Chief executives join club class

It’s lonely at the top but chief executives can now meet each other and continue their professional development at a lab specially designed for their needs.

The club, in London, is a British offshoot of the Association for Progress in Management, an organization which has ISO clubs around Prance. The London Club, which opened in 1995 and has 15 members, is chaired by James Watson, who until recently chaired the Institute of Management.

There are plans to set up similar clubs in the North-West, the Midlands, East Anglia and Bath/Bristol. A second club may be established in London, plus one for French ex-pats.

Members (no two are in competing businesses) pay £2,500 a year for 10 half-day meetings, each of which is led by an expert and examines a topic in depth.

Recent meetings have examined media power and ways to assess the board’s non-financial competence. In October members will look at company loyalty.

Plenty of pay without perks

Only 40 per cent of UK companies recognize the term “flexible benefits”, while just 12 per cent have either implemented or are intending to implement a flexible benefits scheme, according to KPMG, the consultants.

A total of 252 telephone interviews were carried out with financial/managing directors of companies with a minimum turnover of film.

Pensions, private medical insurance, professional education and training, company car, additional holiday and life insurance were the most common elements of existing programs. The most common reason given for rejecting flexible benefits was “our pay schemes are sufficient.”

Sarah Kling, tax partner, human resource solutions group, says companies “can no longer afford to compete for high-calibre staff on the basis of salary alone – the whole remuneration package is becoming increasingly vital.”

Boardroom briefings

The Institute of Management, in conjunction with local Training and Enterprise Councils and Business Links, is launching a series of autumn seminars on best management practice. Subjects to be covered include developing creativity, gaining competitive advantage, and dealing with stress in the workplace.

The “boardroom briefings” will be held in London, Cambridge, Leicester and Dudley, among other venues, from late September until December.

Glitches that swallow up time

Three weeks of working time can be lost by every employee who uses a personal computer each year as a result of problems with the technology on their desks, according to a survey published by SCO, the software company, and Harris Research.

The survey was carried out among 400 users of personal computers in medium and large companies in Europe. The lost time included problems in implementing new systems and PC or network malfunction. According to European Communication Survey European countries are falling behind the rest of the world in the process of adaptation to computer and communications technology. As for Ireland more detailed figures were obtained from Forfas.

Ø 3) Read the text and put the statements from it in the proper order:

a)each of club meetings is led by an expert who examines a topic in depth,

b)a series of autumn seminars on best management practice is being launched,

c)companies can no longer compete for high-caliber staff only on the basis of salary,

d)the lost time was due to problems of implementing new systems and PC or network malfunction,

e)among other subjects to be covered will be dealing with stress on workplace,

f)there are plans to set up chief executive clubs practically all over England,

g)users of PC lose three weeks of working time every year as a result of problems with the technology.

UNIT 5

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

5.1 THE TERM “PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION”

Ø 1) What do you know about the profession of a civil servant? What adjectives can you use to describe this profession?

Ø 2) Check the pronunciation of these words in a dictionary: a feature, central, an employee, executive, honorable, judiciary, scientific, technical, provincial, a career, legal, censure, a superior, a hierarchy, a privilege.

Ø 3) Be careful with the translation of these words: public administration, the policies of governments, government operations, the body of public administrators, the home civil service, a state, a nation, public corporations, to have qualifications a technical field, the acts of administration.

Ø 4) Study the words and expressions from the text and give examples with them: problematic relationships, highly trained specialists, to work full time, senior posts, by custom, pyramid-fashion hierarchical lines, well-defined duties.

The term “public administration” means determining the policies and programs of governments and their implementation. Specifically, it means the planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling of government operations.

Public administration is a feature of all nations, whatever their system of government is. Public administration is practiced at the central, intermediate, and local levels. The relationships between different levels of government within a nation are often problematic.

The employees in public administration are mostly highly trained specialists of administrative, executive, or directive levels. The body of public administrators is usually called “the civil service.” It is very honorable to have such a responsible and a valued profession nowadays.

Traditionally the civil service is contrasted with the military, the judiciary, and the police services which also work for the state full time. There are scientific or professional civil services which provide technical rather than general administrative support. There is the home civil service and the employees engaged abroad on diplomatic duties. To sum up, a civil servant is a person who is directly employed in the administration of the internal affairs of the state and whose role and status are not political, ministerial, military, or constabulary.

In most countries the civil service does not include local government or public corporations, for example in the United Kingdom. In some countries, for example in the United States, it is different. Some provincial staffs are civil servants because provincial administration is part of the central government there.

In some countries it is necessary to have qualifications in technical fields such as accounting, economics, medicine, and engineering to enter a career in the higher civil service. In other countries legal training is necessary, and in others no specific technical or academic discipline is required among candidates for senior posts. Whatever their qualifications, senior civil servants should use their experience of public affairs to advise, warn, and assist those responsible for state policy and to provide the organization for implementing it.

The responsibility for policy decisions lies with the political members of the executive branch. By custom, civil servants are protected from public blame or censure for their advice. The acts of their administration may, however, be subject to special judicial controls from which no member of the executive can defend them.

Civil services are organized upon standard pyramid-fashion hierarchical lines. This command implies obedience to the lawful orders of a superior. In order to support this system, the hierarchy of offices is marked by fixed positions with well-defined duties, specific powers, salaries, and privileges.

Ø 5) Answer the questions on the text:

a)What does the term “public administration” mean?

b)At what levels is public administration practiced?

c)What does the term “civil service” mean?

d)How can civil service be classified?

e)Is the classification of civil service the same in all countries?

f)What qualifications are necessary for civil servants?

g)What is the role of civil service in a country?

h)Are civil servants responsible for policy decisions?

i)What are the distinguished features of civil service?

j)What are the advantages and the disadvantages of being a civil servant?