Учебник Английский язык

The most important thing when interviewing a candidate is his character, his ability to react, his intelligence and his suitability for the position that … which … for which he is being interviewed.

Interviewer:

And uh, to what extent does the person’s appearance influence your decision?

Personnel Manager:

It doesn’t influence the decision, uh, but it does have some bearing on the decision, if you can take the difference between the two. It is important that the guy, the person, is well presented, is neat and tidy, and that he has a good manner, uh, because that shows a lot about his personality.

Interviewer:

Do you expect the candidate to be prepared in any way for the interview, or how should he prepare himself for the interview?

Personnel Manager:

Well, it’s not a question of preparing himself. In the position in which I am, uh, normally the candidate’s had at least one or maybe two interviews with other members, more junior member of staff before he gets to my level, unless the particular candidate is going to report to me, and in which case I expect the person concerned to have a fairly good knowledge of: (1) what the company does, (2) what he's going to be expected to do, and (3) who he's going to report to. Those things, those three items are very, very important and if the candidate, uh, does not give an impression of either understanding one of those three items, then obviously then he gets marked down accordingly.

Interviewer:

How does a candidate go wrong?

Personnel Manager:

The major way a candidate goes wrong is by basically becoming a yes-man or a yes-woman and agreeing with everything you say. What is most important... One of the most important things about interviewing a candidate is the chemistry between somebody, between the two people in the interview, em, it’s very very important - he has to have a spark, you have to feel as though that guy is going to contribute, that guy’s going to be good and you're going to get something out of that person and he has to show himself to be not just ‘Yes sir, thank you very much. Yes I agree with that, I agree with that.’ Sometimes I lay dummy questions in which I want a ‘no’ answer and if he continues to say ‘yes’ then he goes down.

Interviewer:

What would your advice be to a candidate, er, going to an interview? How would you advise him?

Personnel Manager:

Uh, the first thing I would say to him is first of all to listen, secondly, to ask the right questions, and thirdly, perhaps the most important, is to create the right relationship which is, I guess, an adult-to-adult relationship with the interviewee or the interviewer. It is very important and that’s what I said before is when you get a yes-man in front of you, or a yes-woman, then that person is obviously not creating an adult-to-adult conversation. He’s creating an adult-to-child conversation and in

most cases, managers are not, if they're good and they know what they want, they’re not going to be interested in employing a child.

2. Read the second extract, David Smyth talks about the stages of an interview. Read what he says and complete the following chart.

1

Interviewer is informed that the candidate has arrived

2

3

Candidate is asked what he or she knows about the job and the company

4

5

Interviewer gives candidate his views on the job and the company

6

7

Personnel Manager:

The interview normally takes place by me being informed that the candidate has arrived, in which case, urn, I leave my office and go and greet him in the reception area and bring him personally into my office and sit him across the desk, or across my office desk to me, and we proceed, uh, from there ... I normally start by asking the candidate to tell me what he ... since he’s been probably through two or three other interviews previous ... what the job is that he’s being expected to do, just to make sure that he’s understands fully. Then I ask him to tell me a little bit about the company that we’re working for, that I'm working for anyway, so that he’s at least understood exactly what we do or the basics of what we do anyway ... er then I normally review his CV, and in particular either his previous employment or his current employment which is very important. Basically this is done to try to draw the candidate out, see how good he is at expressing himself, and to see what kind

of character he is. Then I normally give him my views of what the position is that we’re recruiting for and also my view about the company, then I normally give him a period of 5 to 10 minutes to ask some questions. Then I go back to him and just talk about him, and maybe then when he’s fully relaxed, or more relaxed, put in a few of the trick questions, not a few, I would say usually normally one or maybe two maximum.

As I said in a previous question, it normally lasts a minimum of 45 minutes if the candidate is up to scratch and can go on for about an hour.

3. Look at the questions that David Smyth uses during an interview. In which section of the interview would each question appear?

a Have you ever been in a situation in which you lost your temper?

b What sorts of projects did you work on during your time with them? c What do you know about our recent acquisitions in Latin America? d Did you have any trouble finding our building?

e How do you deal with difficult people?

f Which of the options that you took at university was the most interesting? g How ambitious are you?

h Are there any questions that you'd like to ask me?

