UNIT 10: COMPANY STRUCTURE

Exercise 1. Before you read discuss these questions:

 How many different ways of organizing or structuring a company can you think
of?
 If you work for a company or organization, how would you describe the company
structure?

Exercise 2. Read the text about the different ways in which companies are organized and
answer these questions:

 Four main kinds of organizational structure are described in the article. What are
they?
 Is one kind of organizational structure more common than the others?
 When did “delayering” take place?
 What were the reasons for delayering and what were the results?
 How does Julia MacLauchlan describe Microsoft’s organizational structure?

DOING THE BUSINESS

Roisin Ingle hears how efficient management structures are vital for success

The need for a solid structure within all business entities is “absolutely fundamental”,
according to Ms. Angela Tripoli, a lecturer in Business Administration at University
College Dublin. “Organizational structure concerns who reports to whom in the company
and how different elements are grouped together. A new company cannot go forward
without this and established companies must ensure their structure reflects their target
markets, goals and available technology”.
Depending on their size and needs there are several organizational structures companies
can choose from. Increasingly though, in the constantly evolving business environment,
“many firms are opting for a kind of hybrid of all of them”.
The most recognizable set up is called the functional structure where a fairly traditional
chain of command (incorporating senior management, middle management and junior
management) is put in place. The main benefit of this system is clear lines of
communication from top to bottom but it is generally accepted that it can also be a
bureaucratic set up which does not favour speedy decision-making.
More and more companies are organizing themselves along product lines where
companies have separate divisions according to the product that is being worked on. “In
this case the focus is always on the product and how it can be improved”.
The importance for multinational companies of a good geographic structure, said Ms.
Tripoli, could be seen when one electrical products manufacturer produced an innovative
rice cooker which made perfect rice - according to western standards. When they tried to
sell it on the Asian market the product flopped because there were no country managers
informing them of the changes that would need to be made in order to satisfy this more
demanding market.

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 The matrix structure first evolved during a project developed by NASA when they
needed to pool together different skills from a variety of functional areas. Essentially the
matrix structure organizes a business into project teams, led by project leaders, to carry
out certain objectives. Training is vitally important here in order to avoid conflict between
the various members of the teams.
During the 1980s a wave of restructuring went through industry around the globe. This
process, known as delayering, saw a change in the traditional hierarchical structures with
layers of middle management being removed. This development was, driven by new
technology and by the need to reduce costs. The overall result was organizations that were
less bureaucratic.
The delayering process has run its course now. Among the trends that currently
influence how a company organizes itself is the move towards centralization and
outsourcing. Restructuring has evolved along with a more “customercentric” approach
that can be seen to good effect in the banks. They now categorize their customers and
their complex borrowing needs into groups instead of along rigid product lines.

Another development can be

seen in larger companies, which
are giving their employees more
freedom to innovate in order to maintain
a competitive edge.
Ms. Julia MacLauchlan,
Director of Microsoft’s
European Product Development Centre
in Dublin, said the leading software
company had a very flat organizational
structure. “There would not be more
than around seven levels between the average software tester and Bill Gates”, she said.
Microsoft is a good example of a company that is structured along product lines. In
Ireland, where 1,000 employees work on localization of the software for all Microsoft’s
markets, the company is split up into seven business units. Each unit controls the
localization of their specific products while working closely with the designers in
Microsoft’s Seattle Headquarters.
It works, said Ms. MacLauchlan, because everyone who works in the unit is
“incredibly empowered”.
“Without a huge bureaucratic infrastructure people can react a lot more quickly to any
challenges and work towards the company’s objectives”.

Exercise 3. Match these definitions with the four organizational structures described in
the text:

1. A cross-functional structure where people are organized into project teams. matrix
structure
2. A structure rather like the army, where each person has their place in a fixed
hierarchy. delayering
3. A structure that enables a company to operate internationally, country by country.
geographic structure
4. A structure organized around different products.

geographic structure

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Exercise 4. Match these nouns as they occur together in the text:

1. Product lines a. teams

2. Target markets b. objectives
3. Borrowing needs c. lines
4. Project teams d. units
5. Delayering process e. company
6. Country managers f. process
7. Business units g. markets
8. Software company h. needs
9. Company objectives i. managers

Exercise 5. Use an appropriate phrase from the text to complete each sentence:

1. Banks need to be fully aware of their customers’ borrowing needs .

2. Silicon Valley is full of large companies .

3. Many companies are now organized along product lines where companies have separate
divisions according to the product that is being worked on, in which each division is
responsible for a group of products.

