2017商务英语中级阅读课堂讲义十二

　　Look at the statements below and the article about the development of future business leaders on the opposite page.

　　Which section of the article (A, B, C or D) does each statement (1-7) refer to?

　　For each statement (1-7), mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet.

　　You will need to use some of these letters more than once.

　　1 Managers need to take action to convince high-flyers of their value to the firm.

　　2 Organisations need to look beyond the high-flyers they are currently developing.

　　3 There is a concern that firms investing in training for high-flyers may not gain the benefits themselves.

　　4 Managers need expert assistance from within their own firms in developing high-flyers.

　　5 Firms currently identify high-flyers without the support of a guidance strategy.

　　6 Managers are frequently too busy to deal with the development of high-flyers.

　　7 Firms who work hard on their reputation as an employer will interest high-flyers.

　　The Stars of the Future

　　A Existing management research does not tell us much about how to find and develop high-flyers, those people who have the potential to reach the top of an organisation. As a result, organisations are left to formulate their own systems. A more effective overall policy for developing future leaders is needed, which is why the London Business School has launched the Tomorrow’s Leaders Research Group (TLRG). The group contains representatives from 20 firms, and meets regularly to discuss the leadership development of the organisations’ high-flyers.

　　B TLRG recognises just how significant line managers are in the process of leadership development. Unfortunately, with today’s flat organisations, where managers have functional as well as managerial responsibilities, people development all too often falls victim to heavy workloads. One manager in the research group was unconvinced by the logic of sending his best people away on development courses, ’only to see them poached by another department or, worse still, another firm’. This fear of losing high-flyers runs deep in the organisations that make up the research group.

　　C TLRG argues that the task of management is not necessarily about employee retention, but about creating ’attraction centres’. ’We must help line managers to realise that if their companies are known as ones that develop their people, they will have a greater appeal to high-flyers,’ said one advisor. Furthermore, selecting people for, say, a leadership development programme is a sign of commitment from management to an individual. Loyalty can then be more easily demanded in return.

　　D TLRG has concluded that a company’s HR specialists need to take action and engage with line managers individually about their role in the development of high-flyers. Indeed, in order to benefit fully from training high-flyers as the senior managers of the future, firms must actually address the development of all managers who will be supporting the high-flyers. Without this, managers will not be in a position to give appropriate advice. And when eventually the high-flyers do move on, new ones will be needed to replace them. The next challenge will be to find a new generation of high-flyers.

　　首先得搞明白的是这篇文章到底讲的什么。不用看具体内容，有两个地方直接告诉了。一个是题目说明的第一句话，另一个是正文的标题。从这两个地方就可以看出全文探讨的是公司未来接班人——也就是潜力股——的培养问题。A段讲了TLRG这个贯穿全文的研究组织诞生的原因：现行的研究满足不了需要，于是大多数公司只能自己探索发掘接班人的模式;(即第五题的答案)B段讲了直属经理(line managers)对于发掘接班人的重要性(真是干什么都要从基层抓起)，以及经理们的一些疑虑;C段讲的是接班人问题对公司的重要性，并且应该让院线经理们明白这种重要性;D段是针对前面列出的问题，提出的解决建议，什么专家协助等等。整篇文章分为四个部分，层层递进，有很强的逻辑性。拿这样的文章来做阅读材料应该是相对容易把握的。