4. Work with a partner.

1)Think of the most common questions on a job interview?

2)Look at the following questions and decide how you would answer them.

• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

• What are your salary requirements?

• Why should we hire you?

• Why did you leave your last job?

• If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?

3)What questions would you ask a potential manager?

4)Act out an interview according to the interview scheme from 3.3.B. Before you start tell your partner about a position you are going to hire him/her.

Headhunting

READING

1. Read the article from the Financial Times about the headhunting profession, then answer the questions below.

POACHER TURNED TV STAR-

DO HEADHUNTERS DESERVE THEIR BBC IMAGE?

Last night’s episode of Headhunters, a new BBC drama, does not present the trade in its most flattering light. Hall works for one of London’s foremost headhunting firms, where he spends his time on the mobile phone in constant search of bodies to ‘poach’. A client wants to hire an entertainment lawyer: Hall does better by persuading him to poach a whole team. When the head of the old law firm finds out that his valuable assets are about to leave he is so upset he kills himself.

Headhunters have never been the most respected profession, but the message from the BBC seems to be that their ruthless tactics are pushing them to new depths of unpopularity.

Tim Clark, an expert on headhunters at the Open University, argues that the business doesn’t deserve a bad name. He says that from the beginning people have viewed headhunting as a secretive, underhand business, disliking the process by which individuals are approached discreetly and persuaded to move jobs. ‘It’s an easy industry to pick on. So much of the business is confidential. People don’t know the full facts.’

So, what are the facts? Is there a moral problem with poaching? Might it be the responsibility of the headhunter to think about the mess that a person leaves behind when they change jobs?

‘The work is very sensitive,’ says Ian Butcher of Whitehead Mann. ‘You can create problems if you take out key people. But most senior businessmen recognize that that is part of the game. In any case, our loyalty is to the client.’…

1)What is normally ‘poached’ and from where?

2)If you use ruthless tactics, do you consider the feelings of other people? Does ruthless show approval or disapproval of these tactics?

3)If you describe activity as underhand, do you approve of it?

4)If X picks on Y, is Y able to defend himself of herself properly?

5)Does Ian Butcher sympathize with the companies that he persuades people to leave?

2. Dr. Simon Kingston works for the international executive search consultants Heidrick and Struggles. Read his interview and complete the chart below.

Methods for identifying candidates

Interviewer:

How do you identify and attract the best candidates for a particular job?

Dr. Simon Kingston:

Well, the most important thing for us at the beginning is to have clear and full briefing from our clients. So we spend a great deal of time talking to a range of people in the client organisation. And then, according to the sort of job that we are seeking to fill, we will use three different sorts of method for identifying candidates. One, the most obvious one, is advertisement in appropriate newspapers or journals. The second is by asking for nominations from within our client organisation of appropriate candidates. And the third, and most labour intensive for us, is our own, original research. And that will be derived from our database, from talking to authoritative sources in the relevant market place, and then from beginning to map the business sector in which we think we are most likely to find good candidates. All three of those different methods of identifying candidates will cross-reference, and ideally we'd like to find candidates who're sourced from each of the three areas. And sometimes, when we’re very fortunate, we will find an individual who comes referred from each of the three approaches.

In respect of our own research, it’s always very valuable for us to be able to speak, at the beginning of a search, to experts

Simon mentions three different types of experts which his company usually speaks to at the beginning of an executive search. Who are they?

Which qualities does Lord Browne at BP demonstrate, according to Simon?

DISCUSSION

1. Read the two case studies below and answer these questions.

1 What job did the men do?

2 Why were their employers upset?

3 Who apologized? Who accepted the change?

4 Who intends to sue his employer? Why?

Case 1

John Humphries aged 62, is a lorry driver who is proud of being well-dressed for work. However, his employer told him that he must not come to work in a collar and tie to drive his 17-tonne lorry. If he did so, he faced the sack. When working, Mr Humphries, an ex-Royal Airforce man, wore dark blue trousers, a light blue shirt, and a red and grey striped tie. He felt he looked smart and impressed the customers. ‘If you present yourself properly, you look good and get respect,’ he said.