4. A matrix organization groups people into project .

5. Some companies are divided into different target markets, goals and available
technology., often also called profit centres

6. A multinational company will often have a number of customers, in charge of

activities in different parts of the world.

Exercise 6. Match these terms with their definitions:

1. business entities a. focusing on the customer rather than the product

2. set up b. new, original
3. innovative c. companies
4. flopped d. something that makes you better than other
companies
5. outsourcing e. did not succeed, failed
6. customercentric f. structure
7. competitive edge g. getting external companies to do work for your
company

Exercise 7. Complete these sentences with an appropriate preposition: Homework

1. Organizational structure concerns who reports to whom.

2. Depending on its size, there are several organizational structures a company can
choose from.
3. Many companies are organizing themselves along product lines.
4. In the 1980s a wave of restructuring went to industry.
5. Delayering was driven by the need to reduce costs.
6. Microsoft in Ireland is split up the seven business units.

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Exercise 8. Read the text below about different ways of organizing companies, and then
label the diagram, according to which of these they illustrate: HOMEWORK

line structure matrix structure functional structure staff structure

A B C D

COMPANY STRUCTURE
Most organizations have a hierarchical or pyramidal structure, with one person or a
group of people at the top, and an increasing number of people below them at each
successive level. There is a clear line or chain of command running down the pyramid. All
the people in the organization know what decisions they are able to make, who their
superior (or boss) is (to whom they report), and who their immediate subordinates are (to
whom they can give instructions). D
Some people in an organization have colleagues who help them: for example, there
might be an Assistant to the Marketing Manager. This is known as a staff position: its
holder has no line authority, and is not integrated into the chain of command, unlike, for
example, the Assistant Marketing Manager, who is number two in the marketing
department.
Yet the activities of most companies are too complicated to be organized in a single
hierarchy. Shortly before the First World War, the French industrialist Henry Fayol
organized his coal-mining business according to the functions that it had to carry out. He is
generally credited with inventing functional organization. Today, most large
manufacturing organizations have a functional structure, including (among others)
production, finance, marketing, sales, and personnel or staff departments. This means, for
example, that the production and marketing departments cannot take financial decisions
without consulting the finance department. ..
Functional organization is efficient, but there are two standard criticisms. Firstly,
people are usually more concerned with the success of their department than that of the
company, so there are permanent battles between, for example, finance and marketing, or
marketing and production, which have incompatible goals. Secondly, separating functions
is unlikely to encourage innovation.
Yet for a large organization manufacturing a range of products, having a single
production department is generally inefficient. Consequently, most large companies are
decentralized, following the model of Alfred Sloan, who divided General Motors into
separate operating divisions in 1920. Each division had its own engineering, production
and sales departments, made a different category of car (but with some overlap, to
encourage internal competition), and was expected to make a profit.
Businesses that cannot be divided into autonomous divisions with their own markets
can simulate decentralization, setting up divisions that deal with each other using
internally determined transfer prices. Many banks, for example, have established
commercial, corporate, private banking, international and investment divisions.

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 An inherent problem of hierarchies is that people at lower levels are unable to make
important decisions, but have to pass on responsibility to their boss. One solution to this is
matrix management, in which people report to more than one superior. For example, a
product manager with an idea might be able to deal directly with managers responsible for
a certain market segment and for a geographical region, as well as the managers
responsible for the traditional functions of finance, sales and production. This is one way
of keeping authority at lower levels, but it is not necessarily a very efficient one. Thomas
Peters and Robert Waterman, in their well-known book In Search of Excellence, insist on
the necessity of pushing authority and autonomy down the line, but they argue that one
element - probably the product - must have priority; four-dimensional matrices are far too
complex.
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.
Teams are often not very good for decision-making, and they run the risk of relational
problems, unless they are small and have a lot of self-discipline. In fact they still require a
definite leader, on whom their success probably depends.

 Which of the following three paragraphs most accurately summarizes the text, and
why?

First summary:
Although most organizations are hierarchical, with a number of levels, and a line of
command running from the top to the bottom, hierarchies should be avoided because they
make decision-making slow and difficult. A solution to this problem is matrix
management, which allows people from the traditional functional departments of
production, finance, marketing, sales, etc. to work together in teams. Another solution is
decentralization: the separation of the organization into competing autonomous divisions.
Second summary:
Most business organizations have a hierarchy consisting of several levels and a clear line
of command. There may also be staff positions that are not integrated into the hierarchy.
The organization might also be divided into functional departments, such as production,
finance, marketing, sales and personnel. Larger organizations are often further divided into
autonomous divisions, each with its own functional sections. More recent organizational
systems include matrix management and teams, both of which combine people from
different functions and keep decision-making at lower levels.
Third summary:
Most businesses are organized as hierarchies, with a clear chain of command: a boss who
has subordinates, who in turn have their own subordinates, and so on. The hierarchy might
be internally divided into functional departments. A company offering a large number of
products or services might also be subdivided into autonomous divisions. Communication
among divisions can be improved by the introduction of matrix management or teams.

