Revision Presentation - Improving Organisational Structures
This revision presentation builds on our earlier introduction to organisational structures. It considers the alternative approaches to organisational structure and looks in more details at core topics such as hierarchies, spans of control, workloads, job allocations and delegation. It also looks at how changes to organisational structure might lead to improved competitiveness and business performance.
read more...»Revision Presentation - Recruitment & Selection
The basics of the recruitment and selection process for a business are covered in this revision presentation. We look at the recruitment process; the methods of internal & external recruitment; the role of job and person specifications and descriptions; the role of outside agencies in recruitment.
read more...»Revision Presentation - Training
In this revision presentation we look at the business advantages and drawbacks of training, and the various kinds of training including on-the-job, off-the-job and induction training.
read more...»Revision Presentation - Measuring Workforce Effectiveness
There are veraious ways in which firms can measure the effectiveness of their workforce. This revision presentation introduces three key metrics - staff turnover; labour productivity and absenteeism.
read more...»Shareholder conflict: the story so far – and its relevance to evaluation
Two themes wrapped up together here.
Firstly, you will be sure to have noticed references to a ‘Shareholder Spring’ in which normally quiet and docile shareholders have been increasingly resistant to executives’ claims for ever higher rewards. There’s a link to a very handy summary below.
Secondly, this serves as a reminder of one of the several ways in which you can boost the evaluative component of your answers.
Shareholders join the Pressure Groups as Banks Feel the Heat from Stakeholders
Some evidence here of increasing shareholder activism which illustrates the pressure now being placed on the Boards of some quoted firms.
The revolt by Barclays shareholders (almost one third of them voted against the proposed remuneration packages for senior management) didn’t stop the deals being approved. However, this is a good example of shareholders expressing their anger at the activities of firms whose pay packages for top directors seem to fit uncomfortably in this period of prolonged austerity.
read more...»A detailed look inside Apple’s Foxconn factory
A fascinating and detailed look here at working conditions at Apple’s main supplier in China. This 15 minute video raises a lot of issues which students can develop; particularly useful for any discussion around CSR, but also excellent for operations and HRM. In the video, ABC News Nightline goes behind the scenes of the FoxConn factory - the operation which makes iPads and iPhones.
read more...»Competitiveness and organisational structure - a great example of delayering
Students familiar with the concept of delayering will know that the benefits of successfully reducing the number of layers in the management hierarchy are not just limited to lower costs. Of course, there can be significant cost savings from delayering, particularly if the roles concerned are highly-paid. However, the strategic rationale for delayering is also usually linked with the need to improve the effectiveness of decision-making and making the business more responsive to customer needs.
There is a great example of delayering which was in the news yesterday (19 April 2012) concerning a decision by insurance firm Aviva to remove an entire layer from their organisational structure.
read more...»Takeovers and Mergers - Cost Synergies in Action at BMI
This is desperately bad news for the employees and local community involved, but it serves as a good example for students to understand the nature of cost synergies in a takeover or merger. This local newspaper report covers the announcement of hundreds of job losses at the headquarters of BMI, which has recently been acquired by British Airways from Lufthansa.
read more...»CSR & Ethics: Damaging Allegations for Adidas and the London Olympics 2012
On the face of it, the findings of the Independent newspaper’s investigations into the sourcing of the official London Olympics GB team kit are very damaging for both LOCOG and the supplier - Adidas. You can read the full report here.
read more...»Sony - Hirai’s Turnaround Strategy - in Video Clips
At our A2 Business revision workshops in March we predicted that Sony would quickly become an essential research case study for students in 2012 and perhaps beyond, as we anticipated the strategic review being carried out by Hirai Kazou as he took over as CEO of Sony from Sir Howard Stringer. Events over recent days have supported that view. Sony’s plight - and proposed turnaround strategy - is packed full with fantastic business strategy materials. Perfect for comparing and contrasting with the likes of Apple, Samsung, Google & HTC.
Hirai’s announcement has been well covered in all the business media, particularly the online business television channels. Here is a selection of clips which help explain the strategy and also provide some examples of experts analysing and evaluating the likely success of the turnaround:
Update: BBC news, May 2012: Sony shares tumble to 31-year low amid record losses
read more...»Revision Presentation - Change Management
This revision presentation provides an overview of the topic of change management in the context of business strategy. It highlights the main theories on change management including Lewin’s Forcefield analysis as well as providing some examples of recent change management case studies
read more...»The Downsides of Downsizing - Does Retrenchment Work?
Some good evidence in this HBR blog article about downsizing - a term commonly associated with the strategy of retrenchment. The article refers to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal predicting that many already “lean” and successful firms are considering further retrenchment as they aim to cut costs and streamline their operations.
read more...»Apple’s new CEO and a new iPad - A Change in Leadership
For those of you who watched the recent Apple special event (7 March 2012), you were witnessing an event which involved too kinds of leadership. First, Apple was aiming to secure its leadership of the global tablet computer market with the launch of the “new iPad”. Secondly, the event was a showcase for a new kind of leadership at Apple. It provided quite a few clues to the leadership style of Tim Cook, leading the presentation for the first time since the death of Steve Jobs.
read more...»Takeover and merger integration: lessons from the experts (GE Capital)
GE Capital (of former CEO Jack Welch fame) is a global conglomerate that has grown through hundreds of acquisitions. I’ve just read through a detailed but fascinating article in the Harvard Business Review which outlines GE’s approach to successful takeover integration. Some great insights here for AQA BUSS4 students who need an overview of the factors that affect the success or failure of a takeover. I have summarised them below:
read more...»Takeover troubles - Has the Co=operative got Indigestion with the Somerfield Integration?
