Vocabulary, Comprehension & Vocabulary
COMPANY STUCTURE Reading: Wikinomics and the future of companies Read the text below and answer this question. How is the world of organized work changing? Experts are forecasting that in the future companies will use the Internet and the 'wikinomics' principle (from wiki, the Hawaiian word for quick and economics). This means collaborating with people outside the traditional corporate structure, letting people around the world cooperate to improve an operation or solve a problem, and paying them for their ideas. This is an extension of the trend of outsourcing transferring some of the company's internal functions or operations of jobs to outside suppliers, rather than performing them in-house' In other words, companies will no longer need to get all their knowledge from their own full-time employees COMPANY STUCTURE Here are their own Here are two examples from Don Tapscott und Anthony D. Williams' book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything: Red Lake, a Canadian gold mine, wasn't finding enough gold and was in danger of closing down. Then its chief executive heard a talk about Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux, the open-source computer operating system. He decided to put the company's secret geological data on the Internet, and offered prize money to experts outside the company who could suggest where undiscovered gold might le People around the world recommended 110 targets, and 80% of them tumed out to contain gold. The company's value has risen from $100 to $9 m. Ir Procter & Gamble is looking for a new molecule to clean red wine of a shirt it can use its own scientists. But there are 15 million other in what ways could scientists around the world. The company can offer a payment for a successful solution, and see if a scientist somewhere comes up with one. Vocabulary Autonomous to delegate to report to line authority function hierarchy or chain of command Before reading about traditional company organization, check your understanding of some basic terms by matching up the following words and definitions 1. ........ system of authority with different levels, one above the other, ega series of management positions, whose holders can make decisions, or give orders and instructions a specific activity in a company, es production, marketing, finance 3. independent, able to take decisions without consulting someone at the same level or higher in the chain of command 4. the power to give instructions to people at the level below in the chain of command to be responsible to someone and to take instructions from them 10 give someone else responsability for doing something instead of you TO Reading: Company structure Rend the text below. The chain of command Traditionally, organisations have had a hierarchical or pyramidal structure with one person or a group of people at the top, and increasing amber of people below them each successive level. This is sometimes called line structure. There is a clear chain of command nanning dorm the pyramid. All the people in the organization know what decisions they are able to make, who their line manager for hoss is to whom they report and who their immediate subordinates are over whom they have thority, and can give instructions to Reading: Company structure Functional Yes the active of mostration to complicated to be one in ingle marchy Mostaru manifacturing companies, for example, fave fun ructure including, among others specialized production financing and human resource department has meant for me to the dec mare de carne ke final de Wet gee department Cargo cenfurther inte spate operating division Advantage of fortion is people are often come with the res of their departments that ihe company as a whole there are per conflicts by face marging person ever wilt the boties Reading: Company structure Flattening hierarchies and delegating responsibility A problem with very hierarchical organizations is that people at lower levels can't take important decisions, but have to pass on responsibility to their boss. However, the modern tendency is to reduce the chain of command, take out layers of management and make the organization much flatter. Advanced IT systems have reduced the need for administrative staff and enabled companies to remove layers of workers from the structure. Many companies have also been forced to cut back and eliminate jobs in recessions. Typically, the owners of small firms want to keep as much control over their business as possible, whereas managers in larger businesses who want to motivate their staff often delegate decision making and responsibilities to other people TOOOOO Reading: Company structure Matrix management Another way to get round hierarchies is to use mattis management, in which people report to more than one Forample, a reduct manager with an idea could deal directly with ages responsible for a certain market in and for finance, sales and production depan Matrices involving several departments can become que complet is sometimes nensary to give one department priority in decision making structure Teams A further possibility is to have wholly autonomous, temporary groups or teams that are responsible for an entire project, and are split up as soon as it is successfully completed. But teams are not always very good at decision making, and usually require a strong leader structure Comprehension 1) What is the main advantage of a chain of command? 2) Why is it not usually possible to organize a large organization in a single hierarchy 3) In what ways can dividing a business functionally cause problems? 4) What factors might lead companies to flatten their hierarchies? 3) According to the text, what kind of managers might not want to delegate decision making? 