Unit 5 Working together
5.1 Getting to know the workplace...
5.1 A
Mrs Bronson: ... Margaret, I'd like to introdce 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 going?
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 hand 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 that room next door to Reception?
I heard a strange noise coming from it.
Margaret: Oh, right, yes, that's where the photocopier is.
Micbael: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.
ok, um... opposite Mrs Bronson's office just here is the General Manager's office...
Michael: General Manager, fine.
Margaret: I 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, jump 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: And on the left opposite, is the canteen.
It's open at lunchtime and in the afternoon as well,
Michael: Oh, great.
Margaret: Between three and four.
Margaret:And if we come in here on the right,then. That's your desk over by the window.
Michael: Oh, that's marvellous.
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. Em. 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...
And that is the end 5.1 A.
5.3 Company organization
5.3 A 2
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 departmental 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 Egn is the other General Manager, over there 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.
Philip Knight: But otherwise, as far as 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...
And that is the end 5.3 A 2.
5.5 Working with others
5.5 B
Charles: ...Jane, I wonder if you could tell us what ricardo semler is trying to do?
Jane: Well, sure. Semler wants to introduce real democracy in the workplace.
That's the essence of his philosophy.
It's the end of the party for Henry Ford's assembly line, he would argue.
He gives it at the most a hundred years.
That means it still has 15 or 20 years to go.
It's collapsing slowly.
And the giant corporations we knew this century are coming to an end.
Charles: Robert, would you like to comment on this?
Robert: Yes, I think it needs to be stresses that autocracy is the main problem afflicting all these companies.
In countries like America, Britain and Brazil people are all very proud of their democratic values in Public life, and rightly so.
But as Semler himself says, he has yet to see a delmocratic workplace.
We are being held back by a system that doesn't allow democracy into business or into the workplace...
Jane: If I could just add a related point there concerning bureaucratic structures.
Getting rid of seven layers of management bureaucracy is the real key to semco's success.
This went hand in hand with the introduction of genuine democracy.
Managers-including Semler who is one of six 'counsellors'who rotate in the job of chief executive -
are rated regularly by their employees.
Every manager gets points from between one to a hundred from his staff, anonymously.
This happens every six months, when a new budget is set.
If managers regularly fail to come up to expectations, the give way or are pushed out.
One longserving manager, who used to score 86 out of 100,
has dropped down to only 51. What will happen to him is uncertain.
Charles: Surely, this means that the workforce watches the management closely all the time,
instead of getting on with their work?
Robert: Yes, but evaluating the boss was just the first step.
The big break came when people were allowed to elect their own boss.
In Semler's view managers imported from outside the company are bad news.
Staff who are truly involved in the financial success of the factory are realistic about choosing future bosses.
Charles: Jane, can this system really work?
Jane: Absolutely! And I'll tell you why.
You see, the fact that employees are free to come and go as they like,
or work from hime, or become a consultant, means that they don't take advantage of the situation.
They recognize the responsibility that comes with controlling their own futures.
And as several reports show, it appears to be a happy place to work, with very low staff turnover
and a long waiting list of people applying for jobs there.
Robert: As Jane's already said,
what has happened is that Semco has got rid of the old pyramid structure of bureaucrats,
together with their power symbols.
So secretaries and parking spaces have gone.
The organization now consists of three concentric circles,
and inner one of six vice-presidents (including Semler),
surrounded by a second circle of up to 10 leaders of the business units,
and the outer one which includes everyone else - they're called 'associates'.
Just walking around the factory there's no way of distingishing the high earners
from the low earners because workers wear what they like and hardly anybody has a desk.
Charles: Of course, the major question people have been asking is whether the Semco experiment is transferable?
For instance to other types of company and other countries?
Jane: Yes, that is the big question.
In some parts of Erope employees already do participate actively,
but in these cases there seems to be a 'special factor' to explain their success.
for example, the Mondragon co-operatives in Northern Spain which are closely tied up with the asque culture,
or the benevolent former owners in employee-owned companies in several other countries.
Charles: Still Semco must be taken seriously.
A company that can survive more than a decade of Brazil's inflation can't
just be ignored, can it Robert?
Robert: No, no, it certainly can't.
But there is one area, I believe, where this model won't work.
Transferring the model to a large corporation like IBM or General Motors
doesn't have much hope of success,
as long as giving up control means bringing information out in the open.
And it is precisely information, or the lack of it,
which represents power in such organizations.
Or as their critics would say, those are the reasons they will go to the wall!
Charles: At any rate a few smaller companies have tried to directly copy Semler's example.
And if the hundreds of managers who visit Semler's shop floor are any guide,
there is a considerable appetite ot there for making Western capitalism more civilized.
Would you agree, Jane?
Jane: That certainly appears to be the case and yet I suppose
the probability of this happening quickly is very small.
As the British journalist Victor Keegan puts it:
'The trouble is that the corporate world is run by people not exactly
willing to lose their parking lots,
let alone to subject themselves to monthly scrutiny by people whom,
currently, they can hire and fire.
Corporate managers don't yet look in a hurry to commit mass professional suicide!'
And that is the end 5.5 B.