The business intermediate решебник
1 Corporate culture
1.1 About business Work culture and placements
1 It depends on company culture. New employees need to try to work out quickly what is expected in each of the three situations and to adjust to the company culture as soon as they can. To start off though, it’s probably safest to dress smartly, not be the first or the last to leave the office, maybe make one or two contributions to a meeting, but more importantly to listen and learn at first.
1 The experiment demonstrated how an unwritten rule is created.
2 Seven examples of unwritten rules:
- nobody should ever climb the ladder
- working long hours is more important than achieving results
- the boss is always right, even when he’s wrong
- if you’re not at your desk, you’re not working
- nobody complains, because nothing changes
- women, ethnic minorities and the over 50s are not promoted
- the customer is king, but don’t tell anyone, because management are more interested in profitability.
3 New staff quickly learn when their ideas and opinions are listened to and valued, and when it’s better to keep them to themselves; which assignments and aspects of their performance will be checked and evaluated, and whose objectives and instructions they can safely ignore. They learn from the way staff speak to management, to customers and to each other, and from the differences between what is said, decided or promised, and what actually gets done.
1 Organizations and companies can try to avoid negative unwritten rules by respecting commitments, giving and listening to feedback, defining and applying clear procedures, providing training to develop a positive work culture.
2 A government department:
Office etiquette: formal dress code, strict office hours, inflexible, subject to security constraints
Relationships with colleagues, management and clients / business partners: hierarchical and formalized
Autonomy and initiative: limited, strict procedures for everything A small public relations firm:
Office etiquette: probably very informal, relaxed, flexible, resultsorientated rather than time-conscious
Relationships with colleagues, management and clients / business partners: friendly and participative, little or no visible hierarchy Autonomy and initiative: wide, but must be justified
A manufacturing company:
Answers will depend on national and corporate culture.
3 Answers will vary.
1 Alessandra was not accepted by her colleagues. David upset an intern.
2 Alessandra misunderstood the (unwritten) office rules on working hours. David assumed Monica would know to inform him she had a dentist’s appointment, but she didn’t; Monica misinterpreted David’s friendliness as changing the supervisor–intern relationship.
Alessandra’s story: didn’t ask about / was not sensitive to unwritten rules; didn’t talk to colleagues
David’s story: took friendly culture at face value; didn’t accept criticism; didn’t learn from the problem
Alessandra’s story: didn’t tell student about unwritten rules; gave student too much autonomy; didn’t make sure student met colleagues
David’s story: didn’t explain local work culture; didn’t keep enough distance from intern; didn’t understand the intern’s confusion
6 Answers will vary.
1.2 Vocabulary Work organization and responsibility
1 foreman, supervisor, project leader, line manager, director (by hierarchical status)
2 section, department, office, branch, unit, subsidiary, division, company (by size)
3 task, job, assignment, project (by importance)
David Darren = COO
Administration: Monica Overstreet is Office Manager + two accountants Marketing and Sales : Bertram Newman = Marketing and Sales Manager = one art director, one PR officer and two salesmen
R&D : Douglas Pearson = R&D Manager + seven research scientists Engineering : Herb Munroe = Program Manager + two software engineers and one technical writer
IT and Technical Support : Roxane Pawle = IT Manager + one web developer and two support engineers
1 Because Warndar is a small company.
2 Because Warndar is growing fast, so it’s going to change as they hire new staff.
3 Because right now they don’t have an HR department as such.
4 The COO runs the business on a day-to-day basis. The CEO deals with strategy and she’s on the board of the parent company.
5 Irysis is Warndar’s parent company. They took Warndar over a couple of years ago.
6 He resigned when he was appointed Head of IT at a big consultancy firm but was fired after three months.
7 Research and Development, Engineering, and Marketing and Sales.
8 Doug Pearson coordinates development programmes; he liaises with Marketing and Engineering.
1.3 Grammar Past tenses and advice structures
was beginning / had begun
Strong recommendations: 1, 4, 7, 9, 12
Careful or friendly suggestions: 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11
1 The CEO did very well for himself. The CEO gave a party.
2 The CEO challenged his team. He showed the executives the pool.
3 There was a loud splash. Everyone followed the CEO to the barbecue.
4 The CFO swam for his life. Everyone arrived back at the pool.
5 The CFO reached the edge. The crocodiles tried to catch him.
6 A crocodile tried to bite the CFO. The CFO climbed out of the pool.
1 had done; was proudly showing
3 had just started; was
4 turned around; ran back; was swimming
5 had almost caught; reached
6 had / ‘d just managed; heard
(7 h) and 10 i) are also possible)
1.4 Speaking Meetings – one-to-one
Answers depend on local and work cultures. Suggested answers:
1 In most English-speaking cultures, this is the norm, with the notable exception of Africa, where superiors, and frequently peers, are addressed by their surname. Use of the first name is also unusual in much of Asia, and in Germany.
2 Some cultures, like France, make a clear distinction between business and personal life. Others, like the Swedish furniture company Ikea, organize regular social events, where all levels of staff are expected to mix freely.
3 In most Latin cultures, managers will expect subordinates to perform tasks like making coffee. Some staff in Nordic cultures may be shocked and even insulted by such a request.
4 This usually depends more on the type of work involved than on local or work culture. Personal calls for staff in production may be very unwelcome, whereas in departments like sales or marketing, where work organization is more flexible, there is usually no particular problem.
5 This is the case in many English-speaking and Nordic cultures, especially in the USA. In Latin and Asian countries, the opposite is often true, with a certain kudos or even machismo associated with working late.
