Contemporary Developments in Business and Management: British Gas

This report provides an executive summary of contemporary developments in business and management, focusing on British Gas. It examines the external influences affecting the company, employing a PESTLE analysis to assess political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. The report also delves into the company's organizational culture and the impact of cultural change, evaluating the effectiveness of the organization's response to these changes and suggesting areas for improvement. The analysis covers British Gas's operations within the UK, considering its role as a major energy supplier and its responses to industry pressures, including job losses and shifts in the energy market. The report concludes with an overview of the key findings and recommendations for strategic adaptation.

CONTEMPORARY
DEVELOPMENTS
IN BUSINESS AND
MANAGEMENT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Company, management and growth continuously where the management in the
company as well as in the operation of business activities are confronted with a range of
modifications. These problems can be described as being related to achieving business goals
and achieving successful performance. The selected report is focused on British gas in this
context. It was the biggest gas provider in the UK as a multinational operating organisation.
The main external impact on the organisation will be discussed in this article. It can be
characterised as a framework to determine the external environmental factor which affects the
functioning and profitability of the organisation. In this study, six variables are taken into
account. These factors are economic and legal factors in terms of political environmental
technology. All of these factors affect the operation of British gas directly. Culture can be
described as a mixture of various facets of a person that are linked to and follows day-to-day
work. It generally assumes that laws are policy standards, and different other aspects that
make up a whole society. Culture may differ between individuals and communities where a
wide range of cultures must be adopted by the organisation to satisfy organisational needs.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................3
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................3
The primary external influences.............................................................................................3
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................5
Cultural Change and Organisational Culture.........................................................................5
The effectiveness of the organization’s response...................................................................7
Areas for improvement in the response of the organization..................................................8
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................9
REFRENCES...........................................................................................................................10
Books and journals...............................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Business and management and development continuously where there are a number
of changes which are faced by the management within the organisation as well as in the
functioning of business activity. This can be identified that these challenges are associated
with achieving business objectives and performing in effective way. In context to this the
chosen report will be based on British gas (Ahmed, 2019). It is a global performing
organisation which acted as a largest gas supplier within whole UK. This report will include
discussion on the primary external influence on the organisation. Along with this there is also
discussion on the chosen theme of cultural change and organisational culture where the
relevance of the theme will be tested for the selected British gas. There is also evaluation of
effectiveness of organisation response in context to the particular theme and improving the
response of the organisation.
Organisation profile: British gas energy and home service provider within the UK.
Company is providing its product under the brand name of British gas services limited and
British gas new heating limited. Both of the company act as a subsidiary of Centrica. Serving
around the 12 million homes within the UK British gas is the biggest energy supplier within
the whole country. Company is considered as one of the biggest dominating gas and electric
company within the market of UK. The chief executive officer of organisation is SARVJEET
SAMBHI and managing director of organisation is David Kirwan. Major products supplied
by organisation include gas, electricity, boiler and Central heating and plumbing and brings,
available energy and Home appliances services. It is serving with the UK where headquarter
is in Staines upon Thames United Kingdom. It is operating in Utilities industries.
TASK 1
Company profile
BRITISH GAS SERVICES LIMITED is a member of the Consumer Services Industry
headquartered in WINDSOR, United Kingdom. The Group has 8,863 staff and achieves
revenue of $1.31 billion at this site (USD). (The number for employees is estimated). In the
BRITISH GAS SERVICES LIMITED business families there are 348 businesses. British Gas
is now headed by Sarwjit Sambhi, Chief Executive Officer, who runs an oil and utility
company of over 10,000 homes and over 28,000 employees across the UK. In the context of
increasing industry pressures, including the decline, Centrica reported seven hundred further
jobs losses in the UK in July 2019.
The primary external influences
Business environment is full of factors which has a direct influence on the functioning
of organisation. Basically there are two types of environment which influence the
organisation that include internal environment and external environment. In context to the
report there is discussion about the external influence to the British gas. It is the leading
organisation which supplies different type of gas boilers and other products within whole UK.
Company is serving in gas industry where there is a number of external influence which has

