The future of management listening test below delivers Section 4 of Cambridge IELTS 10 Listening Test 2, covering Questions 31–40. You hear a university seminar about how management will change over the next decade, played once, exactly as in the real exam. This page supplies the audio player, the complete answer key, an explanation for each of the ten note-completion answers with the supporting words quoted from the recording, and the entire transcript for afterwards. Every blank needs ONE WORD ONLY, so the explanations also flag where near-synonyms such as worldwide lose marks against the key. Refine your method with the note completion strategy and the Band 8 listening strategy before you play the audio. The Cambridge IELTS 10 listening test 2 answers page then rounds up all four sections.

Listening Audio — Section 4

Play the recording once, without pausing, and answer Questions 31–40 before you check the key. In the real exam you hear each section exactly once.

Questions 31–40

Questions 31–40

Complete the notes below.

Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

• THE FUTURE OF MANAGEMENT
• Business markets
• greater 31 ………… among companies
• increase in power of large 32 ………… Companies
• rising 33 ………… in certain countries
• External influences on businesses
• more discussion with 34 ………… before making business decisions
• environmental concerns which may lead to more 35 …………
• Business structures
• more teams will be formed to work on a particular 36 …………
• businesses may need to offer hours that are 37 ………… , or the chance to work remotely
• Management styles
• increasing need for managers to provide good 38 …………
• changes influenced by 39 ………… taking senior roles
• Changes in the economy
• service sector continues to be important
• increasing value of intellectual property
• more and more 40 ………… workers

The Future of Management Listening Answers

Questions and Answers

The Future of Management Answer Explanations

31. competition — the first market development is “a major increase in competition” among companies from all round the world. The notes print greater before the gap, and greater paraphrases the increase the lecturer describes. Choice for consumers is the result of this trend, not the missing noun.

32. global — mergers and takeovers mean governments are losing power to “major global corporations”. The notes read large before the gap and Companies after it, so the adjective global is required. Major paraphrases large, and corporations paraphrases companies.

33. demand — in fast-expanding economies such as India, China, Brazil and Russia, “demand is growing very fast”. The notes use rising, which paraphrases growing, so the missing noun is demand. Resources come under pressure as a consequence, which rules resources out of the gap.

34. customers — companies are “consulting customers more and more before making their business decisions”. The notes print more discussion with, so the people being consulted, customers, complete the line. Consumers appear earlier in the lecture, but the sentence you need names customers directly.

35. regulation — environmental concerns will force longer product lifecycles, and “in some cases, regulation will need to be strengthened”. The notes read environmental concerns which lead to more, so regulation is the noun that fits. Pollution and waste are what the measures reduce, not the missing word.

36. project — teams will be created “with a specific project in mind” and disbanded once the work ends. The notes use particular, which paraphrases specific, so project fills the gap. The singular form matches the single piece of work described.

37. flexible — to attract and retain staff, firms will offer “flexible hours” alongside remote working. The notes read hours that are, so an adjective is needed, and flexible is exact. Remote describes the working, not the hours, so it cannot be transferred to this gap.

38. leadership — senior managers will need far more than efficiency, above all “great skills in leadership”. The notes print provide good before the gap, and leadership is the noun that follows. Efficiency is the old requirement, which makes it the standing trap in this question.

39. women — management will become more consultative and collaborative because of “more women moving into senior management positions”. The notes print taking senior roles, which paraphrases the movement described. The answer is the plural noun women, with no article.

40. self-employed — the final trend is that “more and more people are becoming self-employed” to gain freedom and control. The notes read more and more workers, so self-employed describes those workers. The hyphenated form counts as one word under the ONE WORD ONLY rule.

Listening Transcript — Section 4

Well, I’ve been talking to managers in a number of businesses, and reading surveys about the future of management. And what I’m going to present in this seminar is a few ideas about how the activity is likely to change in the next ten years. It isn’t a scientific, statistical analysis – just some ideas for us to discuss.