6 This probably depends on the organization as much as on the culture: in large scientific meetings, for example, the majority of attendees will not be expected to speak.
7 Some organizations welcome and even encourage junior staff to suggest improvements; this is usually less well accepted in smaller companies, where the management feel more personally involved and responsible for the way things are done.
8 Some companies have a policy of not hiring couples and will more or less actively dissuade staff from entering romantic relationships. Other companies accept that relationships will occur, but when they do, will move the partners to separate parts of the organization. In extreme cases, one member of the couple may be asked to resign.
Version 1: impatient, firm, authoritative, threatening, frank and possibly objective and dogmatic
Version 2: objective, a good listener, diplomatic, friendly, understanding, insincere and possibly weak
In Version 1, Simon’s language is direct, with short, simple sentences; in Version 2, it is diplomatic, with longer, more complex phrases.
1 You mustn’t talk about your colleagues like that.
2 Yes, but she had a good reason to refuse.
3 You won’t get results from people like Maureen if you’re rude.
4 You apologize, or there’ll be trouble.
1 I think perhaps you should be more careful about how you talk about your colleagues.
2 You might want to think about why she couldn’t help you.
3 Don’t you think you might get better results from people like Maureen by being a little more diplomatic?
4 Why don’t you ask Maureen to have a coffee with you, and just clear the air?
Modals would, could and might:
You might want to …
Wouldn’t you agree that …?
You could maybe …
Wouldn’t it be better to …?
You’d do better to …
I think perhaps …
It seems to me that …
Actually, I think …
You could maybe …
Wouldn’t you agree that …?
Wouldn’t it be better to …?
1 Wouldn’t it be better not to disturb your co-workers?
2 It seems to me that you need to prioritize if you want to meet deadlines.
3 You might want to delegate more if you want to finish the job.
4 I think perhaps you shouldn’t eat at your desk.
5 You’d do better not to make personal calls at work.
6 Actually, I think if you ignore your colleagues, you can’t expect them to help.
7 Wouldn’t you agree that you should take care of your life-work balance if you don’t want to get ill?
1 I hear you had a prob lem.
2 Per haps you should be more care ful.
3 You ought to do the same .
4 I ap pre ciate that you work hard .
5 I didn’t mean to be rude .
6 It can hap pen to an yone
1.5 Writing A placement report
It will contain information about his work experience, colleagues and managers, the company, the department(s) he worked in and what he learned while he was at the company. It will be written in a formal style.
3 Observations about the company
4 Professional achievements
2 Experience from work placement
2 Analysis of successes and failures
1 Objectives of the internship
2 Details of your responsibilities
4 Analysis of what you learned
3 Evaluation of the company as a potential employer
4 Suggestions for the future
1 Description of the company and how it is organized 1 Practical details about the placement
3 Description of the company’s culture and policies
1 under the supervision of Mr Geoffrey Thomson
2 customers were contacted by telephone
3 it became clear that
4 The order of the items was therefore modified …
5 To obtain a similar result through media campaigns would cost millions.
6 most impressive
7 was a major challenge.
8 Fortunately, I was able to apply the knowledge I had acquired in marketing in year two of my degree …
9 the results of my study were extremely well received
- three months near Birmingham at a place called Diftco – they export construction equipment
- It was all right
- a bit crazy there – people worked really hard, sometimes from eight in the morning to nine or ten in the evening
- in charge of preparing shipping documents
- did international trade last semester – it helped a lot to understand what was going on
- Boss was very strict. But, OK – she didn’t scream at me when I did something wrong.
- once sent a container to Austria instead of Australia
- really strong accent – I didn’t understand half of what he said
- sophisticated automatic system
- can’t ever completely eliminate human error
- good placement for first-years, but second-years should have more management responsibility
- was hoping to get some management experience, but I mostly worked alone
- I learned quite a lot in three months
- wouldn’t like to work there
I was employed for three months at Diftco, near Birmingham, under the supervision of Ms Witten. The objective of the internship was to gain management experience in an industrial environment. Diftco exports construction equipment and is one of the most profitable firms in the region.
I worked in the Export Office most of time, where I was in charge of preparing shipping documents. I was also responsible for checking containers in the warehouse, where the equipment is assembled and packed. I successfully learnt to use the automatic bar code system used in the warehouse. This is a sophisticated automatic system, which assigns a code and a position to every component in the warehouse. However,
it was interesting to discover that even such a sophisticated tool can never completely eliminate human error. Perhaps the most valuable lesson I learnt was to double-check information. The importance of careful checking was emphasized when I unfortunately sent a container to Austria instead of Australia, because I had misunderstood my correspondent on the telephone.
The company is successful and well organized, with a very motivated, hard-working and dedicated staff. However, I feel I would be more effective in an environment with more variety and less routine paperwork. One area of the company’s activity leaves room for improvement, and that is the problem of waste in the warehouse. A more systematic policy of recycling would help to solve this problem.
The course module in international trade studied last semester was extremely valuable in understanding how a company like Diftco works. Thanks to this preparation, I was able to establish a good rapport
with the export staff. On the other hand, communication with the warehousemen was much more difficult, mainly because many of them do not speak English.
Overall, the internship was a positive experience, which allowed me to gain significant experience in three months. However, I mostly worked alone and therefore did not achieve the goal of acquiring management experience. A placement at Diftco would be most valuable for first-year students; second-year students would benefit from a position with greater management responsibility.
Appendix: A Daily journal, B Copies of letters to and from Ms Witten, supervisor
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