to be analysed by the firm to meet the requirements and achieve profitability (Hammer,
2015). In order to evaluate the external influence on British gas, there will be use of pestle
analysis.
Pestel analysis
It can be defined as a framework which is used in order to identify the external
environment factor which has their influence on the functioning of organisation and its
profitability. There are six factors which are considered under this analysis. These factors are
political environmental technical social economic and legal factors. All these factors have
direct influence on the working of British gas. Different factors with their influence on
British gas are discussed below:
Political factor: political factors can be defined as those factors which are related to
the policies of government within the area where the organisation is working. In context to
British or gas it is UK organisation where all the policies and procedures developed and
implemented by UK Government are impactful on the organisational performance (Jones and
George, 2017). It has a major influence on the organisation working where the political factor
such as brexit has a great impact on organisation. After the referendum of brexit, Britain
government bring easy policies for working within UK which helps British gas to explore its
production services as well as new markets where it can trade and achieve better results.
Economic factor: economic factors can be defined as those factors which are related
to the economic condition of the area and the nation where the organisation is working. In
context of British gas it is working within the environment of UK where there are positive
economic conditions to work. Economic factors such as GDP growth, per capita income,
standard of living at high percentage within in UK which impact positively on the growth
factors of British gas. This promote company and help to explore the market by taking good
profit margin on its production services due to high GDP growth and high level of per capita
income with better standard of living.
Social factor: Social factors can be defined as those factors which are related to this
society in which business organisation is operating. In context of British gas companies
operating within the environment of UK where there are different social factors impacting
organisational performance. The social factors are related to trends within the society and
many other. It is identified that in the current social environment there is trend of of
renewable sources of energy. This makes it easier for British gas to utilise its functions by
implementing the use of renewable sources of energy and gases.
Technological factor: technological factors can be defined as those factors which are
related to the technology and the changes within the technology which has to be implemented
by the organisation in order to achieve its goals and objectives within the market. In context
of British gas it is a global gas selling organisation where the main functions are operated
within UK. Company is currently operating with high level of technology which is helpful to
the organisation in meeting the needs related to technological changes and bringing new and

environmental free technology which help in increasing profitability as well as bringing
sustainability to the environment (Kaphle, Nagaraju and Daima, 2018).
Legal factor: legal factors are those factors which are related to the rules and
regulation formulated by the legal authorities within the environment of a country. In context
of British gas companies following different rules and regulations such as employment act
health and safety act and many other which are helpful to the firm in dealing with legal
environment and reducing the chances of legal liability of the organisation.
Environmental factor: environmental factors can be defined as those factors which
are related to the natural environment in which business organisation is operating. In context
of British gas, it is operating within the environment of UK where company use environment
friendly policies to meet the requirements of environment factors. There are different
environment factors such as climate change and various other which are impacting on the
organisational performance. In relation to this organisation use appropriate tools and
technology which help in dealing with climate change as well as companies also using
environment friendly technology which reduces the contribution of firm toward the
degradation of environment (Khan and Zahid, 2020).
Importance of external factors
External considerations include certain influences, events, or situations which a
company cannot manage that impact the decisions taken by the company owner and
stakeholders. Many external considerations will have a significant effect on British Gas's
ability to achieve its strategic goals.
 For example, changing the laws relating to the kinds and quantities of products that
can be purchased by the government and which import prices might make a major
difference to British gas online business' profitability.
 It is necessary to track and respond regularly to macro factors which affect British gas
companies and the industry.
 Economic developments e.g. job and trend patterns, interest rates, trends in disposable
income
 Technological developments, such as improvements in the way people use and use
products/services, such as the use of devices/tablets for buying things, and the effect
of technology on the way businesses deliver goods
 Culture and social factors have had a positive impact, e.g. a growing number of
women in the workforce
 Political and legal considerations such as improvements in the legislation and
regulations on work and safety will influence how businesses perform their business.
 The climatic conditions are likely to be affecting seasonal/climate influences such as
the sale of seasonal products such as skis or swimwear
 Environmental considerations, e.g. market knowledge can be researched and
renewable power supplies can be purchased compare.

