Role of Major Departments in Achieving Business Objectives

This essay discusses the major departments within a business and their role in empowering the organization to meet its business goals. It covers human resource, marketing, accounting and finance, information technology support, customer service support, research and development, administration and management, and sales departments.

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Introduction
For a business to thrive, it should be segmented into several departments. Each
department should have distinct roles to play in achieving the objectives of the business.
The departments should be structured according to certain business requirements and
they will differ depending on the types of business being carried out. The activities of the
departments should be coordinated to ensure the smooth running of the business and
enable specialization and division of labor. This lowers unit costs and increases
efficiency. The departments should have their own objectives to achieve apart from the
general company’s objectives. Since each department has a number of employees, the
managers should provide feedback and useful information to ensure that employees’
goals and targets are met. Some of the departments in a business organization include the
human resource department, marketing, production, sales, customer service department,
accounting and finance, distribution, administrative and management, legal department
and information technology support department. This essay discusses the major
departments within a business and their role in empowering the organization to meet its
business goals.
Human resource department is responsible for formulating strategies which
focuses on recruiting employees as well as supervising projects that promote the
organizations’ wide productivity. Human resource departments mostly control the overall
business operations. This makes the department a major component of an organization’s
success in achieving its goals (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang, 2014, pp.21). Human resource
department creates employee training programs where they first asses the employee
training needs. This enhances employee skills hence increasing individual and

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organizational performance which greatly helps in achieving the business objectives. The
department is also responsible for acquisition of employees that is through hiring and
retention of the existing employees (Alfes, et al., 2013, pp.842). Human resource
managers reduce the turnover and improve employee skills thus improving the overall
firm production. The role and influence of marketing departments has received much
attention in both the popular press and academic literature in recent years.
Marketing or promotion department also plays a major role in assisting the
organization in achieving its goals. “The role and influence of marketing departments has
received much attention in both the popular press and academic literature in recent years”
(Wirtz, Tuzovic and Kuppelwieser, 2014, pp.172) Promotional methods such as
advertising and personal selling are some of the best ways that companies can
communicate with their target customer in order for them to know the services and
product that a company is dealing with (Feng, Morgan and Rego, 2015, pp.17). Effective
promotional and marketing activities will lead to profitability, long-term success, and
growth in market shares of the firm. The marketing department function is to promote the
business to generate sales that will help the company to thrive. The department is
responsible for creating marketing strategies and arranging promotional campaigns and
also monitoring their competitors’ activities. This will help them devise ways to improve
their brand in order to maintain the sales. Promoting a firm’s product will increase its
brand awareness, customer traffic, provide appropriate information about the products
and build sales and profit, thus helping a company to achieve its objectives.
Accounting and finance department manages the cash outflows and inflows of a
business. The department is responsible for auditing, planning, accounting, organizing

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finances, and producing financial statements of a company. Where the company has
needs beyond the daily working capital, the finance department has the mandate to advice
and source long-term financing. The department works with managers to prepare the
company’s budgets and forecast and provide a report on the progress throughout the year.
This information can be useful in planning staffing levels, expansion, and cash needs and
asset purchases (Ayambire, 2018, pp.1341). On the hand, the department also analyses
the performance of a business by reviewing the firm’s financial records. The records
enable the managers to assess how various expenses contributed to the operation of the
business and make a decision on which business operation to grow and which one to
downsize. More so, the finance and accounting department’s main objective is to attract
capital and improve financial results of a company.
Another department that plays an important role in helping a company to achieve
its objectives is the information technology support department. Due to globalization,
information and computer systems have become an essential tool in today’s business
world. Choosing the right technology will impact the success of the company positively
(Chen, et al., 2014, pp.331). Technology is an essential tool in decision making.
Organizations have to go through a detailed market research process that will help the
management to make the right decisions. Market research can be done through Google
analytics, online surveys, and even blogs. The internet technology is an effective tool for
communication between managers and customers. It helps the organization to understand
the level of satisfaction of their customers. Through the internet, the company is able to
understand their customer demands, problems, and appropriate solutions (Trainor, et al.,
2014, pp.1206). The organization may reach their customers and also employees through

