Reading bank

Prononciation

Unit 1
1 Before you read, choose the correct definition (a or b) for the words in bold in these
sentences.
1 Some people say that money is a good incentive to work hard.
a something that motivates you to work more or do something new
b something you give to someone who works hard
2 Eduardo is a very good footballer and knows a lot about game tactics, so now he would
like to become a coach.
a someone who trains and advises a person or team
b the manager of a team
3 An inspector is coming to our school tomorrow to evaluate the quality of teaching; I’m sure
they will think it’s very good.
a make something better
b decide how good or bad something or someone is
4 This document provides a framework for future cooperation with Canada.
a a set of ideas and rules that you use to decide what to do and how to do it
b an official decision which allows you to do something
5 I love working with my Korean colleagues but sometimes I find it difficult to understand
their mindset.
a a group of computer programs which can perform a lot of different tasks
b the way in which people think about things and make decisions
6 It is better for teachers to give students some autonomy instead of always telling them
what to do.
a a reward that you give to someone who works hard and never causes problems
b the opportunity to make your own decisions without being controlled by anyone else

2 Read the article and match the sub-titles (1–5) with the sections of the article (B–F).
1 What are the dangers? Section 4 What are the limits to independence?
2 What are the results? Section Section
3 When was it introduced? Section 5 How does it work? Section

3 Decide if the statements are true (T) or false (F).

1 Before ‘responsabilisation’, Michelin had already experimented with giving workers more
autonomy.
2 At Le Puy, workers on the factory floor work in teams, but there are no team leaders.
3 At Le Puy, the teams’ performance is assessed by the executive committee.
4 Mr Senard does not believe everyone is ready to support the idea of worker empowerment.
5 There were similar initiatives to Michelin’s in Japan and in the USA more than 20 years ago.
6 Michelin’s programme has influenced both large and small companies.

4 Match 1–5 with a–e to make collocations used in the article.

1 team a programme
2 training b companies
3 quality c member
4 chief d executive
5 small- and medium-sized e control

5 Complete the sentences with collocations from Exercise 4.

1 A lot of customers say our new office chairs are not very good. I think we really have
a problem with .
2 are usually based in only one place
and are owned by only one person or by a small group of people.
3 The new is planning to reorganise our company.
4 I would like to follow a to improve my computer skills.

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 Reading bank

Michelin’s ‘responsabilisation’: Power to the workers

A What is ‘responsabilisation’?
It is a French word which describes how Michelin, the tyre-manufacturing company, wants to
organise the way people work together. The company wants to involve workers more when it needs
to make decisions. It also wants to give workers more control over what they do, and also to make
5 them feel responsible for what they do.
B Many years ago, Michelin had already introduced flexibility to allow certain team members to step
in for an absent team leader. Some time later, the company tried giving greater autonomy to entire
teams. The experiment was a success, so the company started extending the practice to more and
more factories in the group.
10 C Michelin’s plant in Le Puy-en-Velay, in South-central France, is one of six factories involved in the
latest phase.
At Le Puy, a short training programme prepares workers for the switch to greater operational
responsibility. They learn, for example, the basics of teamwork, how to manage conflicts, how to
communicate positively and how to structure a project.
15 Team leaders do not give detailed orders on how to organise production or provide solutions to
difficult situations. Instead, they act as coaches or they help to resolve disagreements.
Workers in the ten-strong teams divide responsibility between themselves. For example, one
team member manages production, another oversees safety, a third, quality control. Together, they
evaluate their own performance.
20 The teams work within a framework, which includes the vision and values of the group and the
behaviour expected of Michelin staff.
D Group strategy is still decided at the top by the Chief Executive and executive committee. But some
teams are already examining how they can handle more sensitive non-production issues such as
recruitment, incentives and rewards.
25 E Individual workers at Le Puy say people are more engaged in their work, they deal with production
line problems more quickly and they find their jobs more interesting. Michelin says the factories
whose workers took on operational responsibility are happier. Besides, Le Puy's production is
increasing.
F The Chief Executive, Mr Senard, says the biggest risks are not moving fast enough and not being
30 able to change the mindset of staff used to greater hierarchy.
Some managers may dislike losing status and power, and some workers have said that the
granting of limited independence is just a cheap alternative to increasing wages.
G How different is Michelin’s programme from previous management initiatives?
Giving decision-making power to front-line workers is not unusual. Taiichi Ohno, chief production
35 engineer at Toyota after the Second World War, insisted that teams should work out how to solve
production line problems themselves. He called it ‘autonomation’ or ‘automation with a human
touch’.
In the USA, Tom Peters, the management writer, introduced the idea of ‘liberation
management’ in the early 1990s, which had a big influence on companies such as W. L. Gore,
40 manufacturer of Gore-Tex fabric, and Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle group.
Over a decade ago in India, Vineet Nayar, then Chief Executive, turned the hierarchy of
HCL Technologies upside down, with an ‘employees first, customers second’ approach that put
managers at the service of valuable front-line staff.
H Do other companies experiment with ‘responsabilisation’?
45 Some experts regard the Michelin programme as part of a wider movement towards giving
workers more autonomy. Some small- and medium-sized companies in France and Belgium have
gone further and no longer have any hierarchy at all.
Some big French companies, such as privately owned Decathlon, the sports equipment retailer,
now have similar programmes.

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