- Recruitment and selection
- Induction
- Training
- Appraisal systems
- Health and Safety
- Equal Opportunities
- Employment Law
- Industrial relations
- Sickness benefits
- Maternity leave
- Retirement
- Redundancy
- Grievance and Disciplinary procedures
Overall, the effective management of human resources within an organisation is essential in ensuring competitiveness in meeting business objectives. Human Resource Management has grown and become more important in recent years due to the benefits of recruiting and maintaining a highly qualified, skilled and motivated workforce. Recruiting and retaining the right employees is important to Boots.
Both employers and employees have rights and responsibilities:
- The Employment Rights Act 1996: Confirms the statutory (legal) rights of employees and covers the contract of employment, payslips, guarantee payments, Sunday working, time off work, maternity rights, termination of employment, unfair dismissal and remedies for unfair dismissal, redundancy, lay offs and short times working, and the insolvency of an employer.
- The Sex Discrimination Act 1975: The Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) makes it unlawful for employers and other organisations to treat women or men less favourably because of their sex in the area of employment.
- The Race Relations Act 1976: Makes it unlawful to discriminate against anyone on grounds of race, colour, nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or national origin. The amended Act also imposes general duties on many public authorities to promote racial equality.
It applies to:
Training
Jobs
Education
Housing
The provision of goods, facilities and services
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995: this act is concerned with discrimination against people with disabilities while obtaining goods and services. The employer must not treat a disabled employee unfairly whiter in training, recruitment, promotion or dismissal unless justified. Also the employer must be prepared to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace to enable a disabled person to do the job. If a disabled person who will suffer from discrimination they can go and complain to an employment tribunal.
Finance department
The purpose of the finance function
Boots consider the finance function the most important of all- this is because those who work in finance keep track of all the money going in and out of the business. If they are doing their job correctly and if the right systems are in place, one of their managers tell them everyday how much they are making or loosing. They also tell them how much they are paying for raw materials, the rest of the staff and other general expenses. They also check the amount of money owed to their business and chase up any ‘late payers’.
The purpose of the finance function:
- Keep all financial records required by Boots, detailing all the receipts and payments that have been made
- Prepare final accounts from these records as required by law
- Monitor the income and expenditure of different departments against their budgets
- Provide continuous, up to date financial information for their managers about business performance
- Pay salaries and wages to the staff
- Pay amounts owing to suppliers
- Control the levels of debts owed to the company
- Obtain additional finance when required, from the most appropriate source
- Advise senior managers on the financial implications of major decisions.
Administration:
The purpose of the administration function
The main purpose is to make sure that Boots operates as effectively as possible by performing a wide range of support activities promptly and efficiently.
The key areas with which administrative staff are concerned:
- Information handling: the creation, storage, retrieval and transmission of all the documents used by the organisation, the receipt, safe storage and monitoring of all the documents received by Boots and all the records held by Boots
- Communications: sending and receiving messages by telephone, fax, email; sending and receiving mail; dealing with customers, colleagues and other visitors face to face.
- Making arrangements: from booking parking spaces for visitors to organising a foreign trip for a senior manager, from organising a large conference.
- Obtaining resources: providing stationary stock and other basic office items.
Marketing and sales
The purpose of the marketing and sales function
It is concerned with identifying what the customer needs and providing it. Everyone is focused on fulfilling the customer needs- whether it is for a little bag. Staffs are keen to find out what else they can do to keep customers happy and what additional needs customers may have that they don’t even know about. Next company always tries to be ‘one step ahead’ of the customer (and the competition) by anticipating needs and fulfilling them. Its puts the customer at the top of its priority list in every single operation it undertakes.
The activities of marketing and sales include:
- Market research, to find out what customers need and customer opinions on proposed and existing products or services
- Promotion, to inform the customers that their particular organisation can fulfil these needs
- A sale, to provide the goods or service the customer now thinks he or she needs.
Production
There are two ways we think about production. The first is in a narrow sense, as in the manufacture of goods. Boots company make products to sell that make them be in the business of production. Boots have a production function e.g. making a make-up product and giving good service to their customers. Without the production function there will be no Boots. Production, therefore, is critical to the survival of Boots.
