functional areas in oxfam and sainsburys

BTEC first diploma in business: Unit 1

In this assignment, I will be writing about the different departments in Oxfam and Sainsbury’s.

SAINSBURY’S

One of Sainsbury’s main functional areas is distribution. They ensure goods are delivered in the right place, at the right time and in the right condition. Distribution is also involves arranging for goods to be cost effective.

Planning vehicle routes to avoid back tracking. This keeps fuel costs down and saves time.
Making sure that goods are stored appropriately before they are delivered.
Checking if deliveries match the order.

Human recourses

The human resources of business are its employees. HR is responsible for employing knew staff and making sure each vacancy is filled.

Advertising job vacancies.
Maintaining staff records.
Advertising promotional opportunities.
Checking health and safety and keeping accident records.

Finance

In nearly all organisations the most important functional area is the finance department. Sainsbury finance staff support the accountants by keeping financial records.

Record money received
Checking and paying invoices received.
Preparing the pay roll and paying the staff salaries
Issuing regular budget reports to all the departments.

Customer service

Customer service is also a main functional area in Sainsbury’s. This part of Sainsbury’s handles complaints positively and professionally.

They also:

Solve customer problems.
Use customer feedback to improve customer service.
Answer customer enquires about products and services
Analyse customer complaints to eliminate problem areas.

OXFAM

Administration

One of the main functional areas in a business is administration. Admin is a support system that is requires by all business they monitor the budget but they can also interview new staff.

They can also:

Purchase supplies of office stationary and equipment
Respond promptly to enquires
Make arrangement for events, such as sales conferences and interviews.
Organize meetings and prepare meeting documents.

ICT

ICT is very important within a buss9ines. This is because most bossiness tasks are done by using a computer. The ICT department specializes in updating new systems. They can also:

Enforce a backup system so the documents a recovered.
Repair the computers when needed.
Installing a security system that protects Oxfam from hackers and viruses.
Connecting addition equipment to the system e.g. scanner, printer etc.

Marketing

The marketing department is all about meeting customer’s needs and expectations. They are in charge of promoting Oxfam’s service. In addition, they can also

Design and update Oxfam’s website
Designing and distributing promotional material like leaflets.
Carrying out market research.
Analysing market research results so they can inform their manager.

Finance

The finance department is a very important functional area. This is because they look after the money coming into Oxfam.

They also:

Make financial records of the money being received
Monitor the department’s budgets.
Check and pay invoices
Produce cash flow forecast and reports for senior managers.

Task 2

Sainsbury’s

In this part of the assignment I will be explaining how Sainsbury’s and Oxfam are organised and why ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Design and update Oxfam’s website
Designing and distributing promotional material like leaflets.
Carrying out market research.
Analysing market research results so they can inform their manager.

Finance

The finance department is a very important functional area. This is because they look after the money coming into Oxfam.

They also:

Make financial records of the money being received
Monitor the department’s budgets.
Check and pay invoices
Produce cash flow forecast and reports for senior managers.

Task 2

Sainsbury’s

In this part of the assignment I will be explaining how Sainsbury’s and Oxfam are organised and why they it is important for the departments to interact with each other.

Sainsbury’s in organized by spiting into different functional departments. Each functional department has many different jobs to do. The departments include:

Customer service
Finance
Marketing
ICT
Distribution
Research and development
Administration
Production
Human resources

It is important for function departments to interact with each other so that Sainsbury’s is able to function probably. If they do not interact with each other they will not meet their business aims and objectives. In addition if the business does not meet their business aims and objectives they may not be able to develop as quick, which means they may make a loss.

Marketing and finance

The marketing department is all about advertising for Sainsbury’s, they can advertise on T.V, newspapers, leaflets and magazines. The finance department looks after the money in Sainsbury’s e.g. recording money being received. Marketing and finance need to interact with each other so that finance can tell marketing how much money they can spend on advertising.

ICT and finance

The ICT department specializes in updating things such as computer. In addition they also update and replace the software equipment at Sainsbury’s. Finance specializes in the money coming into Sainsbury. They help the accountants by making financial records. The ICT departments and the finance department need to interact with each other so that the finance can tell the ICT department how much money to spend on ICT equipment and repairs.

Human resources and administration

The human resources department specialise in the recruitment of new staff. The admin department is the support function of a business. This means that they can help other departments. They need to interact with each other because the admin department can help the human resources department’s interview new staff and other small tasks like preparing and filling documents, opening emails and sending emails and faxes.

Research and development and production

The research and development specialize in the design and research of foods and products. The production department specialise in the making of the products. These two departments need to interact with each other because research and development design the product and the production department produces the product. This means that the research and development department tell the production department how the want the product to look and the production department make it according to the research and developments designs.

Human resources and all the other departments

The human resources department is in charge of recruiting new staff. This means that they need to interact with other department to see if they need new staff. In addition they also need to see if the other departments want new employees to have training.

