Functional Areas of Business: Description and Skills Needed

This document provides an overview of the different functional areas within a business, including marketing, human resource management, customer service, finance, research and development, and sales. It also discusses the skills needed by employees to work effectively in these areas. The information is relevant for students studying business management and related courses.

BSc (Hons) Business Management
with Foundation
Cohort 1
BMP3004 World of Work
Functional Areas

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................1
2.0 What is a business? ...................................................................................................................1
3.0 What is Functional areas of business.........................................................................................1
4.0 What are the key functional areas of a business?......................................................................1
5.0 Description of the various functional areas within company.....................................................1
5.1 Marketing:.............................................................................................................................1
5.2 Human Resource Management: ...........................................................................................2
5.3 Customer Service:.................................................................................................................2
5.4 Finance: ................................................................................................................................2
5.5 Research and Development:..................................................................................................2
5.6 Sales: ....................................................................................................................................3
6.0 Description of the types of skills needed by employees to be able to work effectively in these
functional areas ...............................................................................................................................3
6.1 Skills needed by Marketing employees.................................................................................3
6.2 Skills needed by HRM employees: ......................................................................................3
6.3 Skills needed by Customer Service employees.....................................................................3
6.4 Skills needed by Finance employees.....................................................................................4
6.5 Skills needed by Research and Development employees.....................................................4
6.6 Skills needed by Sales employees.........................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

