CHAPTER 2.

MANAGEMENT

Task 1a. Discussion

1. What is management? Is it an art or a science? An instinct or a set of skills and
techniques that can be taught?
Answer:
1. The answer is probably that management is a mixture of innate qualities and learnable
skills and techniques.

2. What do you think makes a good manager? Which four of the following qualities do you
think are the most important?
a. Being decisive: able to make quick decisions
b. Being efficient: doing things quickly, not leaving tasks unfinished, having a tidy desk,
and so on
c. Being friendly and sociable
d. Being able to communicate with people
e. Being logical, rational and analytical
f. Being able to motivate and inspire and lead people
g. Being authoritative: able to give orders
h. Being competent: knowing one’s job perfectly, as well as the work of one’s
subordinates
i. Being persuasive: able to convince people to do things
j. Having good ideas
k. Being highly educated and knowing a lot about the world
l. Being prepared to work 50 to 60 hours a week
m. Wanting to make a lot of money
Are there any qualities that you think should be added to this list?
Answer:
A personal choice of qualities: D, F, H, and J. I also quite like K
 3. Which of these qualities can be acquired? Which must you be born with?
Answer:
There are clearly no definitive answer as to which of these skills can be acquired.

Task 1b. Reading

This text summarize some of Peter Drucker’s view on management. As you read about his
description of the work of manager, decide whether the five different functions he mentions
require the four qualities you selected in your discussion, or others you did not choose.

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?
Peter Drucker, the well-known American business professor and consultant, suggests that the
work of a manager can be divided into planning (setting objectives), organizing, integrating
(motivating and communicating), measuring, and developing people. - First of all, managers
(especially senior managers such as company chairmen-and womenand directors) set objectives,
and decide how their organization can achieve them. This involves developing strategies, plans
and precise tactics, and allocating resources of people and money. - Secondly, managers
organize. They analyse and classify the activities of the organization and the relations among
them. They divide the work into manageable activities and then into individual jobs. They select
people to manage these units and perform the jobs. - Thirdly, managers practise the social skills
of motivation and communication. They also have to communicate objectives to the people
responsible for attaining them. They have to make the people who are responsible for performing
individual jobs form teams. They make decisions about pay and promotion. As well as
organizing and supervising the work of their subordinates, they have to work with people in
other areas and functions. - Fourthly, managers have to measure the performance of their staff, to
see whether the objectives set for the organization as a whole and for each individual member of
it are being achieved. - Lastly, managers develop people- both their subordinates and themselves.
Obviously, objectives occasionally have to be modified or changed. It is generally the job of a
company's top managers to consider the needs of the future, and to take responsibility for
innovation, without which any organization can only expect a limited life. Top managers also
have to manage a business's relations with costumers, suppliers, distributors, bankers, investors,
neighbouring communities, public authorities, and so on, as well as deal with any major crises
which arise. Top managers are appointed and supervised and advised (and dismissed) by a
company’s board of directors. Although the tasks of a manager can be analysed and classified in
this fashion, management is not entirely scientific. It is a human skill. Business professors
obviously believe that intuition and 'instinct' are not enough; there are management skills that
have to be learnt. Drucker, for example, wrote nearly 30 years ago that 'Altogether this entire
book is based on the proposition that the days of the 'intuitive' manager are numbered', meaning
that they were coming to an end. But some people are clearly good at management, and others
are not. Some people will be unable to put management techniques into practice. Others will
have lots of technoque, but few good ideas. Outstanding managers are rather rare.
Answer:
Drucker's first point (setting objectives and developing strategies) presumably requires qualities
J, H, E and A (not necessarily in that order). The second point (organizing) presumably also
requires H, E and J. The third point (motivation and communication) embraces F, D, I and
probably C. The fourth point (measuring performance) probably requires H and E. The fifth
point (developing people) might require H, F, D and J. But all this is clearly open to discussion.

