Sustainable Business Practices Research Agenda

This assignment requires students to develop a research agenda focused on sustainable business practices. It encourages exploration of topics like corporate social responsibility, international business activities, and the changing business environment. Students are tasked with examining existing literature, identifying gaps in knowledge, and proposing areas for future research in this crucial field.

BUSINESS AND BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Different types of organizations.............................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Relationship in between two types of organizational structures............................................5
TASK 3 & TASK 4..........................................................................................................................7
Covered in PPT.......................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
In today’s modern era, business organizations are required to assess all its external and
internal factors, which have a significant effect on the functioning of a company and its
operations as well. It basically affects the functioning of its employees, management and
customers along with regulation of supply and demand. In this context, each and every business
environment should frame strategies, by which company can gain more efficiency and
effectiveness (Drucker, 2017). Hence, considering this, this present study entails a detailed study
about NATWEST organization, which is a large retail and commercial company engaged in a
business of financial services in the UK. Also, in this present report, different types and kinds of
organizations will be demonstrated with their examples. Apart from this, relationship in between
two types of business organization will also be give effect. Moreover, utilisation of PESTEL and
SWOT will also be done in regard to analysis of internal and external environment of
NATWEST. In the end, both micro and micro factors will also be analysed in this present study.
TASK 1
Different types of organizations
There are different types of an organizations which facilitates their working to gain
proficiency and effectiveness. An organization or a business institution can be considered as a
device which can be used by people for a purpose to assist their activities and tasks in order to
get some earning and incentive opportunities (Iskanius, Page and Anbuudayasankar, 2010). It
can also be noted that there are different sorts through which an organization can be affected. It
can be considered that there are two portions of an organization, which can be in the form of
either non benefits and benefits chain. It is a considerable fact that variation in organization
occurs due to structure, scope and size. There are different types of business organizations,
which can be demonstrated as follows:
Private organization: It is a type of an organization which is owned and controlled by
private association of people. In other words, it can also be said that private companies are those
organizations which are owned and controlled by private people and not by government. It is
basically a company which is operated for earning profits. Moreover, a private limited company
can easily be started with combination of two likeminded people. In the context of Private
organization, NATWEST bank is a business institution, which is established as a large retail
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commercial bank, across UK. It was established by merger of National Provincial Bank, and
Westminster Bank, in 1968. Also, it is also considered as one of the Big Four Clearing Banks.
In addition to this, there are some of the advantages and disadvantages of Private
organizations, which can be elaborated as follows:
Advantages:
 It can be said that one of the major benefit of private organization is that members knows
each other very well (Cantwell, Dunning and Lundan, 2010). Although, owners of capital
are authorised with control of owners of control.
 There is a greater flexibility in the management of private organization.
 In addition to this, there is no requirement of holding statutory meeting
Disadvantages:
 The major disadvantage of commencement of private ownership is that there is a limit on
number of membership.
 Also, there is a restriction on prospectus filing. It is not authorised to issue its prospectus
to public general. Moreover, quotation of shares on stock cannot be done.
Size of NATWEST Company: It is a large retail company engaged in the business of
financial services in UK. Its parent company is Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Presently around,
33,300 employees, who are employed to render services of insurance and banking. It is a result
of merger of two banks which was held in 1968 (Carroll and Shabana, 2010). In addition to this,
there are around 7.5 billion customers and also 8, 50,000 small accounts of business.
Vision: Its vision is to serve its customers well.
Mission: The main mission of NATWEST company is to make themselves most helpful
bank of UK.
Scope of Company: The main scope of company is to supply services of insurance and
banking to its customers. There is a wide arena of scope of cited company, which involves
solutions to different finance, risk management and trading issues. Their main focus is on to
anticipate requirements of customers and to provide excellent services in lieu of their needs.
Business objectives: Main objectives of NATWEST Company are as:
 To satisfy needs and requirements of customers and putting them on core.
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 To become much simpler bank for its customers or consumers, so that it will
create a good image and brand name.
 To perform right things, for creation of fairness and diversity among their
employees.
Public organization: It is an organization, which is owned and controlled by government
and its authorities. In simple terms, public companies are those organizations which are under
control of public. Their main focus is on to serve society and its people. In this context, Marks
and Spencer is an example of Public sector company (Craig and Campbell, 2012). Marks and
Spencer is a business institution, which has been engaged in the business of retail of clothes,
accessories etc., in UK.
