Semester 4, Lesson 14-15
(59-60)
Recruiting
I. Read and translate text 37 about
the purposes of recruiting and fill each gap with one of these words. Write
down unknown words and their translation.
|
diverse qualified few many less processing position purposes applications applicants |
TEXT 37
The Purposes of Recruiting
Recruiting is the process of attracting potential
new employees to the organization. This HR program is closely related to
selection, which we will discuss next, because it supplies a pool of qualified
(a) ______ from which the organization can choose those best suited for its
needs.
Recruiting
serves three (b) ______. The first is to provide enough applicants from which
to select future employees. If there are too (c) ______ applicants, the
company’s chances of hiring the best employees will be limited. The worst case
takes place when the number of applicants is equal to or (d) ______ than the
number of available positions, possibly causing the organization to hire all
the applicants regardless of their level of skills and abilities or not to fill
all the open positions. The opposite problem can also occur – too (e) ______
applicants are recruited. This happened at a paper mill in Duluth, Minnesota,
when 10,000 individuals applied for 300 operator positions. In such cases, the
time and cost involved in gathering (f) ______ and reviewing applicants are
considerable and may delay the schedule of hiring. Generally, selection
specialists think that five to ten applicants for each available (g) ______ is
appropriate. This number is small enough to process easily and yet it should
provide a large enough pool to identify potentially excellent employees.
The second
purpose, really an extension of the first, is to attract at least minimally (h)
______ applicants. It does little good to have a number of applicants if most
are not suited for the open positions. The (i) ______ of such applicants wastes
time and resources.
The third
purpose of recruiting is to attract a demographically and culturally (j) ______
applicant pool. For example, it is difficult to achieve a diverse work force in
the organization if the recruitment process uses sources such as schools,
media, or mailing lists that are dominated by one or a few demographic groups.
II.
Comprehension check. Say if
the following sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones.
a)
Thanks to a recruiting program, the organization can have a
group of appropriate candidates for existing vacancies.
b)
The company is forced to
employ all the applicants regardless of their level of skills and abilities if
the number of applicants exceeds the number of available vacancies.
c)
The company is in the best
situation when exceptionally large numbers of applicants are recruited.
d)
To be able to find potentially
first-rate workforce, the company should have not less than ten candidates for
each vacant position.
e)
Not to waste time and
resources in processing applications, the company should recruit applicants who
are skilled enough for the open positions.
f)
To have demographically and
culturally diverse employees, the company cannot use sources in which one
demographic group dominates.
III.
There are four paragraphs in
the text. Think of suitable headings to each of them. Make a list of key words from each paragraph.
IV. Discussion
Work in pairs. Using the key vocabulary that
you have made in the previous task, discuss what you have learned about the
purposes of recruiting.
V. Reading
1. Skim through text 38 and
think of the suitable title.
TEXT 38
The company
controls three ways of fulfilling the purposes of recruiting: the
sources through which potential applicants are contacted, the information given
to applicants, and the contacts between the applicants and the company.
Although all three affect the number and types of applicants, companies cannot
totally control recruiting. Individuals often contact companies on their own,
especially well-known ones such as the Coca-Cola Company and General Electric.
However, some firms refuse to respond to such applications because of
the cost in staff time and resources that such responses would require.
HR managers
may recruit externally or internally. External sources include newspapers,
broadcast media, employment agencies, educational institutions, and brochures,
flyers, and signs. Internal sources include posted notices within the
organization as well as formal programs that encourage current employees to
recommend that friends and family members in the job market apply to the organization.
These various external and internal sources differ greatly in terms of the
number of individuals and the demographic groups they attract and the costs
involved. For example, AMP Incorporated, the world’s largest manufacturer of
electronic interconnection products, installed a telephone-based job-posting
system that decreased recruiting costs from $311,000 in 1991 to $87,000 in
1992.
The second
factor, the information conveyed to applicants during the recruiting
process, is important because applicants use this information to decide whether
to pursue further contact with the company. Research has shown that, at
the initial stage of recruiting, lengthy ads providing relatively large amounts
of information attract more applicants than do shorter ads. Announcements that
describe specific job tasks and necessary KSAs also increase the percentage of
appropriately qualified applicants while reducing the total number who apply.
Another recruiting tactic is providing applicants with realistic job previews
(RJPs), accurate descriptions about the job and the organization, positive
points as well as negative ones. This gives any applicants who do not think the
position is appropriate for them a chance to drop out of the process on their
own. Utilising RJPs benefits the company because it is better to lose such
individuals before the company has invested considerable time and effort in
them.
