Economics and Business free essay sample

You will consider the purposes of different organisations and the influence of stakeholders as well as how business organise themselves through strategic planning and organisational structures. You will look at the impact of political, legal and social influences on business and the economic principles that impact on businesses. You will also gain an insight into how businesses operate in different parts of the world and how the development of a global marketplace impacts on all businesses. What do I need to do? To complete this unit your portfolio will demonstrate you: Know the range of different businesses and their ownership. o Understand how businesses are organised to achieve their purposes. o Know the impact of the economic environment on businesses. o Know how political, legal and social factors impact on business. These four bullet points are the learning outcomes for the unit – and therefore they need to be covered in your portfolio! What resources do I need? Make sur e you have the following: †¢ Assignment task sheet. You have just started work for the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce as a Trainee Research Assistant for the local Business Support Team. The Manager, Scott Sellars, has asked you to undertake some research as part of your training. He is keen to see that you understand the context in which businesses operate, and in particular that you understand that businesses operate in different ways determined by what they do, and, who has a stake in them. Task one P1 You are to write a report in which you describe the type of business, purpose and ownership of two contrasting organisations. The two organisations are: 1. Queen Etheburga’s 2. North Yorkshire Fire Service Task two P2 You should then go on to describe the different stakeholders who influence the purpose of the two organisations. Task three M1 Explain the points of view of different stakeholders seeking to influence the aims and objectives of the two organisations Task four D1Evaluate the influence different stakeholders exert in one organisation. Your document should be word processed, follow the format of a standard business report and prepared for the attention of Scott Sellars. . Paragraph and page numbers must be used and the word count should be included. 3. All work must be referenced to the source you have used. Copying from the Internet or directly from a book or article is Plagiarism. ASSIGNMENT ONE – DRAFT STRUCTURE Investigating Businesses 1. Terms of Reference In this section you need to say what the report is all about, i. e. two contrasting organisations. You need to state who is writing the report (your name) and who the report is for; Scott Sellars. 2. Organisation 1 (QE) – Size, Sector, Purpose and Ownership Do some research on the internet; read all about the organisation and study any recent news reports to get the latest changes in the business activity. You need to describe the type of business: its size, ownership (public, private or voluntary? ) and sector (primary, secondary or tertiary? ). You need to support this with information from your research. Use information from the organisation’s website, for example images and text. Remember though to quote your source, i. e. say which site the information came from and if you take text you should ‘put it in quotes’. 3. Queen Ethelburga’s The Purpose You need to explain why the organisation exists, i. e. what is it that it does – to provide a service? Make a profit? You may find an aim or mission statement on the website. There is likely to be a wide range of activities and you should ensure that you describe these. You could use images to support your work. 4. Organisation 2 (NYFS) – Size, Sector and Ownership You need to describe the type of business: its size (for example local, national or international), ownership and sector. Support this with information from the business website, for example images and text. Remember though to quote your source, i. e. say which site the information came from and if you take text you should ‘put it in quotes’. 5. NYFS- The Purpose You need to explain why the organisation exists, i. e. what is it that it does. You may find an aim or mission statement on the website. There is likely to be a wide range of activities and you should ensure that you describe these. You could use images to support your work. 6. Stakeholders – QE You need to say what stakeholders are and write a section on each of the stakeholders that the organisation will have. Remember to describe what each group of stakeholders are, e. g. the staff that work for the organisation, and say what their influence is on the organisation. 7. Stakeholders – NYFS Reading company reports about NYFS will give you a good idea of who the main stakeholders are in the business. You need to write a section on each of the stakeholders that the organisation will have. Remember to describe what each group of stakeholders are, e. g. the staff that work for the organisation, and say what their influence is on the organisation. What sorts of relationships is the company seeking to build with different groups? 8. M1 and D1 Elaborate on the various points of view of the various stakeholder groups. What are they trying to achieve from influencing the organisations? What impact have they had in shaping the aims and objectives of the organisations? You then need to provide an in-depth evaluation of the influence that the stakeholders have on one of the businesses. E. g do some of the stakeholders work together? What common interests do they have? What opposing interests do they have? How are these differences resolved? You could do a priority ranking of the stakeholders of the organisations, e. g. 1 = most important, 5 is least important. Include a statement about the importance of each stakeholder and why you believe this to be the case   Scenario You have just started work for the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce as a Trainee Research Assistant for the local Business Support Team. The Manager, Scott Sellars, has asked you to undertake some research as part of your training. Having understood the purpose of businesses and the stakeholders that they have, he wants you to develop your knowledge further. He is keen to see that you understand how businesses are structured and organised and how the style of organisation helps it to fulfil its purpose. Scott suggests that you continue to investigate QE and Tesco. P3 ‘Describe how two businesses are organised’ and P4 ‘Explain how their style of organisation helps them to fulfil their purposes’ Show in a diagram the structure of your two different organisations which includes the functional areas and span of control of your businesses. Include: the mission and values; strategic aims and objectives and the strategic planning process. Remember that organisations need to be arranged into a structure that will enable them to meet their purposes – for example to make a profit or achieve their mission aims in the public sector. How do you think this helps the organisations control their activities?   Scenario Scott Sellars, has asked you to undertake some further research as part of your training and produce an article to be published in the Chamber of Commerce monthly magazine. For this task you will need to look at how different economic environments affect two selected businesses – one based in Britain and the other in a different country. You are to write an article in which you describe how NYFS and a second organisation operating in an economic environment are affected by these factors. Task One P5 ‘Describe the influence of two contrasting economic environments on business activities within a selected organisation’ M2 ‘Compare the challenges to selected business activities within a selected organisation, in two different economic environments’ P5 Use newspapers and data from the Internet to find out what is happening to consumer spending, GDP, inflation rates etc. Draw up a table of economic data for the UK and one other contrasting economic environment. Using the data in your table, describe the influence of the two contrasting economic environments (i. e. the economic data collected) on business activities within your selected organisations. M2 – Compare the challenges to their business activities that your two organisations face due to their economic environment, e. g. how does the inflation rate impact on supply costs or demand for your two businesses? Scott Sellars, has asked you to develop and conclude the article you started in assignment three by examining how your chosen organisations are affected by changes in their political, legal and social environments. P6 ‘Describe how political, legal and social factors are impacting upon the business activities of the selected organisations and their stakeholders’ M3 ‘Analyse how political, legal and social factors have impacted on the two contrasting organisations’ D2 ‘Evaluate how future changes in economic, political, legal and social factors, may impact on the strategy of a specified organisation’ P6 – Describe the political, legal and social factors that impact on the business activities of your two chosen organisations and stakeholders then select three influences from each factor and describe their impact on both organisations. Each influence should be researched from the point of view of both countries. Business activities include anything carried out by the organisation to achieve its purpose, e. g. recruitment, transport, product development, promotion etc.