Read the text and do the task which follows. Pearl Relocates

Some difficult and monotonous jobs have been taken over by robots.

There is no demanding clocking-in at 7 a.m. Each team gathers for 10 minutes to discuss production, allot tasks, solve problems and , if necessary, air grievances.

Task I Click  the correct variant according to the text.

1 The management of the factory is…

a) Japanese, but American in style

b) American , but Japanese in style    

c) A Japanese / American collaboration

d) entirely Japanese

2 The workers say that…

a) they will join the union later

b) they are not allowed to join the union

c) they refuse to join the union

d) they do not need to join the union 

3 Everyone employed in the factory has three shirt-and-trouser blue suits

a) and everyone wears them

b) and a lot of people wear them  

c) but few people wear them

d) but nobody wears them

4 Compared with most conventional western factories, in Nissan’s Smyrna plant there is..

a) less differentiation between  workers and management  

b) more discipline and longer working hours

c) more opportunity for physical exercise

d) less contact between workers and management

5 How many Japanese people work in a factory?

a) 1900                 b) 471                 c) 15

6 What percentage of the total work-force do women account for ?

a) 50%                b) 20%                 c) 0%

7 What time does work start in the morning?

a) at  7 o’clock               b) at 9 o’clock                 c) at 6 o’clock

8 How many  motor-manufacturers are there in the world that are larger that Nissan?

a) 10                  b) 9              c) none

9 Is the factory run on more or less democratic lines than most American factories?

a) yes               b) no             c) It’s difficult to judge

TEXT IV

Read the text and do the  task  which follows.

How Managers in Three Countries Live.

Mangers are, almost by definition , achievers, and it’s rare to find one who doesn’t think he is unpaid. The executives from three countries below are no exception  - most say salaries in their neck of the world are too low:

Peter Laister, 55 managing director of Britain’s Thorn EMI since 1989, became chief executive of the diversified electronics company in October. As managing director his salary was &88,000, or about $134,000. Performance-related bonuses, which Thorn began experimenting with a few years ago , have been modest, adding less than 20% to his salary. Laister likes the bonus concept, but admits others are skeptical. “Americans grow up believing that reward is related to effort”, he says. “Europeans don’t”.

Laister lives with his wife in a seven-bedroom brick house in a village 23 miles from London. His company furnishes him with the car of his choice – he now has a blue Rover Vitesse – and a chauffeur. What free time he has he spends gardening and taking photographs, and at least once a month he takes his 33-foot boat in to the English Channel to fish. He has  five weeks of vacation and usually spends a “ quiet, homey” two weeks with his wife and friends in a warm climate, such as Majorca, Spain, or St. Lucia in the Caribbean.

Mitsuo Komori, 42, is a short, lithe executive with black collar length hair at Toyo Kogyo, the Japanese auto firm that makes the Mazda. As head of a 12-man section in charge of the company’s domestic advertising, he has the rank of ‘kacho’, or section chief, reporting to a ‘bucho, or department chief. The two men have desks alongside each other in an open office.

Komori says his total cash compensation is 8.5 million yen a year, or $35,780, low by American standards. He notes that it wouldn’t make much difference whether ha was good  at his job or not, since Japanese firms don’t pay according to results. “Executives are not paid that much more than line workers”, he says a bit ruefully.

Komori lives with his wife  and two children in suburban Saitama and commutes 75 minutes to his Tokyo office by bus and subway. Their house, which they bought a few years ago  for $85,000 has three rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs. Komori could have obtained a 4% to 5% housing  loan from the company – available to all employees – but opted instead for an 8% bank loan rather than deal with company personnel at headquarters 500 miles away. “The whole business of arranging it is just too much sweat,” he says.

Komori entertains lavishly in Tokyo’s Ginza district several times a week at peak entertainment seasons. His company picks up colossal tabs – sometimes to the tune of $2,000 – for such evenings. On weekends he plays tennis with his wife at a neighbourhood court.

Ove Sundberg, 50, has been president of KemaNobel, Sweden’s largest