One area I want to mention is business markets, and I’m sure a really significant development will be a major increase in competition, with companies from all round the world trying to sell similar products. Consumers will have much more choice – for instance, food products sold in Australia might be manufactured in the USA, China, Finland and dozens of other countries. At the same time, mergers and takeovers mean that governments are actually losing power to major global corporations. We can probably all think of companies that exert a great deal of influence, which may be good for consumers. A third point I want to make about markets is that in the rapidly expanding economies, such as India, China, Brazil and Russia, demand is growing very fast. This is putting pressure on resources all over the world.

I think businesses are becoming more open to external influences. In particular, companies are consulting customers more and more before making their business decisions. Companies are finding out what they want and providing it, instead of making products and then trying to sell them, which is the model of years ago.

Another influence is that concerns about the environment will force manufacturers to extend product lifecycles, to reduce the amount of pollution and waste. And in some cases, regulation will need to be strengthened.

Many societies are much more fluid and democratic, and the structure of companies is changing to reflect that. I think we’re going to see a greater emphasis within companies on teams created with a specific project in mind. And when they’re completed, the teams will be disbanded and new ones formed.

More and more people see work as simply one part of their lifestyle, and not the most important one, and as the workforce is shrinking in some countries, businesses are having to compete for staff instead of being about to choose among a lot of applicants. Typical examples that will attract and retain staff are traditional ones like flexible hours and – something that has been made possible by advances in technology – remote working, with people based at their home, abroad, or almost anywhere they choose.

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Management styles will almost certainly continue to change. Senior managers will require a lot more than the efficiency that they’ve always needed. Above all they’ll need great skills in leadership, so that their organisation can initiate and respond to change in a fast-moving world, where they face lots of competing requirements and potential conflicts.

In most of the world, the senior managers of large businesses are mainly men in their fifties and sixties. The predominant style of management will almost certainly become more consultative and collaborative, caused above all, by more women moving into senior management positions.

Many of the changes are influenced by developments in the wider economy. The traditional emphasis of business was manufacturing, and of course the service sector is very important. But we shouldn’t overlook the growing financial contribution of IP, that is, intellectual property. Some books and films generate enormous sums from the sale of related DVDs, music, games, clothes, and so on.

Another point I’d like to make is that although I’ve been talking about companies, one trend that they have to face is the move away from people working for the same employer for years. Instead, more and more people are becoming self-employed, to gain the freedom and control over their lives that they’re unlikely to get from being employed.

OK, well that’s all I want to say, so let’s open it up for discussion.

Key Vocabulary and Spelling

Study Tips

ONE WORD ONLY is absolute in this section, and the hyphenated self-employed counts as a single word. Writing any extra word around a correct answer scores zero, so check every line against the limit before the recording moves on.

The lecture is organised under the same headings as the notes: business markets, external influences, business structures, management styles and changes in the economy. Follow those signposts to stay level with the speaker, and use the note completion strategy to convert them into a navigation plan.

Nearly every answer is a paraphrase: corporations for companies, rising for growing, and particular for specific. Predict the word class of each gap first, then catch the synonym the speaker supplies instead of the printed word.

Distractors cluster around several gaps. Efficiency names the old requirement rather than the new one, and remote working sits beside flexible hours, but only the adjective describing the hours answers Question 37.

Practice More Listening Tests

Close out the paper on the Cambridge IELTS 10 listening test 2 answers page, which lines up all forty answers with the evidence for each one. Section 4 rewards accuracy, so if you dropped marks here, replay the Thor Heyerdahl Presentation in Section 3 or the Town Centre Visitor Survey in Section 1 and rebuild your one-word discipline. The free IELTS listening practice course from Simply IELTS trains note completion until the word limit becomes automatic. For one more academic monologue under exam timing, try this interactive listening test: stoicism ielts listening test with answers and audio.