Business Administration Studies and Research

The provided assignment is a compilation of various research papers and studies related to business administration, including topics such as the São Paulo School of Business Administration in Brazil, the acceptance of Moodle technology by business administration students, immigrant entrepreneurs and small business owners, and effective HR management. The document also includes reviews of principles of complexity in business administration and application in financial statements, as well as a correlation study of personal entrepreneurial competency and academic performance in operations management. The studies cover different aspects of business administration and provide valuable insights for researchers and students.

Business Administration

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 The purpose of performance reviews and appraisals............................................................1
1.2 Techniques to prepare for and carry out appraisals..............................................................2
1.3 Private environment to carry out appraisals..........................................................................3
1.4 Carry out performance reviews and appraisals in accordance with organisational policies
and procedures............................................................................................................................3
1.5 Clear, specific and evidence based feedback sensitively......................................................3
1.6 Future actions that are consistent with appraisal finding and identified development needs
.....................................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Various training techniques that can be applied in the workplace........................................3
2.2 Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of learning & development interventions
and methods................................................................................................................................4
2.3 Explanation of organisational learning & development policies and resources availability 5
2.4 Individuals' learning and developments needs at regular intervals.......................................6
2.5 Suggestions of learning & development opportunities and interventions that are likely to
meet individuals and business needs...........................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business administration is administration of a business and it includes all aspects of
overseeing and supervising business operations as well as related fields which include
accounting finance and marketing. It is a wide field that incorporates many types of management
positions. This assignment based on Marks & Spencer Group plc, it is a major British
multinational retailer and founded in 1884 by Sir Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. This
company operate its business internationally and specialises in selling clothing, home products
and luxury food products. In this report discussed about the purpose of performance reviews and
appraisals, private environment that carry out appraisals and various techniques to prepare or
carry out appraisals. Training techniques, advantages & disadvantages of learning &
development interventions & methods and organisational learning & development policies and
resources availability are explained. Learning and development opportunities or interventions
that are likely to meet individual and business needs are defined.
TASK 1
1.1 The purpose of performance reviews and appraisals
Performance appraisal
Performance appraisal is the process of analysing and evaluating an employee's current
and past performance on the basis of his work and performance standard. In Marks & Spencer, it
can b e a systematic evaluation of employees in order to their performance on their job and their
potential for development (Arévalo and Romero, 2013).
Purpose of Performance appraisal
The purpose of performance appraisal are as following:
 The major purpose is to evaluate the performance of employees that how well they have
conducted their duty.
 To determine the needs of the employees related to training and & development
programmes.
 To motivate employees by providing feedback according their performance level.
 Ton establish a basis for research and reference for taking personal decisions in future
(Weske, 2012).
Performance review
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It involves a formal discussion about an employee's development and performance. In
M&S it is an planning process and involves setting plan of action for the next period and
reviewing what has been they achieved in their past performance or last period (Cooke and
Alcadipani, 2015).
Purpose of Performance review
There are various purpose of performance review, they are as following:
 the main purpose of performance review is to promote communication and provide
feedback about job performance.
 To facilitate better working relationship by providing a better and historical record of
performance.
 To provide a better opportunity by organising training & learning program to learn what
behaviours and attitude they need to improve or modify.
1.2 Techniques to prepare for and carry out appraisals
Companies prepare appraisals to analyse the performance of the employees for this they
prepare appraisals. In M&S, the management department of the company can follow some tips
such as collect information by communicating employees and getting feedback, than prepare a
list of accomplishment, do self evaluation, prepare a list of areas fro development, draft goals for
the coming period and share the preparations with the manager of the company.
There are some tools and techniques that can be used by the companies for performance
appraisals of their employees. They are as following:
Ranking- It is an appropriate technique that can be used by M&S and in it the
organisations requires the rater to rank their employees or subordinate according their all over
performance. This is important for the company because it is easy to rank the best and worst
employees.
Critical incident techniques- Within this method, the manger of the company prepares a
list of statement of every effective and ineffective behaviour of them and the manger maintains
logs of each employee of the organisation. In the end of the process and during the time of rating
period, these records are use by the management to give the rating according the poor or
outstanding behaviour of the employees. This method is useful for M&S because it provide an
objective which is based on a discussion of employees performance (Enderwick, 2013).
