IELTS Listening Section 4: Business Cultures

Good morning everyone. Now whether you’re going to university to study business or some other subject, many of you will eventually end up working for a company of some kind.

Now, when you first start working somewhere you will realise that the organisation you’ve joined has certain characteristics. And we often refer to these social characteristics as the culture of the organisation – this includes its unwritten ideas, beliefs, values and things like that. One well known writer has classified company cultures by identifying four major types.

The first type is called the Power Culture, and it’s usually found in small organisations.

Power Culture

Characteristics of organization

• small
• 31 central power source

31. It’s the type of culture that needs a central source of power to be effective, and because control is in the hands of just one or two people there aren’t many rules or procedures.

• few rules and procedures
• communication by 32. conversation/conversations

32. Another characteristic is that communication usually takes the form of conversations rather than, say, formal meetings or written memos.

Now one of the benefits of this culture is that the organisation has the ability to act quickly, so it responds well to threat, or danger on the one hand, and opportunity on the other.

Advantage:

• can act quickly

Disadvantage

• might not act 33. effectively

33. But on the negative side, this type of organisation doesn’t always act effectively, because it depends too much on one or two people at the top, and when these people make poor decisions there’s no-one else who can influence them.

Suitable employee

• not afraid of 34 risk/risks

34. And the kind of person who does well in this type of business culture is one who is happy to take risks, and for whom job security is a low priority.

• doesn’t need job security

The next type is known as Role Culture – that’s R-O-L-E, not R-O-double L, by the way.

Role culture

Characteristics of organization:

• large, many 35 levels

35.  This type is usually found in large companies, which have lots of different levels in them.

• specialized departments

These organisations usually have separate departments that specialise in things like finance, or sales, or maintenance, or whatever.

• rules and procedures, eg job 36 description/descriptions and rules for discipline

36. Each one is co-ordinated at the top by a small group of senior managers, and typically everyone’s job is controlled by sets of rules and procedures-for example, there are specific job descriptions, rules for discipline, and so on.

Advantages:

What are the benefits of this kind of culture? Well firstly, because it’s found in large organisations, its fixed costs, or overheads as they’re known, are low in relation to its output, or what it produces.

In other words it can achieve economies of scale.

• economies of scale
• successful when 37 technical ability is important

37. And secondly, it is particularly successful in business markets where technical expertise is important

Disadvantages

• slow to see when 38 change is needed

38. On the other hand, this culture is often very slow to recognise the need for change, and even slower to react.

• Slow to react

Suitable employee

• Does not want 39 responsibility

39. What kind of person does this type of culture suit? Well it suits employees who value security, and who don’t particularly want to have responsibility.

Task culture

Moving on now to Task Cultures – this type is found in organisations that are project-oriented.

You usually find it where the market for the company’s product is extremely competitive or where the projects themselves have a short life-span.

Usually top management delegates the projects,  the people and other resources. And once these have been allocated, little day-to-day-control is exercised from the top, because this would seem like ‘breaking the rules’.

Characteristics of organization:

• project orientated
• in competitive market or making product with short life
• a lot of delegation

Advantages:

• 40 flexible

40. Now one of the major benefits of this culture is that it’s flexible.