Read the text to learn more about the places where all managers work.

Reading 1.

Read the text and compare your definitions with the definitions from the text.

What is a Manager?

Management has as many definitions as there are managers, so it's time to clarify exactly what the term means. Amanager is a person who allocates human and material resources and directs the operations of a department or an entire organization.

Managers represent only a fraction of the employees in large firms. Most employees do non-managerial work. Receptionists, computer programmers, machine operators, secretaries, graphic designers, and maintenance workers — all are important, but they aren't managers. What sets managers apart? Simply put, the difference is that managers are evaluated on how well others do their jobs. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of managers to try to determine and plan for the most effective and efficient way to achieve the organization's goals.

For American Airlines to reach its overall profitability goal, for example, its managers have established five plans: (1) to reduce costs by buying fuel-efficient aircraft; (2) to reduce personnel by hiring only those who are most needed; (3) to restructure the route system to an efficient hub-and-spoke pattern of connecting airports, with about 80 percent of all traffic coming through Dallas-Fort Worth; (4) to maintain American's number one position in customer service; and (5) to expand marketing efforts by using customers for targeted promotions of vacations, car rentals, hotels, and the like. These plans are specific to American Airlines, but all managers face similar challenges. That is, they must find ways to motivate employees and to increase their companies' overall productivity, efficiency, service, quality, and innovation.

Managers achieve an organization's or department's goals for the most part by arranging for others to do things — not by performing all the tasks themselves.Management,then, involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the people working in an organization to achieve the organization's goals. Those goals give direction to the tasks and activities undertaken.

The term manager covers many types of people. It includes operators of small businesses, chief executive officers (CEOs) of multinational corporations, plant managers, and supervisors — both generalists and specialists. Managers are also employed by not-for-profit organizations (e.g., government agencies and religious groups) and trade associations (e.g., the American Management Association and the Professional Golfers Association).

Comprehension

3. Answer the questions:

1. What definition of a manager is given in the text?

2. In what way are managers different from the majority of employees?

3. What challenges do managers face in their work?

4. Planning, organizing, leading and controlling are managerial functions, aren`t they?

5. Are managers employed only by commercial organizations?

Reading 2.

Read the text to learn more about the places where all managers work.

What is an Organization?

Now let's talk about the immediate world in which you will operate as a manager. Organizations are the setting for all managers, and managers don't exist outside of them. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon and it means a compartment for a particular job. Anorganization is any structured group of people working together to achieve certain goals that individuals could not reach alone. Although alike in their need to achieve specific goals, organizations differ with respect to what those goals are. A goal at American Airlines is to improve its market share relative to that of other major airlines, such as Delta, USAir, and JAL, by providing extraordinary customer service. At Southwest Airlines, a goal is to offer on-time service at the lowest prevailing price to increase its market share. The goal at Polaroid is to create innovative instant cameras, whereas at Minolta the goal is to produce high-quality lenses for cameras and other optical devices. Organizations differ in many other ways, too. Some are large and others small; some provide services and others products. Some organizations, such as the armed forces, spend millions of dollars on recruiting members and develop methods to make sure that they abide by formal rules. Others, such as the local MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers), spend little money to attract members and impose few controls on their behavior.

Organizations have existed throughout history, so why are they, their goals, and their managers so important today? The reason is that during the past fifty years, all developed nations have become societies of organizations. Each of you could write your autobiography as a series of experiences with organizations, both large and small: hospitals, schools, sports teams, governments, banks, stores, clubs, and community groups. Some have been well managed, but others have not.

There are a variety of legal types of organizations, including: corporations, governments, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, armed forces, charities, non-for-profit corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, and universities. A hybrid organization is a body that operates in both the public sector http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sector and the private sector, simultaneously fulfilling public duties and developing commercial market activities. As a result the hybrid organization becomes a mixture of a government and a corporate organization.

In the social sciences, organizations are the object of analysis for a number of disciplines, such as sociology, economics, political science, psychology, management, and organizational communication. The broader analysis of organizations is commonly referred to as organizational structure, organizational studies, organizational behavior, or organization analysis.

Comprehension

4. Answer the questions:

1. Why do managers not exist outside organizations?

2. What is an organization?

3. The word “organization” is derived from Latin, isn’t it?

4. In what way do organizations differ?

5. In what way are they alike?

6. Do you agree that all developed nations are societies of organizations?

Why? / Why not?

7. What are the legal types of organizations?

8. What disciplines study organizations?

Reading 3.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1783