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Checklists and Weighted Checklist- It is a list of statements that describe the
characteristics and performance of the worker on the job. For this, organisations set some criteria
for judge their behaviours and their performance. In M&S, the company use this method to
analyse the performance of the employees and for that it set some parameters. For example,
company use punch machine to record the absent and present data and judge their performance
on the basis of quality of the work, interpersonal relation etc. It is most frequently method in
evaluation of the employees so used by the companies to analyse the performance of the
employees (Escobar-Rodriguez and Monge-Lozano, 2012).
1.3 Private environment to carry out appraisals
To carry out appraisal, companies organise meeting in which there are a group of people
and they are head, superior and experts of the company. When they conduct performance
appraisal privacy is most important so that they can do they work properly without facing any
problem. Here, privacy means being uninterrupted by other individuals, telephones calls or
distracted by mobile devices and computers. In M&S, when the company conduct performance
appraisal, the management department of the company provide a conference room so that there
are not any external factor affect that process. The company prepare a group of people in which
board of director, senior manger, HR manager, finance manger and experts of the company are
included. The all member of this group make switch off their mobile phones so that they are not
disturbing by phone calls and totally focused on the appraisal and clearly analyse the
performance of the employees. After analysing the performance of the employees, they divided
employees in two group, in one group are those who need increment cause of their good
performance and in another are those who need training to improve their skills and performance.
Then they take decision to provide benefits such as bonus, promotion, salary increment and
others according the performance appraisal and provide training and leaning sessions for those
who need important in their skills and knowledge (Fairlie, 2012).
1.4 Carry out performance reviews and appraisals in accordance with organisational policies and
procedures
Performance review involves a formal discussion about employees and employer
development & performance. It is a planning process and involves setting a plan of action for
achieving the set objectives. Organisation do this process to analyse the performance of the
employees and motivate them. Performance appraisal also known as performance review, career
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development discussion and performance evaluation. This process is organised by companies to
evaluate the job or task performance of an individual so that organisation can provide training,
appraisal promotion etc. according their performance. For example, in M&S, the people who
appraise the performance of the employees or finding out strengths and weakness in some skills
and learnings of them. With the help of training and development, the employer of the
companies plan training and development sessions to employees and employees can identify
their weakness and strength or work according that for reducing weakness (Hesselbarth and
Schaltegger, 2014).
M&S develops various polices and procedures by which of them it conducting
performance appraisal and review in appropriate manner. The main purpose to conduct
performance appraisal is to clearly define the roles, responsibilities, duties of the employees.
M&S conduct performance appraisal to analyse the performance of the employees so that it can
find out the weakness in their pe4rfromance. For example, M&S organise this process, once in a
year to analysing the performance of the employees and employer. If the management
department find low performance, they try to find out the reason of it and provide training and
learning sessions for it. So that with the help of these program employees improve their
performance and help in the growth of the organisation's growth and productivity.
1.5 Clear, specific and evidence based feedback sensitively
To get clear, specific and evidence based feedback, organisations should used any tool
and techniques. For this they can use training and development as a tool to get feedback.
Training and development are most important and basic necessity of the organisations. It help in
improving employees knowledge and skills or makes their work easy band effective within the
company. There are two aspects within training and development, on is training. Training is an
important or useful tool and it is a process of learning skills and improving knowledge. In M&S,
it can be an organised activity aimed imparting information and instructions to improve
employees performance by attaining a required level of knowledge or skill. Another is
development in which the employee will learn from its past experience. It is an own internal
development process and organisation are not responsible for it. On the basis of these factors,
company can get proper feed back because feed back is related to the internal performance of the
employees and if the company get feedback by using this tool, it will be clear, specific and
evidence based (Ju&arez, 2014). With the help of training and development, the firms can get
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information about the performance of the employees. For example, in m&s if an employees do
not communicate with the customers so get the clear and evidence based feedback the company
organise training and development program so that the superior can provide correct in formation
about the employee's weakness and performance (Kayl and et. al., 2017).
1.6 Future actions that are consistent with appraisal finding and identified development needs
By conducting performance appraisal, the management department of the company
identifying developments needs within an individual. For example, the management department
of the company find out lack of some skills such as communication, presentation, leadership,
interpersonal and motivation skills etc. within an employees. For make improvement in all these
skills, the line manger have various option such as by organising training and development,
learning and development, online courses, online training etc. By organising motivational
session, conferences and meetings, the manger can make improvement in the skills of the
employee. The organisation take some actions such as training and development, rewards and
compensation, learning and development etc. the key objectives of these future actions are such
as:
Training & development- The main objective of this action is, if the company provide
training to their employees. It will help the employee in improving or increasing the skills and
capabilities or helpful in their career growth or personal development.
