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Look at the statements below and at the five comments by five top business people on how to influence people at work on the opposite page.
Which comment(A, B, C, D or E)does each statement(1-8)refer to?
For each statement(1-6), mark one letter(A, B, C, D or E)on your Answer Sheet.
You will need to use some of these letters more than once.
There is an example at the beginning(0).
Example:
0 This company has sold off some of its brands.
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A
People enjoy doing business with people they like, according to Katherine Grice, a senior associate at Impact Factory, a communications training company. “Take time to ask about children, partners, clients, holidays and so forth. Rapport is like the WD40 of business—it smoothes the way.“ If you want to call the shots at work, try to establish a close rapport with your fellows first since ... Building rapport in your workplace is essential because people like to say “yes“ to those they like and a solid, long-term foundation is more effective than a spritz of quick-fix charm.
B
Trakey Richards, a senior consultant at PTP, a training company, believes that most people want to be liked but would be better off being respected: “People assume that being popular means being more influential, but respect is more important. Most people think about how other people see them and adapt their message, their delivery and their body language to making other people think well of them, rather than concentrating on the message on the table. “ He also thinks that one will build leadership while building respect and trust.
C
The degree to which you listen to other people will have a significant effect on your power to influence people, Brian Leggett, Professor of Managing People in Organisations at IESE business school, said in his book Developing Your Persuasive Edge. “Without listening to our audience, it is difficult to match our message with their needs,“ he wrote. According to Brian Leggett, “Listen not just to what is being said, but to what is not being said. Listening will help a person to discover what motivates people; then he or she can then use this information.“
D
The way you look and act makes a big difference, according to Professor Johnson. “Delivery is very much tied up with non-verbal communication and style. There is no one style that is appropriate for all occasions.“ It is possible to adapt your style to suit particular circumstances, but it is not always a good idea. “If you are not working from a principle-centred set of beliefs, style-change can be dangerous. For it emphasises uncertainty.“
E
Guide, do not dictate or manipulate. Show people where you want them to go, but let them work out the path themselves, Kevin Carroll, the author of The Red Rubber Ball at Work, said. “Never be heavy-handed. You are directing people, but then you have to ... allow them enough freedom to figure out their own process. If you abuse your influence, it might work for a period but it will be short-lived because people will resent the way that you are doing it,“ he said.
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Read this text about customer co-production.
Choose the best sentence form the opposite page to fill each of the gaps.
For each gap(9-14), mark one letter(A-H)on your answer sheet.
Do not use any letter more than once.
There is an example at the beginning(0).
Customer Co-Production
When we began the very first research for The Social Media Bible we asked 1,000 people to participate. The first discovery was that they didn’t want just another business book.(0). C ... It’s a formula. I’ve written five of them.
What they said was, “First, we want a business book that shows the tactics of social media. ’ What are blogs? What’s a podcast? What’s a Vlog? What’s all this stuff about micro-blogging and Twitter? Second, they wanted a guide. They told me, give us all the companies that actually offer all of these services; who they are, how they started 【P1】______They said that “Now that I know the tactics and the tools, how do we apply them to their businesses? How do we develop a strategy?“
John Wiley & Sons is the publisher of The Social Media Bible. They began publishing when Thomas Jefferson was our President of the United States【P2】______ During all of that time they have never published three books in one or have they published a book this large.【P3】______ It also has been listed in the Top 100 Best Selling Books in America since it’s come out.
Why, because, I asked my customers what they wanted. I go them involved and engaged. I can write a book anyway at all. My theory was just tell me what you want and if I give you what you want, and if I do that you’re going to buy it.【P4】______Social media allows you to create a forum, an environment where you can bring the customers in as collaborators. Include your customers, and industry leaders as collaborators.【P5】______
These include the biggest companies, the biggest individuals, and the elite of all walks. Every one of them is people that are selling, using, and promoting social media.
I simply went to them and asked them to participate in a book.【P6】______Get your customers involved in this way. They are willing to do it; they are happy to do it. More than 300 people out of the 1,000 asked to participate as reviewers and collaborators. Ask your customers to participate in your brand, get them engaged, and ask them to be collaborators in your offering.
