Competitive Organisational Structures - Activity 2

At one time businesses did everything. They did their own admin, cleaning, providing canteen facilities, producing their own goods. Nowadays, businesses have a choice: do it themselves or get someone else to do it for them. The second approach is called ‘outsourcing’. In this task you are going to explore why businesses outsource and the problems outsourcing can bring.

Task

1. What are the advantages of outsourcing? And to whom?

2. What are the problems of outsourcing?

Competitive Organisations and Structures - Activity 1

At the board meeting of BRQ plc, the CEO was musing about how the business could remain competitive. BRQ operate in the dynamic retail technology market selling mainly latest hi-tech gadgets. The competitive nature of the this market means that consumers are expecting high quality products at low prices. BRQ has numerous competitors are driving their costs lower and offering substantial guarantees on their products.

New technology is at the heart of the firm’s production capability. The business has invested heavily in new technology and most of their production is now capital intensive. This increase automation has led to a dramatic increased productivity and quality. However, new, and specific, skills are needed to run this equipment. The company expects to change its machinery every two years.

To have a competitive scale of operation, it manufactures from a number of sites around the world. The company’s headquarters are in the UK with one of their main productive facilities. They also have production sites in the Far East, India, South America, USA. Direct control from the head office is becoming difficult.

The following diagrams represent the firm’s organisational structure and industry averages.

Industry Averages:

Size of Workforce: 1000 workers
Hierarchical Layers: 5 Layers
Dedicated Marketing Teams in Each Market

Tasks

1. Decide how BRQ can make its organisational structure competitive.

2. Decide how BRQ could implement any changes to their organisational structure.
• What they need to do
• When they need to do it (Timeline )

Workforce Planning – Activity 5 (Progress Assessment)

Essay Question:

Discuss the benefits and issues of a flexible workforce.

Now, you will be asking yourself how you start to answer a question like this. Below are a few hints.

1. There is more than one answer! Your answer may be different to everyone else’s, but it could still be right!

2. Benefits for whom? The business? The workers? What are these benefits?

3. Issues are problems are difficulties. While benefits are positive, issues are negative points.

4. Structure of the essay.

Introduction – Definition!

Benefit 1 - What is the benefit? Who benefits? What are the consequences of this benefit?

Benefit 2 - What is the benefit? Who benefits? What are the consequences of this benefit?

Issue 1 - What is the issue? Who experiences this? What are the consequences of this issue?

Issue 2 - What is the issue? Who experiences this? What are the consequences of this issue?

Evaluation - Decide which will have the most effect, benefit 1, benefit 2, issue 1 or issue 2? Explain why it will have the most effect?

Each of the six sections should be a separate paragraph

Workforce Planning - Activity 4

As with most things in business, workforce planning is difficult. Although you will know how many workers you need now, even with the best forecasting techniques, the future is always difficult to predict. In this final activity for workforce planning you are going to look at an approach that can help a business ensure it has the right number of people with the right skills at the right time.

Focus for the Lesson:
• How does the Handy ‘Shamrock Model’ help a business plan its workforce?
• What are the problems of having a smaller core workforce?
• What are the issues of a increasing flexibility and a ‘contractible fringe’?

Your task is to investigate the above three questions

Workforce Planning - Activity 2

Workforce Planning – The Plan, Implementation and Different Influences

Focus for the Lesson
· How does marketing, production and finance affect workforce planning?
· How does a business go about work force planning?
· What influences a workforce plan?
· What implementation issues are there?

Analysis/Evaluation
Marketing and Workforce Planning

5 Promotion 45 Sales 45 Production 45 No. of Workers needed. (simple analysis)

What prompted the business to increase Promotion? Corporate Objectives

Corporate Objectives 45 Promotion 45 Sales 45 Production 45 No. of Workers needed (again, simple analysis)

Time? How long will the promotional campaign last for? How long will the increase in sales last for? How will you need the extra workers?

If the increase in sales is expected to last a long time then the business can take on permanent staff. However, if the increase in sales is short term, temporary staff should be used. (adding this EVALUATION to your analysis makes this a detailed answer)

NOTES ON THE ABOVE QUESTIONS

Workforce Planning - Activity 1

Workforce Planning

Workforce Planning is simply described as ensuring that a business has… the right number of People in the right Jobs at the right Time.

Good Workforce Planning ensures that a business or organisation has the right staffing now, in the short term, and wherever possible, in the long term too.

Your initial task in this unit is to use your existing knowledge and to research the subject to answer the following questions:

1. What does a business do to ensure that a business has the right number of people?








2. What does a business do to ensure they have staff with the right skills, experience or competencies?







3. How do you assess what workers you will need?

Welcome to the A2 Business Blog

Welcome to the A2 Business Blog. The aim of this blog is to help you with the two A2 units in Business. On a regular basis I will be posting blogs, homework and other information that will be needed for your course. I will also attach links to external websites that will contain information about real businesses and business activities.

IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU READ THIS BLOG AT LEAST TWICE A WEEK!!!