to set up) a company – создать (основать) компанию a sole ownership – предприятие, принадлежащее одному человеку

to own a company – владеть компанией

the staff numbers….. – штат насчитывает …….

to be liable to (for) – нести ответственность перед (за) liability – ответственность

personal assets – личное имущество sleeping partner – пассивный партнёр

The company is insolvent. – Компания неплатёжеспособна. to make losses ( to carry losses) – нести убытки (потери) revenue (income) – доход

to join the company – вступить (присоединиться) division – подразделение

engineering department – конструкторско-технический отдел; конструкторское бюро; отдел инженерного проектирования

packing department – отдел фасовки и упаковки purchasing department – отдел закупок (снабжения) supply department – отдел снабжения

quality control department – отдел управления качеством accounting (account) department – бухгалтерия

law (legal) department – юридический отдел patent department – патентный отдел

research and development department – отдел исследований и разработок sales department – отдел сбыта

technical support department – отдел технического обеспечения

He is the head / at the head of the department. – Он глава компании. He is in charge of the department – Он отвечает за отдел.

He reports to (is accountable to)… – Он отчитывается перед ….. a project manager – руководитель проекта

a product manager – менеджер, отвечающий за выпуск отдельного вида товаров

to operate – работать, руководить

to carry out research – проводить исследования to draw up a contract – составлять контракт product range – ассортимент товаров

welfare of employees – благосостояние to process data – обрабатывать данные

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to deliver goods – доставлять товары

sales representative – торговый представитель

to provide customers with – обеспечивать потребителей to keep a record – вести учёт

to persuade – убеждать

to handle – обрабатывать; регулировать; управлять to maintain standard – поддерживать (обеспечивать) to promote goods – продвигать товары

promotion – продвижение; поощрение; содействие (развитию) business savvy – деловая смекалка

to give authority (power) – наделять полномочием (властью)

Starting up

1. Read the three descriptions of company structures. Answer the questions.

Sole trader

One person sets up and runs the company. The person provides all the capital and has unlimited liability for business debts, even if it means selling personal assets.

Limited company

In a Limited company (US-Corporation), the capital is divided into shares, which are held by shareholders. Shareholders have limited liability, but they can vote at the Annual General Meeting to elect the Board of Directors. There are two types of Limited company:

1.in a private limited company, all shareholders must agree before any shares can be bought or sold.

2.in a public limited company, shares are bought and sold freely, for example on the stock exchange.

Partnership

A group of people provide the capital, set up the company and manage it together. There are two types of partnership:

Partners in an unlimited partnership are like sole traders – if the business fails they are fully liable for all debts, and may even have to sell personal assets.

In a limited partnership there can be sleeping partners who do not participate in the management of the company. Sleeping partners have limited liability – in the event of bankruptcy, they only lose their investment, not their personal assets.

1.What are most people’s main personal assets?

2.How can a sole trader get a capital to set up a business? Think of five methods.

3.If a limited company has 5000 shares and each share is worth $2.50, what is the capital of the company?

4.What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a sleeping partner?

5.What is the difference between a sleeping partner and a shareholder?

6.If a private limited company goes bankrupt, do the shareholders lose their personal assets? Why?

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7.What must you do to sell your shares in a private limited company?

8.What are the advantages of a public limited company? Think of three.

Reading

1. Read the text about different ways of organizing companies, and then give the definitions of:

line structure matrix structure functional structure staff structure

Most organizations have a hierarchical or pyramidal structure, with one person or a group of people at the top, and an increasing number of people below them at each successive level. There is a clear line or chain of command running down the pyramid. All the people in the organization know what decisions they are able to make, who their superior (or boss) is (who they report to), and who their immediate subordinates are (who they can give instructions to).

Some people in an organization have colleagues who help them: for example, there might be an Assistant to the Marketing Manager. This is known as a staff position: its holder has no line authority, and is not integrated into the chain of command, unlike, for example, the Assistant Marketing Manager, who is number two in the marketing department.

Yet the activities of most companies are too complicated to be organized in a single hierarchy. Shortly before the first world war, the French industrialist Henry Fayol organized his coal-mining business according to the functions that it had to carry out. He is generally credited with inventing functional organization. Today, most large manufacturing organizations have a functional structure, including (among others) production, finance, marketing, sales, and personnel or staff departments. This means, for example, that the production and marketing departments cannot take financial decisions without consulting the finance department.

Functional organization is efficient, but there are two standard criticisms. Firstly, people are usually more concerned with the success of their department than that of the company, so there are permanent battles between, for example, finance and marketing, or marketing and production, which have incompatible goals. Secondly, separating functions is unlikely to encourage innovation.

Yet for a large organization manufacturing a range of products, having a single production department is generally inefficient. Consequently, most large companies are decentralized, following the modal of Alfred Sloan, who divided General Motors into separate operating divisions in 1920. Each division had its own engineering, production and sales departments, made a different category of car (but with some overlap (coвпадение) to encourage internal competition), and was expected to make a profit.

Business that cannot be divided into autonomous divisions with their own markets can simulate decentralization, setting up divisions that deal with each other using internally determined transfer prices. Many banks, for example, have established commercial, corporate, private banking, international and investment divisions.

An inherent problem of hierarchies is that people at lower levels are unable to make important decisions, but have to pass on responsibility to their boss. One solution to this is matrix management, in which people report to more than one superior. For