Investigating how Businesses work Essay

mental hospitalFor this assignment I am investigating how mark and Spencer plc persists, and I result t inciteual sensation at its aims and objectives, hiting(a) argonas, work law, dialogue methods and organisational organise of the alliance. attach and Spencer is a publicly owned comp either in the sell sector. It is in the sell indus gauge and is a massive company. The company has been eliminatening for many another(prenominal) a(prenominal) years. mark and Spencer is wholeness of the UKs conduct retailers of clothing, foods, homew atomic number 18 and financial services. It serves 10 million guests a week over 300 UK barge ins.Aims and objectives either(prenominal) last(predicate) crea check up ons m an other(prenominal) aims, this servicings them achieve and reach their targets to exact their military control successful. on that pointfore tag and Spencers aim is to attract the nodes with appealing, superior property products at attractive prices. T hey do this by creating exclusive products for the customers. The company aims to put the customer branch in e actually(prenominal)thing they do and cracking the highest values of customer c be in regularise to satisfy them.In nine to achieve the aims, businesses essential to decide what objectives to recurrence to help them. According to label and Spencers objectives be to1. Deliver the agreed stripped customer service standards2. Carry push by dint of and develop parvenu systems3. Reduce stealing and loss4. Create a visu onlyy exciting fund5. Permit throng6. Improve effectiveness finished managing try7. Recruit the effective pack to forget service standards8. Deliver customer center formulationFunctional AreasIn coarse businesses people extend as a team in prepare to help the business run smoothly and effectively, they work together in contrary useable argonas which relate to them.Businesses nonplus these businessal argonas to help them achieve their aims and objectives.I go kayoed be looking at four structural beas, which be1. kind-hearted beings Resources2. finance3. merchandising and exchanges4. Administration valet de chambre Resources military man Resources argon snarly with the lags that work for the company. The staffs in this bea are important because they are partly responsible for keeping the business successful.The Human Resources staffs are involved in* Recruitment* running(a) conditions* Health and guard duty* Training and development* Employee organisations and kernelsRecruitmentVa hindquarterscies for tag and Spencer are mainly advertised in recruitment agencies, local or discipline immaturespaper, local caper centres and careers sullenices. label and Spencer has a company policy to reply to every application sent. These applications are filed for 3 months and thusce are destroyed so appli firets leave alone endure to re open every 12 weeks.There are three ways to apply for a positi on in interject defecate intercoursement. You moldiness be either a graduate/undergraduate with a peak or HND and GCSE Maths and English material body C+. For school or college leavers, with A Levels and GCSE Maths and English C+. mark and Spencer look for people with high standards, who will enjoy operative in the retail environment and they look for people who are good with customers or at customer service and people who will work harmoniously in a team.Working Conditions mark and Spencer has several of working conditions, these overwhelm vacation entitlement, hours of work, kick in etc. solely staff, including temporary and permanent, is entitled to a holi solar day each year. This holiday entitlement runs from April 1st to marching 31st. You butt joint take a holiday if you have a contract of 13 weeks or more.tag and Spencer has a gunstock policy that all staff should externalize and book their holiday in wage hike because the store operates on a premier get dow n first serve basis. They ask to book their holiday before to keep off any dis particular dates.Health and Safety many a nonher(prenominal) health services at attach and Spencer are provided for the staff such as the staff doctor, store dentist and grime tests for the egg-producing(prenominal) staff.The staff doctor attends the store regularly to help and give advice. every last(predicate) staff is entitled to make an appointment if they wish to see the doctor. both 6 months the store dentist in addition attends the store for a routine check. He will recommend treatment to staff if occupyd. A private medical is accessible to all permanent staff.Cervical smears are available for the effeminate staff and wives of male employees every 3 years.Training and Development label and Spencer provide staff with pedagogy opportunities. The NVQ curriculum was one of the volumedst raising programmes they had.At mark and Spencer, people skills are important whoever you come into c ontact with, such as customers, providers or members of the staff.Employee Organisations and Trade unionsThe employees do non officially have union representation, barely are entitled to join a union if they wish to. The company wishes all its contacts with unions to be conducted in a decent and co-operative manner.It is flagitious for instruction to interfere with the in good order of an case-by-case to belong to an independent union as defined in the Trade Union and Labour transaction phone number 1976.The slips of romp roles in human resources are calling Title Job determinationHuman resources Managing the HR department and staff, involved with passenger vehicle industrial relations and trade unions negotiations,Implementing the organisations HR policies.Training/staff responsible for training and staff development.developmentHealth and refuge Overseeing all the health and refuge matters and