Business and the Business Environment Report - Halifax Bank

This report provides an analysis of the business environment, focusing on the internal and external factors influencing organizations, using Halifax Bank as a case study. It explores different types of organizations, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, and public/private companies. The report delves into the interrelationship of various organizational functions such as production, research & development, marketing, finance, and human resource management, and how these functions relate to organizational structures like functional, divisional, and matrix structures. The analysis covers the impact of the business environment on organizational operations and concludes with a summary of key findings.

BUSINESS AND THE
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 the different types, size and scope of organisations.........................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Interrelationship of various functions within an organisation..........................................2
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
Covered in PPT.......................................................................................................................3
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................3
Covered in PPT.......................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
The term business environment consists of internal and external factors that influences
the organisation’s functioning such as; customers, management, workers, regulations and supply
& demand. Halifax bank operates as the division of Bank of Scotland. The report will cover
different types of organisations and interrelationship between organisational functions. Apart
from this it will cover organisation's internal strengths and weaknesses and positive and negative
impact of macro environment (Zhang, 2017).
TASK 1
1.1. Different types, size and scope of organisations
 Sole proprietorship: - it is also known as sole trader, and is owned by single
owner. It is an unincorporated business, as the tax earned on profits is paid by
only one proprietor. For example, Stephen W Jones service in the UK provides
bookkeeping, accountants, etc. services.
 Partnership: - it is a type of business owned and run by more than one person.
They are equally responsible for income or losses that occurs in business. There
are basically 3 types of partnership; limited, general and joint venture.
 Private company: - a private company is run under private ownership. It is owned
by either non-governmental organisations or by few number of shareholders.
Private company's shares do not trade on public exchange and hence, shares of
this firm are less liquid.
 Public company: - it is a type of firm whose shares are traded freely on a stock
exchange and is publicly held. Public company is a company with securities
owned and listed by public.
 Voluntary firms: - a voluntary organisation is a group of individuals, who creates
an agreement as volunteers to form a company to accomplish aims and objectives
(Ioannidou, Ongena and Peydró, 2014).
1

TASK 2
2.1. Interrelationship of various functions within an organisation
Two types of organisations structures that Halifax Bank business clients might have; one
is functional and other is divisional structure. Businesses that uses functional structures, split
their departments by functions like; accounting, marketing, engineering, and business
development. On the other hand, divisional structure is used by organisations for providing better
services to their customers. It is a type of structure that groups each organisational function into
divisions.
The types of organisational functions are production, research & development, buying,
marketing, finance and human resource management. The production function undertakes
production planning, maintaining equipment’s, controlling inventory etc. In this contrast,
research and development are taken into account with the implication of product design for
production methods, marketing concerns with product's appearance, quality, durability etc.,
Finance is concerned with availability of funds for buying equipment’s, and human resource is
obsessed with staff motivating and production methods (Sindhuja, 2018).
These organizational functions directly link with the organisational structures such as
functional, divisional, classical or matrix structure. Classical structure is very common for small
businesses and has very few basic functions. Functional structure splits employees into groups
based on organisational functions. Divisional structure takes functional groups and splits them
into divisions that contains their own resources. Matrix structure divides the workers into teams
according to their functions.
2

TASK 3
Covered in PPT
TASK 4
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
From the overall report it can be concluded that, business environment involves both
micro and macro factors that influences the organisation’ functioning, including; customers,
management, workers, regulations and supply & demand. Apart from this, it is concluded that
the types of organisational functions are production, research & development, buying, marketing,
finance and human resource management and these are directly interrelated with the
organisational structures such as functional, divisional, classical or matrix structure.
3
Illustration 1: matrix structure
Source: Sindhuja, 2018

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Zhang, X., 2017. What Does China’s Sole Proprietorship Law Mean to Foreign Business
People?. Business Law Review. 38(2). pp.61-63.
Ioannidou, V., Ongena, S. and Peydró, J. L., 2014. Monetary policy, risk-taking, and pricing:
Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment. Review of Finance. 19(1). pp.95-144.
Majewska, A. M., Lecewicz, M., Kordan, W. and Wysocki, P., 2018. Identification and changes
in the seasonal concentrations of proteins regulating the biological functions of
spermatozoa and participating in their cytoskeleton organisation in roe deer (Capreolus
capreolus) epididymides. Annals of Animal Science. 1(ahead-of-print).
Ginzberg, E., 2017. The institutions of private law and their social functions. Routledge.
Zalengera, C., Blanchard, R. E., and Gondwe, K. T., 2014. Overview of the Malawi energy
situation and A PESTLE analysis for sustainable development of renewable
energy. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 38. pp.335-347.
Bull, J. W., Jobstvogt, N., and Carter-Silk, E., 2016. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem Services.
17. pp.99-111.
Sindhuja, S., 2018 [Online] Available through: <.
http://www.businessmanagementideas.com/organisation-chart/organisation-chart-
concept-advantages-and-limitations/9130>
4