November 30, 1981

An obituary of Lotte Lenya on Satur- day said incorrectly that she had re- ceived an Oscar. She won an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in the film ''The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.''

In California's Silicon Valley, many firms boast about an assortment of employee benefits such as flexible work hours, swimming pools and Friday afternoon social hours. But Convergent Technologies, which makes desk-top work stations for the so-called office of the future, marches to a different beat - that of a military march. ''There is no question,'' says the president, Allen Michaels, who puts in six-day workweeks and expects his employees to do the same, ''this is the Marine Corps of the computer industry.'' By any measure, Convergent Technologies has had an unusually successful beginning. In two years, it has recorded $10 million in sales and has gotten at least $350 million in orders from large computer manufacturers.

Manuel Rodriguez worked for nine years as a union pipefitter in the Chicago area before deciding in 1977 to start his own business. When he won his family's support to use the three-bedroom stucco house that he built in his spare time as collateral for a $30,000 starter loan, he was on his way. Business has been good for Mr. Rodriguez, and in the last fiscal year his company, R & D Piping, Heating and Plumbing Inc., had revenues of nearly $2 million, largely on the strength of Federal and state contracts won on a competitive bid basis. And, like all small-business men, he is trying to cope with the recession. But for Mr. Rodriguez and other Hispanic and black entrepreneurs, the problems of the economic downturn have been aggravated by a Federal Government that they feel is ready to abandon special assistance programs before minority businesses have matured enough to stand on their own.

In a development that has surprised and disturbed New York City housing officials, a rapidly growing number of properties being taken through tax foreclosure are occupied one- and two-family homes. The city now owns about 1,000 such buildings in all five boroughs. It expects to add 1,500 more next spring when it takes title to tax delinquent properties in Brooklyn, where the problem is the worst. In addition, the city owns 1,000 vacant one- and two-family buildings and expects to acquire 1,500 more vacant ones next year.

THERE was a song in Dave Winfield's heart and salami-and-eggs on his paper plate. This was in the Bagel Nosh near the Yankee outfielder's apartment in Fort Lee, N.J.; it was on the morning before his debut as a bass-baritone on a float in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. ''I don't know how they talked me into singing,'' said Winfield, his black mustache stretching wide as he smiled. In gray suit and vest and dark tie, Winfield, at 6-foot-6-inch, 220-pounds, looked natty and large. ''The only singing I've ever done was in the shower, or late at night.'' So Winfield had been practicing the song, ''Manhattan,'' with feeling, with growing confidence, and with a little added surprise that might delight the folks at Herald Square - just as, for the most part, he had delighted the fans at Yankee Stadium.