Understanding the main points. 1. Complete the following sentences, using your own words
1. Complete the following sentences, using your own words.
1. The main problem with the trait approach to leadership was that …………….
……………………………………………………………………………….. .
2. According to Fiedler the most important aim of a task-motivated leader is
……………………………………………………………………………. .
3. On the other hand, a relationship-motivated leader’s main concern is …….
……………………………………………………………………………… .
4. Fiedler does not think that one style of leadership is necessarily better than the
other because ………………………………………………………………. .
2. The authors of The Winning Streak have identified the main characteristics
of the leadership styles of effective company chairmen and chief executives.
Note down the three characteristics described in the text.
1. ……………………………………………………………………………….. .
2. ……………………………………………………………………………….. .
3. ……………………………………………………………………………….. .
Vocabulary focus
1. Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases.
1. where the business is going
…………………………………………………………………………………..
2. focus for their aspirations
…………………………………………………………………………………...
3. disappointing
……………………………………………………………………………………
4. discredited
……………………………………………………………………………………
5. directives
……………………………………………………………………………………
6. priority
……………………………………………………………………………………
7. getting the job done
…………………………………………………………………………………
8. people-oriented
…………………………………………………………………………………
9. crucial
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…………………………………………………………………………………
10. kept the staff on their toes
…………………………………………………………………………………
11. it goes down the line
…………………………………………………………………………………
LANGUAGE STUDY
1. Below are some adjectives and nouns with self. Study them and check their
meanings in a dictionary. Then use them to complete the following sentences.
| ADJECTIVES | NOUNS | ||
| self-confident | self-control | ||
| self-addressed | self-discipline | ||
| self-educated | self-satisfaction | ||
| self-made | self-confidence | ||
| self-appointed | |||
| self-important | |||
| self-explanatory | |||
| self-evident | |||
| self-employed | |||
| self-reliant | |||
1. The instructions on this package are simple to follow. They are really
……………….. .
2. He got to the top in business by his own efforts in spite of having little
education or training. He’s entirely a ……………….. .
3. We need salespeople who can work on their own initiative. They must be
……………….. .
4. It’s not easy to start work at six o’clock every morning. You need plenty of
……………….. to get to work on time.
5. Bill has no official position but he’s very influential with the shop-floor
workers. He’s their ……………….. leader.
6. I get a sense of ……………….. when I think that I entered this company as
an office boy and I’m now its chairman.
7. ……………….. businessmen generally like the feeling of independence.
8. It is ……………….. that a bank manager won’t lend you money to start a
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company if you don’t have some kind of business plan.
9. She’s confident she’ll be the best Office Manager we’ve ever had. Her
……………….. is remarkable.
10. It’s easy to lose your temper if an employee makes a silly mistake. However,
a good manager learns to show ……………….. .
11. If you need more information, please write to us including a ………………..
envelope.
12. A leader needs to be ……………….. because if he doubts his own
judgement, others will do so too.
13. Despite her culture and knowledge, she is in fact largely ………………..
since she left school at fifteen.
2. Use the following words and expressions to complete the sentences below:
black market, value, onto, marketable, on the market.
1. When you develop a product, you hope people will eventually buy it. You
hope the product will be ……………….. .
2. Sony are continually putting new products ……………….. .
3. If you buy currency or goods illegally, you buy them on the ……………….. .
4. An interesting property has just come ……………….. the market.
5. We have no idea what the present market ……………….. of our
buildings is.
3. Answer the following questions.
1. What does a firm usually carry out before it introduces a product onto the
market?
2. What expression means “the proportion of the market held by one
manufacturer or brand”?
3. What do we call the place where shares are bought and sold in large
quantities?
4. What does a firm do when it goes “up-market” and “down-market”?
5. What is a “seller’s market” and a “buyer’s market”? Can you give an
example of each from the world of business?
