9. What do the following departments do?

Example: In R & D, people research and develop new products

1 Customer service 2 Human Resources 3 Sales and Marketing

4 Production 5 Finance 6 Administration

7 Legal 8 Logistics 9 Public Relations IT

10. Read and decide which deparment the three people work in. Choose from departments in Ex. 9.

1 Well, in some ways, it’s quite a conservative company, so some of the systems are a bit old-fashioned. There’s still a lot of paperwork, so I suppose you could say it’s very bureaucratic. I seem to spend a lot of time looking in files, both on the computer and in our paper archives.

2 Our department seems to bebusyall the time. We’re always getting enquiries from journalists and dealing with the broadcast media. I guess it’s because we have such a high-profile boss. Although the company itself is quite hierarchical, our department is actually very democratic – everyone is an equal member of the team.

3 It’sa big department, and we deal with a lot of employees. It’s everything from recruitment and running training courses through to dealing with retirement. It’s quite a progressive company, so everything is open plan – which is a bit difficult if I need to have a private meeting. There are meeting rooms, but they always seem to be busy.

Notes: a high-profile boss – a person who attracts a lot of attention

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Text B

“My name‘s Bernard Levesque and I’m the Technical and Quality Manager at MTS in Paris and work within the Material Testing Division, which makes equipment used by industrial firms to test the strength and durability of materials like plastics, metals and so forth. We’re a subsidiary of MTS Systems Corporations, an American firm based in Minneapolis. MTS employs roughly 2,200 people worldwide and is a leading supplier of mechanical testing equipment. Our major development and manufacturing operations are located in the US, France and Germany, and we have sales and service offices around the world.

Before I describe the organisation of my department, I’ll outline the structure from the top, starting with our CEO, who oversees all aspects of our activities here. Just below him is the General Manager, who is my immediate superior. Then there’s the Human Resources Director, and the GM’s Secretary, who also report directly to him. We have a management team that includes myself, the Sales Manager, the Finance Manager, and, of course, the Marketing Manager. There are also two new departments – Customer Service and the Noise and Vibration Division headed by Louis Regnier and Patric Jones respectively.

Now, getting back to the way my department is organised, I’m responsible for operations, so I’m in charge of Purchasing and Planning, R&D and Quality. The Purchasing and Planning Department schedules production based on orders provided by sales team and forecasts from the Marketing Department. In R&D, there are three sub-departments – Mechanical Engineering, Electronics, and Software Engineering – which are involved in developing new products and modifying existing products to meet customer demands. They receive technical specifications from the Marketing Department and provide drawings, a parts list and assembly instructions. Natalie Launay works closely with me on Quality – an area that takes up nearly a third of my time. And finally there’s the head of Shipping, as well as the person in charge of Assembly, who also report to me. ”