Activity (p1)
Phillip Markham is a company that specializes in clothing, mainly
for the male gender. Phillips Markham’s departments include:
Production
Human Resources
Finance
Marketing and sales
Administration
These departments are all involved in different areas of the
business. For the business to work and act to its full potential, the
departments must have some kind of target. If I was to say mission
statement, I mean the overall goal, or aim of the company. In this
case, the company is Phillip Markham Ltd. They are a family-run business that
sells men’s wear. I am given the task of finding out what the business does and
what the business is aiming to do.
Mission
Statement (p1)
“Phillip Markham aims
to manufacture and sell high quality men’s clothing at fair competitive prices
and to provide a rapid and responsive service to all the customers.”
To reach Phillip
Markham’s main aim, they must first complete a series of objectives. Objectives
are the smaller aims or steps that they must achieve. All objectives should be
S.M.A.R.T. SMART stands for
I have found 6
objectives in Phillip Markham’s work groups.
The Production department is used
in a lot of companies that create their own items. Phillip Markham’s business
is a clothing business. Production department handles all aspects and problems
that the producing may hold. If there is a manufacturing problem, the report
will be directed to the production manager via customer services, who will then
tell the manufacturing staff. This is a good area to invite quality control to
the business. Quality control would ensure the best possible quality within
Phillips Markham’s clothing line. The other areas under production’s management
are dispatch and purchasing. The dispatch department mainly involves itself
with getting the goods to their destination. The company could have its
clothing delivered to the customer straight from the production area. Phillip
Markham’s Purchase department could bulk buy their stock, as Phillip Markham
would, most likely, batch produce their items. A job role that would be
appointed to someone working in the production department could be
Manufacturing manager. The manufacturing manager would make sure that the
manufacturing of each product. If there has been a problem with a customer’s
item, being that it is faulty, the manufacturing manager would make sure that
the problem is solved and that the problem does not occur in the future. If the
manufacturing manager was to just accept that they have to replace the faulty
items this would be good, but if the manufacturing manager was to find out why
the problem had arisen, there could be away to stop it happening again.
Finance is in control
of the company’s funds, Wages or salaries for employees and also keeps track of
the money going in and out of the Phillip Markham Company. This is very
important as if Phillip Markham must know when they can afford new assets such
as machines and computers. The finance departments main concern is to
investigate or predict how much money Phillip Markham will have at a particular
time. The finance department, using Cash flow forecasts and also using Profit
and Loss accounts, could find out the best times for the company to buy new
assets. The other side of finance would be the actual accounts and
understanding the stance of the business, financially. The reason for taking
accounts could be to see how much money the company has made or lost over a
certain amount of time. This is essential to any business, as it can show a
company when they can expand or when they need to advertise to get more
customers. A job role within the finance department is the financial manager.
The financial manager makes sure that everyone is doing their job to the best
of their ability. If the financial manager finds out that staff have been
getting underpaid, or in fact overpaid, it would be his/her duty to make sure
that the problem has been put right. It would also be good practise for the
financial manager to make sure the accounts staff are doing their jobs well.
This does not necessarily mean that the accountants are made to work at a fast
pace, as this could cause calculation problems. It is best to keep them
thinking and working as efficiently as needed.
Marketing and
sales Department
Human resources department is the
department that is both for the staff and also for the customers. The Human
Resources has a lot of importance to every business, as this is the department
that makes sure all the staff have been trained well in their area. I.e. if an
employee was not properly trained to work on the checkout area, this could be
reported to the Human Resources staff, and they can see to it that the employee
or employees are given adequate training. Employees that have been trained well
would be a lot happier than employees that are still a little bit confused with
what they are doing. Employees that understand why they carry out a certain
procedure whilst working will be able to do the job a lot more efficiently and
also may find areas that can be changed for improvement and suggest them to the
department manager. Customers can go to the human resources department for help
with a product, a price enquiry or just to find something out. Customers that
have been helped by Human Resources would feel happy that the company has taken
the time to stop and help them, and would see that the company really wants to
help the customer enjoy their experience with Phillip Markham. A job role
within the Human Resources department would be the Recruitment and training
manager. Keeping the employees trained well in their field of work is highly
important to Phillip Markham and any other business. When the Employees have
been trained in different areas of work, they will be able to not only operate
at the checkouts, but also be trained to use other devices or equipment that
works with other jobs. When the employees learn to handle machines, they can do
a lot more for the business. Here is an example; a member of the check out
staff is working at the checkouts only. This is good, but if the employee was
to be trained how to use a manufacturing machine, computers and other items,
they could be used as accountants, production staff and by other departments.
This will be a benefit for the company as if there is a member of staff that is
Ill, the trained staff can cover for them for a day.