Task 1c. Vocabulary

Complete the following sentences with these words.
achieved board of directors communicate innovations
manageable performance resources setting supervise

1. Manager have to decide how best to allocate the human, physical and
capital ........................ available to them.
2. Manager – logically – have to make sure that the jobs and tasks given to their
subordinates
are.................. .
3. There is no point in .................... objectives if you don’t ............ them to your staff.
4. Managers have to ……………………. their subordinates, and to measure, and try to
improve, their ……………………………… .
5. Managers have to check whether objectives and targets are being ............... .
6. A top manager whose performance is unsatisfactory can be dismissed by the
company’s................ .
7. Top managers are responsible for the .............. that will allow a company to adapt to a
changing world.
Answer:
1. resources
2. manageable
3. setting. communicate
4. supervise, performance
5. achieved
6. board of directors
7. innovations

Task 1d. Vocabulary

The text contains a number of common verb-noun partnerships (e.g. achieve objectives,
deal with crises, and so on).
Match up these verbs and nouns to make common collocations.
Allocate decisions
Communicate information
Develop jobs
Make objectives
Measure people
Motivate performance
Perform resources
Set strategies
Supervise subordinates

Answer :
Common collocations include: allocate resources (or people), communicate information or decisions,
develop strategies (or people or subordinates), make decisions, measure performance, motivate people,
perform jobs, set objectives, and supervise subordinates.

Task 1e Writing

There seem to be real-life managers just as bad as Mr. Farvis in the cartoon on page 6
These are (apparently) genuine memos circulated by managers in American companies:

Now imagine tha t you are a stupid manager (no – of course it will never really happen to you!) and
write the most ridiculous memo that you can think of to all company staff.
Answer :
MEMO
FROM : Manager
TO : All Employess
SUBJECT : Don’t ever say hi to the boss, he can bite.

2 Meetings
“one can either work or meet. One cannot do both at the same time”
(Peter Drucker: An Introduction View of Management)

What do you think Peter Drucker means by this comment?

Answer :
Refers to work or meet, someone can do working or meeting at the sometime, but other can’t do
that.

In your experience – at work, or doing group projects at college – is this true?

Answer :
Yes, this is true
How much of the working week do you think managers should spend in meetings?

Answer :
Three times, if the manager need.

Task 2a. Reading

Read the computer journalist Robert X. Cringely’s decription of the management style at IBM. Is he
positive or negative about IBM’s working culture?

Answer :
Robert Cringely's history of the personal computer industry is very informative, in places very critical,
and also very funny. In this extract, he is extremely negative about IBM, saying that they put much too
much effort into management and worrying about the possibility of making bad decisions, and not
enough into producing good, competitively-priced products.
Task 2b. Comprehension

Explain in your own words exactly what Robert Cringely means in the following sentences.
1. Every IBM employee’s ambition is apparently to become a manager .
2. IBM makes management the company’s single biggest business.
3. IBM executives manage the design and writing of software.
4. IBM products often aren’t very competitive
5. The safety net is so big at IBM that it is hard to make a bad decision.
6. This will be the source of the company’s ultimate downfall.
Answer :
1. It seems as if the people who work for IBM are more interested in being regarded as a manager
than as a computer designer or technician.
2. IBM's corporate culture seems to place more emphasis on management than on developing and
selling the company's products.
3. IBM's managers don't actually do the work of designing and writing software themselves,
but organize and supervise the people who do it.
4. IBM products are rarely as good or as cheap as similar products made by their competitors.
5. There is an extensive hierarchy and a system of checks and controls which ensures that bad
decisions are generally avoided (but good decisions also take a very long time to make).
6. The slowness of IBM's decision-making process (and the consequent lack of competitiveness of
their products) will eventually destroy the company.

Task 2c. Vocabulary

Find words in the text that mean the same as the words or expressions below.
1. Seemingly 6. Knowledge and skill
2. Computer programs 7. Levels or strata
3. Work, time and energy 8. To make certain that something is true
4. Computers (and other machines) 9. Corrected or slighty changed
5. Young workers still learning their jobs 10. Collapse or failure
Answer :
1. Apparently
2. Software
3. Effort
4. Hardware
5. Trainees
6. Expertise
7. Layers
8. Verify
9. Amended
10. Downfall