TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONS

 

Exercise 17.Classify the following industries as primary, secondary, or tertiary.

Agriculture; commercial fishing; government activity; hotel industries; mass media; mining; public education; public health service; railroad; retail stores; the aerospace industry; the airline industry; the armed forces; the automobile industry; the banking; the beverage industry; the clothing industry; the construction industry; the electronic industry; the engineering industry; the food processing industry; the forest industry; the gas industry; the heavy machinery industry; the manufacturing industries; the music industry; the oil industry; the restaurant industries; the steel industry; the textile industry; the trucking industries; the woodworking industry; tourist industry; trash disposal.

 

Exercise 18. Define the type of relationship existing between the following people in RAYCON Ltd (chart p. 39).

1. Assistant Work Manager – Supervisors

2. Chief Designer – Personnel Manager

3. Managing Director – Company Secretary

4. Marketing Manager – Sales Office Manager

5. Personnel Director – Administration Manager

6. Personnel Director – Works Manager

7. Production Director – Progress Chaser

8. Production Manager – Production Planner

9. Production Planner – Publicity Manager

10. R&D Director – Chief Designer / Chief Researcher

11. R&D Director – Financial Director

12. Sales Manager – Area Sales Manager / Area Office Manager / Sales Office Manager

13. Sales Manager – Production Manager

14. Supervisor – Representative

15. Works Manager – Assistant Works Manager

 

Exercise 19. Match each definition in column B with the proper name in column A.

	A		B
	Partnership	a	firm based in a tax haven to avoid higher taxation
	Minority inter­est	b	company in which another firm has less than 50 per cent interest
	Society	c	organization which is part of the state ad­ministration
	Enterprise	d	company owned by the state
	Limited com­pany	e	company whose shares are publicly avail­able
	Cooperative	f	firm owned by a parent company
	Multinational	g	company whose shares are not publicly available
	Parent com­pany	h	organization operating to make profit
	Subsidiary (affiliate)	i	friendly association of people, for example, a sports society (society = firm)
	Holding com­pany	j	firm, usually without commercial activity, created to be parent to other companies
	Public com­pany	k	company which owns another
	Private com­pany	l	two or more partners working together for profit, without limited liability
	Nationalized company	m	organization to relieve poverty, advance religion, or education, etc. benefits from some financial conclusions
	Government agency	n	firm where shareholders’ liability is lim­ited
	Charity	o	democratic firm owned by its workers
	Offshore company	p	organization operating in several countries

Exercise 20. Who’s responsible for Business Systems?

Below is a diagram showing the structure of a ‘mixed’ type of multina­tional company based in the USA: some activities are organised into do­mestic, regional and international divisions, other into world-wide divisions.

 

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Domestic Domestic World-wide Pacific International Corporate

Telecom- Business Defence Division Division Staff

Munications Systems Systems (Telecommu- (Telecom- (Corporate

Division division Division nications and munications Planning,

Business and Business etc.)

Systems) Systems other

than in the

Pacific region)

Now write questions and answers using responsible for/comes un­der.

Example: Who’s responsible for Business Systems in the Pacific? – That comes under the Pacific Division.

a) Corporate Planning __________________________________________________

b) Defence Systems in Africa ____________________________________________

c) Telecommunications in the USA ________________________________________

d) Business Systems in Europe ___________________________________________

e) Telecommunications in SE Asia ________________________________________

Exercise 21. You’ll have to see the Production people about that!

Below is a part of the structure of your company. It is a medium-sized subsidiary of a UK parent company.

 

 

 

 

 

Members of the Group Internal Audit team are visiting your firm, and you must help the auditors by answering their ques­tions.

 

Example: You hear: I have a question about the company’s sales budget.

You reply: You’ll have to see the Sales people about it.

 

a) I have a question about the company’s sales budget.

b) Could you help me? It’s about last year’s development costs.

c) I’d like to know exactly when you delivered these goods.

d) Our Computer Audit team wants to visit you soon. Who should I ask about it?

e) Do you have purchase contracts with all your suppliers?

f) I’d like to discuss these cash-flow forecasts. Who do you think could help me?

Exercise 22. Who’s the boss?

The following diagram is called an organization chart (or family tree). It shows the chain of command in organization. We can say that the Vice-President, Corporate Development is responsible to/reports to the President and Chief Executive Officer.

 

 

Can you make similar statements about the chain of command, by completing the following sentences?

a) The Vice-President, Finance ________________________

b) The President, Automotive Operations _______________________

c) The President and Chief Executive Officer _____________________

d) The Senior Vice-President, Corporate Staffs _____________________

e) The Chairman of the Board _______________________________

Exercise 23.Study some of the language used to describe an organization in terms of: hierarchy; responsibilities/functions, titles, affiliates, structure.

 

Hierarchy

 

		MD (Managing Director)

 

 

The company is headed by the MD.

The Sales Director reports to the MD.

The Sales Director is under the MD.

The Sales Director is accountable to the MD.

 

 

The Sales Director is supported by Sales team.

The Sales Director is assisted by a Sales Assistant.

 

Responsibilities / functions

The Finance Department is responsible for accounting.

The R&D Department takes care of new product development.

The Administration Manager is in charge of personnel.

 

Titles

 

Below are the main managerial titles with US equivalents in brackets:

Chairman (President)

Managing Director (Chief Executive Officer/Senior Vice-president)

Finance Director (Vice-President Finance)

Sales Manager (Sales Director)

Note

The Directors and Chairman of a company usually sit on the Board of Directors (Executive Board).

 

Structure

 

 

 

Affiliates

 

X is parent company.

A, B and C are subsidiaries (more than 50 % owned by the parent).

 

	X

 

	A (51%)		B (70%)		C (55%)

Exercise 24. Read the text about Rossomon PLC and complete the organisation chart below.

I’d like to say a few words about the organisational structure of Rossomon. Now, if you look at the transparency you will see that the Managing Director, that is Mr. Bunce, is responsible for running the company and is accountable to the Board.

Now, he is assisted by four executive departments. These are Hu­man Resources, which is responsible for personnel, training and man­agement development, then there is the Finance Department which takes care of corporate finance and accounting; next we have the Management Services Department, led by Peter Jenkins who is in charge of rationalisation throughout the company; and finally there is R&D Department – research and development – which works closely with 4 regions on new product development.

Now then, the four regions are supported by two sections – Mar­keting and Technical Services. They are organised on a matrix basis with section leaders accountable to the Regional Managers. They work closely with the regions on the marketing and technical side.

Now, in addition to the parent company, Rossomon has three sub­sidiaries, namely Rossomon France, Germany and Japan. The sub­sidiaries report to Export Sales Department, which in turn is accountable to the Board.

Right, well that’s a brief overview. Are there any questions?