1.0 Introduction
The decision about the way to make use of factors of production optimally for provision of
goods as well as services to customer needs a number of areas to operate in different jobs in a
group. The scale and size of business operation increases, it implies an increment in complexities
of its product portfolio and offerings as well (Li and et. al., 2017). It also leads towards growth of
functional areas belong to the organisation. In a company, every functional areas contribute a
certain and valuable pare in order to execute operations and attain objectives as well. The report
will cover different functional areas along with skills needed by the staff members to operate
appropriately in such functional areas of organisation.
2.0 What is a business?
Business is defined as an enterprising and organising entity that is engaged within industrial,
commercial or professional activities. In addition to this, it is also termed as organized activities
and efforts of different people to develop and sell products as well as services for profit.
3.0 What is Functional areas of business
Functional areas is defined as a group of people in an organisation that possess a similar set
of competencies, skills as well as knowledge. In context to this, it has been analysed that every
business entity is associated with some functional areas and work together for attaining
objectives timely and effectively.
4.0 What are the key functional areas of a business?
Every organisation function in the confines of an economy & is included within the
grouping of people that is based on functions performed by company (Monden, 2019). It is stated
that most important functional areas of an organisation is finance, marketing, human resource,
operations and sales as well. All these functions plays an important role and shape the business
entity towards growth and success.
5.0 Description of the various functional areas within company
5.1 Marketing:
It is considered as one of the significant functional area that is associated with promoting
and selling of products as well as services offered by an organisation. In addition to this, such
functional area assist company to develop effective strategies that impact positively in the
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customer base level and brand image of company. It also consist of activities such as advertising,
development of relationship with customer, direct selling and many more that help an
organisation to gain higher profits and enhance its market performance.
5.2 Human Resource Management:
HRM as functional areas involved with the hiring of right person according to the vacant
job position in an appropriate manner. Along with this, it perform various aspects such as
training and development, employee relation, recruitment and selection, compensation &
benefits and so on (Chen and et. al., 2017). The team pertinent to human resource area focuses
on using various practices that assist in market sustainability. Performing of all these functions
help in development of positive working environment and achievement of objectives as well.
5.3 Customer Service:
One of the vital functional area that is required in order to gain higher success as well as
growth at marketplace. The main objective of a business entity is to provide quality and on time
service to customer that help in develop brand image and strengthen market performance as well.
In addition to this, customer service department gives instant support to the customer queries that
help in gaining loyalty of customers towards brand.
5.4 Finance:
Finance department in a company focuses on handling money related matters and also
ensure availability of funds for implementation of activities. It keeps a track and record of all the
money related transactions that is important in order to know about the profits and revenue
percent earned by the company within a year. It is determined that ever finance manager of an
organisation need to focus on developing their understanding about core functional areas that
help in developing budgets accordingly.
5.5 Research and Development:
R&D is a functional area that constitute activities that are considered with the motive to
bring some innovation and introducing new product and services that meet up with the
requirements of customer and market trends as well (Qiu and et. al., 2016). There are various
functions performed by Research and Development functional area & is interlinked with
departments that is marketing, sales, production and so on.
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5.6 Sales:
This functional area is associated with the volume of sales as well as revenue earned by
company within the long-run. The main objective here is to sell whatever the company produce
to the customers. Therefore, sales is acknowledged to be those functional area of an organisation
by which the profitability and revenue is increased. It is determined that when a product is
developed, the role of such functional area is raise & continues till the whole volume of
production turns into sales.
6.0 Description of the types of skills needed by employees to be able to work
effectively in these functional areas
6.1 Skills needed by Marketing employees
Marketing department is mainly responsible to promote and develop brand image within
the market. For this, it is significant for marketing staff to have an effective communication and
interaction skills as it help in developing positive relationship with customers and retain them for
longer time period (Huang and et. al., 2018). In addition to this, there are also other skill that is
needed in an employee such as creativity, problem solving, influencing skills, team working and
so on. It is analysed that effective problem solving help in dealing with customer queries and
problems in an effective manner which leads to increase in performance and profitability of an
organisation.
6.2 Skills needed by HRM employees:
Human resource is one of the main asset of an organisation as it assist in implementing out
activities properly and timely that leads to achievement of set objectives. The employees
working in HR department are needed to have different set of skills by which they are able to
create effective and strong relationship with higher authorities and other employers for providing
maximum benefits to both parties. These skills are effective communication, training and
development, decision-making skills, conflict management, coordination etc. All this activities
will help in attaining higher growth and development in an effective manner.
6.3 Skills needed by Customer Service employees
The customer service employees mainly focus on resolving the customer queries on time
period as it assist in developing positive mind set of customer and gaining their loyalty as well
(Wan and et. al., 2016). The skills which are required in customer service employees are
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problem-solving skills, active listening, flexibility, adaptability, friendliness, open-minded,
responsiveness and so on. . By having strong command on this skills, it is easier to maintain
customer base level and attain objectives timely and effectively.
6.4 Skills needed by Finance employees
It is analysed that the working of finance area is quite complicated and needs higher
concentration so that appropriate records is maintain. In order to perform all the activities of
finance department an employee is required to have skills such as analytical capability,
accounting qualification, commercial acumen, interpersonal skills etc. in addition to this, strong
command over finance work and knowledge is also required as it assist staff member in
contributing towards success and growth.
6.5 Skills needed by Research and Development employees
For conducting research about market trends, competitors and other aspects, the employees
of R&D are needed to have strong research skills that help in gaining insight about requirements
of customer and market demand as well (Brida, Moreno-Izquierdo and Zapata-Aguirre, 2016).
The main skills as well as knowledge which is needed to have in research & development
employees are reasoning silks, active listening skills, analytical thinking and many more.
6.6 Skills needed by Sales employees
The sales employees of each organisation are needed to have proper command on skills
that is active listening, art of persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, objection handling etc. All
this skills will assist sales staff members to meet with the targets on time period. In addition to
this, it also help in gaining higher profitability and revenue level in an appropriate manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that there are various organisational
functional areas that perform various roles as well as responsibilities in order to achieve
objectives and meet with the targets as well. In addition to this, it is determined that employees
within this functional areas have certain level of skills and performing of all these activities help
in raising productivity and profitability of company. Moreover, it is important for higher
authorities to ensure that positive working culture is provided to all the employees working in the
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organisation as it assist in development of positive working culture and attainment of targets as
well.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brida, J. G., Moreno-Izquierdo, L. and Zapata-Aguirre, S., 2016. Customer perception of service
quality: The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at airport
functional areas. Tourism Management Perspectives, 20, pp.209-216.
Chen, Y. and et. al., 2017. Delineating urban functional areas with building-level social media
data: A dynamic time warping (DTW) distance based k-medoids method. Landscape
and Urban Planning, 160, pp.48-60.
Huang, H. and et. al., 2018. In vitro bioaccessibility and health risk assessment of heavy metals
in atmospheric particulate matters from three different functional areas of Shanghai,
China. Science of The Total Environment, 610, pp.546-554.
Jones, C., 2017. Spatial economy and the geography of functional economic areas. Environment
and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 44(3), pp.486-503.
Kaczmarek, T. and Kociuba, D., 2017. Models of governance in the urban functional areas:
Policy lessons from the implementation of integrated territorial investments (ITIs) in
Poland. Quaestiones Geographicae, 36(4), pp.47-64.
Li, H. H. and et. al., 2017. Pollution characteristics and risk assessment of human exposure to
oral bioaccessibility of heavy metals via urban street dusts from different functional
areas in Chengdu, China. Science of the Total Environment, 586, pp.1076-1084.
Monden, Y., 2019. Toyota management system: Linking the seven key functional areas.
Routledge.
Qiu, X. and et. al., 2016. Chemical composition and source apportionment of PM10 and PM2. 5
in different functional areas of Lanzhou, China. Journal of Environmental Sciences, 40,
pp.75-83.
Wan, D. and et. al., 2016. Heavy metal pollution in settled dust associated with different urban
functional areas in a heavily air-polluted city in North China. International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(11), p.1119.
Wang, Q., Lu, X. and Pan, H., 2016. Analysis of heavy metals in the re-suspended road dusts
from different functional areas in Xi’an, China. Environmental Science and Pollution
Research, 23(19), pp.19838-19846.
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