A fascinating and perfectly-timed article here in the Independent which outlines evidence that the Co-operative Group’s takeover of Somerfield in 2009 might be providing a little less successful than it originally planned…
read more...»Business legislation - the cost to businesses
AQA BUSS4 students are likely to be covering Business Legislation and Business and the EU about now. News over the weekend about new regulations giving workers a legal right to extra time off work if they become ill while on holiday give a useful case study combining both areas, as the regulations are due to changes to the European Working Time Directive, and state that time taken off work for sickness, maternity and paternity leave must be given to workers in addition to their legal right to annual leave.
read more...»Lesson Activity: The Human Organisation Chart
Listening to the weather forecast this morning on my way to work, I started to develop an idea to take advantage of the warmest day of the year so far and get my Year 11s outside. By the time I got to school it was a fully formed activity which proved really useful in introducing the concept of tall and flat organisational structures.
read more...»Video starter - Inside the iPad factory
The first time that any reporters have been allowed inside the iPad factory in China - and what an insight! This clip has it all for superb business studies lesson starter. Technology in production of course; but much more interesting is the issue of people management. Thought-provoking…
read more...»Insights on takeovers and mergers from KPMG’s 2011 global survey
I’ve spent a day reading through a detailed analysis of global takeover and merger evidence (“M&A”) written by accountants KPMG in 2011. The report is both comprehensive and complex. However, it contains some useful insights for students and teachers researching the key strategic issues raised by M&A. I have highlighted and summarised some of the key findings below.
read more...»Video resource: Do bonuses work as an incentive for better performance?
A timely short video here from the BBC looks at the way that a simple activity-related bonus improves productivity in a small drilling business. Employees and management seem happy at D-Drill. But, can the use of much larger-scale bonuses in financial services be justified in the same way? A great starting point for discussion with students…
read more...»Happiness in the workplace still proving elusive
60 years ago we worked 30% longer and took half as many holidays. For most, pay was poor. Discrimination in the workplace was widespread, and permitted by law. Work was often hard, and for working class men it was often dangerous too. So it’s a sobering thought to think that several decades later, measures of anxiety in the workplace have risen, to the point that stress has replaced back pain as the most common cause of long-term sick leave, according to The Guardian. What’s going wrong?
read more...»Leadership in a multinational business - what leadership style works best?
This is an interesting blog entry from Pekka Viljakainen, an entrepreneur from Finland who sold his IT consulting business to a multinational Tieto. Some useful insights here for students wanting to develop their understanding of how the challenge of leadership changes as a leader’s responsibilities become more complex and cross-border.
read more...»Who has what it takes for this job description?
Here is a real job description for a job vacancy currently being handled by head hunters. The job? Head Coach for the England Rugby Team. A great example of how the functional areas of a business (in this case HRM) link through the the corporate (or strategic) objectives of an organisation.
read more...»Strategy Lessons from the Tesco Downfall
A highlight for me and many business teachers was the superb presentation given at the Business Teacher National Conference 2011 by Sir Terry Leahy who, just weeks earlier, had retired as CEO of Tesco leaving behind a stunning record of profitable growth.
Who would have thought that less than a year later, the shares of Tesco would fall by 16% in just one day (nicknamed “Tesco Thursday”) wiping £5bn off the value of Tesco shares. The sudden downturn in Tesco’s fortunes will be a rich source of business lesson material for months, perhaps years to come.
read more...»The cost of recruitment
The average cost of hiring a new employee in the UK is around £5,300 according to a new survey. That compares to just £2,200 in the US, suggesting that UK businesses are at a cost disadvantage when it comes to the costs of recruiting staff…
read more...»Why is productivity rising in the US?
Productivity – usually expressed in terms of output per worker – is a really important term in business. In fact, it’s up there near the top of the list of the most important measures of business efficiency. So is it good news that productivity continues to rise (at least in the US)? And what forces are driving this improvement?
read more...»Keeping the ageing workforce healthy
If we are all to work until our late 60’s, or beyond, how much will the workplace need to be adapted to ensure that older workers can continue to contribute fully to the bottom line of their employers profits? The World at One today carried a 4-minute report from a BMW factory in Germany where works councils, unions and employers are collaborating to ensure that the factory is a healthy place that allows employees of all ages to work at the optimum rate, without holding up the production line and with as little physical and psychological stress as possible.
Sadly I cannot find this as a stand-alone report on i-player. However, the full programme is available here for the next 7 days - this report starts 37 minutes into the programme.
Would you work harder - for nothing? The hidden costs of employment fear
In one sense, employers have never had it so good. Not only do they have a vast and growing pool of unemployed people from which to select. But, their employees are also likely to be working harder, putting in unpaid overtime and keeping their heads down in times of great uncertainty for those in work. That is the conclusion of a new survey reported here in the Telegraph.
read more...»BUSS3 Quiz on Human Resource Strategies
Here is a ten question revision multiple choice quiz on some key terms in BUSS3 Human Resource Strategies created using Zondle
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