Example:[*]
A Every one of these experts participated in three, four, five pages and even the editing of every chapter of the book.
B Isn’t that what marketing is supposed to accomplish?
C A typical business book is 250 pages, 60,000 words, 20 chapters, 3,000 words per chapter.
D In the book, I reached out to the top people in the social media industry throughout the world to talk about their personal experiences with social media.
E Once you have them convinced that the book will change the way they do business for the better, they will buy it in droves.
F Last, they wanted a third business book, which was a book on strategy.
G The Social Media Bible is the largest book Wiley has ever published in 200 years, but in four days it sold out in six major metropolitan areas across the country.
H They’ve been publishing for 202 years.
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Read the following article about the importance of appraising employee performance in a downsized organisation and the questions on the opposite page.
For each question(15-20), mark one letter(A, B. C or D)on your Answer Sheet.
The Importance of Appraising Employee
Performance in a Downsized Organisation
The experts call it “ghost work“; it’s what’s left for the survivors to do when layoffs have cut an organisation’s staff to a bare-bones minimum. Work that still has to get done is reassigned to people who may not have the skills—and certainly don’t have the time— to do it. The strain of “ghost work,“ the specter of more downsizing and restructuring, the disappointing news that raises and bonuses have been reduced or eliminated this year— they all can combine to make performance-appraisal season particularly stressful for employees and managers alike.
But even though managers may be tempted to avoid performance appraisals, it’s no time to back away. Done right, performance appraisals can give employees a better understanding of the new and different demands of their jobs in the context of the company’s changing needs. Don’t duck the tough issues, say the experts, but don’t overlook the opportunity to emphasise the future, either. The performance appraisal is a great opportunity to emphasise that employees have a stake in reengineering work processes and helping the company stay competitive in tough times.
“It’s important in the appraisal process that we let employees know that our dreams for them and for the company aren’t being abandoned; rather, they are being postponed until the company finds a way to adapt to the new circumstances it faces,“ says Dale Furtwengler, author of The 10-Minute Guide to Performance Appraisals(Mac-millan, 2000)and president of the St. Louis-based consulting firm Furtwengler & Associates. “That way“, he says, “we can refocus their talents and energy toward finding solutions.“
No matter what challenges confront the company or the business unit, a manager must avoid the temptation to give all her reports a good review. Malachi O’Connor, vice president of the Centre for Applied Research(CFAR), a management consulting firm with offices in Philadelphia and Boston, believes that managers who give all their reports positive reviews just to avoid trouble are in fact creating it for themselves. Especially if the unit’s results are average or worse, others in the company will know not to trust the consistently good assessments that manager gives. “We know many cases where the evaluations in a person’s file are filled with’ exceeds expectations,’ but they’re not being promoted. It’s because of the more realistic conversation about that person that takes place outside of the evalua-tions,“ O’Connor says. “That does a disservice to everyone, especially the people not getting the feedback they deserve.“
Performance appraisals can strengthen the organisation. In a downturn, employees’ concern about their own performance is greater than ever, even among the star performers, says Lila Booth, a Philadelphia-area management consultant. In the face of silence about performance, she warns, people are apt to think, “I’m next in line for the ax.“ Employees need ongoing feedback on performance and on the financial state of the company, she says, to avoid “the fear and fury“ such anxiety can cause.
Patty Hargrave, a human resources specialist at Admini-staff, in Kennesaw, Georgia, agrees. “Especially now during this economic crisis, businesses are scrutinizing what is important and what is not,“ she writes in a recent blog post. And, while companies may want to weigh the costs versus the benefits of employee performance appraisals, “when appraisals are done correctly—meaning fairly and consistently and for the right reasons—the benefits can be well worth the efforts.“ Hargrave stresses the importance of keeping the appraisal a two-way conversation. “Employees need to be considered as equal participants in the process, and managers need to place an emphasis on coaching or counseling in order to inspire improvements.“
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Read the article below about corporate culture.
Choose the correct word to fill each gap from A, B, C or D on the opposite page.
For each question(21-30), mark one letter(A, B, C or D)on your Answer Sheet.
There is an example at the beginning(0).
Comporate Culture
A corporate culture or company s culture is its (0).D...It tells people how to do their work. It takes its signals from leaders. It 【C1】______ motivation, morale, creativity, and marketplace success. How do you manage it?