Several
aspects of contact between the organization and applicants are important. One
is the promptness with which the firm gives information to the
applicant, such as how quickly it schedules interviews after initial contact,
when it provides information promised by recruiters, and how soon it gives
evaluation messages after interviews. Another aspect is the attention given to
arranging for on-site visits. Sometimes applicants are expected to find
the hotel or the company’s office with very little instruction, or the details
of schedules are not provided or are changed without notice. A third aspect is
the interaction between recruiters and applicants. Applicants generally
react favourably to the organization when there are frequent contacts, the
company is receptive to visits, and recruiters are viewed as
being representative of the employees of the company.
2. Read text 38 more
carefully. Try to guess the words underlined from the context. Then use
your dictionary to check the words.
2.
Comprehension check.
Working in pairs, take turns
answering the questions.
a)
Why can’t companies completely
control recruiting?
b)
Do companies react to all
applications? Why?
c)
What is the key difference
between external and internal sources of recruiting?
d)
Is the telephone-based
job-posting system installed by AMP Incorporated an external or internal source
of recruiting?
e)
What facts in the text prove
the importance of information that applicants receive at the early stage of
recruiting process?
f)
What practice helps any
applicants who do not think that the position is appropriate for them to leave
the process on their own?
g)
Why is such a procedure
beneficial to companies?
h)
Which aspect of contact
between the organization and applicants do you think is the most important?
Why?
VI. Write the summary of text 38.
VII. Match up these English words and
word combinations to their Ukrainian equivalents. Use your dictionary if
necessary.
|
a)
to look for |
f)
advertisement |
k)
top |
|
b)
software |
g)
degree in … |
l)
age limit |
|
c)
desirable |
h)
computing |
m)
applicant |
|
d)
draft |
i)
preferably |
n)
to be fluent in … |
|
e)
to draft |
j)
to afford |
o) assignment |
|
1)
завдання |
6)
план, проект |
11) дозволяти собі |
|
2)
найкраще |
7)
шукати |
12)
верхній, найвищий |
|
3)
рекламне оголошення |
8)
вільно розмовляти (певною мовою) |
13) комп’ютерне програмування
|
|
4)
комп’ютерні програми |
9)
складати план, проект |
14) ступінь з (певної науки) |
|
5)
бажаний |
10)
вікове обмеження |
15) претендент |
VIII. Try to repeat a tongue twister several
times, as quickly as possible, without stumbling or mispronouncing.
If you understand, say
"understand".
If you don't understand, say "don't
understand".
But if you understand and say "don't
understand",
how do I understand that you understand.
Understand!?
IX. Individual work: read and translate text 39
TEXT 39
MANAGEMENT THINKING
Like fashions in hairstyle and clothing, management ideas come and go. One year’s best- selling management concept is soon overtaken by the next ‘big idea’. Significantly, however, a consistent theme has prevailed for more than two decades: the most
successful organizations make the
most effective use of their people – their human resources.
The emergence of HRM was part of a major shift in the nature and meaning
of management towards the end of the 20th century. This happened for a number of reasons. Perhaps most significantly, as we
will see in Part two of this book,
major developments in the structure
and intensity of international competition forced companies to make radical
changes in their working practices (Goss 1994, p.1).
From the 1970s onwards,
managers in the industrialized countries
felt themselves to be on a roller coaster of change, expected to deliver improved business
performance by whatever means they could muster. Their own careers
and rewards were increasingly tied to those improvements and many were despatched to the ranks
of the unemployed for not acting quickly and imaginatively enough.
Caught between the need to manage decisively and fear of failure, managers sought credible new ideas as a potential
route for survival.
The development of dynamic new economies in the Asia–Pacific region
emphasized the weakness in traditional Western – specifically, American – management methods. To meet competition from East Asia,
industries and organizations in older, developed
countries were forced to restructure. The Japanese, in particular, provided
both a threat and a role model that Eastern and Western
companies tried to copy. Frequently, reorganized businesses in Australasia, Europe, North America and South Africa adopted Japanese
techniques in an attempt to regain competitiveness. The term ‘Japanization’ came into vogue in the mid-1980s to describe attempts
in other countries
to make practical use of ‘Japanese’ ideas and practices, reinforced by the impact of Japanese subsidiaries overseas. Initially, the main interest lay in forms of technical
innovation and manufacturing methods such as ‘continuous improvement’ and ‘just-in-time’. And their ways of managing
people also attracted
attention.
|
Concept 1.4 Stakeholders |
|
Employees have
rights and interests beyond pay.