6. What do we mean when we say that a market is “saturated”?
4. Phrasal verbs and nouns with turn.
A. Match the following verbs and nouns with the correct definitions.
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| 1. turn up | a) do something in an agreed order |
| 2. turn down | b) the amount of sales in a certain period of time |
| 3. turn over | c) do business or sell goods worth a certain amount |
| 4. turn round | d) make a business profitable again after it has had losses |
| 5. turn out | e) a point in time when an important change takes place |
| 6. turn against | f) workers employed to replace those who have left |
| 7. take turns | g) produce |
| 8. turning point | h) refuse, reject |
| 9. turnover | i) change one’s attitude and become hostile |
| 10. turnover | j) arrive, appear |
B. Complete the following passages with words from the list above.
1. I work for a kitchen appliance manufacturer. We’re a fairly large organization.
Our ……………….. (1) is over $20m annually, and I’d say we …………..(2)
roughly 2,000 units a month. We’re profitable now but we had a difficult time
in the early 1980s. We almost went bankrupt. The ……………….. (3) was
when we got a new Chief Executive. Within two years, he completely
……………….. (4) the company. Now we’re doing well. Our only problem is
that our labour ……………….. (5) is rather high – well above average for the
industry.
2. I’m meant to start work at 8.30 a.m. but I often ……………….. (1) late. On
Fridays, someone in the office has to work until 10 p.m. We usually …….. (2)
- it’s fairer that way. I quite like my job and I don’t want any more
responsibility. In fact, I’ve already ……………….. (3) two offers of
promotion, much to my boss’s annoyance. I hope he doesn’t ……………. (4)
me because I’ve refused opportunities for promotion. By the way, my firm
……………….. (5) about $200,000 a month.
5. Discuss the following questions in groups of three or four:
1. What are the characteristics of a true leader?
2. Do you think you have the qualities of a good manager/leader?
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3. Would you be authoritarian or approachable?
| UNIT 13 MANAGEMENT IN MULTINATIONALS |
DISCUSSION
Study the following examples of mistakes that foreign business people have made when doing business abroad and then answer the questions below each one.
A An American airline company operating in Brazil advertised proudly that it had luxurious ‘rendezvous lounges’ on its jets. The advertisement upset many people in Brazil. Can you suggest why?
B Some time ago an American company in Spain decided to have a company picnic – such picnics had been successful at their headquarters in the US. At the picnic in their Spanish branch, the US executives dressed up as chefs and served food to the Spanish workers in the company. The idea was to promote friendly relations between executives and workers. The atmosphere at the picnic was not good, and the picnic was not very successful. Can you guess why?
C This advertisement appeared in magazines and other media in Quebec, Canada. A woman, dressed in shorts, could be seen playing golf with her husband. The caption said that housewives could have an enjoyable day on the golf course and still quickly prepare a delicious evening meal by serving the advertised canned fish.
The advertisement was totally inappropriate for the Quebec market. Do you have any idea why?
D A manufacturer of cosmetics wanted to break into the French market. It decided to use chain stores to distribute its goods because (i) marketing and distribution costs would be decreased and (ii) its goods would be given plenty of shelf space. This approach was disastrous for the company. Why do you think this was?
E A foreign buyer negotiated with a Japanese businessman. During the negotiations, the Japanese man sat back in his chair several times, maintaining complete silence. When the foreign buyer got back to his hotel, he realized he had paid too much for the goods supplied by the Japanese man. Why did this happen?
F A foreign businessman had been negotiating a deal in England. When he got back to the hotel, his boss phoned him. “How did it go?” asked the boss.
“Just great”, replied the foreign businessman. “I made several proposals to the Englishman and he kept shaking his head up and down – he obviously agreed with everything I said”. What mistake has the foreign businessman made? And why?
READING
If asked to define a multinational, most people would say that it is a company doing business in more than one country. Many experts, however, would not be satisfied with this definition. They believe that it does not indicate the size and scale of the multinational’s activities. To be a “true” multinational, they say an organization should operate in at least six countries and have to less than 20% of its sales or assets in those countries. In addition, it should ‘think internationally’. That is to say, the management should have a ‘global perspective’. It should see the world as inter-related and inter-dependent.
An example of this global approach is provided by the Massey Ferguson company. Its tractors are assembled from parts made in several countries. As one of their executives says, ‘We combine French-made transmissions, British-made engines, Mexican-made axles and United States-made sheet metal parts to produce in Detroit a tractor for sale in Canada.
