Try to guess the meaning of the highlighted words or phrases from the text.

Discuss these questions.

1. Are you ambitious? Why or why not?

2. Do you have a career plan? Where do you want to be in 10 years’ time?

3. Which of the following would you prefer to do?

a) work one company during your career

b) work for several different companies

c) work yourself

What qualities and skills should a good manager have? Choose the six most important from the list. To be a good manager you need to:

1. like people

2. enjoy working with others

3. give orders

4. listen to others

5. make suggestions

6. judge people’s abilities

7. plan ahead

8. be good with numbers

9. make good presentations

10. persuasive

Which of the following areas would you like to work in? Why?

1.Sales and marketing 2.Finance 3.Management 4.Production 5.Administration

Which of these companies would you like to work for? Why?

1. a family owned company 2. a multinational company 3. your own company

Writing

The phrases below all include the word career. Match them to their correct meanings. Use a good dictionary to help you.

1. career ladder a) something you do in order to progress in your job

2. career break b) ideas you have for your future career

3. career move c) period of time away from your job to, for example,

look after children.

4. career plan d) chances to start/improve your career

5. career opportunities e) series of levels that lead to better and better jobs

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 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 collegues clearly

5. delegate e) with problems quickly

6. communicate f) in regular training courses for employees

7. invest g) to all suggestions from staff

C. Match each job with its description.

1. An accountant a) supplies information about a company to the public.

2. The CEO (chief executive officer) b) keeps and checks the financial records of a company.

3. A computer programmer c) studies business operations and uses a computer to plan changes.

4. A systems analyst d) writes instructions for computers to do certain tasks.

5. A PR officer e) helps a manager by doing some of their work for them.

6. A PA (personal assistant) f) is the most senior manager in a company.

Reading

Read and translate the text.

The international manager

In recent years, many companies have expanded globally. They have done this through mergers, joint ventures and co-operation with foreign companies. Because of this globalization trend, many more employees are working abroad in managerial positions or as part of a multinational team.

Although it is common nowadays for staff to work abroad to gain experience, many people have difficulty adapting to the new culture. The failure fate in the US multinationals is estimated to be as high as 30% and it costs US business $3 billion a year.

Two typical failures have been described in the journal Management Today. The first example concerns a German manager with IBM who took up a position as product manager in England. He found that at most lunchtimes and especially on Fridays, many members of staff went to the pub. “I stopped that right away”, he says. “Now they are not allowed off the premises. It didn’t make me very popular at the time but it is not good for efficiency. There is no way we would do that in Germany. No way”.

The second example is about American manager who came to France on a management assignment. He was unable to win the trust of his staff although he tried all kinds of ways to do so. He set clear goals, worked longer hours than everybody, participated in all the projects, visited people’s offices and even took employees out to lunch one by one. But nothing seemed to work. This was because the staff believed strongly that the management were trying to exploit them.

The German manager’s mistake was that he hadn’t foreseen cultural differences. IBM had a firm rule about drinking during working hours. It was not allowed. He didn’t understand that staff in other countries might be more flexible in applying the rule.

The American manager used the ways he was familiar with to gain the staff’s trust. To them he seemed more interested in getting the job done than in developing personal relationships.

When managers work in foreign countries, they may find it difficult to understand the behaviour of their employees. Moreover, they may find that the techniques which worked at home are not effective in their new workplace.

From Manager Areas Cultures by Schneider and Barsoux