They are stakeholders along
with members of other
recognizably separate groups or institutions with a special interest in an organization. These
include shareholders, managers, customers, suppliers, lenders and government. Each group has
its own priorities and demands and
fits into the
power structure controlling the organization. Employees have limited importance in free market
countries such as the USA, UK, Ireland, Australia or Canada,
in comparison with most European and many Asian–Pacific countries. Notionally, shareholders are
paramount in English-speaking countries. In reality, top
managers normally have
effective control and
pursue their own
interests – often
at the expense of their staff. (This
topic is dealt
with at some
length in Chapter 2.) |
X. Read and translate text 40. Answer the question.
TEXT 40
FROM PERSONNEL TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human resource management-type themes, including ‘human capital theory’
(discussed in Part two) and ‘human asset accounting’ can be found in literature dating as far back as the 1970s. But the modern view of HRM
first gained prominence in 1981 with its introduction on the prestigious MBA course at
Harvard Business School. The Harvard MBA provided a blueprint for many other courses throughout North America and the rest of the world, making its interpretation of HRM particularly influential (Beer, Walton and Spector, 1984; Guest, 1987; Poole, 1990). Simultaneously, other interpretations were
being developed in Michigan and New York.
These ideas spread to other countries in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly
Australia, New Zealand, parts of northern Europe – especially the UK, Ireland
and Scandinavia – and also South and South-East Asia and South Africa. Today, the HRM approach
is influential in many parts of the world. Typically, in this period HRM was presented
in four distinct ways.
First, as a radically new approach to managing people,
demarcated sharply from traditional personnel management (Storey,
1989, p.4). Personnel management was commonly viewed as having an operational focus,
emphasizing technical skills and day-to-day functions such as recruitment and selection, training, salary administration, and employee relations. ‘Personnel’ was a detached and neutral approach
to staff. By contrast, HRM was often
portrayed as being proactive – looking at people in economic terms as either assets or
costs to be actively man- aged. HRM was seen to be strategic, tying people management to business objectives. It was an attempt
to manage people – not necessarily employees – in the long-term interests of the business.
Secondly, HRM was seen as an integrated approach
which provided a coherent programme, linking all aspects
of people management. Whereas personnel managers
employed a piecemeal range of sophisticated techniques for assessment or selection, HRM integrated these within a meaningful and organized
framework. Each element needed to fit into a pattern that ultimately met
business needs. Additionally, HRM
was seen to be holistic: in other words, it was concerned with the
overall people requirements of an organization. It implied a significant shift towards more
conceptual, higher-level concerns such as the structure and culture of the
organization and the provision of necessary competences.
Thirdly, HRM represented a consistent view of people
management in which employees were treated as valuable assets.
An organization’s reward systems, performance
measures promotion and learning opportunities were to be used to maximize the utilization of its human resources. In particular,
they were focused on the attitudes, beliefs and commitment of employees
to achieve behavioural consistency and a culture of commitment.
Finally, HRM was presented as a general management function. Personnel
management was often viewed as the work of specialists, whereas HRM was the responsibility of all man- agers. In some organizations human resource experts
provided an internal
consultancy service to line managers. There was a
particular stress on the role of top management and an overall increase in the status of people management. Traditional personnel managers had little
power or prestige.
Why should HRM have attracted such attention, particularly from senior managers? From a strategic viewpoint,
Lengnick-Hall and Lengnick-Hall (1988) identify a clear rationale for adopting the HRM approach:
●
HRM offers a broader range of solutions for complex organizational problems.
●
It ensures that an organization’s
people are considered as well as its financial
and technological resources when objectives are set or capabilities assessed.
●
It forces the explicit consideration of the individuals who implement
and comprise the strategy.
●
Two-way links are encouraged between the formulation of strategy and its human resource implications, avoiding problems which might arise from: (a) subordinating strategic considerations to HR preferences; and (b) neglecting an organization’s people
as a potential source of organizational competence and competitive advantage.
The renewed emphasis on the importance of human resources drew attention
to the practice of people management.
Conventionally, this had been
divided between line and personnel
managers, now frequently called human resource managers. For some, HRM was simply a matter of relabelling ‘personnel’ to redress the criticisms made about
traditional personnel management and sceptics have argued that familiar personnel functions were repackaged and given a more
up-market image – ‘old wine in new bottles’ (Armstrong, 1987). Indeed, until the early 1990s, ‘Human Resource Management’ textbooks tended to be slightly
revised ‘Personnel Management’ texts covering familiar
topics in a prescriptive manner.
