MGBBT0UBN - Business Organisations: Structure, Functions, and Culture

This report provides a comprehensive overview of business organizations, delving into their structures, functions, and the impact of organizational culture. It begins by defining business and its core characteristics, followed by an exploration of different types of business organizations, including sole traders, partnerships, and private limited companies, with examples like Intercontinental Hotel Group. The report then examines organizational structures, contrasting flat and tall structures, and discusses the key business functions such as production, human resource management, and marketing. It also addresses the importance of organizational culture, using Handy's cultural model to illustrate its influence on employee behavior and overall business success. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the significance of structure, culture, and functions in achieving business growth and competitiveness. The report also references relevant books and journals to support its analysis.

MGBBT0UBN
Understanding Business
Organisations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY .................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Business is an entity which makes, distributes or produces any services which other
members of the society are willing to pay for it. The basic characteristics of business are
production and acquisition of goods and services, the main purpose is to maximise their
profitability, there is uncertainty of events in the operation and it involves regular dealing in
different goods and services (Apostolou, 2019). The report is prepared to understand the role of
business organisation . To insights about business environment Intercontinental hotel group is
being taken into consideration. It is British hospitality company with its headquarter in Denham,
Buckinghamshire, England. The company is listed on London stock exchange and have its
presence in different countries. The report emphasis on the kinds of business organisation based
on their size and structure. It also discusses the different organisation structure that are being
implemented into business to regulate their operations and functioning. In addition, it determines
the business functions that are essential for any business to acquire growth and success.
MAIN BODY
Business is an enterprise that carries out professional activities which includes
commercial, industrial and professional activities. Business organisation can be profit making
and non profit making. There are different kinds of business organisation depending on their
ownership, size and capital structure and many more. The most common form of business
organisation is sole trader is a individual who are exclusively responsible to carry on the business
operations, he is the owner of the capital undertaking and responsible for all the profits and
looses of the business organisation. For example a small retail shopkeeper, he is the sole owner
and own the whole responsibility of business. The advantages of sole trader is financially
rewarding in nature as there is no need to share the profits of the business the whole profit
belongs to a single individual. There are fewer tax obligations and responsibilities , there is no
corporation tax to pay and annual return to be filled to Corporation House. Sole trader need to
submit self assessment tax returns (Nurhadi and Purnomo, 2018). Annually. In addition , there
is organisational flexibility as they can respond to changes quickly and much simpler than
running a limited company. There is privacy of the information of the organisation. In addition
there are disadvantages also there is lack of potential credibility as the sole trader do not carry a
prestigious reputation and recognition in the marketplace. There is sole responsibility that means
1

a sole individual is responsible for all the debts and liabilities that will arise in the business
premises and many more. Another kind of business organisation is Partnership, which is an
association of two or more individuals to share profits and looses of the business operations
(Kodithuwakku Arachchige and et.al, 2021). For example Hilton London Bankside which has its
partnership with Bompas & Parr with the objective to provide friendly and comfortable
surrounding to their customers. Advantages of partnership include access to wider knowledge
and skills, as there are different individuals which are specialised in different field and had
expertise which also gives an exposure to new learning skill set and knowledge. Another
advantage is cost saving, it allow you to share financial burden for expenses and capital
expenditure need to run the business. Other advantage is a balance in personal and professional
life as their is no hectic work schedule. Its disadvantages are unlimited liability of the partners
there are personally liable to pay the debts and liabilities of organisation. Another disadvantage
is less autonomy and many more. Next business organisation is Private limited organisation like
intercontinental hotel group which is an hospitality organisation to serve their customers with
their luxury services and stay in hotel. Advantage of Limited organisation is limited liability,
separate legal entity, flexible business structure and more and disadvantage are Personal liability,
lengthy registration process and many formal compliances and more.
Organisation structure is the systematic arrangement of human resources to accomplish
business objectives. It assigns role and responsibilities of every member to have a seamless flow
of work and information. The organisation structure can be of various kinds which includes tall
and flat organisation structure. Flat organisation structure means which have fewer level of
middle level management between leadership and employees. This type of organisation structure
are mostly adopted by small organisations and startups as there is less need of hierarchical
management. For example use of flat organisation structure by Little French Restaurant helps to
accomplish their organisation objectives. Advantages of flat organisation structure is higher
responsibility towards their tasks. Transparency in operations are another advantage as there is
limited bureaucracy (Yong Kim and Thuc, 2021). Fewer lever of management simplifies
internal communication and enables fast decision making. Another advantage is cost efficiency
because there are fewer managerial level which reduces wages, fringe benefits and more.
Disadvantages are management can easily lose its control, there can be clashes in work
relationship, difficult in retention of employees and more. Tall organisation structure is a
2