These all are the factors which has their influence on the British gas from the external
side. These are evaluated by the use of pestle analysis which help in identifying different
factors and their influence on functioning of British gas within the environment of UK. It can
be concluded that it all these factors must be considered by the organisation in effective way
in order to meet the requirements and perform its function effectively.
TASK 2
Cultural Change and Organisational Culture
Culture can be defined as a combination of different aspects of an individual which
are related to the day to day working as well as their following. It consists general believes
regulations norms policies and various other things which make a complete culture. Culture
can be vary from person to person as well as community to community where there are large
number of cultures which has to be followed by the organisation to meet the operational
needs. In context to the present environment because of different factors such as globalisation
changes in working conditions and various other are bringing cultural changes and
organisational culture.
The concept of organisational culture is related to to process within the organisation
which include different believes working background of employees their thinking
organisational aims and objectives and various other things which provide suitable direction
to the organisation to work on by establishing an appropriate working environment. There is
continuously changes within the culture of organisation which is also impacting on the
profitability and productivity level of business firm. In context to British gas company is also
facing organisational changes within the culture (Klun and Trkman, 2018). In order to
manage these cultural changes organisation prepare an appropriate model which help in
defining different types of culture within the organisation. It is also evaluated that these
cultural changes are influencing the policies and decision making within the organisation
which act directly on the profitability of the organisation. British gas is a global organisation
which is leading in gas services within UK. This make it essential for the firm to deal with
the cultural changes and organisation culture to meet the needs and perform the task in
effective way.
Influences policies and decision-making
In order to manage the culture in effective direction organisation use handy’s model
of cultural dimension. This model help in dividing the culture in different aspect so that the
cultural changes can be managed accordingly and organisation can meet its requirement of
working within the business. Handy’s model of cultural dimension has four different type of
cultures which are divided according to the needs of organisation (Mozammel, 2019). In
context of British gas company also used this division in order to facilitate changes and
manage the cultural changes with inform. These four divisions are discussed below:
Power culture: Power culture can be defined as that part of culture where the powers
lies between the central authorities of the organisation. In context of power culture the most

of the power is life with the single person. This type of culture can be followed by British gas
for centralising the authority. This will provide the power to the central authority so that all
the decisions will be taken by them. In order to maintain the discipline within the
organisation and executing the functions in a proper manner by retaining the authority, this
type of culture will be implemented.
Role culture: this type of culture can be defined as that culture within the
organisation that include delegation of authority in some extent. In context to this culture,
different roles are divided to different individuals for working their responsibility within the
organisation for staff some level of authority is also passed to them in order to execute the
functions in appropriate way. It is identified that this culture can be used by British gas by
dividing different roles of different individuals. This system work like dividing authority to
different departments and granting the authority from single person.
Task culture: in context of task culture the power will be divided in few hands within
the organisation where different individual play different roles within the organisation. This
kind of culture followed by the organisation when there is need of dividing the authority to
different individuals but on the same time discipline is also required. In context of British
gas, company can implement this strategy of managing cultural changes by providing
authority to few peoples within different departments. This will help in maintaining decorum
within the organisation as well as discipline where individuals working in different
department will take permission from the single person and person will report to another
higher authority person. This provides an appropriate Hierarchical structure which will help
in meeting the needs.
Person culture: it can be divine as that kind of culture which is related to a person
oriented. Under this, a single person thinks themselves superior from other. He is the single
owner who has full liability as well as authority to the organisation work (Mughal, 2019).
This is not suitable system which is not used by British gas in order to manage the cultural
changes within organisation. Under this, the decision-making will also impacted as the person
is the only one who can take decisions at the time of need.
It can be evaluated from the above stated information that there are a number of
cultural changes with are faced by British gas in recent time. These changes have direct
influence on the decision making and working capacity of organisation. Near the best suitable
way which can be adopted by the organisation is task culture. It will help in dividing the
authorities in appropriate manner as well as establishing discipline in working.
The effectiveness of the organization’s response
In context to cultural changes, organisation has to make strong decisions which are
used to meet the needs and deal with the changes in the environment. In order to bring
effectiveness and achieve better results it is required to perform the task in effectively and
meet the needs and requirements (Odhiambo, 2020). There are different essential steps which
are taken by the British gas in order to achieve the results in effective manner as well as
manage the cultural changes in organisation. Also help in bringing organisational changes in