The size and international organization of some multinationals is impressive. The larger enterprises, like IBM, British Petroleum and Mobil Oil, have subsidiaries in sixty to eighty countries. Some, like Heinz, Singer and Exxon, get more than half their profits from overseas business. Details of the top fifteen multinationals are given in Figure 1.
Figure 1
| The Top 15 Multinational Companies | |||
| Country | Company | Foreign Sales As Percentage of Total | Number of Countries in which Subsidiaries Are Located |
| USA USA USA Netherlands USA USA USA USA USA Britain USA USA Britain Netherlands USA | General Motors Exxon Ford Royal Dutch/Shell General Electric IBM Mobil Oil Chrysler Texaco Unilever ITT Gulf Oil British Petroleum Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken Standard Oil of California | 19 50 26 79 16 39 45 24 40 42 42 45 88 n.a. 45 | 21 25 30 43 32 80 62 26 30 40 40 61 52 29 26 |
| Source: United Nations data | |||
Some economists have estimated that, by the year 2000, about 200 to 300 multinationals will be providing half of the world’s total goods and services.
Because of their global approach, multinationals often make decisions which are against the interests of their host countries. They may decide, for example, to close down their plant in Country A because they wish to concentrate production in Country B. Obviously, this will be an unpopular decision in Country A. The government of that country will probably put pressure on the multinational to change its mind. Multinationals are criticised by foreign governments for other reasons. Sometimes, a subsidiary in one country will supply another subsidiary with cheap – or below-cost – products. This happens when a subsidiary has just started up in a country. The other subsidiary will help it to get on its feet. Difficulties often arise when a multinational wishes to transfer its earnings back to Head Office. The host country may feel that the transfer will have a bad effect on the exchange rate of its currency. Or, it may want the multinational to re-invest profits in the business. The interests of multinationals and foreign governments frequently clash. This can lead to friction between the two sides, and even bitterness.
The list of complaints against multinationals is a long one. As a result, many countries have tried to restrict their operations. Some, such as Nigeria and India, have said that a certain percentage of the equity of the foreign company must be owned by local investors. Other countries insist that a percentage of the managers of the multinational must be local staff.
Multinational managers will spend much of their time working overseas. They will, therefore, be living and working in a strange environment. They will have to deal will people who have a different language, customs, religion and business practices. They will find that they cannot do things the way they did at home.
In a book entitled International Business Blunders, the authors give some examples of what happens when manager do not take foreign conditions into account. They describe, for example, how an American company sent sewing-machines to a developing country. Unfortunately, the machines became rusty because the natives drank the lubricating oil. They believed it to be a fertility potion! In another example the authors describe how an American manager in Japan offended a very important Japanese executive because he did not show the executive enough respect. The two men had met first in the Japanese man’s office. This was small and had little furniture in it, so the American assumed the other man was a low-level executive. He did not realize that, in Japan, a top executive does not necessarily have a plush office.
Managers working abroad need various skills. Clearly, it is a great advantage if they know the language of the country they are working in. But this is not the most important requirement. A recent study has shown that they need, above all, these qualities: human relations skills, an understanding of the other culture and the ability to adapt.
Human relations skills are vital because, to be effective, the manager must persuade local staff to cooperate with him. In the study mentioned above, some Asian executives described how they felt about American managers, after working with them for some time. The executives were from Taiwan, the Philippines and India. They suggested that the American managers sometimes had an attitude of intellectual and cultural superiority. They seemed to be ‘know-it-alls’. And they tried to impose their way of life on local workers. The American needed to lose those attitudes. They had to be more willing to learn from their fellow workers, and to treat them as ‘partners’.
Differences in culture are important when a manager is negotiating in a foreign country. For instance, many Europeans and Americans like to get to the point quickly when negotiating. This is not so in some countries, like Brazil, where people prefer to beat around the bush more. They take their time, trying to create a relationship of trust. In such countries, the European or American manager must be patient, or else he will come away from a deal empty-handed. In Japan, there are often long silences during negotiations – especially if things are not going smoothly. European and American executives tend to react in the wrong way when this happens. They make a concessions or talk in an over-eager way, so that they lose ground in the discussions.
Finally, those working abroad must remember that a deal is not always a deal. In some countries, a person may say ‘yes’ to a proposal simply to be polite, or agreeable. Even written contracts, in some areas, may not be worth much.
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