Writing at that time, Torrington and Hall (1991, p.15) concurred
that the term was adopted in order to get away from the
ineffectual image of previous eras: ‘. . . personnel managers seem constantly to suffer from paranoia about their lack of influence
and are ready to snatch at anything – like a change
in title – that might
enhance their status.’
It was also fuelled by long- standing criticisms from other managers. This includes a general prejudice
that is often expressed within organizations and sometimes finds its way into print. Thus the following from an article entitled
‘Support for an old-fashioned view’, The Independent,
12 May, 1994):
Many of us have long held the view
that personnel management, or human resource
management as companies sometimes insist on calling
it, is a uniquely irrelevant executive function fulfilling no obvious purpose other than to
stifle initiative, flair and creativity.
Similarly, Kellaway (2001) revisited
an article about ‘a piece of incomprehensible HR waffle that purported to lay out the future
of HR’ about which
she had made ‘a few averagely derogative remarks’. She cited 120
responses she had received of which 115 ‘referred to the HR profession
with scepticism, sarcasm, rudeness or obscenity’. According to Kellaway,
no one had a good word to say for HR.
‘So demoralised are HR people that they churn out junk and when you
attack it they do not even have the spirit to get angry’.
Where does this prejudice come from? Some critics have argued that personnel people
should relinquish their
ambiguous roles and adopt unashamedly managerialist positions. Others concluded that if human resources were fundamental to business success
they were too important to be left to operational personnel managers. One of Lucy
Kellaway’s e-mailers stated: ‘For HR to work it should (a) rename itself personnel and (b)
stick to the basics, e.g. payroll, healthcare, training – of
other people, not themselves – and pensions.’
But many commentators in the HR and management literature contend that
major human resource decisions should
be made by top managers
and the consequences of those decisions
should be carried through by line management. These
considerations place HRM on a strategic rather an operational footing and
therefore make HRM a concept of greater interest than personnel management to
senior executives. However, in an article from the US business magazine Fast Company entitled ‘Why We Hate HR’,
Hammonds (2005) repeats some familiar criticisms, stating:
… let’s face it: After close to 20 years of hopeful rhetoric about
becoming ‘strategic partners’ with a ‘seat at the table’ where the business
decisions that matter are made, most human resources professionals aren’t
nearly there. They have no seat, and the table is locked inside a conference
room to which they have no key. HR people are, for most practical purposes,
neither strategic nor leaders.
Hammonds goes on to describe HR as ‘at best, a necessary evil – and at
worst, a dark bureaucratic force that blindly enforces nonsensical rules,
resists creativity, and impedes constructive change.’ While conceding that HR
is ‘the corporate function with the greatest potential’ and, theoretically, the
key driver of business performance, he also considers it to be ‘the one that
most consistently underdelivers.’
Whatever the underlying level of hostility, or press disdain, it remains
the case that, in larger organizations, there has been a reappraisal of the
previously unfashionable and low-status personnel department. ‘Personnel’
cannot be regarded as peripheral if it controls an organization’s people since
the rhetoric states that they are its greatest resources. Many businesses have
adopted some form of HRM in recognition of this importance. As Fowler (1987)
famously stated, ‘HRM represents the discovery of personnel management by chief
executives’.
Review questions
1
How would you explain
the difference between
‘organizing’ and ‘managing’ people?
2
The world in which writers such as
Huarte and Machiavelli expressed their opinions was very different from ours. Their views would not be regarded as ‘politically correct’ today. What value can we attach to their
views on dealing with working people?
3
What problems would have resulted from personal control of businesses
when they began to develop into large work organizations employing hundreds, and sometimes thousands of workers?
4
How would you describe
the main differences between the ‘scientific management’, ‘human factors’
and ‘human relations’ approaches?
5
What is HRM? Is it really different
from personnel management? Summarize the main differences between personnel management and HRM as you see them.
6
Is ‘relabeling’ personnel as HRM anything
more than a makeover or a cosmetic
change?
7
How much does the concept of HRM owe to Japanese management practices?
8
Which theoretical developments do you consider to have contributed most
to modern people management?
9
What is meant by ‘management gurus’?
What value can be placed on the ideas they have popularized?
XI. Grammar. Causative Form (have something done)
We use have + object + -ed form when we talk
about someone doing something for us which we ask or instruct them to do. It
emphasises the process/action rather than who performs it:
We’re having the house painted next week. (We are
not going to paint the house ourselves. Someone else will paint it. The
emphasis is on the fact that the house is being painted rather than who is
doing it.)