Oxfam

Oxfam is organized by splitting into different divisions. These divisions can help Oxfam achieve their business aims and objectives. These departments include:

Administration
Customer service
Human resources
Distribution
Campaigns and policy
Finance

Marketing and campaign and policy

The marketing division specialises in advertising for Oxfam. The campaign and policy division is in charge of developing the Oxfam appeal. This means that they go to other countries and choose who they want to support and give their money to. These two division need to communicate wit each other because campaign and policy chooses the country they want to support. They then tell marketing what to advertise.

Finance and marketing

The marketing division is in charge of advertising for Oxfam. The finance department is in charge of the money coming into Oxfam. They do this by making financial records. These two divisions need to interact with each other because the finance division needs to give the marketing division a budget. This will help them know how much money they can spend.

Human resources and finance

The human resources division is in charge of the recruiting of knew staff. They also arrange staff training. The finance department is in charge of the money coming into Oxfam. They do this by making financial records. These two divisions need to interact with each other because the finance department needs to set a budget for human resources division. They need to do this because the finance division needs to tell the human resources division how much money they can spend on staff training.

Evaluation

In this part of the assignment, I will be writing about how well the functional areas help the business achieve its business aims and objectives.

Sainsbury’s

Aims of Sainsbury’s may be to:

To improve the performance of Sainsbury’s
to appeal to more customers

The departments you need to improve the performance of Sainsbury’s

Marketing: The marketing department can help in the improvement of performance at Sainsbury’s. This is because marketing are in charge of carrying out market research. They then analyse the market research to see what customers want at Sainsbury’s. This can improve Sainsbury’s because if they know what the customers want they can improve Sainsbury’s by using the customer’s opinions.
Distribution: The distribution can help on the improvement of Sainsbury’s because they are in charge of the products. This can help improve Sainsbury’s because if they distribute the products on time and with care the performance will improve. This will keep the customers satisfied with Sainsbury’s because the product arrived to them without any damages.
Customer service: The customer service department can help in the improvement of Sainsbury’s because the customer service department is in charge of customer complaints. This means that they can analyze the customer complaints to see what are the problem area in Sainsbury’s so that they can resolve it.

Some of the departments needed to appeal to more customers are:

Production: Production department can help Sainsbury’s appeal to more customers because the production department is in charge of the making of products for Sainsbury’s. This means that the production department can make new products for Simsbury’s l like jewelry. This will help Sainsbury’s appeal to more customers.
ICT: The ICT department can help Sainsbury’s appeal to more customers. This is because they are in charge of Sainsbury’s website. If the ICT department produces a website for Sainsbury’s it will attract more customers. This is because they can have people shopping in store and online. The website will attract more customers because it is easier for customers to shop online.
Marketing: The marketing department can help Sainsbury’s appeal to more customers because they are in charge of the marketing research for Sainsbury’s. This will help because if Sainsbury’s looked at the market research and see what a variety of customers want at Sainsbury’s. They can them make the required improvements and more customers will shop at Sainsbury’s.

Oxfam

Aims of Oxfam may be to:

Get rid of poverty
To increase the service offered

To get rid of poverty the division that Sainsbury’s might need is:

Campaign and policy: Campaign and policy plays a big art in Oxfam getting rid of poverty. This is because they are in charge of developing the Oxfam appeal. This means that they go to other countries to see who needs their money. If the campaign and policy chooses a country, which truly needs there money more people will donate their money. The more donations Oxfam receives the greater their chances of getting rid of poverty.
Marketing: Marketing can help get rid of poverty because they are in charge of the advertising for Oxfam. This means this the more they advertise the more people know about Oxfam and how they help people less fortunate that us. IF the marketing department does enough advertising more people will donate money. The money received will go towards getting rid of poverty.
Finance: Finance can help get rid of poverty because finance is in charge of the money coming into Oxfam. The finance department can make financial records for Oxfam. They can then look at these financial records those if they have enough money coming into the business. (F they have enough money coming in to the business they can donate money other countries which will help get rid of poverty.

To increase the service offered the departments Oxfam needs are:

Human resources: They can increase service offered because they are n charge of hiring workers. This means that if Oxfam needs new workers they can hire them. This can help because if they have more workers they can use them to offer more services to the customers.
Distribution: They can help because they are in charge of distributing products. This means that instead of customers having to pick up their shopping in store they can be delivered to their homes. This makes it easier for customers and can increase service offered.
Customer service: Customer se4rvise can help because they are in charge of handling complaints positively and professionally. This means that Oxfam can use the customer complaints to improve Oxfam by analyzing the complaints and seeing the problem areas. This can help increase service offered.

Teacher Reviews

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

David Salter

1st of Dec 2012

**** Parts of this are very good showing well considered analysis. Other parts seem to show a lack of understanding of what both businesses are about. It is important to do some research into an organisation you are writing about and ensure you understand it before writing.

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