In addition to this, advantages and disadvantages of Marks and Spencer are as follows:
Advantages:
 The main advantage of public company is that it is able to raise capital for the purpose of
expansion of their business organization by sale of extra shares.
 It has higher status than a private limited company.
 In addition to this, liability of shareholders is limited.
Disadvantage;
 In this type of business structure, original owners do not have any control over business. It has an authority to disclose all main accounts among its respective stake owners and
public as well.
Size of company: Marks and Spencer is one of the major multinational retailer company
across UK. It is a company which is listed on London Stock Exchange (Aterido, Hallward-
Driemeier and Pagés, 2011). The main products which company sells can be characterised as
clothes, products and food items as well. This company was found in 1884 by Michael marks
and Thomas Spencer in Leeds. The cited organization has around 959 stores across UK. It has an
operating income of 690.6 million. Also, it has 82, 904 of employees.
Vision: The main vision of company is to make a perfect integration of their stores and
digital media in a simple, relevant and sustainable manner.
Mission: The main mission of Marks and Spencer is to create and manufacture quality
goods and services for its customers.
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Scope of company: Marks and Spencer is a company engaged in a business of retail
company in clothes and other luxury food and home products (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010).
In this light, it can also be assessed that the company is desirous to expand its business across
world.
Business objectives: The main objectives and goals of Marks and Spencer are as follows:
 To facilitate higher employee orientation.
 To regain their market position by delivering quality services to its respective consumers. The management of Marks and Spencer also aim to improve their sales and increase
customer satisfaction.
Voluntary association: It is an association or also a group of persons, who enter into a
contract, as volunteers to form an association to fulfil a common purpose. The main examples of
voluntary association can be known as trade associations, learned societies etc. In this context,
NHS is a voluntary association, which is known as National Health Service in England, Scotland
and Wales as well. It can be said that founding principles of the said act were very
comprehensive in nature.
Furthermore, there are some advantages and disadvantages of Voluntary association,
which can be defined as follows:
Advantages:
 It is flexible in nature.
 Also, an association which is unincorporated in nature is not so expensive and cheap.
Disadvantages:
 It has no separate legal identity. Also, it is not authorised to own a property in its own name.
Size of company: NHS is a voluntary association, which is known to render health
services to public for free (Welford, 2013). It can also be assessed that in the year of 2015-2016,
four National Health Services gave employment to around 1.6 million people, with a combined
budget of 136.7 billion pounds.
Scope: The company is desirous of expanding his business of rendering services to
public.
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TASK 2
Relationship in between two types of organizational structures
An organizational structure is a concept which demonstrates the way in which various
activities such as allocation of tasks, coordination along with supervision are directed in the light
of attainment and accomplishment of different goals and objectives (Wild, Wild and Han, 2014).
In addition to this, it can also be said that organizations and companies are required to be more
efficient and innovative as well as flexible, so that it can become more effective and workable as
well.
In other words, it has also been assessed that structure of organization can also be treated
as a mechanism used to view perspective by which individuals and people view their
organizations and its environment as well.
Organizational structure is a concept which effect actions and deeds of organization in
two different ways:
 It renders a fundamental foundation through which individuals have an opportunity to
participate in framing decisions.
 Moreover, it also provides a basis on which operating procedures and routines rest.
There are various types of organizational structures that an organization may be followed,
which can be characterised as:
 Functional structure: It is a type of structure, which comprises of different activities
such as supervision, coordination, and allocation of tasks as well. It is a structure which
determines all methods and ways in which a particular organisation performs and
operates their functions (Wheelen and Hunger, 2011.). Function can be recognised as one
of the traditional way to organize people. In addition to this, the term organizational
structure depicts the way in which people and employees in a particular company are
grouped and to whom they are reporting.
 Divisional structure: It can be evaluated as a procedure or a structure includes divisions
with its distinctive subdivisions. A division can be considered as a collection of various
funct6ions which manufactures a particular product. In this type of structure, it can be
noted that there is a delegation of an authority, on the basis of which the company is able
to measure performance of each and every team of the company.
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 Matrix structure: It is a framework which involves grouping of people and employees
as well, which is based on products offered and functions of a company. It can be
considered as a mixture of both functional and divisional structure (Bryman and Bell,
2015). Moreover, considering this, it can also be evaluated that there is an advantage of
Matrix structure as it involves different teams of employees for taking an advantage of all
their strengths, overcoming weaknesses of decentralise and functional forms. So, in this
direction, it can also be said that matrix management system is more dynamic in nature.