Mr Humphries’ employers were not impressed when he refused to give up his collar and tie. They wanted him to conform to the company’s new image of casual clothing such as T-shirts or sweat shirts. They even threatened to dismiss him if he didn’t accept their new dress code. Union officials advise him to accept the change and follow the company’s policy. He agreed.

Case 2

Yoshiaki Nishiura, a 25-year-old lorry driver from western Japan, was sacked because he dyed his hair brown. (This is a popular fashion with a growing number of young Japanese.) Although he apologised and dyed it back again, he was still fired. His employer, Mr Yamago, believed that behaviour like Mr Nishiura’s undetermined discipline and corrupted morale. He blamed it on American influence. ‘We need drivers to maintain a professional appearance to make a good impression,’ he said. A Japanese journalist said, ‘Japanese firms expect all employees to look the same and think the same.’ When you enter a company, you sign away your human rights.’ Mr Nishiura is going to sue his employer for unfair dismissal.

2.Discuss these questions

1.What do you think of:

a) the employers’ decisions? b) the employees’ reactions?

2.How important is your personal appearance at work? Think about formal clothing, uniforms, men with earrings, and tattoos, etc.

3.Match the adjectives in column A to the nouns in column B

4. Now complete these sentences with word partnerships from the list.

1.It is important to make a ………… …………. at an interview by dressing appropriately.

2.In a case of ………… ……………, an employee may sue a company to get their job back or to receive financial compensation.

3.A ………… ………….. of firms realize that their employees’ appearance is important. Therefore, many companies are introducing dress codes for their staff. 4.If a management allows staff to be absent from work without reason, this will affect ……………. ……………… .

5.When dealing with customers directly, it is important to have a ………… ……..

6.Some people say that being able to go on strike and having a minimum wage are basic ………… ……….. .

•54

•Single parent – two young children

•Can’t speak French

•Degree in nursing

•Can drive

•Computer literate

•Former travel agent

•Available immediately

•Shy, withdrawn, but very professional persona

•Calm, unflappable

Jane Thompson

•42

•Elementary French

•Degree in psychology

•Can drive

•Some computer literacy

•Experience as a PA

•Recently divorced – had to give up her last job as a result of stress

•Available immediately

•Lively, good sense of humour, very energetic

Project work: Think of a company you would like to work for. Imagine that you are a HR manager. Complete advertisement of vacant positions to hire executives, middle managers, officers and workers. Explain your choice.

To have samples of vacancies’ ads visit the fallowing sites:

•http://www.monster.co.uk/

•http://www.reed.co.uk/

•http://www.eurojobs.com/

•http://www.jobsearch.co.uk/

Module 2

Part 6 MANAGEMENT ACROSS CULTURES

Comment on the following words of an American author, M Scott Peck

“Share our similarities, celebrate our differences”

Why is it important to know cultural differences in management?

VOCABULARY

1. Read the information about cultures and culture, distance and familiarity. Explain words in bold.

Alexandra Adler is an expert in doing business across cultures. She is talking to a group of British businesspeople.

‘Culture’ is the ‘way we do things here’. ‘Here’ may be a country, an area, a social class or an organization such as a company or school. You often talk about:

■company or corporate culture: the way a particular company works, and

the

things it believes are important.

■canteen culture: the ways that people in an organization such as the police

think

and talk, not approved by the leaders of the organization.

■long-hours culture: where people are expected to work for a long time each day.

■macho culture: ideas typically associated with men: physical strength,

aggressiveness, etc.

But you must be careful of stereotypes, fixed ideas that may not be true.

2. Distance between managers and the people who work under them varies in different cultures. Read about these two companies:

In country A, managers are usually easy to talk to – accessible and approachable – and there is a tradition of employees being involved in decisionmaking as part of a team of equals. This company is not very hierarchical, with only three management layers.

In country B, managers are usually more distant and remote. Employees may feel quite distant from their managers and have a lot of difference for them: accepting decisions but not participating in them. Companies in Country B tend to be more hierarchal than those in country A, with more management layers.

Deference and distance may be shown in language. Some languages have many forms of address that you use to indicate how familiar you are with