 The text mentions the often incompatible goals of the finance, marketing and
production (or operations) departments. Classify the following strategies
according to which departments would probably favour them:

1. a factory working at full capacity

2. a large advertising budget

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 3. a large sales force earning high commission
4. a standard product without optional features
5. a strong cash balance
6. a strong market share for new products
7. generous credit facilities for customers
8. high profit margins
9. large inventories to make sure that products are available
10. low research and development spending
11. machines that give the possibility of making various different products
12. self-financing (using retained earnings rather than borrowing)

Exercise 9. Sentences 1 to 9 make up a short text about different ways in which companies
can be structured. Complete each sentence, by taking a middle part from the second box
and an end from the third box:

1. Most organizations have a hierarchical or pyramidal structure,I j

2. A clear line or chain of command runs down the hierarchy, e l
3. Some people in an organization have an assistant who helps them; g, k
4. Yet the activities of most large organizations are too elaborate, h,n
5. Large companies manufacturing a wide range of products, e.g. General Motors,
6. Businesses that cannot be divided into autonomous divisions with their own markets
7. An inevitable problem with hierarchies is that people at lower levels
8. One solution to this problem is matrix management, in which people report to more
than one superior: f,
9. Another, more recent, idea is to have a network of flexible groups or teams,
a. are normally decentralized into separate operating divisions,
b. are unable to make important decisions, but are obliged to pass on responsibility to
their boss,
c. can simulate decentralization, setting up divisions that use
d. instead of the traditional departments, which are often at war with each other;
e. so that all employees know who their superior or boss is, to whom they report,
f. e.g. a brand manager with an idea can deal directly with
g. this is an example of a staff position: its holder has no line authority,
h. to be organized in a single hierarchy, and require functional organization,
i. with a single person or a group of people at the top,
j. and an increasing number of people below them at each successive level.
k. and is not integrated into the chain of command.
l. and who their immediate subordinates are, to whom they can give instructions.
m. each with its own engineering, production and sales departments.
n. internally determined transfer prices when dealing with each other.
o. the appropriate managers in the finance, manufacturing and sales departments.
p. they are formed to carry out a project, after which they are dissolved and their members
reassigned.
q. unless responsibilities have been explicitly delegated.
r. usually with production or operations, finance, marketing and personnel departments.

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Exercise 10. Complete the text using the correct form of the following verbs:

achieve allocate balance deal with develop employ

establish follow require set

The top managers of a company (1) have to ......set...objectives and then develop particular
strategies that will enable the company to (2)..achieve....... them. This will involve
(3)..allocating....... the
company’s human, capital and physical resources. Strategies can often be sub-divided into
tactics - the precise methods in which the resources attached to a strategy are (4)
..balance....... .
The founders of a business usually establish a “mission statement” - a declaration about
what the business is and what it will be in the future. The business’s central values and
objectives will (5) ....follow..... from this. But because the business environment is always
changing, companies will occasionally have to modify or change their objectives. It is part
of top management’s role to (6) ...develop...... today’s objectives and needs against those
of
the future, and to take responsibility for innovation, without which any organization can
only expect a limited life. Top managers are also expected to set standards, and to (7)
.....employ.... human resources, especially future top managers.
They also have to manage a business’s social responsibilities and its impact on the
environment. They have to (8) .....establish...... and maintain good relations with
customers, major suppliers, bankers, government agencies, and so on. The top
management, of course, is
also on permanent stand-by to (9) ........deal with. major crises.
Between them, these tasks (10) ....require..... many different skills which are almost never
found
in one person, so top management is work for a team. A team, of course, is not the same as
a committee: it needs a clear leader, in this case the chairman or managing director.

