VOCABULARY: THE MANAGEMENT TEAM

The top people in a company can be called 'senior management'.

• We need to get approval for this from senior management.
  With my qualifications and experience, I should have a job in senior management.

Of course, another term for this is 'top management'.

• He rose quickly through the company and had a top management position before he was 30.
  
• The top management of this company have no imagination or drive.

Not surprisingly, the opposite of 'senior management' is 'junior management'.

• He was promoted from the shop floor into a junior management position.
  
• I feel I'm ready to move up from this junior management job.

Between 'senior' and 'junior' management is 'middle management'.

• It's time I was promoted from junior management to middle management.
  
• He rose rapidly to middle management but was then never offered a senior post.

The group of managers can be called the 'management team'.

• We have a strong management team, full of high quality people.
  
• We need to improve our management team to bring new life to the company.

'Aggressive management' means being determined to do well and using strong methods to achieve success.

• His aggressive management style has upset a few people.
  
• We need some aggressive management to wake up this sleeping giant.

'Day-to-day management' is concerned with the ordinary and regular issues of a company.

• I spend so long on the day-to-day management of my department that I have no time to look at the long-term.
  
• You will deal with the day-to-day management of the company while I work on the strategy.

'Strategic management' is concerned with the long-term of the company.

• This company lacks good strategic management and is just drifting.
  
• You need to spend more time on strategic management and less on day-to-day issues.

'General management' is concerned with all aspects of the company, not a specialist area such as Research or Marketing.

• You've spent your whole career in Sales and you need some experience of general management.
  
• You need some time in general management to get an overview of the company.

If there is 'inefficient management', a company will not use its resources as well as it should. The opposite of this is 'efficient management'.

• The company is riddled with inefficient management. Don't work with them.
  
• If we replaced the inefficient management, we could turn this company around.

'Weak management' lacks the determination to carry out difficult decisions or actions.

• This department has suffered from weak management for the last ten years.
  There is a culture of weak management in this organization.

The opposite of this is 'strong management'.  Notice that you can be 'strong' without being 'aggressive' – the first is reactive to events and the second is proactive.

• This company needs some strong management to take on the unions.
• We need strong management in this company, but not too aggressive. 

'to promote' = to move someone up to a higher position in the organization.

• He handed his notice in last month when he didn't get promoted to senior manager.
• She wants to be promoted to supervisor but doesn't have the interpersonal skills for that job yet.

'to renew' = to make new, to extend the life or replace something.

• I originally had a two-year contract but it has been renewed twice.
• We need to renew the work permits for the foreign workers who have been here a year.

'to lay off' = to make redundant, to stop employing someone

• When we closed the warehouse, we laid off more than fifty people.
• Technological advances means that we have had to lay off more and more unskilled workers.

'to demote' = to move someone to a lower level in the hierarchy

• She was demoted after the terrible changeover to the new accounting system.
• Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to demote anyone who does not live up to expectations.

'to sideline' = to not promote someone, to move them to a position with less effective power

• When the new CEO was nominated, he was sidelined to another department.
• After a period as a very ineffectual head of department, he was sidelined until he retired.

'to replace' = to exchange one thing for another, to put a person in the job of someone else.

• Ken replaced Tanya when she left to pursue another career.
• When David left, he was replaced by two people as the job had grown enormously.

'to retire' = to stop working due to ill health or age.

• Jack suffers from ill health and has had to retire early.
• The statutory age for retirement is 60 although people often retire early if they can.

'to increase' = to get bigger in amount or size.

• Contributions that employees pay increased faster than salaries so cutting their net incomes.
• Even though profits have increased, we are not in a position to increase salaries above the rate of inflation.

'to expand' = to increase in size, number or importance.

• We have expanded our retail operations very quickly over the last three years.
• The company expanded very quickly in the 1990s but has since stopped growing so fast.

'to restructure' = to organize a business or system in a new way to make it more efficient.

• Currently we are restructuring our organization and dividing it into five cost centres.
• He lost his job when the company restructured the department. 

'to streamline' = to improve the effectiveness of parts of an organization, often by simplifying procedures.

• We are streamlining the procedure to cut the time it takes to deliver to the customer.
• Streamlining administration and giving more responsibility to individuals will reduce costs considerably.

'to relocate' = to move to a new place

• Production is being relocated to Bulgaria next year creating lots of redundancies here.
• My company paid all the costs when I was relocated to my previous job in Scotland.

'to relax' = to make a rule less strict or severe.

• Unfortunately we can't relax the no-smoking ban. The law won't permit it.
• We have relaxed the dress code considerably and now people often wear jeans to the office.

'to enforce' = to impose a rule more strictly or to make people follow a rule.

• For health and safety reasons, we have to enforce the no-smoking rules.
• It is extremely difficult to enforce time-keeping rules without some form of electronic system.

'to adjust' = to change something a little to make it correct or suitable.

• We are adjusting the salary scales so that they reflect present responsibilities better.
• Salaries are adjusted annually according to the rate of inflation and the financial results.

'to reduce' = to make smaller in size, quantity or importance.

• We have reduced the number of workers with the introduction of more modern technology.
• In order to reduce expenditure in the department, we have introduced several cost-cutting measures.

'to deteriorate' = to become worse

• Morale has deteriorated since the rumours of closure began.
• Sales figures have continued to deteriorate despite the launch of the latest version.

'to downsize' = to make a company or organization smaller by reducing the number of people working for it.

• The organization has a plan to downsize in order to reduce costs.
• Many organizations downsized during the 1980s when new technologies were introduced.

'to phase in' = to introduce something in stages over a period of time

• The changes in pay scales will be phased in over the next three years.
• The new organization will be phased in gradually starting here in head office.

'to phase out' = to remove or stop doing something gradually over a period of time.

• That line of products has been phased out and replaced by the new range.
• It has taken us six months to phase out the old software and introduce the new.

Did you like this?  Tweet me!