This article discusses the importance of functional areas in business organizations and describes the key functional areas such as marketing, human resource, customer service, finance, research and development, and sales. It also highlights the skills required by employees to work effectively in these functional areas.
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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3 What is a business?..........................................................................................................................3 What are Functional areas of business?...........................................................................................3 What are the key functional areas of a business?............................................................................3 Description of the various functional areas in business organizations............................................4 Marketing...............................................................................................................................4 Human Resource Management...............................................................................................4 Customer Service....................................................................................................................4 Finance...................................................................................................................................4 Research and Development....................................................................................................5 Sales........................................................................................................................................5 Description of the types of skills needed by employees to be able to work effectively in these functional areas................................................................................................................................5 Skills needed by Marketing employees..................................................................................5 Skills needed by Human Resource Management employees.................................................6 Skills needed by Customer Service employees......................................................................6 Skills needed by Research and Development employees.......................................................6 Skills needed by Finance employees......................................................................................6 Skills needed by Sales employees..........................................................................................7 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
INTRODUCTION Functional areas are group of people who have similar expertise and skills. It is an area, department and people who carry out the business function in order to generate revenue. There are various functional areas of business such as marketing, human resource, sales, IT, Finance and many others(Nalawade, More and Bhola, 2019). The project highlights about the functional areas of business in which several types of departments are described with their key roles and responsibilities within workplace. It also covers the skills which are necessary for employees to work in different functional areas. The report includes a case study in which John has won lottery and decided to buy local company (IOM Electronics Ltd). The firm has 200 employees and also expanded their business in Liverpool and Manchester. What is a business? Business is a concept of exchanging goods and services in order to maximize profit and earn great return. It is an activity that includes various functional activities that helps in attaining goals and objective of organisation. Business is important for the country as it helps in improving the standard of living of people and also offers high quality of goods and services which are required by people for their comfort, health and enjoyment. The main purpose of business is to create profit for their shareholders(Kasaev, Petrovskaya and Kasaev, 2019). What are Functional areas of business? Functional areas play an important role in improving the performance and productivity of business. Without functional areas, organization can’t run their business in effective and smooth manner. It is a business activity that enables employees to perform and operate the functioning of organization(Monden, 2019). It is important for the business to interlink the functional areas so that they can work together and achieve the common goals and objective of company. What are the key functional areas of a business? The key functional areas of business help in improving the profitability and growth of organization due to which they can gain competitive advantage and success in market. There are various kinds of functional areas within business such as IT, finance, human resource, marketing, sales, production and operation. Functional areas also help in improving the productivity and work of organisation.
Description of the various functional areas in business organizations Marketing Marketingisaconceptofcommunicating,creating,exchanginganddeliveringthe offerings that creates value for society, consumers and partners. It is a process of promoting products and services in market which attracts large number of people towards the brand. The few examples of marketing at work includes billboards on side of road, television commercials and magazines advertisements(Barkela, 2021). The main motive of marketing is to generate revenue for company and create strong brand awareness in market. Marketing plays an important role in boosting the sale and productivity of business by building trust among buyers and creating product awareness among them. John must focus on developing marketing department so that they can promote the products of IOM Electronics and reaches to large number of people. Human Resource Management Human resource management is another functional area of business which mainly focuses on managing the life cycle of employees form starting to end in workplace. They generally perform various types of activities in enhancing the productivity and growth of business such as recruiting, selecting, on-boarding, performance management and compensating. Human resource management plays an important role in organization as they deal with issues and conflicts within workplace. It is important for John to have human resource department in its IOM Electronics so that they can maintain and manage workforce of company. Customer Service Customer service is also a functional area of business which mainly focuses on providing better experience to consumers and also solves their queries in effective and efficient manner. They generally focus on supporting customers and ensure that they must not face any difficulty while purchasing or after the use of product(Shams and et. al., 2018). It is necessary for IOM Electronics to have customer service department so that they can handle the issues related to customers and helps in solving it in effective and smooth way. Finance The finance department plays a crucial role in organization as they create document and control incoming and outgoing cash flows of business. They are responsible for payment of salary, wages and bills. IOM Electronics must focus on developing finance department so that
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they can manage the finance of company and also analyses the financial performance of business. Research and Development Researchanddevelopmentisanotherfunctionofbusinesswhichmakesbusiness competitive by offering insights into the market and also develop new goods and services in order to increase the profitability and growth of business. IOM must focus on hiring employees who have interest in research and development department. It is one of the important functional areas for IOM Electronics as it helps in understanding the needs and preference of consumers due to which company can produce the product and satisfy the consumers. Sales Sales department is also a functional area of business which mainly focus on improving the sale of organization by using various tools and techniques that attracts large number of consumers towards the brand(Stawasz, 2020). They generally look for sales opportunities and also identify the target budget for each year. IOM Electronics must focus on developing sales department that helps in boosting the sale of company and also effectively present the consumers regarding the requested products and services. Description of the types of skills needed by employees to be able to work effectively in these functional areas Skills needed by Marketing employees There are various skills which is required by marketing employees so that they can analyse the market dynamics and increase the profitability of business. But the important skill which is required with marketing employees are critical thinking and communication skills. It is necessary for staff to have effective communication skills so that they can produce effective marketing message and attract customers. They must also have critical thinking ability so that employees can think out box and present their ideas differently(Ransbotham and Kiron, 2017). The marketing employees of IOM must have these skills in order to organize marketing campaign and reach to target market effectively.