The process of meeting the main aims of Boots is known as operations. The operations manager is known by a variety of job titles. The manager’s core function is to obtain the resources required by Boots and transform these into the finished product and service.
Production is concerned with:
- Obtaining the resources required to produce goods or provide a service.
- Organising the resources to produce the goods or provide the service in the most appropriate way.
In order for this to be achieved satisfactory, several criteria must be considered:
- The aims of Boots (e.g. boots want to sell their products at a reasonable price)
- The resources which are needed to produce the goods or provide the service
- How the resources can be organised to achieve the aims in the most effective way
- How the operation can be monitored and controlled to achieve the desired result.
Research and development department
This department is very important to Boots Company. Because mostly all businesses have lots of competititors and so does boots. In this department it does research to improve products that they might improve safety, shape, colour, image and packaging. Also this department has links with marketing and customer service department. The departments get about what people like and don’t like, this lets them know how to change things or what kind of new products customers want.
Boots Company will always try to organise their activities in the best way as possible to achieve their aims and objectives. With these aims and objectives they can be met by grouping the specific functions into functional areas. After that it is then that the areas are linked together as part of the organisational structure. The organisational structure tells the employees where a particular job is done and by whom, by doing this, it makes the organisational structure very important. The structure also helps the new staff and by doing this they quickly or easily learn. The important thing that they will learn is about the businesses aims and objectives. The reason is because the organisational structure is to help people working within the company to do there work effectively and efficiently.
There are a lot of organisations that the functional areas interact just to achieve the aims and objectives of their company. This makes life a lot easier because of this it makes more of a chance for the department’s aims and objectives to be fulfilled. For Boots Company to function effectively, there must be close links with the people who work in the different functional areas.
Also the communication with one another is very important because they need to communicate to achieve the businesses aims and objectives. When a business may want to restructure or reorganise the structure to meet the aims and objectives by doing this aims can also change.
A description of the management style and culture of the business
‘Boots’ business structure (‘tall’ hierarchical structure)
A hierarchical is a serious of levels of people, each level by the level above it.
The Hierarchical structure.
A hierarchy structure has many employees. They are likely to have a more elaborate and tall organisational structure, which has:
- More division into the functional areas such as sales and finance
- More levels of hierarchy.
Each horizontal level represents a step in the level of importance and responsibility of the staff
- The managing director is responsible for communicating company policy and making sure it is carried out
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The other directors are responsible for making decisions affecting their function areas (e.g. sales, finance, production) and communicating those decisions to the people working in the function areas.
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Managers are in charge of the departments and answer to the directors; there may be different layers of managers in the hierarchy; they are responsible for carrying out or delegating the directors decisions
- Supervisors are in charge of the day to day running of the departments and normally work alongside the production and administrative staff.
Sole Trader- Flat Structure
Sarah Jackson is an owner of a small business in Streatham called ‘jacklines’ she is a sole trader who employs for part time sales assistants. The structure of the business looks like this:
You will see from this diagram that: -
- The structure is flat in shape; there is only one level of command Sarah herself tells the assistants what to do
- Sarah has a span of control which extends over the four assistants; if she had more assistants, it would extend over those as well’ a ‘span of control’ often is the number of people over whom you have control often the wider the span, the more difficult it is to keep control
- Sarah carries out the main functions of the business- finance, administration, human resources, marketing; her sales assistants do the selling.
A business with a flat structure is likely to-
- Operate quite informally, in that everyone will know everyone else and there will be few formal procedures staff have to follow
- Have good communications, in that it is easy to speak to other people and find out what you want to know
- Be good at responding quickly to new ideas or specific customer requests
- Be flexible, in that if the design team has a problem a programmer may be able to help, or if everyone has to work longer to meet an important deadline then this is unlikely to be a problem as everyone will work late and may take time off later to compensate.
