Integrated- Writing

In this set of materials, the reading passage describes the advantages of the
introduction of the piecework wage system by A.O Smith Corporation and the
listening passage is describing the disadvantages of this system.
The reading passage, is showing the advantages of the implementation of the
piecework system. The pieacework system was based on the theory that each
worker will be paid based on the number of pieces produces, and therefore the
paycheck and the moral of the workers will increase too. It is told that the
implementation of this system had the expected outcome for the company, as the
productivity increased and the moral of the workers got higher because of the
higher paychecks.
But while the reading passage describes the benefits of the system, the listening
passage describes the disadvantages of this system and its consequences for the
company. Even though at the beginning the production increased and the moral of
the workers got higher because of the good payment it seems that, according to the
lecturer, the quality of the production decreased and around 20% of the production
had to be repaired. This is why the company gave up on this sytem and
implemented another one that increased the quality of the production and
decreased the number of broken car frames from 20% to only 3 %.

In this set of materials, the reading passage is a description of one view of personality
development, the conflict approach, and the listening passage adds to the information from the
reading by explaining the fulfillment appproach, which is another type of personality
development.
Firstly, the conflict approach is being used by the psychologists to explain mainly the
development of human personality. The conflict approach is stated on the fact that individuals are
in an infinite state of conflict. That is because in the everyday life persons might have internal
conflicts like eating a healthy breakfast or an unhealthy but tasty one and external conflicts which
relates more to the conflicts one person might have in relation to other individuals. All people are
facing this conflicts duing their entire life.
Secondly, in the listening passage the professor explains another view of personality development
called the fullfilment approach. According to the professor, this type of approach is not based on
the idea that life is a countinous state of conflict, but the opposite. The force that governs this
approach is related to the need of fullfilment, of the satisfaction a person gets when he or she
reach goals. For instance, this approach can be seen from the eyes of a person who has the image
of a desirable life, one filled with succes. Based on how well this person is working in reaching
her/his goals, it can get closer to the envisoned life. This envisoned life is actualy the one that
shapes the personality of a person.

In this set of materials, the reading passage explains two solutions that are proposed
to Ame Acounting Company for the problem they face with tardiness and the

listening passage add information to it by discussing the disadvantages of each

solution and the final decision that was taken by the president of the company.
The first proposed solution included a make-up time for the work missed by the
employees. According t this plan, the emplyees who come late to work will have to
make-up for that time by staying after the schedule. However, the professor stated
that the company realized that this penalty will not be harsh enough for the
employees, but on the contrary, it will be a bonus for them. The option of being able
to make-up for their time by staying late would allow the employees to do their own
schedule, which is not the intention of the company.
The second solution stated in the reading passage points ou that the tardiness
problem could be solved by subtracting pay from the salaries of the employees. If an
employee arrives one hour later, then he will not get paid for that hour.
Nevertheless, the professor states that this solution has a drawback also because if
employees will come late to work then the company will lose work, and losing many
hours of work will not be good for the company.
After considering the two solutions it seems that the president of the company came
up with one solution which imposed a combination of the previous ones.
Consequently, if employees will come to work late they will lose pay and they will
also have to make up for their lost hours.

Independent- Writing
Not all the people can face their problems with strength and, therefore, they get
them solved very difficult. I have never seen problems as being impossible to solve
and I always tried to be more a solution oriented person rather than complaining
about my issues to everybody.
Firstly, whenever I face a situation that is keeping my away from my goal, I always
try to look for different options to solve it. Having a better understanding about what
kind of possibilities I have to solve my problem will benefit me because I can choose
the option that suits me the best at the specific moment. For instance, if I'm late for
a meeting I will try to think about all the ways through which I can get there and I
will choose the fastest one; it would probably be a cab. Thinking about all the
solutions and picking the most suitable one will make my decision a better one.
Secondly, in some particular issues where I don't have too much knowledge about
how to solve a problem I would always try to find somebody who has already been
through the same situation as I do or a person who knows better the best solution
for that specific problem. A person who is more knowledgeable with the topic will be
able to give me some proper and sustained advices. For example, if I have a legal
issue with police I will always ask a lawyer to help me with the situation as I don't
have the same background as he has. A more acknowledgeable person of the
situation will always be a better adviser.

