BEC剑桥英语高级 Test 4, Reading Part 3

Part Three
A handbook on management

In the last few years, managers throughout industry have seen more changes than many of them could have expected to see in their entire working lives. Having to communicate information which often leads to feelings of insecurity has become a key activity. From being regarded as relatively unimportant in many companies, management-employee communication has become a central corporate need.

在过去的几年里，管理者在整个行业里已经看到比他们很多人可能在整个职业生涯里看到的更多的变化。之前经常会导致没有安全感的信息交流现在已经变成了一个关键的行为。在很多公司里，被认为没有那么重要的管理者和员工的交流已经成了企业的需要。

Concordia International provides a good example of a company that has adjusted well to the changing needs for communication. Since 1995, Concordia has been turned inside-out and upside-down, to ensure that it is a marketing-led, customer-responsive business, one that looks outwards at customers and competitors, rather than inwards at its own processes and the way things were done in the past. In the last eight years, Concordia has reduced its workforce by more than 80000 people- or 35%-on a voluntary basis, with further downsizing anticipated.

Concordia国际公司提供了一个调整的较好的改变交流需求的榜样。从1995年，Concordia已经变成了一个从里到外，自上而下，用来确保其是以市场为导向，服务于客户的业务。一个向外关注客户和竞争对手，而不是向内看自己流程和过去所做的事。在过去的8年里，Concordia已经减少了超过8万名员工，或者是35%，在员工自愿的基础上，预期还会减少更多。

From being an engineering company, Concordia is now remaking itself as a service company. The role of employee communication in such a context is to build people's self-confidence, to persuade them that, although it is inevitable that the changes will go ahead, they also bring with them new opportunities for employees. However, this is not an easy task. People tend to be sceptical of these claims and to feel that they are losing touch with the company they have worked for over many years. This is understandable, since many of the old certainties are being swept away, including the core activities of the company they work for. Above all, they have had to face up to the fact that they no longer have a job for life.

从一个工程公司开始，Concordia现在重新塑造自己成为了一个服务公司。在这样的背景之下，员工沟通的角色就是树立人们的自信，说服他们。尽管这些变化不可避免，但是也会给员工带来新的机会。然而，这并不是一个容易的任务。人们倾向于怀疑公司的这些说法，同时感到他们正在失去他们一直工作很多年的失去接触。这可以理解，因为许多老的确定性的东西正在消失，包括他们曾经为之工作的公司的核心经营行为。总之，他们已经不得不去面对一个事实，他们可能不再拥有一个终身的工作。

Research indicates that people respond to this predicament in a variety of ways. The bulk of employees fall into two main categories in terms of their response to the new situation: on the one hand there are the "Pragmatists" and on the other "the highly anxious". The former see their job as a means to an end and have a relatively short-term perspective, with strong loyalty to their local team, rather than the company as a whole. The second category, usually the majority, may respond to threatened changes with a feeling of having been let down, and even feel anger at the company for what they see as changing the terms of their employment.

研究显示人们对这种困境有不同的反应方式。通过他们的反应对新的环境，大量的员工可以分为主要两类：一种是“务实者”，另一种是“高度的焦虑者”。前一种把他们的工作看成是一种达到目的的手段，他们有一个相对短期的视角，对当地的团队有很强的忠诚度，而不是整个公司。第二类，通常是大部分，可能对有一种对这样的威胁的变化有一种失望的情绪，并且对他们看到的公司改变雇佣关系条款的这种行为感到非常气愤。

The employee communication process needs to be capable of accurately directing its messages at a variety of employee groups and departments within the workforce. This is why middle managers and line managers are so key to communication. They are the people who know about the full range of concerns among the workforce. The problem in the past was that this crucial area was often the responsibility of a separate, relatively isolated unit. Concordia puts responsibility for communication firmly on line mangers. All their research ponits to the same conclusion: people prefer to get their information face to face from their line managers. That is the key relationship and where arguments- and hearts and minds-are lost.

在整个公司里，员工的交流沟通过程需要有能力精确的把这些信息传递给员工群体和各个部门。那就是为什么中层管理人员和直属经理在交流过程中至关重要。他们是这些可以知道在整个全体员工中的关注点是什么的人。在过去，这些问题是这些重要的关注点经常是由一个单独的，相对独立的部门负责。Concordia把这些交流的责任牢牢的交给了直属经理。所有他们的研究得出相同的结论：人们更喜欢通过面对面的方式从他们的直属经理得到他们的信息。那就是重要的关系, 同时，员工身心和思想产生的一些争执通过这样关键沟通就消失了。

The general rule in company communication is to tell employees as much as you can as soon as you can. If you can't provide details, then at least put the news in the context and commit yourself to providing greater detail when it becomes available. Another rule of company communication is that there must be a fit between what the company is telling its employees and what it is telling its shareholders.

通常公司的沟通规则是尽可能多的和尽可能快的告知员工。如果你不能提供细节，至少你要把这些新闻放在当时的背景之下并承诺一旦你得到了信息，你就会提供更多的细节。另一个公司沟通规则是，公司在告诉员工的信息和公司告诉股东的信息这两种关系的表达方式必须恰当。