The Stakeholders of Oxfam are:
- The main Stakeholders of Oxfam are the customers, people who donate to Oxfam the trustees, Partnership and trade unions.
They include:
- Full time employees
- Part time collectors
- Supplier of goods
- Buyers
- Recipients
- Funds provider
- Local community
- What are the main interests of each of the Stakeholders of Tesco and Oxfam?
- Shareholders and employees have a common interest in the success of the organization
- High profits which not only lead to high dividends but also job security.
- Suppliers have an interest in the growth and prosperity of the firm.
- Wage rise.
- Managers have an interest in organisational growth.
- In what ways might the interests of the Stakeholders influence the aims and objectives of Tesco and Oxfam?
- Wages rises might be at the expense of the dividend in such that an increase in the wage of employees might be at a loss to the company and customers because there will be less profit and increase in the price of goods.
- Managers have an interest in organisational growth but this might be at the expense of short term profits.
- Growth of the organisation might be at the expense of the local community and the environment
- External pressure from the market place, including competitors, customers, suppliers,
Criterion 3(p3)
- What does an organisational structure mean?
An organisational structure is a mainly hierarchical concept of subordination of entities that collaborate and contribute to serve one common aim.
It is also the division of tasks between individual employees, groups or departments and locations and it is the framework for identifying and organising the tasks to be performed within an organisation.
- How many types of organisational structures do you know? Describe them.
There are 5 types of organisational structures, they are:
- By function – this means arranging the business according to what each section or department does.
- By product or activity – organising according to the different products made
- By area or location – geographical or regional structure.
- By customer – where different customer groups have different needs.
- By process – where products have to go through stages as they are made this means they are in different levels done gradually, one step at a time.
- What information is shown on an organisational structure?
The information shown on the organisational structure are communication system which means the way they communicate with each other according to their ranks, responsibility which means their duties because each of them have duties concerning their roles, chain of command which means from the highest to the lowest in command, departments (functional areas), in a company or organization there are always different departments, e.g. finance department which means they are in charge of the money going in and out of the company and under that department there are different ranks.
- Which of the organisational structures you have described in question 2 do Tesco and Oxfam use?
Tesco and Oxfam operate by function because they arrange their business according to what section or department does.
- What are the purposes of the organisational structures of Tesco and Oxfam?
The purposes of the organizational structures of Tesco and Oxfam are:
- To be committed to each other through mutual respect and support
- To invest in the development of the individual through training, education and reward.
- To serve their owners, residents, agencies and each other with integrity, fairness and honesty.
- To strive to combine accuracy and reliability with accountability.
- To drive growth in food, non-food, and retail services like banking and overseas hypermarkets in places like Asia and central Europe.(Tesco)
- To approve strategy
- To Preserve Oxfam’s good name and reputation
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To be ultimately accountable for the overall management of Oxfam
- To ensure that income and assets are used to help Oxfam's beneficiaries, and that its finances are properly and effectively managed and monitored.
Criterion 4(p4)
1. What do functional areas mean?
Functional areas can simply be defined as the main functions that a business consists of.
Most businesses consist of a number of different departments, each of which has a specific job or task to do
2. What are the roles and responsibilities of the following functional areas in Tesco and Oxfam?
Human resources – their responsibilities revolves around work simplification, challenging unwritten rules, rolling out core skills to all head-office employees and performance management linked to achieving steering-wheel targets,
It has helped their organization (Tesco) to take the lead over its rivals in the fiercely-competitive UK supermarket sector.
In Oxfam they provide advice and support to managers on recruitment and employment practice, ensuring that employment legislation, Corporate and Divisional policies and procedures and best practice are followed and all necessary paperwork is completed.
• Support the programme management team at the onset of an emergency with Human Resource planning, budgeting and to define country specific policies such as Rest and Recuperation.