Complete the following collocations:It is very important for a person to know how to set
objectives and to achieve them. Always the manager can take responsibility to manage with
the crise . to take care our small sisters.
11. to set .........
12. to allocate .........
13. to ......... responsibility
14. to ......... standards
15. to ......... and ......... good relations
16. to ......... a crisis

Exercise 11. Complete the text using the following verbs:

appointed attacked combined defined constituted

reviewed supervised supported

Large British companies generally have a chairman of the board of directors who oversees
operations, and a managing director (MD) who is responsible for the day-to-day running of
the company. In smaller companies, the roles of chairman and managing director are

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usually (1) combined. Americans tend to use the term president rather than chairman,
and
chief executive officer (CEO) instead of
managing director. The CEO or MD is (2)
supervised by various executive officers or vice-
presidents, each with clearly (3) defined authority
and
responsibility (production, marketing, finance, personnel, and so on).
Top managers are (4) appointed (and sometimes dismissed) by a company’s board of
directors.
They are (5) supported and advised and have their decisions and performance (6) reviewed
by the

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board. The directors of private companies were traditionally major shareholders, but this
does not apply to large public companies with wide share ownership. Such companies
should have boards (7) constituted of experienced people of integrity and with a record of
performance in a related business and a willingness to work to make the company
successful. In reality, however, companies often appoint people with connections that will
impress the financial and political milieu. Yet a board that does not demand high
performance and remove inadequate executives will probably eventually find itself
(8) attacked and displaced by raiders.

Exercise 12. You’ll hear a new employee being told where the different offices are in
the firm he has just joint. Listen to the conversation and number the rooms that Michael
is shown. The ‘tour’ starts at Mrs. Bronson’s office:

Exercise 13. Many big firms have lots of different sections and it can be helpful to know
which part of the company does what. Look at the following company departments. Which
department does which job?

Human Resources: Training, Distribution, Customer Service, Personnel,

Production: Quality, Production, Distribution, Maintenance, Packaging, Sales, Purchasing,
Marketing: Advertising, Marketing , Sales
Finance: Financial Services, Payroll, Accounts

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Sales, Financial Services, Quality, Training, Payroll, Production, Advertising, Accounts,
Distribution, Maintenance, Marketing, Customer Service, Purchasing, Personnel,
Packaging

Exercise 14. What department does which job? Match each job from the column on the
left to a company department from the column on the right:

1. puts the product into boxes? F A. Training

2. pays wages and salaries? I B. Production
3. plans how to promote products? C C. Marketing
4. has systems to prevent mistakesM D. Purchasing
5. looks after the equipment?O E. Personnel
6. deals with complaints? K F. Packaging
7. manufactures the products? B G. Sales
8. sends invoices to customers?H H. Accounts
9. buys equipment? D I. Payroll
10. arranges credit facilities? L J. Distribution
11. helps staff develop new skills? A K. Customer Service
12. sends products to the customer?J L. Financial Services
13. buys media space?N M. Quality
14. recruits new staff? E Payroll N. Advertising
15. sends representatives to visit O. Maintenance
customers?G

Exercise 15. Imagine that an important visitor is coming to your firm. She has sent you
this fax. Draft a fax to Ms. Trosborg arranging the date and the time you propose for the
visit:

TIVOLI DESIGN CONSORTIUM

BERSTORFFSGADE 19, DK-1577 COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
Telephone: +(45) 72 14 33 21 Fax: +(45) 56 39 42 38

TO: Publicity Office/Manager

Dear Sir or Madam,

We have heard from one of our mutual customers that your company is involved in a
number of interesting design projects.

As I am shortly staying in your city on business, I am writing to enquire whether it would

be convenient to visit your office.

I shall be in town from 14th to 18th November. I would be free any morning from 11.30
th
onwards and in the afternoon of 15 November.

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I would be extremely grateful if you could confirm whether a brief visit could be arranged
on one of the days and at the times suggested.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,
Anita Trosborg
Design Director

Exercise 16. Listen to the recording and fill in the names and titles or job
descriptions that are missing:

Exercise 17. Read the following passages about two companies. Decide which of the
headlines goes with which passage:

Planning and Building for Over 150 years

Pioneering Tomorrow’s Electronics

1. Over the decades the name of Siemens has become synonymous

with progress. Since 1847, when Werner Siemens and Johann Georg
Halske founded the Siemens & Halske Telegraph Construction
Company in Berlin, the history of Siemens has been closely linked with
the development of electrical firm, engineering. While still a fledgling
Siemens & Halske telegraphy with spearheaded the evolution of telegraph
the first pointer extensive telegraph and the construction of an 1866 Werner
network. In dynamo machine, Siemens invented the cornerstone of
laying the power engineering.

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 New ideas are an old tradition of Siemens. The company that grew out of the original
Siemens & Halske is today a highly innovative leader in the world electrical and
electronics market. Composed of Siemens AG and an array of domestic and foreign
subsidiaries, the contemporary Siemens organization continues to set milestones on the
road of progress.
Siemens maintains its own production facilities in more than 50 countries and operates
a worldwide sales network. With more than 300,000 employees, it is one of the largest
companies in the world electrical/electronics industry, having recorded annual sales of DM
82 billion in the 1992/93 fiscal year. Reliable and farsighted management is united with
the youthful dynamism and zest for innovation that typify the company.