Word order: subject + have/get + object +
past participle
(Зверніть увагу на різницю у значенні, якщо
переставити об’єкт місцями.)
I had my watch fixed. – Мені
полагодили годинник.
I fixed my
watch. – Я сам полагодив годинник.
Warning:
This pattern is not the same as the present perfect or past perfect.
Compare
|
I had my
hair cut. Я підстригся |
Someone
cut my hair. Мене хтось підстриг |
|
I’ve
cut my hair. I’d cut my
hair. Я підстригся. |
I cut my
own hair. Я сам підстриг своє волосся |
We can also use have +
object + -ed form when something bad happens, especially when
someone is affected by an action which they did not cause:
They’ve had their car stolen. (‘They’
are affected by the action of the car being stolen but they did not cause this
to happen.)
Hundreds of people had their homes destroyed by the
hurricane. (Hundreds of people were affected by the hurricane, which they did
not cause.)
Asking or instructing
We use the pattern have +
object + infinitive without to when we talk about
instructing someone (underlined) to do something. We use it to emphasise who performed
the action:
I’ll have Harry book you a taxi. (I will
instruct Harry to book a taxi for you. Emphasis is on who will do the action
more than on the action.)
He had Kay make us all some tea.
Talking about an experience
We use have +
object + -ing form or infinitive without to to
talk about an event or experience. We use the -ing form for an
event in progress and the infinitive without to for a
completed event:
We had a man singing to us as we sat in the restaurant
having our meal.
We had a strange woman come to the door selling pictures.
We can also use the -ing form to describe an ongoing action
that someone or something is causing:
Her story had us laughing so much. (Her story
was making us laugh.)
I just had them doing stretch routines, and after, they
got really good at it.
The interrogative or negative forms
Питальна і
заперечна форма з цією конструкцією формуються з допомогою do/does або did.
Does she have her nails done every week? – Вона ходить на манікюр кожного
тижня?
No, she doesn’t have her nails done every week. -
Ні, Вона не ходить на манікюр кожного тижня.
Did you have your car fixed? – Вашу машину відремонтували?
No, I didn’t have my car fixed yet. - Ні, мою машину ще не
відремонтували.
Exercise 1. Rewrite sentences
using causative form
e.g.: She didn’t cut her hair herself.– She had her hair cut.
1.
Tim didn’t
clean the windows himself.
2.
Mary doesn’t
usually deliver the food to her house herself.
3.
Fred hasn’t
washed his car himself.
4.
My husband
isn’t testing his eye-sight himself
5.
I won’t
check my blood pressure myself.
6.
Jane didn’t
service her car herself.
7.
They will
not mend the roof of the house themselves.
8.
She isn’t
making the curtains herself.
9.
I didn’t
remove this coffee stain from the suit myself.
10.
We don’t
X-ray our chests ourselves.
2. Write down the sentence using “have something done” in appropriate form. Add necessary words
e.g.: I think I can afford to ... (my
house/paint). – I think I can afford to have my house painted
1.
You must ...
(your grey boots/repair).
2.
I forgot to
... (the oil level and tyres/check) in my car.
3.
Bob ... (his
new watch/mend) almost every month.
4.
We are going
to ... (our flat/decorate) next weekend.
5.
Sheila ...
(that lovely dress/make) by Mrs. Stewart yesterday.
6.
They just
... (central heating/install) in the house.
7.
You should
go and ... (your photograph/take) for a new passport tomorrow.
8.
My daughter
wants to ... (her ears/pierce).
9.
My dad ...
(his tooth/pull out) two days ago.
3. Write down the sentence with
information that something bad happens using “have something done”.
e.g.: The singer’s concert was cancelled because
of bad weather. – The singer had his concert cancelled because of bad weather.
1.
Fred’s
glasses were broken.
2.
Sam’s bike
was stolen from the garage.
3.
My driving
license was taken away by the police.
4.
His wallet
was stolen in the crowd.
5.
Harry’s nose
was broken in a fight.
6.
Sarah’s hat
was blown off by the wind.
Зміни конструкції у часових формах.
Зверніть увагу на те, що коли ми виконуємо
дію, то змінюється основне дієслово (у наведеному нижче прикладі це слово
«take»), а коли хтось виконує її замість нас, то змінюється дієслово «have».
Конструкція get something done має
таке ж значення і ті ж часові форми, що й have something done, але
вона більш розповсюджена в розмовному стилі.
http://enotti.com.ua/have-something-done/
