BTEC Level 4/5 Business Environment Report: NHS, Tesco, Oxfam Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of the business environment, focusing on three diverse organizations: the National Health Service (NHS), Tesco PLC, and the charity Oxfam. The report explores the purposes, legal structures, sizes, and scopes of these organizations. It examines the internal and external factors influencing their operations, utilizing frameworks such as SWOT and PESTEL analysis to assess their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors. The analysis includes a discussion of organizational structures, objectives, and the interrelationship of business functions within each entity, providing a comprehensive understanding of their operations and environments. The report also includes an examination of the advantages and disadvantages of each organization, along with their external environments. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and insights gained from the analysis.

Running head: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
P1: Purposes of different types of organizations....................................................................3
P2: Size and Scope of organizations......................................................................................8
P3: Connection between organizational structures to their objectives.................................12
Advantages and disadvantages.............................................................................................17
External environment...........................................................................................................18
Conclusion................................................................................................................................20
References................................................................................................................................21

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Introduction
Business environment is a conglomeration of internal and external factors, which act
as influencers in a business setting. It includes factors like competition, government,
customers, suppliers as well as cultural, technological, social, legal and political conditions.
The nature of business environment is dynamic which keeps on fluctuating. Changes in a
business setting are very unpredictable. Business environment can reflect complexity in the
prediction of future nature of changes in regards with the social and economic environment.
It differs from one region to another. Business environment helps in identifying opportunities
for organizations by facilitating the interaction of business with the environment in which it is
operating. Businesses experiences growth and opportunities by the means of interaction with
the environment. It presents organizations with challenges and base for changes, which can
develop the efficiency and performance of organization by synchronizing the activities with
the changing environment. It facilitates the continuous learning process of organizations by
eliminating the resistance of changing. The purpose of the paper is to understand the size,
scope and purposes of organizations followed by establishing interrelationship of business
functions within a specific organization. The paper will also depict the internal and external
factors of businesses. The businesses, which will be analysed according to the external and
internal environment, are National Health Services, Tesco PLC and a charity Oxfam. The
frameworks like SWOT and PESTEL will carry out the external and internal analysis in the
paper.
Discussion
P1: Purposes of different types of organizations
National Health Service
National Health Service was established in the year 1948. The main principle of NHS
comprised of services which are universal, free and comprehensive during delivery. The

3BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
services includes a range of free health services during the delivery. The services operates
independently as well as is accountable to relevant government. The bodies, which are
responsible for the National Health Services, England are Welsh Government, Scottish
Government, UK government and Northern Ireland Executive. “The NHS is the closest thing
the English have to a religion”, quoted by Nigel Lawson, former Chancellor, which depicts
the support of British citizen.
Image of National Health Services-
The purposes of National Health Services are as follows-
 To provide free healthcare services for the citizens of UK
 To fulfil the responsibilities of health care services for the communities, patients and
public.
 To offer services based on the requirement of treatment rather than the ability to pay.
Legal structure of National Health Services-
The legal framework within which the clinical decisions of National Health Services
are opted depicts the treatment decisions which are open for HS clinicians. The NHS is
believed to be single identify but it functions with the help of different networks. The
network includes governmental bodies as well as it includes ‘for profit’ commercially based

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organizations, which operates by delivering services of National Health Services with the
exchange of contract price paid by the commissioners of National Health Services.
Tesco PLC-
It is a multinational British grocery merchandise retail chain. Its headquarter is
located in Hertfordshire in UK (Tescoplc.com 2019). It is known to be the third-largest
multinational retailer in the whole world in terms of gross revenue. Their retail chain is
spread across Europe and Asia. It was founded in the year 1919 (Tescoplc.com 2019). Tesco
operates through both physical and online store.
Image of Tesco-
Purposes of Tesco PLC includes:
The main purpose of Tesco PLC is to serve customers better every single day for
which they offer good quality products and services in regards with offline and online
presence in Tesco store (Tescoplc.com 2019). They want to build and maintain the position
of a champion by helping consumers gain an integrated experience in association with Tesco.
The purposes also includes capitalizing sales as well as constructing and maintaining the
range of retail businesses in UK (Tescoplc.com 2019). The purpose involves outperforming
rivals in order to remain at the leader position. Offering quality product with affordable
prices. The company’s purposes includes minimizing the carbon footprint.