• To advise managers on the recruitment process and to coordinate recruitments. This includes placing adverts, dealing with responses and correspondence, facilitating the work of the panel in the short-listing and interviewing process; administering the tests; where necessary taking part in the interviews; maintaining the recruitment database and liasing with the Region, HD and IHR when necessary.
• To contribute to the operational planning and implementation, at country or programme level, of corporate and regional HR initiatives to ensue rollout in an appropriate manner. E.g. supporting the implementation of the Global Reward project and Performance Management schemes by acting as first point of contact for all queries and providing practical assistance and advice.
• Advise managers on the interpretation and implementation of the full range of Oxfam’s HR policies and procedures including: management of change, grievance and discipline, sickness and absence management.
• To be responsible for issuing contracts, renewing contracts and keeping management informed of dates of contracts in consultation with CPM and RHRM.
Finance – they are responsible for organisation-wide finance. They assist in the co-ordination of humanitarian programmes with particular responsibility for financial management, they maintain high standards whilst retaining a good degree of flexibility – making sure that their organization’s financial procedures are followed in humanitarian programmes and that it systems accommodate the needs of the programmes. They’ll also liaise with the international funding unit proposals – preparing reports and setting up and monitoring budgets.
Logistic – they’ll oversee a range of specific projects including office setups, accommodation and transport – making sure that the programmes are properly resourced within budget, they’ll also play a key role in developing a security and emergency-preparedness strategy.
They handle processes involved in a supply chain, liaising with a variety of parties including suppliers of raw materials, manufacturers, retailers and consumers, they also coordinate processes to ensure customer satisfaction, awareness of and strategic response to external influences, such as legislation, fuel costs and environmental pressures.
International and IT director - Their primary responsibility is to oversee the streamlined operation of the IT department and to ensure it aligns with the business objectives of the organization. The principal goals are to develop and manage application portfolios for each department and to attain all IT service level agreements for the user community within the organization. IT will plan, coordinate, direct, and design all operational activities of the IT department, as well as provide direction and support for IT solutions that enhance mission-critical business operations. The Director of IT will work closely with decision makers in other departments to identify, recommend, develop, implement, and support cost-effective technology solutions for all aspects of the organization
Formulate and deploy long-term strategic plans for acquiring and enabling efficient and cost-effective information processing and communication technologies.
Commercial and marketing director – their responsibilities are to develop and implement Corporate and Directorate business development strategies and plans. This will involve working closely with colleague Directors and their teams to ensure service strategies meet and exceed the demands of commissioners and that robust Divisional business development strategies are in place. To create and develop commercial opportunities to increase their income for NHS services. This is with both existing and potentially new clients with whom they will target, initiate and develop business relationships. To identify new market opportunities, talking the lead on constructing robust and successful business proposals that secure new contracts and long term client relationships for the Trust.
3. I think the organizational structures of Tesco and Oxfam suit the activities because it helps to analyse the different departments which means only one department is not compiled with so much work and with different sectors job searchers can figure out where they fit in.
It fits Tesco’s activities because it has different sections and as a big organization they are not dis-organized.
4. yes, indeed the organizational structures have helped Tesco and Oxfam to achieve their purposes because they intend to provide excellent goods and services to their customers so with different organizational structures it has helped a lot, no department is idle they all work together and achieve.
Criterion 5(p5)
1. What is an economic cycle?
An economic cycle refers to economy-wide fluctuations in production or economic activity over several months or years.
It can also be defined as fluctuations in the level of real GDP over time over four stages which are: recession, recovery, boom and slowdown.
2. Identify and describe the economic environments on an economic cycle.
They are economic boom, economic recession, economic recovery and economic slowdown.
Economic Boom - An economic boom occurs when real GDP grows faster than the trend rate of economic growth (in the UK, the trend rate is around 2.5% per year).
In a boom aggregate demand is high. Typically, businesses respond to this by increasing production and employment and they may also opt to widen profit margins by raising prices. The increase in output eventually puts pressure on scarce factor resources and can lead to demand-pull inflation. This depends on how much spare capacity is available to meet demand.
