Management speak（在线收听） |
| BBC Learning English WeekenderManagement speak Callum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Weekender. "Blue-sky thinking", "getting your ducks in a row","thinking out of the box"and "reading from the same page". What are these strange phrases? Well they are metaphoricalexpressions for the workplace, a kind of language that isdescribed as management speak, management speak – the waythat managers talk to the employees when they want toencourage them and make them work harder. If your boss said to you "We all have to get our ducks in arow!" would you know what was meant and how would you feelabout your boss for saying it!"WORKERI'd probably think the boss is insane or maybe temporarilyunwell. I wouldn't understand what he meant at all. Callum: Well that's one opinion and it's not an uncommonone. Nicola Clark has commissioned a report oncommunication in the workplace and she believes managershave to think carefully about how they express themselves. She calls management speak jargon, j a r g o n, jargon. This is a word for the special vocabulary and languageoften used within a particular type of job –jargon. Jargon isn't always bad, she says, but what doesshe think is very important? NICOLA CLARKIt's fine to use jargon when it's considered shorthand andwhen everybody within that environment understands it. Ifthey don't they just need to really carefully think aboutthey're saying. Communication is so important. Callum: She says that communication is so important. Jargon, she says, is ok if everyone understands it. Usingjargon can be an effective form of shorthand, a way ofsaying a lot in a simple sentence. Indeed every professionhas its own jargon but it's only useful if everyoneunderstands it. However, even if everyone understands it that doesn't meanthey like it being used, as these office workers comment. WORKERSI think the less management speak the better, it can justcause confusion and quite often it's just a way of the bossshowing off new management terms that they've learnt onsome expensive course. I think it's a real shame that managers rely on such clichés when they are communicating with their staff, becauseit's really patronising, and it accentuates the gap betweenmanagers and employees. Callum: Those employees weren't fans of management speak. They both thought it made their bosses look bad. The secondspeaker called the expressions clichés, clichés – anexpression which is used too much and is not original. Healso thought using them was patronising, patronising –treating the people you are talking to as stupid andunimportant. But what about managers themselves, how do they feel aboutthis type of language. I spoke to Andrew Thompson one ofthe managers at the BBC. What do you think is his attitudeto this kind of language? I asked him if he hears or evenuses phrases such as 'blue sky thinking' and 'thinkingoutside the box.' MANAGERYes, I hear them quite a lot, I hear them in meetings,colleagues use them, I have possibly, though I'd like tosay I haven't, used them a few times. There are always new phrases and some of them actually saysomething and are useful and people use them and they comeinto the language and that happens in management as I'msure it happens in all sorts of other areas. So you know, of the ones you mentioned, Thinking outsidethe box – it does mean something. I think it's terriblyover-used but you know meaning innovative thinking, non-conventional meeting. I can recognise that and as anexpression it's a quick way of saying something. SoI'm not saying all management speak is terrible, I'm just abit sceptical about some of the phrases that come up. Callum: Well Andrew isn't completely against managementspeak. He says sometimes it can be a quick way of sayingsomething – it can express an idea simply. But he does saysome expressions are used too much and there are somephrases he is sceptical about. Sceptical, he's not sure ifthey are useful. I went on to ask him if there were anyparticular phrases that he didn't like. Which one does hemention? MANAGERI've taken an intense dislike to 'driving things forward'. And this is from an organisation where one of our owndepartments, the finance department if I can name and shamethem, have a slogan which is "Driving Finance Forward"which in my humble opinion is not terribly meaningful, itsounds vaguely positive so what does it really mean? Callum: So Andrew has an intense dislike of, he reallydoesn't like, the phrase "driving things forward", which,he says has no real meaning but sounds a little bitpositive. And I suppose this is the main complaint with a lot ofmanagement speak. It has no clear meaning. Finally I asked Andrew if he could explain the strangemanagement-speak expression "Keep all our ducks in a row"MANAGERYes, we need to get organised, we need to get ready we needto be prepared and so arguably, why not say "We need to beprepared, or we need to be ready for the next thing we haveto do" I'm not terribly against "getting our ducks in a rowbut I wonder how much it adds" |
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