To sum up, I can say that I'm that kind of person who is always looking for the best
solution to solve a specific problem. Trying to find the most suitable option to solve a
problem by carefully looking at all the solutions I might have or by asking for help
from another person which is more qualified to give me advices will always get me
to solve my problems easier.

In general, organizations use promotions in order to motivate their employees to work more
efficient or to stay for a longer time in the company. In this essay, I will explain the advantages of
both the promotions based on seniority and performance, by stating my personal opinion at the
end.
Most of the companies, mainly the ones wich are state owened companies, are promoting their
employees based on seniority. Their main argument is that the people who have been working for
a long time for that company already have the necessary skills to handle a higher position. The
people have a lot of work experience behind, have already faced lots of challenges and know how
to handle crisis situations. For instance, a person who has been working for a company for ten
years will know how to easily compare all the advantages or advantages in taking a management
decision because they have experienced it many times before and they have most probably
learned from previous mistakes. Thst's why people with more work experience will always know
how to handle easier the tasks of a higher position.
However, more and more companies started to promote people based on performance because
they realized that this can be an extrinsic motivation for the emplyees to work more efficiently
and also to be more creative. For example, if one employee knows that he can be promoted in one
year instead of five years on the position he dreams to have, then his work will be more
qualitative. He will try to impress the management of his skills by working harder and better than
the others.
In my opinion,companies whould give promotions based on performance rather than on seniority.
When a company promotes the employee based on performance, then that person will work with
a better satisfaction. When people know that they will be promoted based on seniority they will
tend to not give qualitative work and they will rather tend to loose as much time as possible
because they don't have any extrinsic motivation that can dictate them to be more efficient, so the
company will lose. But when an emplyee know he has the chance to be promoted quickly, he will
most probably be a hard worker and he will try to bring new creative ideas to the company in
order to impress the management and get the promotion.
In conclusion, both promotions have their own advantages: the one based on seniority will make
the companies be sure that the people they promoted have already a lot of work experience and
know how to handle very well their activities and the one based on performance will always
bring in higher positions people who work efficient and bring new creative ideas to the company.
Notwithstanding the advantages of the promotions based on seniority, the ones based on
performance will mbe more beneficial for the company as the workers will be for sure hard
working people who will improve the decision making system of the organization.

The 21st century companies brought a new style of working in people's lives, the
telecommuting style. There are lots of advantages in working from home rather than
going to the office daily. In this essay, I will discuss the advantages of working
telecommuting over working in an office.
Firstly, working from home can give people the option of managing their time
as they wish, without worring to spend at least 8 hours per day in your office. I
remember that when I was little, my mom worked for a company from home
because she had to take care of my sister and I and she couldn't afford to pay a
nanny for it. If she had had to be at the office 8 hours a day and away from us, she
wouldn't have managed it. But by working at home she had the opportunity to take
care of our education and also to get paid for working at home.
Another advantage that telecommuting provides is the liberty one person has
in organizing his work. A person who is working from home will not have to deal with
a specific way of working or with indications from the management. On the contrary,
a person who work from home will be able to work in his own style. This is very
helpful for people who usually don't like to work under the pressure and who don't
want to deal with an entire team in order to accomplish a specific task.
All in all, I personally prefer working from home rather than working from an
office mainly because I usually don't like routine and a specific schedule with 8 hours
per day of working will be a nightmare for me. I've also experienced working in a
team and under the rules of leaders and I realized that when I'm working in my own
style I'm more efficient and creative and my time management is considerably
better.
Consequently, telecommuting is better over working in the office as one can plan his
work however he wants and he can also do the work in his own style without
worrying of working under pressure.