When Frank Dale took over as publisher of Los Angeles Herrald-Examiner, the organization had just ended a ten-year strike. There was much bitterness and, as he told us. "Everybody that I found there had lost their curiosity, they'd lost their cutting edge, there was no interest, they just hung on...I had a real problem." His very first task was to introduce himself to everybody, to thank them for their loyalty to that point, and to allow them to express their concerns and frustrations. To questions like "What makes you think you can make this thing go?" he responded, "I don't know yet, but in thirty days I’ll come back to you and let you know what I've found." He recruited a task force of the best people from throughout the Hearst Corporation to do a crash study, and in thirty days he had a written report on what needed to be done, which he shared with the staff. He had taken the all-important first steps to establish mutual trust, without which leadership would not have been possible.
Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together. The accumulation of trust is a measure of the legitimacy of leadership. It cannot be demanded or purchased; it must be earned. Trust is the basic ingredient of all organizations, the lubrication that maintains the organization, and it is as mysterious and difficult a concept as leadership-and as important.
One thing we can say for sure about trust is that if trust is to be generated, there must be predictability, the capacity to predict another's behavior. Another way of putting it is to say that organizations without trust would resemble the ambiguous nightmare of Kafka's The Castle, where nothing can be certain and nobody can be relied on or be held responsible. The ability to predict outcomes with s high probability of success generates and maintaining trust.
What was Frank Date's problem when he became the publisher of Los Angeles Herrald-Examiner?
A. He had lost interest in his publishing career.
B. He found it hard to introduce himself to everyone.
C. Los Angeles Herrald-Examiner was in extreme difficulty.
D. Los Angeles Herrald-Examiner was on a ten-year strike.
In calculating the daily calorie requirements for an individual, variations in body size,
A. brought into practice
B. taken into account
C. thrown light on
D. looked down upon
Local government ______ could be obtained through a local income tax and/or a local sales
A. budget
B. expense
C. finance
D. revenue
A particular area in which assumptions and values differ between cultures is that of friendship. Friendships among Americans tend to be shorter and less intense than those among people from many other cultures. At least many observers from abroad have this impression. Because Americans are taught to be self-reliant, because they live in a very mobile society, and for many other reasons as well, they tend to avoid deep involvement with other people. Furthermore, Americans tend to "compartmentalize" their friendships, having their "friends at work", "friends at school", a "tennis friend", and so on. Americans often seem very friendly, even when you first meet them. This friendliness does not usually mean that the American is looking for a deeper relationship.
The result of these attitudes and behaviors is sometimes viewed by foreigner as an "inability to be friends". Other times it is seen as a normal way to retain personal happiness in a mobile, ever-changing society.
People normally have in their minds stereotypes about people who are different from themselves. Stereotypes are based on limited and incomplete experience and information, but they shape people's thoughts and expectations. Americans have many stereotypes about foreign students in general (for example, that they are very hard working, intelligent, and rich; that they do not speak English well) and about particular categories of foreign students (Chinese are polite and good at mathematics, for example, or Italians are emotional). And foreign students have their own stereotypes of Americans, for example, that they are arrogant, rude, and generous.
There are two stereotypes that often effect male-female relationships involving U.S. and foreign students. The first is the idea, held by some foreign males, that American females are invariably willing, if not anxious, to have sex. The second common stereotype, held by some American females, is that male foreign students have no interest in American females other than having sex with them. The existence of these and other stereotypes can give rise to considerable misunderstanding and can block the development of a mutually satisfactory relationship between particular individuals. Stereotypes seem unavoidable, given the way the human mind seeks to categorize and classify information, so it is not realistic to suppose people can "forget their stereotypes". But they can be aware of their stereotypes, and be ready to find exceptions to them.
Concerning friendship, Americans ______
A. look for a deeper relationship in a close circle
B. avoid deep relationship with other people
C. are friendly at first but do not remain so later on
D. do not make good friends