Chapter One - Large-Scale Organisations in Context Flashcards
Large-Scale Organisation
A large-scale organisation employs 200 or more people, earns revenue in the millions, or has assets of more than $200 million.
Organisation
An organisation is two or more people working together to achieve an objective.
Multinational Organistion
A multinational corporation is owned and based in one country and operates in many countries throughout the world.
Board of Directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organisation.
Managing Director
A managing director is someone who is responsible for the daily operations of a company, organisation, or corporate division.
Human Resources
The development of strategies to meet the organisation’s future human resource needs.
Marketing
The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
Research and Development
Activities undertaken to improve existing products or create new products.
Finance
The management of large amounts of money, especially by governments or large companies.
Operations
Operations refers to the activities, decisions and responsibilities of managing the resources which are dedicated to the production and delivery of products and services.
Corporation (or company)
An organisation owned by shareholders that aims to make a profit.
Shareholder
Any person who owns shares in a company.
Government Business Enterprise
An organisation that is government owned and operated.
Government Department
Government departments exist on all three levels of government (federal, state and local). They provide essential community services, such as health, education and welfare.
E.g: The Department of Education, the Department of Employment and the Department of Social Services.
Not-for-profit organisation
Not-for-profit organisations include charities and foundations. Their main purpose is to provide goods, services or funds to prevent particular social problems or to work for the benefit of the community.
Objective
A desired goal, outcome or specific result that an organisation intends to achieve.
Vision Statement
A written statement of what the organisation aspires to become in the future.
Mission Statement
A statement expressing why an organisation exists, its purpose and how it will operate.
Strategies
The actions that an organisation takes to achieve specific objectives.
Economic Growth (as measured by GDP)
An increase in the amount of goods and services produced per head of the population over a period of time.
Exports
A function of international trade whereby goods produced in one country are shipped to another country for future sale or trade. The sale of such goods adds to the producing nation’s gross output. If used for trade, exports are exchanged for other products or services.
Imports
A good or service brought into one country from another. Along with exports, imports form the backbone of international trade. The higher the value of imports entering a country, compared to the value of exports, the more negative that country’s balance of trade becomes.
Balance of Payments
A record of a country’s trade and financial transactions with the rest of the world.
Invention
The development of something new.
Innovation
A process that occurs when something already established is improved upon.
Infrastructure
Highways, railways, airports, communication systems, education and health facilities, water, gas and electricity supplies.
Downsizing.
Workplace staff reductions, with the elimination of jobs and positions.
Outsourcing.
Contracting some organisational operations to outside suppliers.
Internal environment
All those things over which the organisation has some degree of control.
External environment
This includes those things over which the business has little control. It may be divided into an operating environment and a macro environment.
Operating Environment
The outside factors with which the organisation interacts in the course of conducting its business.
Customers
The buyers or users of the products of a large-scale organisation.
Suppliers
Those organisations and individuals that supply resources to the organisation, allowing it to conduct its operations.
Competitors
Other organisations that offer rival products or services.
Lobby Groups
Groups of people who attempt to directly influence or persuade an organisation to adopt particular policies.
Macro Environment
The broad factors in the economy and society within which the organisation operates.
Globalisation
The effect of hi-tech communications, lower transport costs and unrestricted trade and financial flows turning the whole world into a single market, producing a more integrated global economic system.
Effectiveness
The degree to which an organisation has achieved its stated objectives.
Efficiency
A measure of how well an organisation uses resources to achieve objectives.
Key Performance Indicators
Key performance indicators are measurements used to help a business define and measure progress towards achieving its objectives or critical success factors. They are quantifiable measures that can be expressed in either financial or non-financial terms and reflect the nature of your business.
Profitability
The capacity to make a profit. A profit is what is left over from income earned after you have deducted all costs and expenses related to earning the income.
Number of sales
The number of products sold.
Percentage of market share
The proportion of the total market that a business has, expressed as a percentage.
Rate of productivity growth
A measure of the change in productivity in one year compared to the previous year.
Customer survey
A measure of how satisfied customers are with the organisation’s performance.
Staff survey
A measure of how satisfied staff are within the organisation.
Staff turnover.
A measure of the number of staff who are leaving the organisation.
Customer complaints
An indication of whether or not customers are satisfied with the performance of the organisation.
Level of wastage
The amount of waste created by the production process.
Number or workplace accidents
An indication of how safe the workplace is for employees.
Benchmarking
A process in which an organisation measures its performance against that of other leading organisations known for their excellence.
Stakeholders
Groups and individuals who interact with the organisation and have an interest in its activities.
Social responsibility
The obligations a business has over and above its legal responsibilities to the wellbeing of employees and customers, shareholders and the community as well as the environment.
Ethical management
Abiding by moral standards and doing the ‘right’ thing in the interest of all stakeholders.
Shareholders
Any person who owns shares in a company.
Management
Management has the responsibility of running a profitable or successful organisation. Most managers today understand that ethical and social responsible activities should lead to increased sales.
Employees
A worker under an employer’s control. Control may involve the location of the workplace, the way in which the work is performed or the degree of supervision involved. These criteria are critical in determining legal disputes over the employment contract.
Unions
Unions represent employees in many workplaces. They attempt to negotiate favourable pay and work conditions on the employees’ behalf. Unions work to prevent anything that diminishes employee rights, safety or conditions.
Profit
A financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something.
Conflict of interest
Any situation in which an individual or corporation (either private or governmental) is in a position to exploit a professional or official capacity in some way for their personal or corporate benefit.
Management function
A large-scale organisation creates an organisational structure that has separate departments, each focusing on a particular functional area, and allocates people and resources to each area to achieve objectives. For example; marketing, human resources, operations, finance and research and development.
Government Tariff
A tax imposed on imported goods and services. Tariffs are used to restrict trade, as they increase the price of imported goods and services, making them more expensive to consumers.
