How important are staff/management relations?
A good relationship between staff and management is one in which each party respects and trusts one another, communicates with and understands one another and understands clearly what is expected of each other. Each party must make a fair contribution towards satisfying the interests of the other party. Demands placed on each other must be reasonable. Compromise and co-operation both play important roles in safeguarding the interests of the business while also satisfying the conflicting interests of it's workforce. It is imperative to build and maintain healthy staff/management relations for the following reasons. Good relations help to prevent disputes and if conflict does arise it can be better resolved between staff and management who have already developed a good working relationship which helps to ensure as little disruption to normal operations as possible. Good staff/management relations lead to high morale amongst a workforce. A happy workforce is a more productive one. The employer will also find it easier to retain its employees. Poor relations can lead to an unhappy workforce and dissatisfied management which is likely to result in reduced productivity and the overall failure of the business. The interests of a company and the interests of it's workforce are often in conflict with each other. A number of practices must be in place in order to simultaneously
McDonald's. What are the Management functions at McDonald's?
McDonald's INTRODUCTION TO McDonald's Mission Statement Mc Donald's vision is to be the UK's biggest, best quick service restaurant experience. Since McDonald's opened its first restaurant in the UK in October 1974, the Golden Arches have become a familiar symbol, now seen on high streets, alongside major roads, on cross channel ferries, in leisure and retail parks and at airports. During 2000, the company bought young people from communities all over the UK to perform on stage at the Dome in Greenwich as part of McDonald's Our Town Story. This explains the History of McDonalds. By the end of 2000, there were 1,116 McDonald's restaurant operating in the UK, representing a total investment in property and equipment of over £1.5 billion. The company employed just fewer than 50,000 people and 18,000 were employed by McDonald's franchises. Today, more than 2.5 million people in this country place their trust in McDonalds every day - trusting the Company to provide them with food of a high standard, quick service and value for money. E1 CLEARLY IDENTIFYING MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS AND THEIR APLLICATION TO THE BUSINESS A restaurant manager makes sure that customers can come into the restaurant and enjoy the quality food and service they have come to expect from McDonald's. This takes in everything from the welfare of staff through to the performance of the restaurant
Marketing Management - Swisher Mower and Machine Company.
MBA5009 Marketing Management Group Report Of Case 5 Swisher Mower and Machine Company Submitted by Zeng Min, Bernice Ellen Novidia Adisoebrata Tan Xiao Ling, Linda Liu Bei, Pat Paul Lim Suparto Quach Thi Thu Hien Huang Yue Hong, Sarah NUS Business School National University of Singapore Wayne Swisher, President and Chief Executive Office of Swisher Mower and Machine Company (SMC), was weighing the proposal of a private branding arrangement for SMC's line of riding mowers. He thought the inquiry presented an opportunity but details should be studied more closely. Situation Analysis: Company Background: Established in 1945 by Max Swisher, SMC grew steadily with unit volume for SMC riding mowers peaking at 10,000 units with sales of $2 million in 1966. In the 1990s, the unit volume remained constant with around 4,250 riding mowers per year. Compared with 1,263,000 unit sales in riding mowers and tractors industry, SMC only occupied around 0.3% market share. Max Swisher, the current CEO, thought maintaining a small company image had also been an important aspect of his business philosophy, which led to the good personal relationships with dealers and customers alike. SMC produced limited but differentiated products. SMC's flagship product, the Ride King, was credited with the first zero-turning-radius riding mower. SMC also produced a trail-mower called T-44
McGregor -Theory X and Theory Y
Introduction McGregor -Theory X and Theory Y McGregor, an American psychologist, built upon earlier studies into the psychology of the workplace. From these studies he constructed a model of management attitudes, and from this model demonstrated that managers, wittingly or unwittingly, strongly dictated the type and attitude of workers in their employ. McGregor firstly examined the work of Taylor. In the early 1900's the Classical and Scientific (Taylorian) schools of management, suggested that workers were to be given tasks in their simplest forms. Within such Taylorian businesses, the role of management was to ensure that the simplest, most efficient, and productive working methods were used. Employees would have nothing to contribute but their labour. It can be argued that the early success of Ford Motors was to a large part due to the implementation of this structure. The second element McGregor used was the more recently developed Human Relations School. Studies performed by students of the Human Relations School, such as Mayo, found that many employees would produce higher levels of output, and be more aware of quality issues, if they are brought into the decision making that affected their jobs, rather than being just told what to do, and how to do it . There was a recognition by the Human Relations School that employees would have needs over and above those of
Sainsbury's organizational structure.