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Legal structure of Tesco PLC-
The legal structure of Tesco involves corporate governance, which deals with the
presence of shareholders for achieving the aimed strategies. The company also have various
responsibilities in regards with the community, which obligates the company to minimize
carbon footprints. Legal services comprises of various matters like licensing for alcohol stock
ups.
The span of control of Tesco is divided in various groups as it is divided under many
leaders of different departments as it is a huge business. It facilitates the management of
employees and operations easier. The control and responsibilities of Tesco is divided among
department level leaders.
Oxfam-
It is the association of around twenty independent non-profit charitable organization
working towards the mitigation of poverty on a global scale. It was founded in the year 1942
and is controlled by Oxfam International (Oxfam.org 2019). The director of Oxfam
International is Winnie Byanyima from the year 2013 (Oxfam.org 2019). The programmes of
Oxfam tackle the reasons for poverty as well as the related injustice. The group operates with
the support of local organizations who are accountable for improving the effectiveness of this
cause. In the year 2000, Oxfam implemented an approach, which was based on rights for the
base of all the works in regards with poverty and injustice (Oxfam.org 2019).
Image of Oxfam-

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Purposes of Oxfam:
 The core function of Oxfam is to help people experiencing poverty and injustice-
Oxfam aims at supporting people when they are getting the required help from local
organization.
 To acknowledge the indivisibility and universality of the human rights which includes
the right to basic social services, the right to be heard, the right of security and life,
the right for a sustainable livelihood as well as the right to an identity.
 To eliminate/minimize the factors of powerlessness and poverty by the political
support and human activities.
Legal structure:
Being a charitable group, Oxfam is not owned by a sole prop righter. The
responsibility of the appointed CEO is to manage employees and media promotions but a
director’s panel makes decisions and choices (Wong 2013). The associated or the donors are
responsible for appointing the panel of directors. The directors’ responsibility is to follow the
objectives of the associates. Oxfam as an organization Stakeholders influences the
organization in various forms. Customer’s desire to be treated equal and fair or else they will
move to any other charity. Employees should be treated equal irrespective of their working

7BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
contract or gender and race. The shareholders of Oxfam are considered as directors because
of its non-profit nature. Government needs taxes to be paid.
P2: Size and Scope of organizations
National Health Services-
A sum of 1.7 million officials work for delivering the services of NHS. The service
provider consists of 39,780 general practitioners, 18,687 ambulance staff, 105,711
community health service and hospital as well as it consists of 370,327 nurses. National
Health Services is considered as the biggest section in the system of England. It serves for 53
million people and are involved in employing 1.35 million. The NHS is known for serving 1
million patients in every thirty six hours. Department of Health budget will grow at a rate of
1.1 percent in year between 2010 and 2020.
There are a sum of 207 clinical commissioning groups, a group of specialist trust
consists of 17 and 135 non-specialist trusts, a sum of ten ambulance trusts, 54 mental health
trusts as well as around 853 ‘not for profit’ and ‘for profit’ independent sector institutions in
from around 7,331 locations.
The services and responsibility of National Health Services involves:
 National Health services consists of hospitals for facilitating the free medical health
services.
 It provides emergency care for the critical patients
 It also consists of general practitioners, opticians and Dentists for functioning the
medical services of National Health Services.
 It consists of medical health services, sexual health services and pharmaceutical
services.

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 The responsibility of NHS is to offer free and affordable health care services in Great
Britain.
Tesco PLC-
The organization have expanded the operations from UK to other 11 countries around
the world. Tesco follows International expansion strategy of Sam Pointer. The strategy have
responded for the need of being sensitive for the local expectations. The strategy included
formation of joint ventures with the locally established companies like in Thailand, Charoen
Pokphand named as Tesco Lotus and in South Korea, Samsung Group named as Samsung-
Tesco Home plus. Tesco’s international expansion strategy also involves appointing local
officials for management positions. Tesco is also involved in small acquisitions like in the
financial year 2005-2006, conducted an acquisition in the region of South Korea, one in the
region of Japan and one in Poland. Tesco is considered to be a one of the leading retailer with
around 6,800 shops globally and about 80 million shopping trips in a week.
Products and services:
The product and service portfolio of Tesco ranges from food and drinks to electronic,
clothing, internet services, financial services, healthcare and dental necessities and also
specializes in renting music through CDs. Tesco also offers grocery-home shopping services
as well as financial and telecom services online.
Oxfam-
Oxfam constitute of a group of professional employees, which is a constituent of the
international confederation of around nineteen organizations. The chain of organization is
networked in about 90 countries. It is a global movement of bringing change for eliminating
poverty and the unjust practices. Oxfam operate in various countries by collaborating with
partners around the world. They facilitate their operations by working with various

9BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
communities. Oxfam works in collaboration with the partner organization for eradicating
vulnerability on a global scale.
Products and services:
Campaigns-
Oxfam is involved in conducting campaigns like Make Trade Fair, which serves for
eliminating trade practices, which involves activities like dumping. Dumping is a situation,
which occurs due to the selling of surplus commodities such as cotton, rice, sugar and corn at
low prices, resulting in a poor state of the farmers in the developed countries. It offers
opposition in regards with the practice of inequality in the wage allotment system.
Shops-
Oxfam opened the first charity shop in the year 1948. The shops were established on a
global scale for selling donated items as well as for the purpose of fair trading practices. The
income from these shops are directly invested in the objectives of Oxfam. Although, the stock
are made available by the help of donations, but for the year 2012 Oxfam sold fair trade items
from the developing countries like Asia, South America and Africa which included books,
music instruments, handicrafts, ethnic creations, food and clothing. The main purpose
involved in the practice of selling fair trade products is to improve the standard of living of
the manufacturers and producers of the communities in developing countries. Oxfam have
more than 1,200 shops globally.
Differences between small, medium and large organization:
Small organization-
Tengri
Medium
organization-
Captify
Large
Organization-
Tesco PLC
Objectives The objective of The main objective Tesco aims at

10BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Tengri is to make
people aware of the
usage of yak fibers
for woolen clothing
line and for the
replacement of
cashmere wool.
is to offer service for
search retargeting
which enables the
advertisers in order
to focus on the users
to connect the
desired
audience/consumer
with the inventory.
becoming and
remaining at the
leading position in
the retail segment
among all
competitors. The
objectives also
includes offering
quality product and
services at
affordable prices for
an improved service
every day.
Market share Start up companies
will not have a
significant rate of
market share as for
example Tengri is
operating in a nish
market with the
primary intension of
creating awareness
for sustainable
fashion.
As of Marh’2019,
the market share of
Captify is 0.23%
In UK for the year of
2018, the market
share of Tesco stood
up to 27.4%
Growth and
Sustainability
It is a sustainable
fashion and clothing
The company
presently have not
The company does
not use packaging

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brand which
believes in
minimizing wastes
and operates through
optimal utilization of
raw material. The
brand also supports
the herd owners by
paying a good value
and including them
in the supply chain.
adopted sustainable
method of
operations.
more than the need
and the packaging
used are from
recycled sources.
The company also
helps the local
communities by
helping in socially as
well as
economically. It also
attempts at reducing
carbon footprints in
the operational
activities and targets
at becoming a zero
carbon company by
the year 2050.
P3: Connection between organizational structures to their objectives
Organizational structure of Department of Transport, UK-

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Table: Organizational structure of department of transport
(Source: Nhs.uk 2019)
The board of directors of the organization lead the organization form the front. The company
follows a structure of strategic leadership through which they fund the social and healthcare
throughout England. The management and advisory board fall below the board of directors in
the structure of hierarchy. After that segregations are made on the basis of corporate and
clinical divisions. The corporate division is broken down to the regular functional divisions
that include, the finance, human resource, the marketing, sales and other division. The
clinical division holds great importance in the organization and thus the division is subject to
major segregations. The divisions that are made further in the organization, that fall under the
jurisdiction of the clinical division are the general medicines, the laboratory service, the
dispensary services, the specialist and diagnostic services.

13BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Organizational structure of Tesco PLC-
Organizational structure of Tesco PLC based on divisions
The organizational structure of Tesco PLC is hierarchical in nature, the regional manager
heads the operation and his deputy is the store manager. The food trading manger the non-
food training manger and the personnel manager answer to the store manager. There are
various sections delegated in the organization. Departments such as the fresh food sections,
the ambient food section, the electrical and the clothing section are various departments are
established within the organizational structure.
Establishment of a managerial position for every functional department segregated on the
basis of the products they operate in has resulted in an enhancement of operations within the
organization. The delegation has been done to ensure that each division is functioning on
their own competencies and all are reporting to their direct mangers.