effective way and meeting the profitability level. Some of the desire steps which are taken by
the organisation are discussed below:
Defining the set of desired value and behaviour: in order to deal with the cultural
changes and organisational changes, leader within the British gas used to describe the values
and behaviour which organisation is seeking full from here the try to make sure that people
can rely and understand the organisational culture and day-to-day behaviour which will help
in performing the functions and developing the ethics and values within the organisation to
initiate and actionable behaviour.
Aligning culture with strategy and process: another essential step which was taken
by the British gas in order to manage the cultural changes and organisational changes is
related to align the culture with the strategies and process. Under this leaders within the
organisation try to develop the mission vision and values in a concise form where the linked
all this system with the HR process including hiring performance management compensation
benefits and promotion as well as talent management. All this help in defining and linking the
strategies with the cultural changes and developing in habit within individuals to understand
the culture changes and work according with them.
Connecting culture with accountability: manager with British gas also try to
connect the culture with accountability. Under this process, each of the leader within the
organisation think about the company where they a struggle to deal with the culture. Under
this organisation started linking the culture by setting accountability of different individual.
This can be seen from the example of task culture where British gas try to link each and every
individual by providing them some extent of authority to work on particular task full stop this
help in developing and appropriate atmosphere for implementing the cultural changes as well
as changes within an organisation.
Align the culture with brand: culture must be resonate with both employees and the
marketplace. This is the basic idea of British gas to link the culture with their brand. British
gas is a big brand within the market of UK where it is the leading organisation in gas supply.
This make it useful for the organisation to perform its function and meet the needs related to
to align the culture with the brand (Prasad, 2020). Under this organisation use to promote the
cultural changes associated with the brand name within organisation for stop this help in
developing and appropriate brand image as well as linking the culture with the brand.
It can be evaluated from the above that there are number of steps which are used by
British gas in order to implement the cultural changes in effective as well as adopting them
according to the requirements of business environment. Company use different organisational
changes which are useful to the business environment and meeting the needs according to
them.
Areas for improvement in the response of the organization
A cultural standard codifies permissible actions within society, it acts as the guideline
for a social group's behaviour, posture, language and behaviour. Only a monoculture can take
chances within a population, just like a species can become withered in the face of

environmental change due to the absence of practical reaction to the change (Sadgrove,
2016). It is identified that British gas is a global organisation which is performing its function
in appropriate way. Company is managing the cultural changes in effective way as well as it
is also utilising the organisational changes so that it can perform according to the
environment and achieve better profitability. Instead of this, there are some recommendations
to the organisation which has to be followed to perform the task in better way and achieve
maximum benefits from cultural changes. These recommendations are discussed below:
It is observed from the working of British gas that organisation is lacking in training
and development of staff for staff training and development is an essential part which help in
implementing the cultural changes in appropriate way as well as providing effective solution
to the problem of organisation. In context of British gas company has to formulate an
appropriate training and development program which will help in managing and developing
the ethical values within an individual working within the organisation (vom Brocke, Zelt and
Schmiedel, 2016). The training and development program will be designed in such a way that
it will include all the ethical values as well as cultural changes which can be faced by the
organisation with in the future and are faced in current time. This will increase the working
hours of employees as well as provide them competitiveness to work for a longer period of
time by analysing the situations in different time.
Secondly, it is also recommended to the organisation that there is some scope of
improvement in recruitment process of British gas. This is because company is recruiting the
employees without considering the cultural values. This on the adoption of cultural changes
in the organisation. As the employees are not able to understand the changes within the
culture of organisation and are not being capable of performing. Under this, it is
recommended to the organisation that it must include a session which is based on the cultural
changes. This session must be included in the process of recruitment where company can
recruit all those candidates who can easily adopt the changes within culture and can perform
with positive mind-set in organisation.
In last, it is also identified that there is some scope within innovative approach of
organisation. This is because it is identified that form is not dealing with the changes by the
use of innovation for stop this impacted on functioning of organisation as well as decrease the
chances of performing in appropriate way (Stawicki and et.al, 2021). Here it is required by
the organisation to identify the innovative approaches of implementing cultural changes as
well as adopting the organisational changes. This will improve the working as well as
facilitate fast decision making process to achieve the business objectives in better way.
These are some areas of improvement which has to be considered by the British gas in
order to manage the changes in more effective way as well as run the business operation
smoothly (Troshani and Wickramasinghe, 2018). Utilising this recommendation is helpful to
the organisation in learning more profitability and running the business operations in a
successful manner.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above mentioned information that there are different
external environment factors which has their influence on the functioning of organisation
within the industry. In context of British gas these factors has direct leave benefited to the
organisation as it is using the proactive strategies which are helpful in meeting the
requirements. On the other side it is also identified that cultural changes and organisational
changes are an essential part of organisational working which has to be considered while
performing within the business. These changes are associated with organisational profitability
as well as have to be managed in a timely manner.

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