Skills needed by Human Resource Management employees Human resource employees must have problem, solving skills, decision making skills and training and development skills. It is essential for staff to have problem solving skills so that they can reduce the conflicts and manage the team effectively. Human resource employees also have strong decision making skills so that they can hire new candidate on the basis of their qualification and experience. IOM Electronics must have expertise human resource team with these skills so that they can achieve the goals and objective of business. Skills needed by Customer Service employees Customer service employees generally have effective listening skills, ability to deal in difficult situation and also have patience while interacting with consumers. They generally play an important role in business as they directly interact with customers and influence their decision to buy the products. They also focus on retaining staff by offering them high quality of products and services with better customer experience(De Oliveira and et. al., 2016). Skills needed by Research and Development employees Research anddevelopmentemployeesabilityto thinkcreativelyand innovatively, thinking and reasoning skills and also remain focused to detail. IOM must have strong research and development team so that they can produce better ideas to improve the sale and productivity of business. The research and development team must have creative and innovative thinking ability so that they can offer unique products and services to consumers and enhance the profitability of IOM Electronics. Skills needed by Finance employees Finance employees must have problem solving skills, mathematical proficiency and analytical skills. It is important for finance team to have effective problem solving skills so that they can handle the issues in cash flow statement and manage it efficiently. In finance, there are large sums of money due to which it is necessary for staff to have mathematical proficiency skills so that they can calculate the sums quickly. IOM Electronics must focus o hiring employee who have these skills so that they can give productive outcomes in managing the cash flow of organization.
Skills needed by Sales employees The sales employees must have communication skills, relationship building skills and also have ability to influence the decision of consumers. These skills help in improving the business performance and also boost the productivity of organization. It is essential for IOM Electronics to select the candidate in sales department who have strong communication skills and ability to influence the decision making of customers(Ambrose, Matthews and Rutherford, 2018). CONCLUSION It is being concluded form the above information that organization must have strong functional areas within business so that they can achieve the vision and mission of company in effective manner. Each functional area plays a different roles and responsibility from others, it is important for the company to hire the employees according to their specialization and interest so that they can give their bets performance on achieving the target.
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REFERENCES Books and Journals Ambrose, S. C., Matthews, L. M. and Rutherford, B. N., 2018. Cross-functional teams and social identity theory: A study of sales and operations planning (S&OP).Journal of Business Research,92, pp.270-278. Barkela, B., 2021. Leadership Communication with Multiple Managers and Its Influence on Internal Integration of Different Functional Areas. InConference Proceedings Trends in Business Communication 2020(pp. 1-18). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. De Oliveira, E. A and et. al., 2016. Integration through cross-functional teams in a service company.European Business Review. Kasaev, B. S., Petrovskaya, M. V. and Kasaev, M. B., 2019. Innovative approaches to business managingfunctionalareasinaterritory.IndustrialEngineering&Management Systems,18(3), pp.440-453. Monden,Y.,2019.Toyotamanagementsystem:Linkingthesevenkeyfunctionalareas. Routledge. Nalawade, R. K., More, D. K. and Bhola, S. S., 2019. Employability Skills Required for Functional Areas of Management.IUP Journal of Soft Skills,13(1). Ransbotham, S. and Kiron, D., 2017. Analytics as a source of business innovation.MIT Sloan Management Review,58(3). Shams, S .R and et. al., 2018. Strategic innovation management: A cross-functional vision to be materialised. InBusiness Models for Strategic Innovation(pp. 1-10). Routledge. Stawasz,E.,2020.Cooperationofenterprisesinthefunctionalareainthefieldof innovation.Optimum. Economic Studies,99(1), pp.22-33.