Business Functions

This course presents an introductory over-view of the study of business organisations. The course examines business organisations in terms of their missions and values, their structures and cultures and the key organisational processes which underpin business activity. Although organisations are essentially unique, they also share common features which are explored in detail.

We also present a number of basic models for analysing business organisations and their performance. Business organisations can only be fully understood if we know how they interact with their environments and the course presents a number of ideas for analysing their interaction with their competitors, their markets and the wider set of prevailing circumstances which influence business performance.

Module 1 – The Nature of Organisations
On successful completion of this module the candidate will be able to:

Discuss what organisations are, what they do and examine their key features
Identify how an organisation is affected by changes in size
Introduce the important features of organisational culture
Examine the role national culture plays in organisations
Module 2 - The Business Environment
On successful completion of this module the candidate will be able to:

Analyse the impact of the environment on organisations and the representation of an organisation’s business environment
Describe how particular organisations are open to environmental opportunities and threats
Summarise the structure of the economic environment
Module 3 - Competition and Change
On successful completion of this module the candidate will be able to:

Examine how stakeholders, competition and change affect an organisation
Summarise Porter’s five competitive forces for an organisation in its industry
Define why change needs to be managed in an organisation
Discuss areas where resistance to change is apparent
Module 4 - Marketing
On successful completion of this module the candidate will be able to:

Examine the role of marketing in the organisation and the key characteristics of the function
Analyse the method in which markets are segmented and how targets are selected
Summarise the main steps in market research procedure
Discuss the elements of the marketing mix
Module 5 - Operations and Operations Management
On successful completion of this module the candidate will be able to:

Discuss scope and challenges of operations for a business and give an overview of recent developments in the field
Describe varies activities within operations and how they interact
Introduce the five main aspects of an operation
Summarise design features in operations
Module 6 - Logistics
On successful completion of this module the candidate will be able to:

Examine logistics and the increasing use of computer technology to provide better service to customers and gain competitive advantage
Analyse problems involving stock holding and control
Describe the approaches of JIT
Identify the role of distribution
Module 7 - Human Resource Management
On successful completion of this module the candidate will be able to:

Analyse the background to and philosophy of HRM and its influences on people within the work environment
Examine elements which affect manpower and human resource planning
Discuss methods of recruitment and selection
Define the part assessment and appraisal play
Module 8 - Business Strategy
On successful completion of this module the candidate will be able to:

Introduce key issues involved in setting strategy and at a process for choosing the strategy
Summarise how the choice of strategy is constrained by resources and behaviour of the organisation
Analyse how an organisation deals with an uncertain future and reacts to environmental change
Module 9 - Business Planning and Project Management
On successful completion of this module the candidate will be able to:

Discuss how to create a business plan identifying key issues and introduce project management
Evaluate what people in project management do and the information they need to do it
Identify the following terms:

Baseline
Scheduled costs
Actual costs
Earned value