CHAPTER 2.

MANAGEMENT

1 Management – an art or a science ?

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?
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?
3. Which of these qualities can be acquired? Which must you be born with?
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 women-
and 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.

*Peter Drucker: An Introductory View of Management

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.

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

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 that 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.

MEMO

FROM:
TO:All Employess
SUBJECT:
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?

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

How much of the working week do you think managers should spend in meetings?

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?

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.

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
4. computers (and other machines) true
5. young workers still learning their 9. corrected or slighty changed
jobs 10. collapse or failure