Module 7
7.1 Strengths and weaknesses (page 67)
1 I admire my boss a lot. He’s very capable;he knows exactly what he’s doing and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty,not like some managers who think they’re above it all. The one problem is that he takes on too much. I don’t think it’s because he doesn’t trust us to do a good job--it’s because he likes to be involved in everything. He ‘s a bit of control freak. The result is that he spreads himself very thin, when he could hand more work out to others, and he’s often overloaded and stressed.
2 Cheryl’s not particularly brilliant, but she knows that. She knows her own limitations, which is certainly one of her strengths. In fact, I don’t think you have to be particularly bright to be a manager-- that’s more a quality you need in a leader. A manager’s job is to bring order to the workplace and the team, so that people are clear about what they should be doing and when they should be doing it. Cheryl is very good at getting everyone working in the most efficient way and that makes our working environment much less stressful.
3  He’s not an easy guy to work for. He has very high expectations of his staff and he can be rude and too direct. Sensitivity is not his strong point. He often puts you on the spot: ‘What makes you think this will work?’ ‘Have you thought about the cost of this?’and so on . You have to be prepared to justify your actions a lot. Some people can’t stand being challenged like this all the time, but you can’appreciatest deny that he gets the most out of his staff. People do perform.
4 There are people who listen to what you are saying, and people who hear what you are saying. Paul is one of the former. He does try to listen to other people’s ideas, but his mind has often moved onto the next thing, and he doesn’t take on board what you’re saying. It’s the same thing when he’s expressing his own ideas and wishes. He kind of takes it for granted that everyone has reached the same point in their thinking that he has, when often they’re still two or three steps behind. Don’t get me wrong, he’s very nice guy--kind and clever, and he has lots of great ideas and vision for the company--but because of these communication difficulties, he can be very frustrating to work for.
5 The financial rewards in our company are not so huge, but in spite of that, in my team we all stay very motivated because our boss really appreciates our work. She’s actually very protective of her own people. She gives us a lot of praise. Other people in the company say she’s a maverick, a kind of a loner. They say she’s difficult to get on with and doesn’t really have the company’s interests at heart. But I wouldn’t known about that really, because it’s not the side of her that we see. What we get is 100% loyalty and encouragement.
Module 8
8.1 Corporate social responsibility (page 80)
I’d like to talk to you today about an approach to doing business that is fast gaining popularity. It is the concept of Triple Bottom Line. We all know the term bottom line and what it refers to, namely the financial profitability of the company. Triple Bottom Line, or 3BL as it is sometimes called, recognises that there are two other important factors in measuring a company’s success-social performance and environmental performance. Put in a more friendly way, 3BL is about ‘People, Planet and Profits’. Nor are these things unco
nnected:the three legs are in fact strongly linked.
Why is this important? In today’s global economy, the standards set by business, and not by government, are more and more what affect people’s lives. The environment, as we all know, is under unprecedented pressure. In many sectors-transport,energy generation, production of chemicals and plastics-business can play its part in reducing pollution, particularly emissions into the atmosphere. It can also take more responsibility for the full life-cycle of products-from manufacture to disposal.
In the area of social performance, businesses must consider the welfare of their employees and the communities in which they operate. In the pursuit of a better financial bottom line, companies will naturally look to reduce their labour costs. This may mean cutting jobs or wages or it may mean outsourcing work or relocating to a country where labour is cheaper. All too often the impact of these actions on the workforce is not taken properly into account.
One aspect of social responsibility-sponsorship of community projects- has already been taken up by companies on a wide scale. That is probably because companies have been q
uick to see the financial benefit of the good publicity that comes from being involved in such helpful projects.
Does all this sound nice? Of course it does, but it’s not enough to say you are going to follow a policy of corporate social responsibility: to make a difference companies have to ‘ walk the talk’. So how do you go about translating good intentions into concrete actions that will really make a difference?
The first thing is to be attentive to the needs of all stakeholders. This means that companies must recognise their responsibilities not only to their shareholders, but also be committed to respecting their employees, their suppliers, their customers, and the local community and environment in which they operate.