2. In 1849, Johann Philipp Holzmann founded a company in Sprendlingen, near

Frankfurt am Main, which initially undertook work in connection with the construction of
the railroads, but very quickly expanded its activities to include all fields of building
construction and civil engineering. The first major foreign project was started in 1882,
with the contract for Amsterdam’s Central Station.
By the turn of the century, branch offices and regional offices had been established at
numerous locations throughout Germany. As early as 1885, Holzmann had more than
5,000 employees. Interesting activities from this period include the company’s work on the
Baghdad railroad and railroad projects in East Africa.
Holzmann has passed through all forms of
company organization, from individual proprietorship via
a limited and general partnership through to a
GmbH (limited liability company). The Philipp
Holzmann Aktiengesellschaft (public
limited company) was formed in 1917. Companies
founded by Holzmann were active in South America.
Even following the losses of manpower and assets during the Second World War,
Holzmann was able, as early as 1950, to recommence its foreign activities. 1979 saw the
acquisition of J.A. Jones Construction Company, of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, a
major American corporation active in the construction field. This was followed in 1981 by
the purchase of Lockwood Green Engineers, Inc., Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA.
Together with its USA subsidiaries Holzmann has responded to the changes occurring in
the construction industry with a flexible and versatile corporate strategy.
The takeover in early 1989 of the Steinmüller Group, one of Germany’s leading
companies in the sectors of power engineering, process engineering and environmental
protection demonstrates this.

Exercise 18. Complete the information missing in the table:

Dates What happened? Who did what?

1847
1849
Invention of dynamo machine
First large foreign order begun
1885
Aktiengesellschaft founded

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1950
Acquisition of J.A. Jones Construction
Company
1981
1989
Recorded annual sales of DM 82 billion

Exercise 19. Complete the following table with information from the articles:

HOLZMANN SIEMENS
Locations of the company’s
activities
Activities of both companies up to
1940s
Recent activities of the companies

Exercise 20. Read the following text and answer some questions below:

RE-ENGINEERING THE CORPORATION

“It’s not called redundancy these days ... It’s called downsizing”
If you want to stay in step with the latest management trend, fire half your staff. That’s
the advice of Michael Hammer and James Champy in their best-selling book ‘Re-
engineering the Corporation’. For Business Process Re-engineering or BPR is about
smashing up the corporate hierarchies we’re used to and rebuilding them from scratch.
And the result is that tens of thousands of managers are losing their jobs in the name of re-
inventing the corporation. In fact, some say that, if BPR really caught on, 25 million
Americans would be made redundant tomorrow. Of course, it’s not called redundancy
these days. It’s called downsizing. But it means the same thing to an out-of-work
executive.
Out with vertical hierarchy
According to Tom Peters, a management guru who’s clearly more excited about BPR
than the 25 million looking at impending unemployment, what a lot of large companies are
learning is that they can do better with four layers of management than with twelve. The
vertical hierarchy is out. The new, streamlined ‘horizontal network’ is in. And gone are the
days of the autocratic kings of industry - the Lee Iaccocas and John Sculleys of this world
- for now the customer is king.
From the bottom up
Basically, BPR is a mixture of Japanese lean, flexible, ‘just in time’ production and
American enthusiasm for re-structuring companies from the bottom up. What it means is
that, in order to remain competitive, we’ll all have to forget the old bureaucratic empires,
divided by function into separate departments such as sales and accounts. We’ll be
organizing ourselves instead around continuous business processes aimed at getting the
product to the customer.
Empowerment or madness?
In fact, ‘re-engineers’ say that by the year 2000 it’ll be team-players and not leaders
that businesses will chiefly be looking for. And, when it comes to decision-making, middle
management may increasingly find itself bypassed altogether, as more and more

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responsibility is passed down the line to cross-functional teams of junior managers and
shopfloor workers. For by then these will have become largely self-managing, and the
corporate pyramid will be turned completely upside down. BPR enthusiasts call this
‘empowerment’. Others call it madness.
Mini-companies the way ahead
But is it even that? Or is it just a sexy new name for an old idea? In Sweden, where the
top 20 firms do 80% of their business abroad, companies like the manufacturing giant,
ABB, have already done something remarkably similar to re-engineering by breaking up
the firm into hundreds of mini-companies. IBM had the same idea when it decided to form
independent mini-companies of its own and ‘Big Blue’ set up thirteen little ‘Baby Blues’.
But, whereas ABB has managed to halve the development time of its products, IBM has
not been able to keep pace with its smaller, fitter competitors.
The customer comes first
For BPR does seem to work better in some countries than in others. In the fast-growing
economies of East Asia and Latin America, for example, it’s doing well. But things don’t
look quite so good in the USA, and in Central Europe it’s even worse. Paternalistic
German bosses, in particular, find it hard to delegate responsibility to subordinates and yet
overpaid German workers cost their companies 50% more than the average American
costs theirs. Many French executives, too, still find it difficult to accept that the customer
comes first. And in recession-battered Britain BPR is, more often than not, just an excuse
to cut back and get rid of unwanted staff. Perhaps they should be getting rid of BPR
instead.

