Business English

Which words do the following sentences define?

1 To inspire, to induce, to give a reason or incentive to someone to do something.

A motivate B promote C provoke

2 A person employed by someone else, working for money.

A earner B employee C employer

3 Relations between employers and employees, managers and workers, management and

unions.

A human relations B labour relations C labour unions

4 Having control of something as part of your job.

A command B power C responsibility

5 Money paid (per hour or day or week) to manual workers.

A earnings B salary C wages

6 A fixed regular payment made by employers, usually monthly, for professional or office

work.

A earnings B salary C wages

7 Advantages that come with a job, apart from wages or salary.

A benefits B profits C supplements

8 To be raised to a higher rank or better job.

A motivation B promotion C sales promotion

9 Knowing that there is little risk of losing one’s job.

A bureaucracy B job safety C job security

10 Having particular abilities, acquired by training.

A educated B skilled C talented

Business English Course Lector dr. Adriana L ] UHVFX

1b Discussion

Which of the following statements seem to you to be generally true?

1 People dislike work and avoid it if they can.

2 Work is necessary to people’s psychological well-being.

3 People avoid responsibility and would rather be told what to do.

4 People are motivated mainly by money.

5 Most people are far more creative and ingenious than their employers realize.

6 People are motivated by anxiety about their security.

7 People want to be interested in their work and, given the right conditions, they will enjoy it.

8 Under the right conditions, most people will accept responsibility and want to realize their

own potential.

1c Reading

You may have noticed that the statements above can be separated into two groups reflecting

two very different ways in which employers can treat their employees.

These two approaches were summarized by a well-known American theorist of the

psychology of work, Douglas McGregor, who named them Theory X and Theory Y. Read the

following text and then classify the statements above according to which theory they support.

Statement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Theory

Business English Course Lector dr. Adriana L ] UHVFX

THEORY X AND THEORY Y

In The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor outlined two opposing theories

of work and motivation. What he calls Theory X is the traditional approach to workers and

working which assumes that people are lazy and dislike work, and that they have to be both

threatened (for example, with losing their job) and rewarded. It assumes that most people are

incapable of taking responsibility for themselves and have to be looked after. Theory Y, on

the contrary, assumes that people have a psychological need to work and want achievement

and responsibility.

Later theorists argued that Theory Y makes much greater demands on both workers

and managers than McGregor realized. Abraham Maslow, for example, spent a year studying

a Californian company that used Theory Y, and concluded that its demands for responsibility

and achievement are excessive for many people. He pointed out that there are always weak

and vulnerable people, with little self-discipline, who need protection against the burden of

responsibility. Even strong and healthy people need the security of order and direction.

Managers cannot simply substitute Theory Y for Theory X. They have to replace the security

provided by Theory X with a different structure of security and certainty.