COMMUNICATION IN ‘Boots’ BUSINESS (Tall structure)
Communication in the tall structure
Departments in the tall structure have to communicate with each other. If Boots is to achieve quality customer service and so maximise sales and be profitable these horizontal lines of communication must work well. The problems in a tall structure can arise with the vertical lines of communication. Top management must know what is happening at assistant level- what customers are saying about the products and about the business. Tall structure can be slow to react to market conditions because the major decisions have to be made at the highest level and it takes time for the information and recommendations to pass through the levels of authority.
Benefits to working in a hierarchical structure:
- A clear job role- you know what you have to do and how to do it
- Good promotion prospects- to the next level upwards, and so on
- Specified holiday entitlement, pay scales, company pension scheme- you know where you stand
- A large number of colleagues
- A human resources function that will give you guidance and help on you rights as an employee, training opportunities, company benefits, and a whole range of specialist staff to deal with any problems
- A wide range of facilities, e.g. a company canteen, car park, rest rooms, staff social club etc.
- The opportunity to join a union.
Benefits to working in a flat structure
- There is a flow of information between upper and lower level is much faster, which enables quicker decision making and faster response to problems.
- There are a fewer levels of management, with many managers and operatives feel they have more responsibility for their own work, increasing motivation and job satisfaction.
Hierarchy structure and flat structure compared
A good example of a flat organisational structure is the sole trader who employs a number of staff. The owner is in control of the way the business is run. He or she makes the decisions, supervises staff and deals with customers. They can pick up any problems immediately and do something about the e.g. a sole trader can rapidly take decisions like, to make a product, to change suppliers and to change prices. The other advantage of the flat structure is that staff are often more independent and make decisions themselves.
The advantages of a flat structure are that it highlights the disadvantages of a tall structure (hierarchy). The hierarchy structure often means that the decision making process has to pass through several layers of management, which involves a loss of time. This can also result to the decision makers not being in touch with customers or with the lower level staff, the source of valuable feedback about company sales and products. A hierarchy structure has the advantage that the employees have their jobs which is defined very clearly and that there is a clear line of command.
A description of the use of ICT for internal and external communications of the business
In every organisation people communicate in many different ways. Communication is the most important impact on Boots Company. Boots need to communicate on a regular basis with people outside and inside the business e.g. with customers and suppliers. They also need to communicate internally and externally. Departments need to pass information to each other managers need to talk to supervisors and so on. Within Boots Communication is a two way process, it is very important to be able to receive information. It involves the basic skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in order to receive, interpret and understand messages and then respond to them accordingly.
For a business to become successful, they need to communicate effectively with a wide range of people both internal and externally.
Also effective communication is important, if Boots Company is to achieve its objectives.
Within Boots company there are ways in which they communicate such as:
Internal communication:
- Memorandum: this is the method of written communication most commonly used within the organisation.
- Letters: they are sent in some formal situations for example, to confirm the promotion of staff or to accept their resignation.
- Reports. This is a formal written communication that requires covering a certain business topic. Within Boots they are provided for a number of reason such as standard accident or sickness report form. They also have periodic report, which assesses the businesses firms budget or sales performance.
- Notices: they are used to display matters of interest to staff.
External communication
The most common forms of external communication are letters and telephones.
Within Boot Company other external communication includes
- Annual reports and accounts
- Compliment slips
- Advertising and sales promotion
Both internal and external is the use of charts, graphs and diagrams. The use of visual presentation enables complicated information, particularly statistical data.
Boots Company communicate with a number of groups such as suppliers, customers and other public sector groups.
Spoken communication
In spoken communication they communicate in a number of ways such as:
- Telephone: this is the main method used by Boots because it is very quick. Also Boots are using a mobile radiophone, which enables them to call from anywhere in UK.
- In Boots company employees find themselves involved in attending meetings and once they move up the promotional ladder they are likely to find themselves attending an increasing number of them.
- Informal meetings – this is called at a short notice to discuss matters.
- Formal meetings – they are held after the people involved have been notified in advance, usually in writing with an agenda that lists the items to be discussed this may also involve preparing letters, reports or documents, speaking to them.