Hence, considering this, organizational structures of NATWEST Bank and Marks and
Spencer can be demonstrated, so as to evaluated their organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
NATWEST
NATWEST Westminster Bank, which is also known as NATWEST, can also be
considered as a large retail and commercial bank. It came into force in 1968 in UK. the cited
organization follows functional structure in their organization (NATIONAL WESTMINSTER
BANK Plc, 2017). Functional structure involves various activities and tasks which are required
to be adhered by each and every employee of a business organization. It can be demonstrated as
follows;
Figure 1Functional Structure of NATWEST.
(Source: NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK Plc, 2017)
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At the top most level, there is a designation of Group of Board of Directors (Trkman,
2010). They have a responsibility to perceive ideas and concepts which can enable them to attain
success. Under this, there are various board and authorities to which their responsibilities and
duties have been allotted. These can be elaborated as executive committee, risk board, committee
of group audit and remuneration committee (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013). In addition to
this, there are two teams under Executive committee, which are executive credit group, executive
risk forum. Furthermore, executive risk forum has delegated some responsibilities to its
subdivisions like group liability and asset management committee as well as group risk
committee.
While, on the other hand, there is another organization, namely Marks and Spencer. It is a
company which is engaged in the business of retail of clothes and other luxury food items as well
as home products as well. Marks and Spencer follows division structure in their organization. It
can be well defined as follows:
Figure 2 Organizational structure of Marks and Spencer
(Source: Marks and Spencer, 2017)
Therefore, it can be said that the CEO of Marks and Spender is at top most authority. He
is entitled to delegate or decentralises its responsibilities to different divisional teams, like for an
instance, Division Product X, Y and Z (Hamilton and Webster, 2015). In this light, each and
every team has its own subdivisions, which can be recognised as Marketing, R&D and finance
departments. These departments are responsible to conduct their respective functions in an
efficient manner.
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TASK 3 & TASK 4
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
It has been identified from the above report, that business environment is dynamic in
nature and get changed at any time. There are various types of business organisation working in
dynamic business environment. There are two major types of factors which effects business
environment that can be identified as: Macro and Micro. Macro business environment have
several impacts on business while they are dealing in keen competitive market world. Along with
this, evaluation of company in respect of SWOT and PESTEL has also been evaluated.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Al-Debei, M.M. and Avison, D., 2010. Developing a unified framework of the business model
concept. European Journal of Information Systems. 19(3). pp.359-376.
Aterido, R., Hallward-Driemeier, M. and Pagés, C., 2011. Big constraints to small firms’
growth? Business environment and employment growth across firms. Economic
Development and Cultural Change. 59(3). pp.609-647.
Boons, F. and Lüdeke-Freund, F., 2013. Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-
the-art and steps towards a research agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production. 45. pp.9-19.
Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Cantwell, J., Dunning, J.H. and Lundan, S.M., 2010. An evolutionary approach to understanding
international business activity: The co-evolution of MNEs and the institutional
environment. Journal of International Business Studies. 41(4). pp.567-586.
Carroll, A.B. and Shabana, K.M., 2010. The business case for corporate social responsibility: A
review of concepts, research and practice. International journal of management reviews.
12(1). pp.85-105.
Craig, T. and Campbell, D., 2012. Organisations and the business environment. Routledge.
Drucker, P.F., 2017. The Theory of the Business (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard
Business Press.
Hamilton, L. and Webster, P., 2015. The international business environment. Oxford University
Press, USA.
Iskanius, P., Page, T. and Anbuudayasankar, S.P., 2010. The traditional industry sector in the
changing business environment–a case study of the Finnish steel product industry.
International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management. 4(4). pp.395-
414.
Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y., 2010. Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries,
game changers, and challengers. John Wiley & Sons.
Trkman, P., 2010. The critical success factors of business process management. International
journal of information management. 30(2). pp.125-134.
Welford, R., 2013. Hijacking environmentalism: Corporate responses to sustainable
development. Routledge.
Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2011. Concepts in strategic management and business
Wild, J.J., Wild, K.L. and Han, J.C., 2014. International business. Pearson Education Limited.
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Online
NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK Plc, 2017. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/702162/000095010313002621/
dp37656_20f.htm>. [Accessed on 06th September, 2017].
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