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Listening

  1. Listen to the first part of an interview with Stuart Crainer, who has written many books on business and management. What four qualities for an ideal manager does he talk about? What additional quality does he mention?

  1. Listen to the second part of the interview. What does Stuart say about management styles at the following companies?

1 General Electric

2 Virgin

3 Body Shop

4 IKEA

5 Nokia

  1. Listen to the last part of the interview. What, according to Stuart, is the key to managing globally?

  1. Complete the passage below about Mr Pat Guerin, Industrial Relations Manager of Guinness Ireland. Use these expressions.

This job involved… I reported directly to… I was employed as… I worked… The next position I held was… I was then promoted to… In this role…

I’ve worked…

When I first started working in Guinness1 I was employed as a general worker. For three years 2___________________in the bottling plant as a machine operator. 3___________________for a period of seven years in the engineering department as a maintenance assistant. This involved working with technically skilled personnel in maintaining plant and equipment. In both jobs 4___________________a supervisor. Since then, however, the structure of the company has significantly changed and the supervisor layer no longer exists. General workers now report to a plant manager. 5___________________the position of a laboratory officer in the quality assurance laboratory. 6___________________carrying out a wide range of analyses on all aspects of the brewing process. For the past year 7___________________in the personnel department as an Industrial Relations Manager. 8___________________I report directly to the Personnel Manager of the company.

  1. Listen to Mr Guerin and check your answers.

  2. Listen to part 2 and answer the questions.

1. What contributed to Mr Guerin's transition from general worker to a managerial position?

2. What is his principal role in the company?

3. What does this involve?

4. What does he think is the main skill that a manager needs today?

  1. Listen to part 3. How has the company changed since Mr Guerin joined?

You may wish to check you understand these words before you listen.

contract out industrial unrest consultation negotiation

early retirement compulsory redundancy