Rewards & compensation- It is the another action that can be taken by the company
according performance appraisal of the employees. If company rewarded the employees for their
good performance they will be motivate and loyal for the company or provide their services to
the organisations for a long period.
TASK 2
2.1 Various training techniques that can be applied in the workplace
Training is an important factor that is useful for the employees that are working within an
organisation. In Marks & Spencer, the company provide training and learning to improve
employees skills and knowledge etc. there are various training techniques that used by M&S to
provide training to its employees, they are as following:
Induction training- This type of training given to new employees ton make them feel a
part of the organisation (Laguador, 2013). In M&S, the company organise induction training
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provide to provide information about the company related to its rules, regulations, policies of the
company and other various information. Induction program help new employees to get
information about the work culture and fellow workers.
Refresher Training- This training are designed by the existing employees of the
company. In M&S, it is organised for helping the existing employees to acquire new skills and
technologies to keep pace with the changing of times.
On the job training- It is workplace training program which is organised by company
within the organisation and training provided by superior and senior of the firm. For example, in
M&S, this kind of training techniques used by the management department of the company for
providing training and learning program at workplace to improve or enhance employees skills
and knowledge. This kind of training, they provide through online mode, coaching and others.
Off the job training- These kind of training are provided by the company outside the
workplace. In M&S, company use various methods for off the training such as seminars,
conferences,simulation exercise,vestibule trainings etc.
2.2 Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of learning & development interventions and
methods
Learning and Development
Learning is a process of acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, skills,
behaviours, values and preferences. It can be a process of relatively permanent change in
behaviour and a process of gaining knowledge by studying, practising and experiencing
something. Development is a process in which someone grows and change or improve their
skills and behaviour and becomes more advanced.
Learning and development interventions- Interventions of learning & development are as
following:
Team building- It play an important role in the learning of the employees. In M&S when
employees work in group or team they learning from each other and gain knowledge by team
work. So team building is an important intervention for learning and development.
Advantage- It improve communication and develop problem solving skills.
Disadvantage- there are high chance of raising conflicts and problems and they affec the
learning ability of the employees (Lakhal, Sévigny and Frenette, 2013).
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Methods of learning & development- There are various methods of learning & development
and some of them are as following:
Learning by observation- It is the important and foremost method of learning &
development. In M&S, the employees learning and gaining knowledge by observing their seniors
and superiors (Lundsten, 2015).
Advantage- It is a very easy method for learn something new and make improvement in
skills and knowledge.
Disadvantage- It is very time consuming method and employees can not get complete
answer to any problem by observation alone.
Learning by Trail and Error- In this method, the employees of the company learning
from their own mistakes and errors. In M&S, when employees make mistake and errors in their
work and task, they learn and gain information and knowledge from their errors and make
improvement.
Advantages- In this method, there are no need to any kind of training and not require to
have a lot of knowledge.
Disadvantages- The main disadvantage of this method is that there are limited
opportunities if the employees do mistakes and error again and again in their work, the
management department of the company could be fire of them.
2.3 Explanation of organisational learning & development policies and resources availability
Organisational learning & development polices includes various things such as
company's vision, mission, objectives, aims and goals etc. Learning and development policies of
M&S is framed and linked with the vision as well as strategies of the organisation. Learning &
development policies of the company refers to the company's learning & development programs
and activities that are important to achieve organisational goals and objectives. There are various
principles on which these are based explanation are as follows:
 Marks & Spencer think that the staff of the employees are the cost and asset of the
organisation as well as manger. Regarding this, the policies of the organisation are to
provide training to their staff members and mangers for making improvement in their
skills so that they can help in achieving organisation's objectives (Meñez, 2014).
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 In M&S, the purpose of policy is, in the modern competitive environment, employees
need to replenish their knowledge and acquire new skills to do their job and achieve
organisational goals (Miranda, Gramani, and Andrade, 2012).
Apart form the policies and procedure, there are some resources that are needed for
learning and development within Marks & Spencer, they are as following:
 The company need proper set up of location where they can providing training to their
new and existing employees because without having proper place, it will not be possible
to organise training programs.
 Next resource is fund which is most important to organise training and learning sessions
because with out having this resource, the organisation will not conduct learning sessions.