What is your immediate reaction to the article? Tick the response nearest to your own or
sum up what you think in a single sentence:
1. I think it paints a rather negative picture.
2. I think it oversimplifies the issue.
3. I think it’s a bit one-sided.
4. I think it makes some interesting points.
5. I think it argues its case extremely well.
6. I think .....

Without referring back to the article, how much can you remember about:
7. mass redundancies
8. the managerial ladder
9. the customer
10. teamwork
11. mini-companies
12. cultural attitudes

Find the expressions in the article which mean:

13. the latest ‘fashion’
14. right from the beginning
15. became popular
16. unemployed executive
17. management expert
18. completely restructure at all levels
19. may be excluded get rid

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 20. can’t match the competition
21. to economize

Exercise 21. Complete the short dialogues below using the following phrasal verbs:

put up
get on to come up with come in for with back out of
get down to live up to put in for cut back on keep up with

1. Has the restructuring of the production department speeded things up at all?

Not really. I’m afraid it failed to get down
to expectations.
2. How’s the budget for this year looking?
I think we’re going to have to .cut back
on. spending, I’m afraid.
3. We really need to consult our legal advisors on this one.
OK, I’ll ................ them straightaway.
hard to keep up
4. You know, in this industry it’s sometimes with all the latest
developments.
But that’s what I’m paying you for!
5. You know, I’m sorry we ever got into this project in Hong Kong.
Well, its too late to it now.
I hear you’ve .come in
6. for. a promotion.
Yes. After eight years in this place, I think it’s about time they gave me my own
department.
7. I think everyone’s here who’s supposed to be here.
OK, let’s Get down to business.
8. Look, if our team can’t find a solution to this problem, no one can.
OK, go away and see what you can …………….. .
9. A lot of people were very unhappy about the way they handled the redundancies.
I know. They’ve ................ quite a lot of criticism over that.
10. If you want to stay in this job, you’ll have to ................ a fair amount of hassle, I’m
afraid.
That’s OK. I’m getting fairly used to it by now.

Exercise 22. Now, without referring back to the previous exercise, try to match up the
halves of the following word partnerships:

1. come up a. to business
2. cut back b. for a promotion
3. get on c. for criticism
4. keep up d. to expectations
5. back out e. with a lot of hassle
6. put in f. with a solution
7. get down g. of an agreement
8. come up h. to the account department
9. come in i. with the latest development
10. put up j. on spending

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 Exercise 23. Schering is an international company engaged in agricultural and
pharmaceutical activities. The French pharmaceutical subsidiary has recently changed its
organizational structure. Listen to a manager describing the new structure to some
colleagues from other parts of the organization and complete the organigram:

Exercise 24. Listen again and answer these questions:

1. Which person on the chart made the presentation?

2. Who does he report to?
3. What are the Unit Directors responsible for?
4. What three advantages of the work groups does he mention?

Exercise 25. Invent your own company and describe its organizational structure using the
following verbs:

The most common verbs for describing structure are:

consists of contains includes

is composed of is made up of is divided into

Other verbs frequently used to describe company organization include:

to be in charge of
to support or to be supported
to be accountable to
to be responsible for
to assist or to be assisted

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Use the following questions to expand the topic:

1. What does your company do?

2. What is it called?
3. What kind of public image do you have?
4. How many people do you employ?
5. Where are your headquarters?
6. Do you have offices in other countries? If so, where?
7. What is your turnover, market share and net profits? Who is your main
competitor?
8. Are you growing, shrinking or holding steady?
9. What are your most promising products and/or markets?
10. What problems are you having and how are you dealing with them?

Exercise 26. Read the whole text and then complete the organization chart:

I think we have a fairly typical organization for a manufacturing firm. We’re divided into
Finance, Production, Marketing and Human Resources departments.
The Human Resources department is the simplest. It consists of two sections. One is
responsible for recruitment and personnel matters, the other is in charge of training.
The Marketing department is made up of three sections: Sales, Sales Promotion, and
Advertising, whose heads are all accountable to the marketing manager.
The Production department consists of five sections. The first of these is Production
Control, which is in charge of both Scheduling and Materials Control. Then there’s
Purchasing, Manufacturing, Quality Control, and Engineering Support. Manufacturing
contains three sections: Tooling, Assembly, and Fabrication.
Finance is composed of two sections: Financial Management, which is responsible for
capital requirements, fund control, and credit, and Accounting.