6) What is the potential disadvantage of matrix management systems? Under what circumstances might cams not be effective? Vocabulary Match up the verbs and nouns below to make common word combinations. delegate decision making give decisions instructions Make priority Motivate responsibilities take staff COMPANY STUCTURE Reading: Wikinomics and the future of companies Read the text below and answer this question. How is the world of organized work changing? Experts are forecasting that in the future companies will use the Internet and the 'wikinomics' principle (from wiki, the Hawaiian word for quick and economics). This means collaborating with people outside the traditional corporate structure, letting people around the world cooperate to improve an operation or solve a problem, and paying them for their ideas. This is an extension of the trend of outsourcing transferring some of the company's internal functions or operations of jobs to outside suppliers, rather than performing them in-house' In other words, companies will no longer need to get all their knowledge from their own full-time employees COMPANY STUCTURE Here are their own Here are two examples from Don Tapscott und Anthony D. Williams' book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything: Red Lake, a Canadian gold mine, wasn't finding enough gold and was in danger of closing down. Then its chief executive heard a talk about Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux, the open-source computer operating system. He decided to put the company's secret geological data on the Internet, and offered prize money to experts outside the company who could suggest where undiscovered gold might le People around the world recommended 110 targets, and 80% of them tumed out to contain gold. The company's value has risen from $100 to $9 m. Ir Procter & Gamble is looking for a new molecule to clean red wine of a shirt it can use its own scientists. But there are 15 million other in what ways could scientists around the world. The company can offer a payment for a successful solution, and see if a scientist somewhere comes up with one. Vocabulary Autonomous to delegate to report to line authority function hierarchy or chain of command Before reading about traditional company organization, check your understanding of some basic terms by matching up the following words and definitions 1. ........ system of authority with different levels, one above the other, ega series of management positions, whose holders can make decisions, or give orders and instructions a specific activity in a company, es production, marketing, finance 3. independent, able to take decisions without consulting someone at the same level or higher in the chain of command 4. the power to give instructions to people at the level below in the chain of command to be responsible to someone and to take instructions from them 10 give someone else responsability for doing something instead of you TO Reading: Company structure Rend the text below. The chain of command Traditionally, organisations have had a hierarchical or pyramidal structure with one person or a group of people at the top, and increasing amber of people below them each successive level. This is sometimes called line structure. There is a clear chain of command nanning dorm the pyramid. All the people in the organization know what decisions they are able to make, who their line manager for hoss is to whom they report and who their immediate subordinates are over whom they have thority, and can give instructions to Reading: Company structure Functional Yes the active of mostration to complicated to be one in ingle marchy Mostaru manifacturing companies, for example, fave fun ructure including, among others specialized production financing and human resource department has meant for me to the dec mare de carne ke final de Wet gee department Cargo cenfurther inte spate operating division Advantage of fortion is people are often come with the res of their departments that ihe company as a whole there are per conflicts by face marging person ever wilt the boties Reading: Company structure Flattening hierarchies and delegating responsibility A problem with very hierarchical organizations is that people at lower levels can't take important decisions, but have to pass on responsibility to their boss. However, the modern tendency is to reduce the chain of command, take out layers of management and make the organization much flatter. Advanced IT systems have reduced the need for administrative staff and enabled companies to remove layers of workers from the structure. Many companies have also been forced to cut back and eliminate jobs in recessions. Typically, the owners of small firms want to keep as much control over their business as possible, whereas managers in larger businesses who want to motivate their staff often delegate decision making and responsibilities to other people TOOOOO Reading: Company structure Matrix management Another way to get round hierarchies is to use mattis management, in which people report to more than one Forample, a reduct manager with an idea could deal directly with ages responsible for a certain market in and for finance, sales and production depan Matrices involving several departments can become que complet is sometimes nensary to give one department priority in decision making structure Teams A further possibility is to have wholly autonomous, temporary groups or teams that are responsible for an entire project, and are split up as soon as it is successfully completed. But teams are not always very good at decision making, and usually require a strong leader structure Comprehension 1) What is the main advantage of a chain of command? 2) Why is it not usually possible to organize a large organization in a single hierarchy 3) In what ways can dividing a business functionally cause problems? 4) What factors might lead companies to flatten their hierarchies? 3) According to the text, what kind of managers might not want to delegate decision making? 6) What is the potential disadvantage of matrix management systems? Under what circumstances might cams not be effective? Vocabulary Match up the verbs and nouns below to make common word combinations. delegate decision making give decisions instructions Make priority Motivate responsibilities take staff