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emails, member portals, and social media. Organizations mostly use customer
relationship management systems to keep important data for understanding consumer
behaviors and their future needs. Information technology also assists in the management
of information systems which enable organizations to track sales data, productivity
levels, and expenses. On daily basis, managers can track sales and react to numbers lower
than expected through enhancing or reducing the cost of a product.
The customer service support department’s objective is to interact with customers
and resolve support issues, answer questions, nurture relationships, and establish
credibility. “Customer service is one of the key aspects of the offer to the customer
of services, which essentially enables the company to differentiate its offers from
competition” (Melović, et al., 2015, pp.803). The focus of this department is to give
good service support to potential customers, the existing and new customers. Good
customer relationship creates customer loyalty which leads to high profits. Alignment of
organizational goals with customer service allows organizations to understand where they
are short of providing service and ensure they fix the gaps. When customers are satisfied
with the services they get, it results to organizations ensuring that their strategies are
meeting the customers’ needs. Satisfied customers raise the market share of a company.
Additionally, the companies should ensure that the needs of employees are not neglected
(Chakravarty, Grewal and Sambamurthy, 2013, pp.981). Employees must not have the
feeling that the organization only cares for its customers since this will demoralize the
staff leading to poor customer service. The companies should use new technology to offer
good customer service because of the high competition in the business world.

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A firm’s research and development department play an important in a product’s
lifecycle. The department works closely with other departments like the production, sales,
and other divisions. The department carries a new product research before making a
decision on developing it. At this stage, production cost, product specifications and
production time must be researched on well. In addition, the research should evaluate the
need for the product. The department also makes research on how to update the existing
products either through upgrading it or making potential changes on the product
(Holliman and Rowley, 2014, pp.274). The department also carries out the quality checks
on products created by the company since it has the knowledge of the specification and
requirements of a particular project. This ensures that the firm has quality and standard
products hence increasing the sales and assisting the company to cope with the stiff
competition from other companies (Drechsler, Natter and Leeflang, 2013, pp.310).
Besides, the department also analyses the products other companies are coming up with
as well as upcoming trends in the industry. This helps the department in updating the
products produced by the company. Research conducted by this department directs the
future of the organization according to the information it provides and the goods it
creates.
Administration and management is also an essential body in enabling an
organization to meet its objectives. The office manager provides innovation that is
finding unique, new, and better tactics for doing existing work. The administration of an
organization enforces authority by directing office staff. Administrators, in turn, create an
impact on their subordinates to work harmoniously to achieve hierarchical goals.
Administration assists in target achievement by influencing people to understand the

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objectives and coordinate with their purpose in accomplishing these objectives
(Shahiduzzaman and Alam, 2014, pp.127). In addition, it facilitates the control and
coordination of office functions like, planning all the office exercise and coordinating
different divisions to ensure there is a smooth flow of data from one section to another. It
also maintains public relations by expanding generosity and improving advertisement.
The unit manages complains and grievances from purchasers and the population at large.
Administration assists an organization to put its resources to maximum utilization by
controlling the staff on asset utilization (Bourne, et al., 2013, pp.1601). Additionally, it
helps in maintaining efficiency in office to maintain productivity. It carries out duties like
arranging, staffing, sorting out, organizing, controlling, and coordinating office with a
distinct end goal of achieving the laid down objectives.
The sales department plays an important role in any organization’s success. The
department has the responsibility of generating revenue. The sales department has the
responsibility to ensure that the products and services sold must generate profit (Buil, De
Chernatony and Martinez, 2013, pp.119). It coordinates with the marketing department in
product launching, brand awareness, among other functions. The department devices
ways on how the product reaches the targeted customers. The department is obligated to
do a market research on the recent production, pricing policies, and the competitors’ sales
(Griffin, et al., 2013, pp.327). The department should also ensure that the products are
well packed so that the products can reach the customers in good quality and form.
Conclusion

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Each department discussed above plays an important role in the success of a
business. Human resource department is the major asset in a business. The entire
organization depends on the human resource department since it is has a role of recruiting
the right personnel with the required skills, experience, and qualifications and it also
determines the salaries and training the employees in an organization. On the other
marketing and sales department and are closely related and should be well coordinated
because effecting promotional and marketing activities lead to greater sales hence
generating good profit and growth in the market shares. The accounting and finance
department is responsible for auditing, accounting, planning, and organizing the finances
of a company. The customer care department has the mandate to build good customer
relationship which creates customer loyalty. The administration department handles the
business decision making, planning, and financial review. Coordination of these
departments brings about smooth operations and flow of information leading to the
success of an organization.

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