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Lesson 2 - Company

1.1.2024, , Izvor: Verlag Dashöfer

Lesson 2 - Company

Introduction

There may be occasions when you have to talk about the company we work for. This can be for example when you need to explain to someone how your company is organized, who the responsible person for various aspects of the business is,how the company is run, or when you are showing someone around the workplace.

Therefore, this lecture is based mostly on vocabulary, improving your ability to appropriately address things and situations.

1.1 Objectives of the lesson:

  • - to learn new vocabulary connected with a company, including introduction, history of said company, company structure, various departments and positions, types of companies and other organizations connected with various areas of business, business people and business leaders and corporate events
  • - to practice using appropriate language when talking about topics connected with companies and business
  • - to learn and practice word formation in English, especially using prefixes
  • - to use and revise new and known vocabulary, phrases and idioms

Reading

2.1 Introduction to a Company – People and Workplaces

Various people work in various companies. Some positions are generic and exist in different companies, whereas some positions are unique and specific to certain companies.

Generally, people who work in a company, or all the people on its payroll are its employees, personnel, staff or workforce (workers). Usually these words mean the people carrying out the work of a company rather than leading and organizing it – the management. Activities of various companies may be spread over different sites. A company‘s most senior managers work in its head office or headquarters (HQ). Some managers have their own individual offices, but most employees work in open-plan offices (areas where many people work together). Administration is often done in offices by administrative staff or support staff. In many companies there is a human resource department (HR), which deals with recruitment, salaries, etc. In this area lower positions are called human resources; higher positions are called human resources management. The name of this department can also be the personnel department.

Exercise 1: Choose the best word from the words in the brackets to fill the gap.

  1. We have 150 people on our __________ (recruitment/business/payroll).
  2. Our main office is in Bratislava, but we have __________ all over the country (companies/places/sites).
  3. Mrs. Kook is in charge of training in the human __________ department (resources/staff/support).
  4. Our _________ department is responsible for recruitment. (employee/worker/ personnel) Mr. Kook is the head of the ____________ team (staff/management/ organization).

2.2 Company Structure

  1. Departments

Companies are an important part of every country‘s economy. Businesses produce goods and services, and are of every shape and size. There is a wide variety of differences between them. For example, in all countries there are nationalized companies belonging to the state, as well as private companies, which can be small firms with one owner, or large firms with thousands of shareholders.

In very large firms the shareholders have very little to do with day-to day running of the company, which is left to the management. Large companies might be organized into several large departments, sometimes even divisions. In smaller companies the structure is simpler. Consider the following example:

"The Company is divided into five functional areas of activities, namely, Human Resources, Production, Distribution, Planning & Engineering and Public Relations. The Human Resources and Public relations activities are conducted at the Main Office in the town of Martin while the Production, Distribution and Planning activities are conducted at Žilina, not far away from the main office.“

The organizational structure of some larger companies is very hierarchical with a board of directors at the top and the various departmental heads reporting to them. Often the only time shareholders can influence the board is at the yearly shareholders‘ meeting.

b) Positions

Exercise 2: Read the following article.

"Doplex is an international group based in the USA which also produces special equipment for professional and consumer markets. This group has subsidiaries in more European countries. The organization in Germany is very complicated so I suppose it is better to start at the top. There you will find Jordan Black who is everybody‘s boss. He controls all aspects of finance and he is in permanent contact with our head office. Both I and Uma Stark, who is the other sales manager, report directly to Mr. Black. We are two sales managers because we sell two different categories of products. My area is basically all kinds of electric equipment. The other area is tools and hardware which includes various products. Uma Stark, who is responsible for this category, does not have any Doplex employees working under her apart from her secretary. This means that she relies entirely on national network of seven sales agents. She is in charge of marketing and promoting our products. My department is organized in a slightly different way. The majority of our business is done through distributors, and the rest is direct to major account holders. As we sell all over Germany, I need a team of sales

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