People and Business

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Unit 2 Coursework

People and Business

 The business I have decided to study for my unit 2 coursework is Marks & Spencer. I will be studying the human resource part of the business. I chose Marks and Spencer because it is a very large business and will be able to answer the questions that I require. Marks and Spencer is a European retailer. They sell clothes, food and home products. They have an excellent website and offer many other services like travel and car insurance, &more card and savings and investments.

                                                     

               

Section A – Who are the stakeholders in Marks & Spencer and what is the role and importance of each type of stakeholder?

  1. Customers
  1. Employees
  1. Owners and shareholders
  1. Local community
  1. Government
  1. Suppliers
  1. Local Businesses
  1. Financiers
  1. Pressure Groups

 

 First of all a stakeholder is any person or organisation which has an interest in a business. Lots of people are stakeholders in lots of businesses.

 

 Customers are quite a large group of stakeholders and are one of the main parts to Marks & Spencer’s success. Customers are very important because they are the people that buy Marks and Spencer’s products and help them to continue making substantial amounts of money. This is what makes them stakeholders within the business. Customers would contact the business. This could be for a number of reasons. One reason a customer may contact Marks & Spencer is because the product they have bought is faulty or has broken. Other issues that may concern employees are the opening times, the attitude of staff and the service given. Another reason may be to find out the opening and closing times of the business. Customers cannot change the business individually but they can as a group. If Marks & Spencer’s issued a questionnaire for the customers to complete the results may push the board of directors to make certain changes.

 Employees are a very important group of stakeholders. Without them there would be nobody to help run the business. There are also many different levels of employee’s as well. Some are also more important than others. Some employees can have the important decision of having to decide whether or not to build a new shop in London where as some employees can have the easy job of putting frozen meals in a freezer. Issues which may concern the employees are the way Marks & Spencer treat their staff, rates of pay and job security. Employees would also contact the business. One reason they may contact the company is to call in sick.

  Owners and shareholders are another group of stakeholders. These are the people that invest their own money into the business in hope that they will get more money back and make a profit. The owners are the people that make most of the important decisions and have the power to do anything in the business. The Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer is currently Stuart Rose and he has the most important role in the management of the business. The Chairman of Marks & Spencer is Lord Burns. As the chairman of such a large company he ensures the running of the board and communication between all shareholders. The people with the highest authority would be the owners but just below that there are the board of directors. Therefore the owners and board of directors have the most influence within the group of stakeholders as they have the authority and the power to do what they choose and no one else can argue with them.

 The local community are also stakeholders within the business of Marks & Spencer. Decisions that certain Marks & Spencer stores may make could affect the local community around the store. For example if Marks & Spencer in Truro decided to have a massive sale with all items reduced there would be a lot more traffic around the store trying to get into the car park. Local residents may find it takes longer to get out of their house or face the noise of a lot more cars going past. The local community as stakeholders would not really have much influence within the business of Marks & Spencer but they still matter. The local community may contact their local stores, this may be to complain. Also if the local community were to have a serious problem with Marks & Spencer they could pressurise the local council into taking action against the problem.

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 Another type of stakeholder in Marks & Spencer is the government. As the government’s policy is to have a strong UK economy they are stakeholders in all businesses. The government are also interested in the business for political reasons. They want Marks & Spencer to succeed so then they make more profit. The more profit Marks & Spencer make the more tax the government get. Also Marks & Spencer employ lots of people therefore it saves the government a lot of money as they do not have to pay benefits for these people. They also receive tax of these ...

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