Company culture is the【C2】______ personality of the organisation. It determines how members act, how energetically they【C3】______ to teamwork, problem solving, innovation, customer service, productivity, and quality. It is a company’s culture that makes it safe or not safe for a person, division or the whole company to 【C4】______ issues and solve problems, to act 【C5】______ new opportunities, or to move in new, creative directions. A company’s culture is often at the root of difficult people-related problems such as motivation, morale, absenteeism, communications, teamwork, retention, injuries, and insurance claims.
Because a company’s culture affects everything in it—including profits—culture is the real bottom line. A company with a well-developed culture, open to all that its members want to bring, easily 【C6】______ competitors. Culture and personality are similar. When people describe a national, regional, or organisational culture they use words that can 【C7】______a person. For example we might say that a culture is “friendly“ or “tough“. It might be “driven and aggressive“. It might be “active“, “analytic“, or “open“.
【C8】______a culture is created every time a group of people come together to form a team, a company will have many sub-cultures that exist within its main culture. For example, the marketing and technology teams may have different worldviews, jargon, work hours, and ways to do things. A big【C9】______for today’s company is to create a strong,【C10】______corporate culture that pulls all of the sub-cultures together and ensures that they can work as a unified team.
Example:
A quality B disposition C identity D personality
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Read the article below telling about basic knowledge of shares transaction.
For each question(31-40), write one word in CAPITAL LETTERS on your Answer Sheet.
There is an example at the beginning(0).
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The Buying and Selling of Shares
The business of buying and selling shares is done in an area known(0).the floor. Scattered over the floor are positions called posts. Each post bears the names of the stocks traded at that post. A broker desiring to buy shares of a certain stock will go to the section of the post allotted to that stock. If the prevailing price of the stock is several points【B1】______from the figure the broker is authorized to pay, an order may be left with the specialist, who often acts as liaison【B2】______buyer and seller. The specialist enters the order in a book;【B3】______ the price is reached, the specialist buys or sells the stock【B4】______to the orders of the broker and reports the transaction to the buyer and the seller. If the prevailing quotations are close【B5】______the price the broker is authorized to by, however, he or she usually attempts【B6】______complete the transaction without recourse to the specialist. As soon as a price is agreed on, both brokers, the buyer and the seller, make a memorandum of the transaction, which is reported【B7】______the brokerage office at once by telephone. An exchange employee 【B8】______the post where the transaction occurs writes, on a special card, the stock symbol, the number of shares, and the price, and places the card in an optical reader. The photoelectric eye of the card reader scans the pencil marks【B9】______transmits the information to a compute. The computer records the information in its memory banks and transmits the details of the transaction【B10】______more than 25,400 electrical tickers and display devices in the U. S., Canada, and Europe.
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Read the extract from an article about negotiation below.
In most of the lines(41-52), there is one extra word. It either is grammatically incorrect or does not fit in with the sense of the text. Some lines, however, are correct.
If a line is correct, write CORRECT on your Answer Sheet.
If there is an extra word in the line, write the extra word in CAPITAL LETTERS on your Answer Sheet.
The exercise begins with two examples(0 and 00).
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0 The dictionary definition of negotiation is “to discuss with the goal of finding terms of
00 agreement“. Unfortunately, in our world today, many people will interpret negotiation
【M1】______as being the skill of persuading the other people to accept their point of view.
【M2】______Frequently when a deal is struck to the advantage of one of party and the detriment
【M3】______of the other, seeds of disagreement and retaliation are being sown, which can
【M4】______have unforeseen future results. Negotiation is about both sides contributing
【M5】______to an outcome that they feel they can progress the relationship with.
【M6】______It will almost certainly involve in compromise on both sides. A better way
【M7】______to negotiate with is to find out what the needs of the other person are and
【M8】______try to meet them without losing all sight of your own goals. Do not attribute your
【M9】______motives to other people. Regardless of personal style, where there are some things
【M10】______every negotiator should not do, even before the meeting begins—preparation is
【M11】______the first step. Before starting any negotiation calculating the goals is more essential,
【M12】______including what you are and what you are not prepared to compromise and be flexible on.
