THE STRUCTURE OF A COMPANY

a) View the video called Your First Day @ New Job (cited August 3^rd, 2008), available at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2dkyv_the-first-day-your-new-job_business. You may want to view it more than once to do the two tasks below.

Try to catch and write down 4 useful words / phrases:

What is strange about this company? What point do you think the authors of this video are trying to make / who are they making fun of?

b) Read the following text. Mark each word /phrase that seems important, and if you don’t understand it, use a dictionary.

Human economic activity nowadays is largely organized and very complex. We can describe it using different criteria. For example, according to who owns the means of production (governments, groups of people or individuals) we talk about the public and private sector.

According to the type of activity and its results we distinguish between the manufacturing and the service sector. Manufacturing means producing material goods. Examples of manufacturing industries would be food processing, textiles, vehicles and construction, while the service sector includes industries such as retail, communications, financial services, healthcare and media.

The basic organization unit of economy is a company (firm or business). Companies can vary greatly in size and how they are organized. The smallest companies can have just one or two employees, but the larger they are, the more complex their structure. From medium where finished products are shipped to the customers (this is called distribution).

The company's basic activity is supported by the so called white-collar workers, and directed by the management. There is technical support, administrative staff, marketing or sales, finance or accounting, personnel or human resources, an IT department, and Research and Development. Many production companies also have a customer service to help customers with any problems they may have using the product. Larger companies have two or even more levels of management: junior, middle and senior. Junior and middle managers head teams and smaller departments which make up the main departments. The persons leading these are usually called directors or executives. The top position is that of a company chairman, CEO or managing director. The site where the executives work is called the head office.

The white collar departments can be located near the production facilities, or somewhere else, on a different site. The company can also have regional divisions, subsidiaries or branch offices around the country or in different countries. The most frequent type of ownership nowadays is shareholding. Also, company owners usually have limited liability – this means they do not have to cover company debts with their private property. The typical abbreviation for such a company in the US is Inc., and in the UK it is Ltd.

Of course, companies can hire other companies to do something for them, even on a regular basis. For example, a production company can employ its own team of cleaners or can hire a cleaning service company to clean its facilities. For more specialized, white-collar jobs the company can hire freelancers. This is called outsourcing. The jobs the company's own employees do are referred to as in house.

There are also other types of employment. You could work for a non-profit organization or for the government. Many professionals such as writers, designers, but also tradespeople such as plumbers are freelancers or self-employed.

c) Work with one or more classmates. Choose an employed person you know well (your parent, brother, sister, friend,...) and tell your classmate(s) about the company they work for.

Try to use at least some vocabulary from the previous text. Think about: size / type of company, where it is located, how it is organized, what position your chosen person has in the company / what they do… If you get stuck, your partner should help you by asking these questions. Then swop – they explain, you listen and help with questions if needed.

d) Synonyms: words which mean the same

Copy on each of the lines below those words from this list which mean the same. Some of them are the American / the British version of the same word. You can use the previous text to help you.

workers subsidiary staff self-employed sales Personnel Department Ltd. CEO marketing managing director manager Inc.

Human Resources Department freelancer Finance executive employees division director company chairman branch accounting

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Image 13: Company organigram (from http://astrale.aeidl.be/images/organigram.gif)

e) Write in each of these squares one word / phrase from the following list. (They are all taken from the text about the structure of a company.) Put them in the grid in your own order.

The teacher will read them out in his / her order. Tick off each word / phrase as you hear it, and when you have four in a row, call out 'Bingo!'. The first person with a bingo is the winner.

enterpreneur, quality control, staff, non-profit, sales manager, production facility, shareholders, small business, head office, blue-collar, outsourcing, multinational, public sector, accounting, customer service, service industries

f) WHO IS WHO IN THIS COMPANY? This is a puzzle-like activity in which you have to read the clues and work out who is who by filling out a grid.

1. Mr. King doesn't work in production.

2. The person who is a supervisor works at the Stockton site.

3. Mr. Lee's job is to contact customers, send offers, confirm orders etc.

4. The Finance Department is at the Head Office site.

5. Ms. Schaeffer prepares balance sheets.

6. The sales representative is based in Singapore.

7. The person who works in the production unit is Ms. Jaspers.

8. Mr. King works at the same site as Ms. Schaeffer.

9. One of the two men is in charge of hiring new employees.

10.Mr. Lee is not a manager, he is a representative.

11.The manager works at the Head Office.

NAME JOB DEPARTMENT SITE

6.2. A MEDIA COMPANY