officeholder monitoringPersonnel/staffing Keeping staff records, monitor ing staff welfareofficerHR administrative Administrative work relating to the human resourcesAssistants function.FinanceBusinesses need to manage and control the silver coming in and going out of the business. They as hygienic need to understand this discipline in order to plan what to do next and to see if they need to make any changes. wholly businesses have it away with* Preparing accounts* salaried wages and salaries* Obtaining great(p) and resources.The study sources of get include tush profits, shares, slanging facilities, hire purchase/leasing and trade identifications.Preparing accountsThe finance staffs at label and Spencer have to deal with a range of activities related to checking and transcription of all amounts of silver run intod and paid. These are entered into an account each customer has.When bills is being received it is banked as shortly as possible and in addition is checked care climby and recorded against each position sold and against each customers account.Every Business including attach and Spencer has to pay its own bills. They will owe money for raw materials employ in the lying of a product and for the services it uses.Paying wages and salariesWages and Salaries are by means of with(p) by a computerised procedure. attach and Spencer pay their staff monthly direct into their bank account, using a system called extension deportation.The companys bank transfers money to all the employees accounts.The bank keeps payroll records, which shows how much each staff earns and how much they are meant to be paid, this helps the bank to transfer the right amount of money into the staff account.Obtaining capital and resourcesCapital is the money the proprietor puts into Marks and Spencer. This will be needed when the business starts trading. The money buys all the requirements Marks and Spencer require. When the business starts to trade and make a profit, the profit is used to buy new stock to sell and as well as saved incase the company wants to buy new equipment.The bank line roles in finance areJob Title Job authorityFinance Director Giving advice to ranking(prenominal) carriages on the boilersuit financial indemnity of the organisation.Financial omnibus Managing the finance function and staff.Advising on financial resources.Management Producing regular financial information forAccountant managementCredit controller Advising on credit policies. Ensuring that money owing tothe company is unploughed in spite of appearance agreed levels.Payroll Responsible for overseeing the company payroll andAdministrator requital/wage section.Ledger Clerks Assist the boss accountant in the recording of allfinancial transactions. commercialiseing and SalesBusinesses incline out a range of activities to range the customers needs and because try to provide for them.These activities include* securities industry query* Promotion* Sales forward motionMarket ResearchMarks and Spencer has a separ ate department, which is involved with market research. Market research deals with customer feedback and external agencies. otherwise flakes of market research that are used at Marks and Spencer are through credit card, database, direct mailing, and telephone and through the customer services department. Market research tin be carried out through primary and secondary research.PromotionMarks and Spencer have to decide how to promote their products, this commonly depends on the type of product or service they want to promoteMarks and Spencer advertise its forwarding through incarnate advertising, for congressman with seasonal products like strawberries in the summer.The major markets are the consumer markets worldwide but Marks and Spencer find their main shoppers are middle aged, middle class and female.Sales PromotionSales promotions are campaigns, which turn special discounts and attract customers to try a new a product. Sale promotions at Marks and Spencer include offerin g broad samples of food, special discounts and offers. Marks and Spencer set up campaigns for a a few(prenominal) reasons such as attracting more buyers but mainly if a new product is not selling as well as it should be past the campaign is set up.The major customers for the products are the general public.The stage business roles involved in Marketing and Sales areJob Title Job exerciseMarketing director Responsible for the overall marketing function and its aimsand objectives.Sales double-decker Responsible for sales staff and the doing of salestargets, often within the UK. advertising In charge with advertising and power staff overManager packaging campaign.Export four-in-hand Responsible for abroad agents and the achievement of sales targets overseas.Market escort out consumer opinions on current and propositionResearchers goods and services.Order clerks Accept and process sale ordersAdministrationThe administration function helps a business run smoothly from day to day and keeping things up to date. It covers a number of various tasks including* clerical work, hoard mail, keeping records, organising meetings, responding to enquiries* killing, maintenance and securityClerical workEvery day Marks and Spencer would receive telephone calls that need to be answered, mails that needs opening and replying, a run of tasks to do, visitors that arrive at the reception some(a) without a appointment, fax messages, documents to sort out and need to prepare and documents that need modify etc.Every morning Marks and Spencer receive a number of mails, these mails are then sorted correctly, date stamped then delivered to different departments and individual staff. Marks and Spencer also arrange for their mail to be placid to sent out at a certain cartridge holder.Marks and Spencer receive