Company structure

1) Listen. You will hear speakers from Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa talking about what they enjoy doing in their spare time. (A4)

Which of these accents are you most familiar with? Is there one you find easier to understand than the others?

2) Here is a text read aloud first by a British English speaker and then an American English speaker.

Listen as many times as you need and note differences in pronunciation that you observe, focusing on the underlined words. A few are done for you. (It is not necessary to use phonemic symbols in this exercise)

(A5)

3) You will hear four more people talking about what they enjoy doing in their spare time. They are from Northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Listen as many times as you need and write brief notes about what they say (A6).

Northern England:

Scotland:

Wales:

Northern Ireland:

Now read the transcripts. Are there particular features of their pronunciation that you had problems understanding? In what ways is their pronunciation different from BBC English - that is, British English spoken without a regional accent?

Home task:

Go to http://www.bbc.co.u k/voices/. Follow links to 'Voices Recordings'. Here you can listen to voices from many parts of the UK. Choose one of the recordings by clicking on a dot on the map, and then do the following:

1. Click on the name of one of the speakers under 'More clips from this interview'.

2. Read 'About the interviewee'.

3. Read the transcript. Check in a dictionary any words you don't understand.

4. Listen to the recording and follow the transcript.

5. Some clips have a section on 'More about the speech in this clip'. Read this, focusing in particular on information about pronunciation. Some dialect words, which you may not find in the dictionary, are explained here.

6. Do the same with any other 'More clips from this interview'.

7. Go back and listen to the 'Voice clip(s)'. These don't have transcripts. How much of them do you understand? Do you notice features of pronunciation you observed and read about earlier?

8. Do the same with accents from other parts of the UK by clicking on other dots on the map.

company structure

Speaking about company structure, we should say that most companies are made up of three groups of people: the shareholders (who provide the capital), the management and the workforce.

At the top of the company hierarchy is the Board of Directors (or the Board) headed by the Chairman/Chairperson (Br. English) or President (Am. English) who is the nominal head of the company and does not supervise the day-to-day running of the company. The Board is accountable to the shareholders reporting to them at the annual shareholder’s meeting. The Board is responsible for the policy decisions and strategy. It will appoint a Managing Director or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who is directly responsible for the running of the business. The Board will also appoint the most senior managers/senior executives or company officers who head and are in charge of the various departments within the company.

The number of executive departments may vary, depending on the company and its activity, but some that are found most frequently are:

- Production

- Marketing

- Public Relations

- Finance

- Personnel or Human Resources

- Research and Development or R&D

- Information Technology or IT.

Department heads are called directors or managers, and they are accountable to and supervised by vice-presidents. Departments, in turn, may be subdivided into sections or sectors. For instance, the Marketing Department may have a Market Research sector, a Sales sector, and an Advertising and Promotions sector. The Finance Department may be divided into Financial Management sector and Accounting Sector, with the Chief Accountant at the head of the latter. Directors are assisted or supported by the employees in their departments.

Vocabulary notes:

Ex.3. Fill in the blanks with:

to be responsible for, to be accountable to, to be in charge of, to be assisted by.

1. The Managing Director _________ to the Board and __________ for running the company.

2. The Export Sales Department is __________ the Board.

3. The Managing Director ____________ three executive departments.

4. Human Resources Department ____________ personnel, training and management development.

5. Finance Department __________ corporate finance and accounting.

6. Regional Managers __________ day-to-day management of a territory.

Ex.4. Read, translate into Ukrainian and memorize the following hierarchy.

1. The company is headed by the Managing Director (MD).

2. The Sales Director reports to the MD.

3. The Sales Director is accountable to the MD.

4. The Sales Director is supported by a Sales team.

5. The Sales Director is assisted by a Sales Assistant.

Ex.5. Read and translate into Ukrainian.

1. Purchasing Manager buys all the things that the company needs.

2. Sales Director is in charge of the people who sell the products of the company.

3. Sales Manager is responsible for supplying goods to customers.

4. The head of the accounts department is responsible for all the money in the company, handles payments from customers and wages for staff.

5. The person who greets a visitor and tells him or her how to get to the right office is the receptionist.

6. Accountants are the employees who check company's financial affairs.

7. Clerks are the employees responsible for carrying out general office duties, filling in forms and keeping statistics.

8. Administration Manager is in charge of personnel.

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 2177