NETWORKING (READING FOR IELTS)
Networking
as a concept has acquired what is in all truth an unjustified air of modernity.
It is considered in the corporate world as an essential tool for the modern businessperson,
as they trot round the globe drumming up business for themselves or a
corporation. The concept is worn like a badge of distinction, and not just in
the business world.
People can
be divided basically into those who keep knowledge and their personal contacts
to themselves, and those who are prepared to share what they know and indeed
their friends with others. A person who is insecure, for example someone who
finds it difficult to share information with others and who is unable to bring
people, including friends, together does not make a good networker. The classic
networker is someone who is strong enough within themselves to connect
different people including close friends with each other. For example, a
businessman or an academic may meet someone who is likely to be a valuable
contact in the future, but at the moment that person may benefit from meeting
another associate or friend. It takes quite a secure person to bring these
people together and allow a relationship to develop independently of himself. From
the non-networker’s point of view such a development may be intolerable,
especially if it is happening outside their control. The unfortunate thing here
is that the initiator of the contact, if he did but know it, would be the one
to benefit most. And why? Because all things being equal, people move within
circles and that person has the potential of being sucked into ever growing
spheres of new contacts. It is said that, if you know eight people, you are in
touch with everyone in the world. It does not take much common sense to realize
the potential for any kind of venture as one is able to draw on the experience
of more and more people.
Unfortunately,
making new contacts, business or otherwise, while it brings success, does cause
problems. It enlarges the individual’s world. This is in truth not altogether a
bad thing, but it puts more pressure on the networker through his having to
maintain an ever larger circle of people. The most convenient way out is,
perhaps, to cull old contacts, but this would be anathema to our networker as
it would defeat the whole purpose of networking. Another problem is the reaction
of friends and associates. Spreading oneself thinly gives one less time for
others who were perhaps closer to one in the past. In the workplace, this can
cause tension with jealous colleagues, and even with superiors who might be
tempted to rein in a more successful inferior. Jealousy and envy can prove to
be very detrimental if one is faced with a very insecure manager, as this
person may seek to stifle someone’s career or even block it completely. The answer
here is to let one’s superiors share n the glory; to throw them a few crumbs of
comfort. It is called leadership from the bottom.
In the
present business climate, companies and enterprises need to so-operate with
each other in order to expand. As globalization grows apace, companies need to
be able to span not just countries but continents. Whilst people may rail
against this development it is for the moment here to stay. Without co-operation
and contacts, specialist companies will not survive for long. Computer components,
for example, need to be compatible with the various machines on the market and
to achieve this, firms need to work in conjunction with others. No business or
institution can afford to go d to be an island in today’s environment. In the
not very distant past, it was possible for companies to go it alone, but it now
more difficult to do so.
The same
applies in the academic world, where ideas have been jealously guarded. The opening-up
of universities and colleges to the outside world in recent years has been of enormous
benefit to industry and educational institutions. The stereotypical academic is
one who moves in a rarefied atmosphere living a life sometimes splendid
isolation, a prisoner of their own genius. This sort of person does not fit
easily into the mould of the modern networker. Yet even this insular world is
changing. The ivory towers are being left ever more frequently as educational
experts forge links with other bodies; sometimes to stunning effect as in
Silicon Valley in America and around Cambridge in England, which now has one of
the most concentrated clusters of high tech companies in Europe.
It is the
networkers, the wheeler-dealers, the movers and shakers ,call them what you
will, that carry the world along. The world of the Neanderthals was shaken
between 35,000 and 40,000 BC; they were superseded by Homo sapiens with the very ‘networking’ skills that separate us
from other animals: understanding, thought abstraction and culture, which are
inextricably linked to planning survival and productivity in humans. It is said
the meek will inherit the earth. But will they?
The
following statements agree with the information in the reading passage?
YES if the
statement agrees with the information
NO if the
statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no
information about the statement
1.
Networking is
not a modern idea.
2.
Networking is
worn like a badge exclusively in the business world.
3.
People fall
into two basic categories.
4.
A person who
shares knowledge and friends makes a better networker than one who does not.
5.
The classic
networker is physically strong and generally in good health.
ANSWER KEY
1. YES
2. NO
3. YES
4. YES
5. NOT GIVEN