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 COMPANY STRUCTURE

1. acquisition
2. array
3. assembly line
4. assets
5. at full capacity
6. autonomous
7. borrowing
8. business entity
9. cash balance
10. chain of command
11. contain/include
12. corporation
13. credit facilities
14. “customercentric” approach
15. decentralization
16. delayering
17. downsizing
18. empowerment
19. farsighted
20. fiscal year = financial year
21. fledgling firm
22. flexible
23. from the bottom up
24. functional structure
25. hierarchical structure
26. hierarchy
27. incompatible
28. individual proprietorship
29. infrastructure
30. inherent problems
31. innovative
32. line authority

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33. line structure
34. manpower
35. manual
36. market share
37. matrix structure
38. merger
39. milestone
40. output
41. outsourcing
42. product line
43. production facilities
44. profit margin
45. pyramidal structure
46. retained earnings
47. sales force
48. staff structure
49. subordinates
50. superior = boss
51. takeover
52. to assist
53. to back out of
54. to be accountable to = to be responsible for
55. to be divided into
56. to be in charge of
57. to come in for
58. to come up with
59. to consist of/to be composed of/to be made up of
60. to cut back on
61. to delegate responsibility
62. to demolish
63. to fire up
64. to flop
65. to get down to
66. to get on to
67. to get rid of smth
68. to impede
69. to keep pace with
70. to keep up with
71. to lay the cornerstone
72. to live up to
73. to maintain
74. to make redundant
75. to pool together
76. to put in for
77. to put up with
78. to recommence
79. to report to
80. to spearhead

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81. to split up
82. to typify
83. transfer prices
84. versatile
85. zest for
86. Company structure:
a. Board of Directors
b. Chairman (GB), President (US)
c. Managing Director = MD (GB), Chief Executive Officer = CEO (US)
d. Production Department
e. Marketing Department
f. Finance Department
g. Research and Development Department (R&D)
h. Personnel Department
i. Market Research Dept.
j. Sales Dept.
k. Purchasing Dept.
l. Accounts Dept.
m. Conference Room
n. Reception
o. Planning Dept

Dialogue 1
Mrs. Bronson:…Margaret, I’d like to introduce you to Michael Hill from our Australian
branch.
Margaret: Hello, Michael, pleased to meet you.
Michael: How do you do?
Margaret: How’s your first day doing?
Michael: Oh, very well, thank you. It’s…it’s all very interesting.
Mrs. Bronson: I was just telling Michael what the set-up here is – who’s where and what’s
what, so to speak. I was wondering if I could hang him over to you now? Margaret: Oh,
yes, sure, fine. Um…would you like to come this way… Michael: See you later, Mrs.
Bronson.
Mrs. Bronson: Yes, sure.
Michael: What was…what was the room next door to Reception? I heard a strange noise
coming from it.
Margaret: Oh, right, yes, that’s where the photocopier is.
Michael: Oh, I see. That’s what it was.
Margaret: Yes, we’ve had a new one installed. It’s very fast but it makes even more noise
than the old one, unfortunately. Right, let’s go this way now.
Michael: OK.
Margaret: Um…opposite Mrs. Bronson’s office just here is the General Manager’s
office…

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Michael: General Manager, fine.
Margaret: I’ll expect he’ll speak to you later.
Michael: OK.
Margaret: And, um if…we go right down the corridor, on the right-hand side are the lifts.
Michael: Fine.
Margaret: And on the left are the stairs.
Michael: OK.
Margaret: So they’re handy opposite each other.
Michael: Right, fine.
Margaret: And, er, in there by the stairs also is the coffee machine.
Michael: Oh, right, very useful.
Margaret: Yes, the most important thing of all. You’ll meet most of the members of staff
there, I should think.
Michael: Fine.
Margaret: And, er, if you keep going down the corridor, on the right-hand side, just down
here, you can see the conference room.
Michael: Great.
Margaret: And, as we go round the corner on the right, here is the sales department.
Michael: Sales, OK.
Margaret: And as we come round the corner on the left is the purchasing department.
Michael: OK.
Margaret: And, if you can see, just down the end of the corridor is our marketing
department.
Michael: Oh, that’s where they are, right, fine.
Margaret: That’s right, next to you actually, in the accounts department.
Michael: Right.
Margaret: Which is just on the right here.
Michael: Huhu.
Margaret: And on the left opposite, is the canteen.
Michael: Oh, very important.
Margaret: It’s open at lunchtime and in the afternoon as well.
Michael: Oh, great.
Margaret: Between three and four.
Michael: Ok, right.
Margaret: And if we come in here on the right, then. That’s your desk over by the window.

