Unit 1 Business environment

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• Aim

The aim of this unit is to provide learners with an understanding of different organisations, the influence of stakeholders and the relationship between businesses and the local, national and global environments.

• Unit abstract

Organisations have a variety of purposes that depend on why they were established. Some operate for profit, whilst others do not. Organisations structure themselves and operate in ways that allow their objectives to be met. Every organisation has a range of stakeholders whose interests need to be satisfied, but stakeholders have competing interests that may be hard to reconcile.

Businesses operate in an environment shaped by the government, competitors, consumers, suppliers, and international factors. Learners will understand that some influences on the business environment are direct and clear, for example taxation policies on corporate activities. Other influences are less clear, perhaps coming from the international arena and sometimes with only an oblique impact on the national business environment.

It is within this business environment that organisations function and have to determine strategies and a modus operandi that allow them to meet their organisational purposes in ways that comply with the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks. In addition, business markets take various forms and the structure of a market enables an understanding of how organisations behave. In this unit learners will consider how different market structures shape the pricing and output decisions of businesses, as well as other aspects of their behaviour.

• Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit a learner will:

1       Understand the organisational purposes of businesses

2       Understand the nature of the national environment in which businesses operate

3       Understand the behaviour of organisations in their market environment

4       Be able to assess the significance of the global factors that shape national business activities.

UNIT 1: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Unit content

1      Understand the organisational purposes of businesses

Categories of organisation: legal structure; type eg private company, public company, government, voluntary organisation, co-operative, charitable; sector (primary, secondary tertiary)

Purposes: mission; vision; aims; objectives; goals; values; profits; market share; growth; return on capital employed (ROCE); sales; service level; customer satisfaction; corporate responsibility; ethical issues

Stakeholders: owners; customers; suppliers; employees; debtors; creditors; financial institutions (banks, mortgage lenders, credit factors); environmental groups; government agencies (central government, local authorities); trade unions

Responsibilities of organisations: stakeholder interests; conflict of expectations; power-influence matrix; satisfying stakeholder objectives; legal responsibilities eg consumer legislation, employee legislation, equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory legislation, environmental legislation, health and safety legislation; ethical issues eg environment, fair trade, global warming, charter compliance eg Banking Code

2      Understand the nature of the national environment in which businesses operate

Economic systems: the allocation of scarce resources; effective use of resources; type of economic system eg command, free enterprise, mixed, transitional

The UK economy: size (gross domestic product, gross national product); structure; population; labour force; growth; inflation; balance of payments; balance of trade; exchange rates; trading partners; public finances (revenues, expenditure); taxation; government borrowing; business behaviour eg investment, objectives, risk awareness; cost of capital; consumer behaviour; propensity to save; propensity to spend; tastes and preferences

Government policy: economic goals; fiscal policy: control of aggregate demand; central and local government spending; Public Sector Net Borrowing (PSNB) and Public Sector Net Cash Requirement (PSNCR); euro convergence criteria, monetary policy; interest rates; quantitative easing; private finance initiative (PFI); competition policy (up-to-date legislation including Competition Act 1998, Enterprise Act 2002); Competition Commission, Office of Fair Trading; Directorate General for Competition); European Commission); sector regulators eg Ofgem, Ofwat, Civil Aviation Authority; Companies Acts; regional policy; industrial policy; enterprise strategy; training and skills policy

UNIT 1: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

3      Understand the behaviour of organisations in their market environment

Market types: perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, duopoly; competitive advantage, strategies adopted by firms; regulation of competition

Market forces and organisational responses: supply and dem