Administration Department
TO FINISH OFF P2 YOU NEED TO DESCRIBE FOUR JOB ROLES OF PEOPLE IN
PHILLIP MARKHAM
P4
In a business, the key to success
is good communication. Communication is as important as any other factor that a
business relies upon to run properly. The departments may work under different
managers, but the departments must communicate with one another to get the
information each department needs. An example of departments communicating with
each other well is customer services communicating with the production
department. The reason for the two departments communicating could be a
customer’s complaint with a product. If a customer finds a problem with a
product, the customer services department can tell the production manager, via
telephone or a quick email explaining the problems that have occurred with the
product and what they would like to see production department do about it. Once
the production manager has received the message, the production department can
get on with what they need to do to set the problem right. This could not be
possible without some form of communication between the two departments.
Another good form of getting the different functional areas communicating is
through a meeting. The advantages of having a meeting with all of the managers
of the functional areas and the Managing director in the same room are
·
Face to face communication
helps get a better understanding of the tasks that are set for the functional
areas.
·
The Managing Director can get
a full briefing of what the different departments are doing and how they are
doing it.
When a functional area needs to
contact an external communication (i.e. a customer) the most commonly used communicational
device is the telephone, this is because it is easy to contact the customer and
is also one of the fastest ways. Letters is a good Formal way of contacting the
customers. Letters could be replaced by emails, though emails are very informal
and cannot really be used as a formal type of communication. Mail shots are
sent to customers, as are mail order catalogues. This is a great way to show
customers what is going on in store, the prices of clothing items and generally
good information that is of use to customers.
Organisation charts
In Phillip Markham, there is a
large organisational chart. This type of chart is known as hierarchical. The
organisational chart has very good divisional lines. At the top of the
organisational chart is Jack Markham the managing Director. It is his job to
see that all other department managers are doing their jobs and delegating the
correct work to the staff beneath them. Because the chart divides the
departments so well, it can keep information from slipping into the wrong
department. This would be a nuisance, as the department that should have
received the information may not get it, thus causing a lack in communication,
and a misunderstanding. The Hierarchical organisational chart is good for
Phillip Markham, as it easily states which staff are working for whom. The
organisational chart has many levels and shows who has accountability and
responsibilities very clearly. Although the chart is very well organized, the
organisational chart is not very efficient for communication. Communication
within a Hierarchical organisational chart is a lot slower, as the message must
be taken from the directing manager, through to the department manager and then
on to the team that the message is applicable to An example of an efficient
organisational chart is that of the company KidsCo. KidsCo have a flat
organisational chart. It shows the manager director is responsible for the
Finance Manager, Admin/IT Services Manager, Marketing and Sales Team,
Operations Manager and the HR Manager (Human Resources). Each of the functional
areas is responsible for their own teams. Because KidsCo is a smaller company,
the organizational chart will work well with the business. Phillip Markham is
an older business, and has stuck with the hierarchical organisational chart. If
Phillip Markham managed to change their Hierarchical organisational chart into
a flat chart they would see that communication is made a lot easier. KidsCo Are
a new business, and the way they have set up the departments is fine. It works
very well when an employee as to ask for something as it only has to go through
one person, unless it is a telephone call.
Communication Within a
Business
When there is bad communication
within the business, the business will suffer and thus will not be working at
it’s potential. If the staff can talk
to one another freely about problems within their work, the business would
function better. A good way for the senior managers to get a briefing about
what is working well within a business, what needs to be improved and problems
experience by personnel, would be a senior managers meeting. This meeting could
include the accounts of the business, minutes, and also how to change problems
within the business. The face to face meeting are better to use than
communicating through a letter or telephone call, as you can get examples and
body language. A meeting can then be held by the department managers, to
discuss the issues that the senior managers have passed down to them. The
departmental managers will talk about other issues that they have found and
wish to pick up on. Once the departmental managers have had a meeting, the
senior and the departmental managers can all have a meeting to discuss
information as well share information with each other. When they are finished,
the department managers can then tell there staff what is going on, who needs
to do what and why. There are many other ways to contact staff. The most common
forms of communication are:
·
Telephone
·
Memos on staff notice boards
·
Text messages to one another
·
Leaving a message on the
answering machine
·
Receiving and sending Faxes to
staff
·
Verbally with conversations to
one another
·
Letters
·
Emails
These are all popular forms of
communication.
THE NEXT THING TO DO IS TO
DESCRIBE THE TWO BUISNESS STRUCTURES AND COMPARE THEM. EXPLAIN WHY THEY HAVE
THE STRUCTURE THEY HAVE.
THEN GO INTO HOW THEY
COMMUNICATE WITHIN THE BUISNESS – E.G. SENIOR MANAGEMENT MEETINGS, MINUTES,
THEN THE DEPARTMENT MANAGERS WILL HAVE A MEETING. THEY WILL THEN HAVE A MEETING
WITH SUPERVIOSRS AND THEN THEY WILL PASS INFORMATION ONTO STAFF. OTHER WAYS IS
THROUGH A MEMO ON THE STAFF ROOM NOTICE BOARD ETC.
THE MAIN POINT OF THIS IS
TO SHOW HOW THE HIGH THE ORGANISTIONAL CHART THE LONGER THE PROCESS OF
COMMUNICATION IS - A SMALL BUSINESS
WITH A FLAT STRUCTURE WILL HAVE ONE MEETING AND IT’S DONE.