Task 3 (E4, C2, A1) Sainsbury's organizational structure Businesses are structured into different into ways according to the way they operate and according to their culture. The structure of business can affect the way it works and performs. You need to understand the differences between the following types of structure: * Tall * Flat * Matrix * Hierarchical Flat and tall structure:- The term 'scalar chain is a rather old fashioned one and stems from the days when large organizations were bureaucratic, with lots of layers between the top and bottom. Scalar chain refers to the number of levels within the structure or hierarchy of an organization. The scalar chain set out the authority, responsibility and the framework that determined superior and subordinate relationships. The idea of setting out everyone's role and position is to make it clear who is responsible for what, and that there is clear line of authority. Matrix structure:- A matrix structure can be used to combine the grouping method we have identified. In such a matrix it is probable that each member of the organization will belong to two or more groups. A matrix is thus a combination of structures, which enables employees to contribute to a mix of activities. The matrix enables the organization to focus upon a number of aims at the same time, and gives it the flexibility to respond to new markets where
Easyjet
From: Pablo Cortez To: Tracy Feist Date: 29/09/08 Overview: The following is a report into a private sector organisation known as Easyjet. Easyjet is a Public Limited Company and trades on the London Stock Exchange. It is a financially strong company being Europes No.1 Air Network. Easyjet's principal activity is providing airline services on short-haul and medium-haul point-to-point routes within Europe. Flying 872 times a day, It operates a fleet of 137 aircraft through 77 airport networks in 21 countries with a workforce of 5493 employees. This report will look into the purpose of the easyjet, how easyjet is run, its mission statement , concept, culture, overall performance, financial information, and other general operating activities. Main Findings: The airline was founded by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou in 1995, and he and his family remain major shareholders in easyJet PLC . easyJet currently operates throughout the UK and mainland Europe. The fleet of aircraft consists of 55 owned and 82 under operating lease, comprising of 107 Airbus A319's and 30 Boeing 737-700's. easyJet favours an informal company culture with a very flat management structure, which it believes eliminates unnecessary and wasteful layers of management. easyJet has a casual dress policy for all office based employees and bans ties with the exception of pilots. The airline is based at Hangar
Evaluate the strategies that a business can adopt during a recession
Evaluate the strategies that a business can adopt during a recession A recession, two negative quarters of GDP in an economy, is inevitably going to lead to a business getting less customers. Its overhead costs will be the same, but its unit costs will be higher because it will not be producing as many products but will still have these fixed costs. This will make the business less profitable in the short-term and so strategies must be implemented to try to improve the business's short-term and long-term prosperity. Such strategies might include improving its cash flow position, downsizing, decreasing its costs, decreasing its gearing and managing its receivables and payables more carefully. A strategy of improving cash flow will involve many aspects. They will need to decrease their fixed costs so that their unit costs will decrease and it will be easier to make a profit in the difficult economic climate. This may involve selling off excess machinery or ordering less inventories, or it may involve increasing its operational efficiency by holding less inventories and thus lowering its storage costs. Ultimately, improving its cash flow will enable the business to remain more liquid in hard times, where investors (e.g. banks) will be less financially lenient, in the way of loaning money to businesses, during a recession. Thus it is more crucial than ever for a business to
To what extent will does correlation and extrapolation assist Nintendo in forecasting sales?
To what extent will does correlation and extrapolation assist Nintendo in forecasting sales? (34 marks) Correlation is the relationship between two variables. Extrapolation is related to correlation, as it involves plotting a linear regression curve (also known as a line of best fit) which is based upon how two variables are correlated, and extending the line to predict future values. For Nintendo, a computer game and console manufacturing company, a common example would be the relationship between the level of advertising expenditure and the effect of this on sales of its products. The graph to the left shows a strong positive correlation between sales and advertising, meaning if Nintendo increases its advertising, they can expect to see an increase in sales. Because all values are close to the line, as advertising expenditure increases on the x-axis, sales on the y-axis increase proportionately. The regression line can be extended past the '80' figure (meaning £80million) to predict what sales will be like if they spend £100million or even £900million. The uses of such analysis to Nintendo are to an extent very valuable. By creating a scatter graph like the one above, Nintendo can spot trends and forecast future events. For example, they could estimate demand at a certain point in the coming year. One would expect demand to surge at Christmas time when people are
Aims of tesco
Aims and Objectives of Tesco Tesco like any other company has aims and objectives that they create and try to meet within a set time. Operating on such a large scale requires a clear path for overall success and to sustain market position, therefore Tesco obviously takes setting aims and objectives as a serious task. Clearly Tesco has been successful and I believe this has been through setting 'SMART' objectives which provided firstly the company with a clear path on where they want to go, and each store with a path on what they must do to meet the overall goals of Tesco as a whole. Realistically in today's modern world there is now more need to concentrate on other factors than just financial ones for a company to be successful. Companies need to evaluate ethical factors as well as customer centred factors and examine how to meet them. Tesco states that their core purpose is 'to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty' as their success depends on it. Tesco believe in treating their customer and staff in the best way possible and try to best meet their needs. Tesco believes that if their team find the job rewarding then they are more likely to give a better service to their customers, thus creating a better shopping environment. In order to try and meet their overall aim Tesco introduced the 'Every Little Helps Strategy'. This strategy was the result of
"Environmental degradation is neither the inevitable price of, nor a desirable path for, economic development
"Environmental degradation is neither the inevitable price of, nor a desirable path for, economic development." (UNDP, et al, 2005) Introduction Environmental degradation is now apparent on a global scale. In addition to the deterioration of what were once considered free goods (such as air and water), escalating scarcity of natural resources, deforestation, desertification and threatened bio-diversity are now commonplace across the spectrum. There are certainly no reservations over the scale of this degradation, however there is much controversy concerning the apparent environmental degradation - economic development nexus. Many have argued that short-term tradeoffs exist in the form of environmental degradation, for superior long-term economic gains. One of the positions put forward is that environmental degradation is the result and inevitable price of economic development. This viewpoint is based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve, regarding environmental degradation as the 'necessary evil' for achieving 'economic development' and suggesting that environmental assets are degraded in the early stages of economic development, only to improve after some income threshold has been passed at a later point. In the last decade, extensive literature has argued that a direct link between environmental degradation and economic development is too simplistic and that the