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Fig.: Organizational structure of Tesco based on functional areas
(Source: Tescoplc.com)
All the functional roles, supervisor, Human resources, Finance and Administration
involves serving towards the core value of improving the quality of product offering and
services. The supervisor will be responsible for controlling and maintaining the quality of the
sourced raw materials and allocating operational services to the staff of Tesco. The Human
Resource Manager is responsible for maintaining the organizational culture and to ensure the
employee satisfaction. The finance manager is responsible for maintaining the balance
between affordability and profit for the products and services of Tesco PLC. The
administrative manager is responsible for ensuring the practice of company rules and
procedures and sometimes in sourcing staff and suppliers.
Store Manager
Assistant
Manager
Supervisors
Staff
Human
Resources
Manager
Staff
Finance
Staff
Administration
Staff

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Following is the organizational structure of Oxfam
The managing director of the organization is the head of the organization. Executives are
delegated responsibilities based on the functional divisions that they operate in. The
marketing division consists of the marketing director on top, followed by the marketing
managers who preside over their respective sales teams. The finance director presides over
the finance supervisors who supervise the account assistants. The production team leaders are
presided over by the operations director. The HR director head the HR executives.
Segregations in the organization are made on the basis of functionality. The hierarchical
structure unsure that employees have to answer to their direct head. Moreover, creation of
basic segregations imply that the operations within each functional department is hindrance
free. The same can help the organization in achieving corporate governance.
Advantages and disadvantages
Organization Advantages Disadvantages
 Existence of various delegations ensuring
quality of operation.
 Lack of authority of the employees

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NHS  Segregated into divisions
 Existence of a vertical line of command
determining the flow of authority
 Centralization of command.
Tesco PLC
 Favourable delegations
 Creation of division for different
functional departments.
 Departments have been created in the
basis of product diversity
 Cluster in functional structure.
 Possibility of misinterpretation of
information as a result if the cluster.
 All the employee have to report to the top
level executives.
 Lack of delegation in the functional
departments.
Oxfam
 Effective delegation of authority
 Smooth flow of communication within a
functional division.
 Established line of command.
 Lack of communication between
functional divisions.
 Possibility of miscommunication between
the divisions.
 Unavailability of link between functional
departments
The organizational structures of three organizations are different, thus the operations
within every company is dissimilar. Thus, the impacts of the organizational structure on the
functionality of the respective organization are assumed to be different. There is existence of
delegation in the operations of the Department of transport. The existence of various
delegations ensure that every functional department is able to function effectively.
Furthermore, vertical line of command ensures that the staff and department know that who
they should report to. However, it has been seen that there is lack of authority that is given to
the division that can be demotivating for the employees.
Tesco PLC has segregations that are favourable as well. They contribute to the flow of
smooth operations within the organization. Segregation on the basis of product lets the
organization delegate experts to the division they are adept at. However, the functional
division is full of cluster and absence of proper delegations result in hindrance to
communication.

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There is smooth functionality in terms of carrying out the initiative of the company. Since,
Oxfam is an organization which is aimed towards achievement of sustainable goals for the
community, it has incorporated a hindrance free structure, with proper delegation. However,
there is absence of connectivity between the functional departments.
It can be said that the culture within an organization is one of the most important
factors that contribute to the long term sustainability of the company (Alvesson and
Sveningsson 2015). The culture of an organization determines the level of motivation of the
employees (Arifin 2015). The latter determines their level of satisfaction which ultimately
determines the level of engagement of the employee. Employee engagement is crucial in
terms of deriving the high performance outcomes form the employees (Breevaart et al. 2014).
The incidence of the latter results in achievement of the organizational goals. Thus the
internal environment of the above three organization is crucial for maintaining operations of
favourable nature.

Running head: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
External environment
Following is the PESTLE analysis of the external environment of the company.
Political factors
(Sébastien, Bauler and
Lehtonen 2014)
 The public have the authority to exercise their power.
 The country is politically stable
 Availability of local administrative bodies.
 Hidden corruption
Economic factors (Haw
2015)
 One of the highest GDPs in the world. The country is ranked at number
5.
 Market is of free nature
 The FDI is on the verge of rising.
 Availability of both private and public sectors.
Social factors (Nair et
al. 2015)
 Availability of cost free public services
 Standard of living in the country is high
 Cost of education on the rise
 Consist of diverse cultures
Technological factors
(Foxon 2013)
 Incidence of innovation
 Advancement in IT and science
 Behind the US.
 Availability of laws for protection of intellectual property.
Legal factors (Ismail
2013)
 Employee protection laws and regulations
 Laws protecting against discrimination
 Consumer welfare laws.
Environmental factors
(Halkos and Tzeremes
2013)
 Sustainable initiatives
 Protection of the biodiversity
 Regulation aimed at the protection biotic factors and the human capital.

Running head: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Conclusion
On a concluding note it can be said that the operation of the concerned companies
have been favourable in the market of the United Kingdom as a result of the favourable
opportunities provided by the external environment and as a result of collaboration between
the functional department of the organisation backed up by the structures of the respective
organisations. Thus, the companies have been able to get the degree of success in the industry
and the same has been justified.

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