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Exercise 1. Read and translate.
Selection at Toyota.
Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda. The current president is Shoichiro Toyoda, son of the founder. The younger Toyoda wanted to become a scientist or an entrepreneur, but instead he was trained as an engineer to work in his father's firm. When his father died suddenly in 1952, the company was struggling to recover from a bitter labor dispute. In a surprise move, senior executives asked the young engineer to take over despite the fact that he was still in his twenties. Working with Eiji Toyoda, the chairman of the board, Shoichiro Toyoda established a corporate structure that relies on consensus decision making. Consensus decision making is a slow process; however, once a decision has been made the action necessary to implement it is almost unbelievably quick because all of the parties concerned are already informed and ready to move.
Because of Toyota's slow decision-making process, employee selection at the new Toyota facilities takes far more time than it would at a similar facility run by a U.S.-based firm. A quality control manager at Toyota’s Georgetown plant, for instance, underwent 25 hours of paper-and-pencil tests, workplace simulations, and a probing interview before finally landing the job. Because those 25 hours were spread out over 25 days, the applicant had to work on another job while awaiting the results from Toyota. The applicant felt that procedure was worthwhile, however, and his willingness to submit to it demonstrated his commitment to working for Toyota.
Every person who applies for a job at Toyota's Georgetown plant undergoes a battery of tests lasting at least 14 hours. Literacy is important because Toyota expects employees to be able to read material and instructions to constantly learn on the job. Each applicant's level of technical knowledge is assessed because neither certificates and diplomas nor years of experience are reliable indicators of what an applicant really knows about a job. Interpersonal skills are also evaluated because everyone must get along with everyone else in order to create the work culture valued by Toyota.
The tests begin with coverage of reading, mathematics, manual dexterity, "job fitness," and, where appropriate, technical knowledge. One of the most important parts of the initial tests is the job fitness part, which deals with the potential employee's attitude. There are 100 items with which respondents must agree or disagree.
After the initial tests. Toyota uses workplace simulations developed for Toyota by a private consulting firm. Groups of applicants deal with different problems such as ranking automobile features in terms of potential market acceptance. Multiple evaluators observe the groups and take on who says what.
Toyota hires carefully. It is careful because it wants to preserve its corporate culture. Toyota wants to maintain a culture that emphasizes teamwork, corporate loyalty, and versatility. Members of the organization must be able to cooperate to accomplish the organization's goals. Toyota promises long-term employment and loyalty to the worker and expects loyalty from the worker in return.
Toyota can afford to be choosy. The initial number of applicants for the 2.700 production jobs at Georgetown was 90,000 from every county in Kentucky. After the first round of screening, there were still about 40.000 applicants. There were also thousands of applicants for 300 office jobs. No labor agreements in any way restricted the number of applicants, and economic conditions in Kentucky were poor, creating a large pool of available workers. However, Toyota's reputation as a good place to work and the good reputation of Japanese firms in general also stirred interest in and enthusiasm for working for Toyota.
In Japan, a company like Toyota would recruit nearly all of its employees from high schools. Indeed, the initial group of workers hired at Georgetown was very well educated. All had at least high-school diplomas: many had college degrees; and a very few had MBA degrees (they were hired for leadership rather than production positions). Toyota tends to emphasize education rather than experience because experience is so frequently inappropriate and the company must spend time and money for retraining. It is less costly and easier to train workers, especially if their educational background indicates that they can learn well and fast.
Exercise 2. Translate into English.
Преодолейте «тестофобию».
Все чаще при приеме на работу кандидаты проходят тестирование. Отказ от этой процедуры менеджеры воспринимают как негативный симптом. Кандидату не следует опасаться тестов, потому что в целом процедура тестирования полезна.
Основная цель тестирования заключается в том, чтобы определить способности и характер кандидата для выяснения, какую работу лучше всего ему предоставить и стоит ли его дополнительно обучать. Кроме того, необходимо выявит скрытые цели и мотивы поиска работы, и жизненные ценности. Все это необходимо для того, чтобы понять насколько качества и установки кандидата соответствуют принципам корпоративной культуры фирмы.
Каждый стремится казаться лучше, чем он есть. Но отвечать на вопросы лучше честно, ибо серия похожих вопросов выявит вашу искренность. В компании с хорошей организацией труда и здоровой корпоративной культурой тест – нужный инструмент в работе.
Существует два вида тестов.
Профессиональные, когда кандидату предлагают что-то вроде контрольной по его основной профессии. Это могут быть вопросы или проверка на профессиональных тренажерах так, переводчику предложат перевод, программиста могут усадить за компьютер. Перед бухгалтером выложат пасьянс из накладных и спросят, в каких случаях используют эти бумаги.
Существуют также личностные тесты. В одних вас могу попросить рассказать о хобби, эпизодах из жизни. В других ответы готовы и нужно выбрать «да» или «нет». Здесь может быть доля коварства. Например, в вопросе «Готовы ли вы работать по 12 часов в день?» - может быть скрыта попытка выяснить вашу искренность, а не трудолюбие или преданность фирме.
Советы по тестам.
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