TUTOR: Well, you've both been looking at different styles of managing individuals in companies and the workplace.

导师：好的，你们俩都在关注公司和工作环境中个体管理的不同类型。

How's the research going, Philip?

菲利普，你的研究进展如何？

PHILIP: Well, I've been looking at why individualism, I mean individual differences, are such an important area of management studies.

菲利普：呃，我一直在研究为什么个人主义——我指的是个体差异——在管理学研究中这么重要。

When you think about any organization, be it a family business or a multinational company, they are all fundamentally a group of people working together.

所有的企业机构，不论是家庭企业还是跨国公司，本质上都是一群人在一起工作。

But it's what these individuals contribute to their places of work that makes you realize how important they are.

但这些个体为他们所属的机构所做出的贡献使我们意识到他们的重要性。

Of course they bring different ideas, but it's also their attitudes and their experiences of learning.

当然，他们为企业带来不同的想法，但同时还有他们的态度和学习经验。

Diversity is important in these areas too.

在这些领域，多样性同样十分重要。

TUTOR: So why do people behave so differently from one another at work?

导师：那为什么人们在工作中的表现行为如此千差万别呢？

PHILIP: There are lots of reasons but research has shown a lot of it comes down to personality.

菲利普：原因有很多，但研究发现最底层的原因在于个性的差异。

And the other factor is gender.

另外一个因素是性别差异。

It's a well-known fact that men and women do lots of things in different ways, and the workplace is no different.

众所周知，男性和女性在很多事情上行为方式迥异，他们在工作场所的表现也是如此。

TUTOR: Did you look at the effects of this variation on companies?

导师：你研究了这些差异对公司的影响吗？

PHILIP: Yes, I did. On the positive side, exposure to such diversity helps encourage creativity which is generally an asset to a company.

菲利普：研究了。从积极的角度来看，公司里这些差异的存在有助于激发创造力，而创造力可以算是公司的资产。

But unfortunately individual differences are also the root of conflict between staff and they can lead to difficulties for management, which can sometimes be serious.

但不幸的是这些个体差异同时也是员工之间矛盾冲突的根源，导致管理上的困难，有时问题还会非常严重。