Describe How Two Businesses Are Organised
I am going to talk about two organisations and how they operate. The organisations I am going to talk about are McDonalds and Chester Zoo. McDonalds is a fast food restaurant and its purpose is to provide the best and fastest customer service so in this way it will give the organisation a good reputation and help them to make more profit. This shows how stuff work in McDonalds.
If there would be a problem with customers for example, then the assistant manager would take care of this but if there would be something more serious then the business manager will have to take care of it because he is the top head of managing. This also shows how the organisation is organized and how everyone is on the top of the chart and also at the bottom. Chester Zoo is a zoo organisation with loads of attractions for children. Its purpose is to keep their customers happy and also help others because Chester Zoo is also a charity and most of its profit goes to charity to help other people.
This is one of the organisation charts for Chester Zoo. This organisation chart shows how the herpetology team work at Chester Zoo. For example the herpetology team manager is on top and everyone below report to him. For example if there was a problem with something to do with the herpetology keepers then they would report it to the herpetology lead keeper who would then report it to the herpetology team manager.
Types of Organisational structures
There are four types of organisational structures which are:
- Functional Geographic
- Product
Type of customer Functional – Functional structures arrange departments according to what goes on within each department. An example of this structure would be Sandwell College where the lecturers are in their own departments, the receptionists and secretaries would be in the administration department or office and the library and IT staff would be in support services. Geographic – Geographic structures are mostly about the size of the organisation and where it operates.
This could be where there are teams of people operating in different locations like in different towns, cities or countries, so it would be very difficult to organise the business simply by its functions. By product – By-product organisational structures offer a range of products or services and these can dictate its structure. For example a supermarket could be organised into the following functional areas:
- Fruit and veg
- Cooked meats
- Tinned goods
- Clothing
- Frozen goods
By type of customer – By type of customer organisational structures have both consumers as customers and also have other businesses as customers. This can be referred to as B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business). Hierarchical structure – A hierarchical structure consists of multiple levels. This means that the chain of command would look like a pyramid with a large base of workers who are supervised by the level above them which continues to the top ranking officer such as the CEO or company president. Flat structure – A flat structure has few levels of management between the executive level and the front-line employees. The purpose of a flat structure is to empower employees by making them a larger part of the decision making process in a business.
It is designed to make employees more productive. It also allows for more rapid change and problem resolution as the communication occurs more easily between the upper managers and baseline employees. Matrix structure – A matrix structure is a type of management system in which workers report to more than just one person, effectively having two or more supervisors at the same time. For example professionals with different types of expertise are brought together to work on a project. They report to a number of managers of different projects as well as to a functional supervisor.
McDonalds and Chester Zoo both have a hierarchical structure because they have multiple levels and they both have a CEO or company president that everyone reports to. Span of control – Span of control is the number of people that one individual is responsible for in an organisation. The wider the p of control is then the greater the number of whom the individual is responsible. A manager who is responsible for too many people may be so overworked that their staff in turn may not be able to perform their duties effectively.
Functional Areas – The functional areas are the specialist areas of activity within an organisation. These include:
- Finance
- Marketing
- Production
- Customer service •
- Sales
- Human resources
- Finance
The finance department functions include keeping records of financial activity for example the sales made by the business and providing managers with information that they can use in decision making for example cost of making products. For McDonalds the finance department would have to keep track of how many sales they make per day and what kind of meal or burger makes the most money.
For Chester Zoo the finance department would have to do the same which is keeping records of how many sales they make per day and how much profit they make. Marketing – The marketing function is responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements. The marketing function have to carry out market research to find out which types of customers make up a particular market for example what they want, where they want it, how they like it and at what price. The marketers will have an important say in deciding:
- The products the company produces
- The prices charged
- Promotions designed to encourage the customers
- Place where goods are sold
For example at McDonalds the marketers would decide on what type of Mcflurrys they would sell to customers and at Chester Zoo the marketers will decide on what price they will sell their tickets for people to come and visit Chester Zoo Production – The production function organises who makes the goods and how and when they are made. The production manager of a company is responsible for making sure raw materials are processed into finished goods.
At McDonalds the production function will have to make sure that the burgers and chips are made in good quality and at Chester Zoo the production team have to make sure that the food they feed to the animals are just right for them to eat. Customer service – Customer service is concerned with looking after customers at all stages of their relationship with a company. They have to provide customers with details about offers, make sure the customers are listened to and valued and attending to customer complaints, providing after sales service such as servicing of goods, spare parts or information about new products.
At Chester Zoo the customer service people will have to deal with complaints and will have to tell people who visit about offers they may not know about. Sales – The sales function is responsible for getting customers to buy what the company produces. The sales department works closely with the marketing department. The main responsibility of the sales department is to create orders for goods and services. For example at McDonalds the sales team will have to try and sell as much food as they can to the customers so they can make a profit. At Chester Zoo they will have to do the same thing by selling Chester Zoo merchandise.
Human resources – Human resource managers are responsible for all aspects of people management in an organisation. The type of work covered in the human resource function might include a policy-making role, welfare role, supportive role, bargaining and negotiating role, administrative role and educational and development role. At Chester Zoo the human resources will have to do an educational and development role because when they have new employees they will need to train them. This goes for the same at McDonalds, where they will have to train their employees.