Written Communication
Business letters is the most important form of communication, which is used for a die number of purposes as the following examples illustrate:
- Maintain or promote good relationships with suppliers and customers
- Provide or seek information
- Seek action or a particular form of response.
Memo: this is a formal written which may be word processed or handwritten and is often produced in a number of copies which can be circulated as necessary. It is used for:
- Recoding of opinions
- Making suggestions
- Requesting information
- Giving instructions
The growth of ICT (information and communication technology has resulted in a revolution in the way communication takes place between business and inside business.
The Internet and e-mail is a rapidly expanding network of private, public, commercial and non-commercial computers linked via telephone lines by Internet service providers who operate servers connecting their subscribers together. They communicate with each other by telephone links largely by satellite. The business has to dial up through the computer to be able to contact other Internet users anywhere in the world, e-mail or messenger services.
Website: Boots have their own website which they promote their products. A website is a series of interlinking pages that is set up on a computer server that is provided by the Internet service provider. It is a shop window for the business.
Fax: this is another from of electronic communication, which is a system whereby a sheet of paper is scanned by a machine in one location, transmitted down a telephone line and printed out by a similar machibneat the other end. This is very useful e.g. if the want to send a message or a price list to someone who wants it in a hurry.
A clear explanation of how the production process and quality assurance/control system employed by the business help it to add value to its product or service
Production is the process of turning all the resources into a product e.g. a manufactured item or a service, which can be sold by the business. This is known as the factors of production. Which is combined to produce the product.
The resources, which are used by the business, have to be paid for. This results in the cost of the business which has to be covered by the wages, rent, cist of materials, electricity, stock, phone bills etc. all of these are controlled by the finance department.
Once Boots Company manufactures an item or provides a service it uses its resources to add value to those resources. This means that that the product can be sold at a higher price when it has gone through the production process.
Once Boots Company produces a product I will need to make sure that the day to costs will have to be covered by the money received from sales. The greater the added value the greater the possible profit.
The way Boots Company manufactures a product depends on the type of product being involved.
- Batch production: this involves completing a group of items at the same time and then moving onto the next group. Also it involves a series of operations repeated time and time again.
- Continuous production: this is common idea of the production line manufacture. The product is assembled on a continuous moving line and parts and processes added as it moves along. As for many products the process ends with wrapping and packaging.
With in Boots Company it:
- Adds value in the process of production
By adding value to a product it means it makes it more desirable to the customer. Also by adding value in the production process it means to add to a product or service and increase the profits of the goods.
Quality control
Quality control on the production line of a manufactured item involves a process of inspection of a set number of items. Any faulty items will be rejected and it will be investigated on how it became faulty. Quality control is very important and involves monitoring of the service and feedback from the customers received by the marketing department.
Quality control is applicable in every process and system within the business. This is known as quality assurance.
Here are the points what quality control does:
- Quality control makes sure that the faulty items are removed before products are delivered to customers.
- Quality assurance wants to make sure that the faulty items are never produced in the first place
- Quality control has all the features and characteristics of a product or service, which affects its ability to satisfy the needs of customers.
Judgements about how successfully the business is meeting its objectives
Boots Company has a strong commitment to growth. The company has a record of being successful. Because of this they listen and respond to the needs of their customers. Because of this customer service is their prime objective. Boots Company has a lot of competitors. The Companys commitment to give their customers the best possible services. They will retain the highest level of service, and will continually improve on their quality of the products, store environment, and will recruit the best people to suit the job.they are constantly striving to achieve and maintain the highest standards of service to their customers
Boots Company remains to delivering good quality products at affordable prices. However they will continue to explore new product areas where they believe they can add real value.
With other Boots stores they enable them to increase the number of products that they offer and improve the way in which they display their ranges. Since the year 2000 they have increased their floor space to over 328,000 square feet and have significant number of stores in excess of 20,000 square feet.
Analysis of how the organisational structure, culture and management style of the business affects its performance and help it to meet its objectives.
Boots company are well organised in a way that enables them to meet their objectives.