Michael: Oh, that’s marvelous.

Margaret: Yes. With a lovely view of the park.
Michael: Oh, isn’t that beautiful?
Margaret: It’s better than the view from my office.
Michael: Right. Oh, well that’s marv…Just one thing, I wondered if you could perhaps tell
me where the…where the gents toilet is while we’re about it?
Margaret: Oh, right, yes, of course. Erm. It’s at the end of the corridor just opposite
reception.
Michael: Right. Thank you. I’ll…I’ll see you in a minute.
Margaret: Right, OK…
Exercise 16.

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Presenter: Today we are talking to Philip Knight about the structure of Biopaints
International. Philip’s the General Manager of the Perth factory. Philip, do you think you
could tell us something about the way Biopaints is actually organized?
Philip Knight: Yes, certainly. Er…we employ about two thousand people in all in two
different locations. Most people work here at our headquarters plant. And this is where we
have the administrative departments, of course.
Presenter: Well, perhaps you could say something about the department structure?
Philip Knight: Yes, certainly. Well, now first of all, as you know we’ve got two factories,
one here in Perth, Australia, and the other in Singapore. Lee Boon Eng is the other General
Manager, over here in Singapore.
Presenter: And you are completely independent of each other, is that right?
Philip Knight: Oh, yes. Our two plants are fairly independent. I mean, I am responsible to
George Harris, the Production Manager, and we have to co-operate closely with Rosemary
Broom, the Marketing Manager.
Presenter: Mm, yeah.
Philip Knight: But otherwise, as far as the day to day running is concerned, we’re pretty
much left alone to get on with the job. Oh, and I forgot to mention finance. The Finance
Director is Weimin Tan. She’s a very important woman. And her task is to make sure the
money side of things is OK. The accountant and such people, they report to her directly.
Presenter: Is that all?
Philip Knight: Oh, no, no. There’s Personnel too.
Presenter: Oh, yes.
Philip Knight: That’s quite separate. Deirdre Spencer is Personnel Manager. And the
Training Manager reports to her, of course.
Presenter: What about Research and Development? Isn’t that a separate department?
Philip Knight: Well, in terms of the laboratories, there are two: one at each production
plant. But it’s a separate department and it has a separate head. And that’s Dr. Tarcisius
Chin.
Presenter: Are there any other features worth mentioning?
Philip Knight: There’s the planning department – Chow Fung is in charge of that. And a
purchasing department – they buy in the materials for production. Presenter: Yes, and
what about the board of directors and the chairman?
Philip Knight: Yes, well they’re at the top, aren’t they, of course? I mean, a couple of the
executives are directors themselves. The Managing Director, of course, that’s Robert Leaf
and then there’s…

Dialogue 2
A: OK. Let’s look at the new organization of Schering, France. Can everybody see that?
B: Yes.
C: Yes, it’s fine.
A: At the top here we have the General Manager and he has six people who report to him.
There’s the Director responsible for strategic coordination. Then there’s me. I’m
responsible for development and marketing. Then there’s the Production Director, the
Financial Director, the Personnel Manager and the Pharmaceutical Director. Any
questions so far?
C: No, none.
B: It’s very similar to the Nordic countries.

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A: OK. Let’s look at my team in more detail then. As you can see, I have a Commercial
Director, a Medical Director and then there are three Unit Directors. Two of them are
responsible for domestic sales and one for foreign sales. But the interesting thing about these
units is the work groups. As you can see, one unit has three work groups and another has four.
B: That is rather different.
C: What’s the point of having these groups?
A: They have a lot of advantages. Firstly, each one works in a different medical field so
they can develop the necessary specialized knowledge. Secondly, it’s very motivating for
the staff. Each group is a separate profit center. They are totally in control of their own
budgets so they have a lot of responsibility.
B: How big are the groups?
A: There are six people in each one. There’s someone from marketing and someone from
manufacturing. Then there are two doctors, one responsible for medical communication and
the other working on research and development. There’s someone from the sales force and
someone from the Pharmaceutical Department. So each person represents a different section
of our organization. And that’s another big advantage. There’s a wide range of expertise to
draw on when they’re making decisions. C: Yes, I see what you mean.

B: It’s very interesting indeed.

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