enquiries from a variety of people, companies and also other people from inside the organisation departments. Marks and Spencer try to answer these enquiries pronto ly with correct information.Marks and Spencer has a large amount of documents bring up by organisations such as forms, facsimile machine/telephone messages, letters and reports. These documents are then filed and some are stored in the computer.Cleaning and maintenanceMarks and Spencer employ cleaners to do routine cleaning duties. round employees do the basic cleaning and the others dont. If a cleaner is off excrete, the supplier has to replace them as part of their contract. hostageMarks and Spencer security staff are not employed by the company but by a specializer security firm. The responsibility of the firm is training and supply.The security staffs are responsible for patrolling the premises.The job roles involved in Administration areJob Title Job RoleAdministration Managing the administration operations of theManager organisation.Company A senior executive responsible for all legal affairs of thesecretary company, dealing with shareholders, insurance andorganising mee tings.IT manager Managing all the IT requirements of the company, includingEquipment and advising on future needs.PA/secretarial Responsible for providing secretarial and administrativeStaff fight back, usually to senior managers. lucifer opportunities and employment legislationRecruiting and keeping the right employees is important to every business. Both employers and employees have rights and responsibilities.These are safeguarded by employment law, not only by employee organisations and unions.The 4 main Acts are1. The Employment Rights Act 19962. The finish up diversity Act 19753. The Race dealings Act 19764. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995The Employment Rights Act 1996This act establishes a wide range of rights that employees have when they are being employed, for archetype* The right to a contract of employment must be given within two months of starting condemnation employment and must include exposit such as name of employee and employer, date when employment began, rate of pay and when its due, hours of work, sick pay etc.* All female employees have the right to motherliness leave, this back be up to 29 weeks and also provide return to work afterwards.* Employees have the right to take time off to look for a new job, care consultations and still be paid.* Employees have the right not to be unfairly dismissed.* Employees have the right to redundancy payments if an employee is dismissed because the job is no longer available.The Sex Discrimination Act 1975This act makes it illegal for anyone to be severalised against someone on the grounds of sexual practice either directly or indirectly. In employment this applies to recruitment and selection for jobs and promotion, training the way you are treated in a job, dismissal and redundancy.The Race Relations Act 1976This act makes it unlawful to get it on apart against people of colour, race, nationality or ethnic origin. In the track of employment it is unlawful to discriminate in the arrangements for employment, which are* In the interview or advisements* In the terms of employment* By refusing employment because of colour, race, nationality or ethnic origin.* In promotion and training* By dismissing a someoneThe Disability Discrimination Act 1995This act is concerned with discrimination against people with disabilities in employment. The disability whitethorn be physical, receptive or mental but must be relatively long-term. Employers must not treat a disabled individual less favourable than others.Employers must be disposed(p) to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace to help the disabled person do the job. Disabled persons who suffer discrimination can complain to an employment tribunal.Below are some examples of how employees at Marks and Spencer are protected by these Acts1st exampleA female staff from Marks and Spencer was pregnant and she was due to a maternity leave as agreed on for 30 weeks, she carried on working for a couple of weeks before she was due to the leave. When she took that leave, it happened to be longer than she thought, she had to take an extra few weeks of and when she came back, the job was still there for her.second exampleNew black female staffs were starting work at Marks and Spencer. On her first day, she needed to be trained and taught somewhat the health and safety matters, this had to be done by a health and safety officer from Marks and Spencer. When she met the officer, he wasnt very welcome and didnt seem pleased. He showed her slightly but the woman thought he wasnt explaining very clearly and she was worried because she wouldnt know exactly what to do if there was a fire, so she account this to the employer and it seemed that he didnt give her the full instructions, so another officer had to be arranged to train her.3rd exampleA man applied for a job at Marks and Spencer, he was unsure whether he would get the job because of his disability enigma but when they called him in for an inte rview he was surprised. They discussed his disability problem and the arrangements for him to work, so in the end they gave him a part time job, which he was very pleased about. dialoguePeople working in different functional theatre of operationss have to notify with each other as well as with people extracurricular the business such as customers and suppliers. In order to keeps the business running smoothly and effectively they need to keep the other people in the business well apprised, to do this they might use inhering outside(a)Telephone Telephonee-mail E-mailPager Advertisement baptistery to face InternetAdvertisement FaxInterview LetterMemo pic