Реферат: Business at work

Business requirements for functional areas depends on its size, for example small business might merge many of these functions within their administration department, with responsibility in the hand of one or two people. As a business grows the number of people required to carry out these functions increases.

The financial function.

Advises managers and budget holders

Extensive use of IT

Provides information to external bodies

Produces standards

cost data

Customers Auditors Inland Revenue and

(price list) (accounts) Custom & Excise

(information relating

to tax liability)

Figure 1.3: The financial function

A separate department normally carries out the finance function of the business. The finance department carries out a number of key activities:

· records all financial data

· chases up slow payers

· collects payments from customers

· provides information to external bodies

· analyses costs

· advises board of directors

· monitors and analyses financial data

· advices managers and budget holders

Production function.

Production covers all the activities that must be undertaken to make the firm’s products, from the receipt, of raw materials through to the output of the final product. The production function concentrates primarily upon planning and controlling the various stages of production so that the most efficient use is made of business resources.

Production manager responsible for:

· maintaining supplies of components and raw materials to ensure continuous production

· ensuring that the precise requirements of customers are met

· monitoring quality to insure that finished products meet the quality standards expected by customers

· using resources – people, machinery and production space – as efficiently as possible to make the business competitive in the markets in which it trades.

One of the most important issues in production is quality. Modern businesses compete just as strongly on the quality of their goods and services as they do on price.

For example it is vital for a washing machine manufacturer to produce a high-quality product. If the machine is not reliable or does not have a wide range of functions, customers are more likely to purchase a competitor’s product.

Finance department

Figure 1.4: The links between the production function and other departments

The human resource function.

Personnel management considers the tasks involved in managing people – recruitment, selection and so forth – as separate elements. It does not take into account how these elements can combine to achieve organisational objectives.

The personnel management approach makes decisions relating to recruitment, training and pay systems independently, without considering the impact the individual decisions have on each other aspects of management and the achievement of corporate objectives.

Human resources management (HRM) elevates the effective use of a business’s labour force to an issue to be considered by senior managers as an essential element of the organisation’s strategy. This approach has raised the profile (and salaries) of those employed in human resource management. The human resources function engages in a number of activities to ensure employees are utilised affectively. These activities are carried out with the aim of contributing to the achievement of the business’s objectives.

Workforce plan sets out likely future needs for labour and how these needs might be met. Achieving the workforce plan involves the human resource function in a number of day-to-day activities.

· recruiting employees – both internally and externally

· training new and existing employees

· paying salaries