Unit Five
Working Together
Study Objectives
• This unit looks at various aspects of working in
business and occasions when people may be expected
to talk about their workplace.
• Firstly, one may have to show someone physically
around the office or premises. Then, more generally,
one may be asked to describe how the business is
organized. Furthermore, people in business may
often be called upon to describe to outsiders or
friends what their company actually does.
• Manager-employee relationships are also considered.
5.1 Getting to know the workplace…
• This section covers the important question
of finding one’s way about a company’s
premises either as someone who is new to
the company or as a visitor.
• It concentrates on office life and how
offices are laid out.
Departments/Sections of a Company
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Personnel
Human Resources
Administration
General Affairs
Marketing
Sales
Finance
Purchasing
Dispatch
Production
After-sales
Quality Control (Q&C)
Research & Development (R&D)
Advertising
Public Relations (P&R)
Logistics
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人事
人力资源
行政管理
总务
营销
销售
财务
采购
发货
生产
售后服务
质量控制
研发
广告
公关
物流
Step A
• Listen to the conversation
and number the rooms that
Michael is shown.
• Attention: the tour starts
at Mrs. Bronson’s office.
Step B
Discussion
• Work in pairs and decide
which points you think are
important.
• If you think any of them
are ‘silly’ piece of advice,
how would change them?
Step D
• Imagine that an important visitor is coming
to your firm. She has sent you this fax.
• The fax provides reading input and sets the
scene.
• Homework:
Draft a fax to Ms Trosborg arranging the date and the
time you propose for the visit.
• MODEL MEMORANDUM
• From: Publicity Officer
To: Managing Director
• Subject: Visitor from Denmark Date: 13/9/-• On 15 November Ms Trosborg, Design Director of the Tivoli Design
Consortium of Copenhagen is paying a visit to our offices.
• I would like to ask whether you are likely to be in that morning. If
possible I would like to bring Ms Trosborg to see you for a brief
meeting, probably ten minutes or so, just to make contact. Would
11.45 be OK?
• Please let me know as soon as possible if it is convenient.
• Thanks,
• (Signature)
• Model fax
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Anita Trosborg
Design Director
Tivoli Design Consortium
Berstorffsgade 19,
DK-1557 Copenhagen,
Denmark
Fax: + (45) 56 39 42 38
Date______
• Dear Anita Trosborg,
• We thank you for your enquiry concerning your prospective visit here.
• I am writing to say that it would be convenient for you to visit our office on 15
November, from 11.30. I have arranged a brief meeting with our managing
director and then a meeting and possibly lunch with our design manager after
that.
• I hope you will find the time convenient. If so, please confirm as soon as
possible.
• We look forward to receiving you.
• Yours sincerely,
• (Signature)
• Publicity Officer
5.2 Different Kinds of Companies
• This section deals with types of business and
occupational structure in various sectors of
industry and product groups.
• Divisions of economic activity:
①primary industry
②secondary industry
③tertiary industry
Forms of Business Ownership 企业产权形式
Sole Proprietorships
个人企业
独资经营企业，由一名出资
者单独出资并经营
Own all assets, profits
and liabilities or debts
Partnerships
合伙企业
两人以上组成，订立合伙协
议，共同出资，合伙经营，
共享收益，共担风险
Common ownership, shared
profits and losses, right to
participate in managing
the operation of the
business
Joint Ventures
合资企业
两个或以上属于不同国家
（地区）的公司、企业或其
他经济组织以合资方式组成
的经济实体
Poll resources & expertise
from different areas or
countries, share risks and
rewards
Corporations
公司
依公司法的规定设立的法人 Legal entity, empowered
组织，具有独立的法人资格， with legal rights such as
有权以公司名义拥有财产， to sue and be sued, own
property, loan and borrow
享有权利，承担义务
money
Franchises
特许经营
特许者将自己拥有的商标、
技术、经营模式等授予被特
许者使用，并收取相应费用
Use a business name and
sell products or services,
usually in a specific
geographical territory
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国营企业
国有企业
私营企业
乡镇企业
集体企业
跨国公司
母公司
附属公司
分公司
代表处
控股公司
上市公司
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state-operated enterprise
state-owned enterprise
privately-owned enterprise
township enterprise
collective enterprise
multinational company
parent company
subsidiary company
branch office
representative offices
holding company
listed company
Step A
• Which of these companies do
you know? Match them up with
the sectors of industry and
the product groups in the
chart.
Step B
Reading
• Suggested answers:
business, major, secondary,
services, workers, another,
most, countries, work, primary,
lab our, basic, fully, productive,
economic, fishing, percent
5.3 Company organization
• This section deals with the divisions and
departments of a company and the use of
job titles within the company.
Top Level Managers 高层
(president, chief executive officer)
Middle Level Managers 中层
(department manager)
First Level Managers 基层
(production, sales, R & D supervisor
Accounting supervisor)
Non-managerial Employees
(line jobs, staff jobs)
Attention: American job titles differ
from British ones.
• USA
• GB
President
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Vice-President
Financial Controller
Director (Personnel Director)
Chairman
Managing Director (MD)
Director
Account
Manager (Personnel Manager)
Step A
• This listening exercise involves listening for
detail.
• Answers: Robert leaf, Finance Director,
Marketing Manager, George Harris, Personnel
Manager, Research and Development Manager,
Chow Fung, General Manager
5.4 Company Developments
• This section looks at the history of two
contemporary companies, and encourages
students to consider the development of
their own company (or, if they don’t work,
the company in the advertisement in File 70)
Step A Reading
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Answers:
1) Planning and Building for over 150 years---Philipp Holzmann
2) Pioneering Tomorrow’s Electronics---Siemens
5.5 Working with people
• Besides its reading and listening activities,
this section deals with the functions of
agreeing and disagreeing.
• You have the opportunity to discuss opinions
about company organization and manageremployee relations.
Step A Reading
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Discuss which of the titles seem more suitable than
others---the original article was titled The World’s Most
Unusual Workplace though others might be equally good.
Suggested answers:
1)Workers 2) the assembly line and economies of scale 3)
a quarter of employees fix their own 4) The workers
decide 5) employees 6) employees 7) there are no central
computers 8) there are no controls over expenses and
business travel 9) he makes his own
Suggested answers:
1) pumps, dishwashers and cooling units 2) they have
increased fivefold 3) Good,$30 million 4) 23 per cent is
exported 5) Free of debt
Step B
• Suggested answers:
 bureaucracy at work
Staff promotion systems
 Management elections by the workers
The design of Semco’s factory building
 The success of large corporations
• Suggested answers:
True: 2 3 5 7
False: 1 4 6 8 9 10
Step C
Discussion
• Please discuss the options listed and use the
functional exponents for agreeing and
disagreeing.
• It is important to choose polite forms when
one disagrees with someone in a business
setting.