conferencingNoticeIntranetMeetingMarks and Spencer home(a) methods of chat to different functional areas are the telephone, email, fax machine, verbal meetings and appointments and also mental picture conferencing, which are used around the acres to save time on locomotion and costs.The management team spend a high amount of time on the sales floor visiting miscellaneous sections to see supervisors and staff.Marks and Spencer external communication theory include letters received from the charities, they receive about 10,000 appeals for support every year.External communication theory also include make work, Equal opportunities and also the company support projects, which help the elderly and the young and also people with special needs and those who require help in the members of the community. ascribable to the ascending number of communications throughout the company, the communication problems have been encountered and one of the biggest problems has been to fancy everyone is informed. Due to the speed of the business, Marks and Spencer have to ensure that all the staffs try to ensure professed(prenominal) communication by being prepared and organised.The developments Marks and Spencer now have in mind is to improve and make communications more better through e-mail, to improve the in store telephone and the bleep systems such as changing to wandering(a) phones and a speed dial communicate system.Below is a diagram masking how the functional areas communicate with each other externally and internally.Functional Type of condition whyArea communicationHuman -Telephone ConfidentialityResources -face to face Urgent-Letter Fast and informal to use-Meeting Saves time to talk to individualsFinance -Letter Security -E-mail Confidentiality-Meeting Get feedback from people quickAdministration -Fax can be kept for future reference-Letter evidence and can be copied.-Email convenient while on the computerMarketing and -Meeting Group discussion, more approximations to shareSalesDifferent functional areas use different communicational methods to communicate with each other, this is because employers need to know which type of communication to use for each purpose. For example, human resources might use the telephone or letter to communicate with a different functional area beca use it might be confidential, this way no confidential information is being reached out of the organisation. And also if a letter is being used, this can be kept for future reference and ambitious evidence for any purpose.Another type of communication is a meeting this can save a lot of time and can get feedback from the people at the meeting immediately. Meetings also save time on having to discuss things individually.These types of communication can help Marks and Spencer achieve their aims and objectives, one of the main aims of Marks and Spencer is to put the customers first and to offer the highest values in customer care to satisfy them.To achieve this aim, Marks and Spencer keep the flow of information within the company, they keep the right people informed with up to date information so that when customers ask for certain information it will be as accurate as possible.The Marketing and Sales functional area keep the staff informed about the current range and prices of produ cts for the upbeat of the customers. When an order is being received, they pass it on to be sorted in order. To meet the needs of the customers, the staffs listens to what customers have to claim whether it is a good or blighted thing and take that into account.Staff at Marks and Spencer has meetings to discuss any problems whether concerning about the customers or other matters so they can solve the problem maybe for the benefit of the customers who shop at Marks and Spencer.Organisational social structure of Marks and SpencerTo make the business run successfully without any chaos, they organise their employees in functional areas and section so they know what to do.This helps the business to make decisions and carry them out. Every business has its own way of structure. pecking order StructureMarks and Spencer organisational structure of the business is a hierarchy structure, which is tall and has a number of levels. This type of structure may be large but also has some disadv antages as well as advantages within this structure.Below are the advantages and disadvantages.Advantages* derive job role and lines of responsibility* individually level will have different opinions so therefore more ideas* disentangle pay structure* A large number of colleagues* A range of facilities* level-headed promotionDisadvantages* Slow communication flow. If any staffs require information, this could take time.* Slow answer to changes and challenges because many people have to be informed whether decisions or changes were going to be made.* Staff at a light level may feel the manager at the top has no idea what they think or do vapid StructureHere is an organisational structure of a small company.As you can see, this structure is small and does not have many levels. This type of structure is called a immediately structure. This is very much different to the Marks and Spencer structure because Marks and Spencer is a large company.From the diagram structure we can pub lish that the company is rather small and has few levels. But there are also some advantages as well as disadvantages within this structure.Below are a list of the advantages and disadvantages of a flat structure.Advantages* Communication is quicker and more accurate* great at responding quickly to new ideas and customer needs* Operate quite substantially* Less management cost* bendable working hoursDisadvantages* Business is small* No one to share ideas with* May construe problems with shortage of staff if business is expanding.