BEC剑桥商务英语原版教材(高级).pdf

Unit1 ManaginginthePresent PresentTenses Focus: time management and current problems facingaservicecompany 1.Management themes Readthe followingtext andthendiscussthe questionsbelow. Time management has become one of the key issues of the second half of the twentieth century. Managers, grappling with work pressures and deadlines, have come to recognise that time is a precious commodity to be ‘saved’, ‘gained’, and not ‘wasted’ or ‘lost’. But if time is a commodity, howthen canwe best describe,measure andmanage it? To describe and manage it, imagine a line that goes back to the beginnings of creation and continues into the mists of the future. And on that line are a number of significant marks-these separate the past from the present from the future. And within each time zone-past, present and future-we can differentiate periods of time from points of time. For example, the 1980s gave us a period of rapid economic growth; blackMondaywasa point ofsudden financialcatastrophe. How can this brief analysis help the international manager? Firstly, there is the link between past, present and future. In other words, historical performance should be a guide to the future, and the present ought to represent last year’s forecast. So change-that which normally differentiates any two periods onour continuum-canbeseen asa gradualevolutionratherthana dramaticrevolution. Secondly, the use of a time-planning system, on which key points and periods are plotted, enables managers to organise their activities so that bottlenecks can be avoided and deadlines can be met. So stress, where the jobs to be done exceed the available time, can be reduced to an acceptable and productive level. 1.1Discussion Does yourorganisationlive inthe present? Does itchange withthe times? Doyou workinastressful environment? Doyouthinkthattime management canreduce stress? 2.Lis