2.4 Individuals' learning and developments needs at regular intervals
Business environment of the organisation is sum and collection of all internal and
external forces and factors that create impact on the organisations. These impact may be good
and bad for the company and when they create negative impact on the organisation's
performance and productivity, firm's organise training and development programs and session to
deal with that impact. M&S provide or organise learning and development program time to time
so that the employees and employers of the company can deal with competitive environment and
issues. Below are some requirements of regular intervals training and developments:
 For enhancing the skills and knowledge of the employees in competitive environment.
 To achieve organisation's goals and objectives.
 For improving the productivity and performance of M&S and individual development
also.
2.5 Suggestions of learning & development opportunities and interventions that are likely to
meet individuals and business needs
Learning and development leads to develop opportunities for the individuals as well as
organisations. In M&S, opportunities and interventions that are likely to meet individuals and
business needs are as following:
 The company organise training and development program with the help of them
individual can improve their skills and knowledge. These learning and development will
help them in their future growth and development (Storey, 2016).
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 The production level of the company will be increase and the production will be done in
better manner.
 The organisation will generate more and more revenue and the result of that will be
growth in the business.
 The organisation will accomplish its goals, objectives and aims on time which enhance
the performance level of the organisation (Waldo, 2017).
CONCLUSION
In this report concluded about the purpose of performance reviews and appraisals and
various techniques to prepare or carry out appraisals. Organisational policies and procedures to
carry out performance reviews and clear, specific or evidence based feedback are explained.
Different training techniques, advantages and disadvantage of learning development
interventions and methods are defined. Organisational learning & development policies and
resource availability, review of individuals learning and development needs at regular intervals
or learning & development opportunities and interventions to meet individual and business needs
are described.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Arévalo, C. M. and Romero, E. D., 2013. Students' response to CLIL in tertiary education: the
Case of Business administration and economics at Complutense University. Revista de
lingüística y lenguas aplicadas. (8). pp.1-12.
Cooke, B. and Alcadipani, R., 2015. Toward a global history of management education: The
case of the Ford Foundation and the São Paulo School of Business Administration,
Brazil. Academy of Management Learning & Education. 14(4). pp.482-499.
Enderwick, P. ed., 2013. Multinational Service Firms (RLE International Business). Routledge.
Escobar-Rodriguez, T. and Monge-Lozano, P., 2012. The acceptance of Moodle technology by
business administration students. Computers & Education. 58(4). pp.1085-1093.
Fairlie, R. W., 2012. Immigrant entrepreneurs and small business owners, and their access to
financial capital. Small Business Administration, pp.1-46.
Hesselbarth, C. and Schaltegger, S., 2014. Educating change agents for sustainability–learnings
from the first sustainability management master of business administration. Journal of
cleaner production. 62. pp.24-36.
Ju&arez, F., 2014. Review of the principles of complexity in business administration and
application in financial statements. African Journal of Business Management. 8(2)
pp.48-54.
Kayl, I. I., and et. al., 2017. Effective HR Management as the Most Important Condition of
Successful Business Administration. In Integration and Clustering for Sustainable
Economic Growth(pp. 23-30). Springer, Cham.
Laguador, J. M., 2013. A correlation study of personal entrepreneurial competency and the
academic performance in operations management of business administration students.
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences. 3(5). p.61.
Lakhal, S., Sévigny, S. and Frenette, É., 2013. Personality and preference for evaluation
methods: A study among business administration students. Studies in Educational
Evaluation. 39(2). pp.103-115.
Lundsten, L. L., 2015. Student Evaluations in a Business Administration Curriculum-A
Marketing Viewpoint. In Proceedings of the 1986 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS)
Annual Conference (pp. 169-173). Springer, Cham.
Meñez, N.L., 2014. Tracer Study of the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) Graduates
from 2008-2012. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Arts and Sciences. 1(1). pp.14-18.
Miranda, R., Gramani, M. C. and Andrade, E., 2012. Technical efficiency of business
administration courses: a simultaneous analysis using DEA and SFA. International
Transactions in Operational Research. 19(6). pp.847-862.
Storey, D. J., 2016. Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.
Waldo, D., 2017. The administrative state: A study of the political theory of American public
administration. Routledge.
Weske, M., 2012. Business process management architectures. In Business Process Management
(pp. 333-371). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Online
Training and Development. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/human-resources-hr-terms/8685-
training-and-development.html>.
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