Wednesday 19 February 2014

Organisational Strategy & Business Ethics

Organisational Strategy
There are lots of definitions of strategy. Above all, the general meaning is a long term plan and goal of organizations.


PESTLE is an analysis method for organisations through external environmental factors. It is because some organizations are easily changed by these factors. PESTLE analysis provides 6 main elements of macro- environment, which are political, economic, social, technical, legal and environmental. Let me discuss more specifically about each element.

First of all, I would talk about political factor, which is local of different country; include the changing of political at local, regional, national, the international level of the country, changing in legislation, kinds of laws, government stability……

Secondly, economic factor is an important element of business. It is analyzing the economic environment of organizations. It concerns interest rates, inflation rates, exchange rates, unemployment, fixed and variable business costs, energy costs, state investment and effects of changes in labour and product market.

Thirdly, social factor means the local culture, values, lifestyle, the attitudes of working and leisure, education, health, distribution of income and demographics. There would affect the market of the organization and incomes.

Moreover, technological would seriously affect some kinds of organizations, such as design, produce and distribute goods or services organizations. New production methods may run of time quickly. Communication methods may become more perfect and convenient with higher IT developments.

Otherwise, legal factor is mainly talk about laws. The changing of law, government policy employment and safety law and environmental laws, which limited and safeguard the development of organizations.

Lastly, environmental factor is a limitation of the organization acts. It is because the organizations must care about the green issues and protects the environment.

SWOT analysis is a method to understand the situation of the organization. There are 4 parts which is Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The understanding of the organization is very important for the owners and shareholders. It is a common management analysis method.
Business Ethics

The definition of business ethics are moral principles that guide the way a business behaves. The same principles that determine an individual’s actions also apply to business. 

Monday 10 February 2014

Management Theory & placing organisation in Context

Entry 3  Week 4-5
Management theory

Management theory has been created many years ago. It is a guideline for business action and help people to understand the process of management. Management theory has a lot of important value for today.


There are four main schools which are classical, human relations, systems and contingency. Systems is integrated by classical and human relations, which are mention about purpose, formal structure, hierarchy of management, technical requirements, and common principles of organization; social factors at work, groups, leadership, the informal organization and behavior of people.


Let me talk about the scientific Management. It is designed by F.W.Taylor. That is using scientific methods to analyze how to make the organization of work and structure for maximum efficiency. It would make the organization becoming simple, such as reducing some not essential jobs. Moreover it would decide a suitable employee to do a specific works and analyze almost workers entirely by pay. This idea still exists in some fast food outlets.

Organisational Context (environment)


Now, I know how to analyze the micro environment of organization. Intensity of rivalry within the industry, threat of substitute products, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers(Customers) and threat of new entrants, which are Porters 5 forces. Threat of substitute Products and threat of new Entrants, which are the competitive as similar type of other organizations. For example, Tesco cannot control the buyers must buy their goods. Buys are freedom to any goods from any supermarkets, such as Asda or Sainsbury. Therefore, that is a good method to analyse that organization’s micro environment. Bargaining Power of Buyers and bargaining power of suppliers, which mean the organization is in the passive position. It cannot fully control the selling price and the cost of raw material. It is because some products may not just unique of the companies. If the prices are set higher than the market, buyers would buy form other companies. That means the selling price is not fully controlled by the companies.



However, there is no answer of which forces are the most important for an organization. It is because depends on different industries. There is different value for different industries. For instance, KFC, a fast food shop, is mainly affected by substitute products and new entrants. It is because there are lots of fast food shops, which price maybe much lower. The attractive of the market may be higher than KFC. Also, some new entrants of fast food industries would attract the customs of freshness. Therefore, we can analyse KFC as threat of Substitute Products and threat of New Entrants.