organisation where the functions are divided into different hierarchy which means they are going
to have number of managers who are responsible to control the management of operations. It is
also known as hierarchical organisation structure (Metz-Galloway and Pearman, 2021). For
example Intercontinental hotel group have different managerial levels to regulate the functioning
of their operations in order to accomplish goals and objectives. Advantage of tall structure is
high autonomy and control on the operations, clear delegation of responsibility and easy
supervision to the workers to accomplish their tasks within specified period of time. It leads to
accomplishment of tasks adequately as there are different managers to regulate the efforts of
workforce. Along with advantages it has disadvantages as well which is less flexibility as ever
decision and communication have to go through different managerial layers, low job satisfaction
to the subordinates, less autonomy and delegation of responsibility, less creativity as less control
and flexibility makes difficult for employees to develop and realize their ideas, ineffective
communication due to several layers of management and many more.
Business function describes the internal behaviour performed by business to produce
finished product and services to serve them to the ultimate customers. In context to Internal
continental hotel group the core business functions, is Production, human resource management
and operations. Marketing is a activity , set of actions to communicate, deliver and exchange
offerings that have value to customers and community at large. It helps the hotel to make their
activities and functions more visible that enables the organisation to increase their overall growth
and success. Another function is human resource department which has given the task to recruit
and select the potential talents in business that will lead to increase the overall productivity.
Intercontinental hotel group, this department recruit employees and deal with their
documentation. This department help the organisation to attain competitive advantage and
growth in long run. Operations in intercontinental hotel group is concerned with providing its
customers with the expected demand and preferences that will help an organisation to hold a
good position in the marketplace (Barnard, 2022). All these business functions helps the
organisation to gain efficiency in their operations which results in improvement in overall
performance and results in productivity.
Organisation culture is the way individual and subordinates behaves in an organisation. It
consists of the beliefs and values that are being set up by the leaders and incorporate different
methods and strategies to shape the behaviours of employees that would result in cooperation
3

and coordination in the organisation. In context to Intercontinental hotel group, the hotel uses
Handy's cultural model which is used to shape and devise decisions. There are different cultures
that can be adopted by an organisation like Power culture, role culture and task culture. Power
culture have centralised authority which focus on accomplishment of organisation objectives.
These organisation culture respond quickly and are adaptive to the changes which makes the
organisation to remain competitive. Task culture puts emphasis on specified tasks and projects, it
has many advantages like staff remain motivated and are empowered to make decisions which
creates a positive attitude and mindset of employees towards organisation growth and success.
Role culture which assigns tasks and responsibilities based on the field of specification and their
skill sets and knowledge. A proper organisation culture bring positivity in organisation and drive
them to attain growth and success in long run in the competitive business environment. .
CONCLUSION
From this report it is being concluded that the operations and functions of an organisation
are regulated by set guidelines of policies and procedures and government regulations. This
report discusses the importance of organisation structure, culture and functions and how it help
an organisation to attain growth and success. It determines the role of positive environment
within business entity to make a coordinate and competent workforce and leaders and maximise
their competitiveness than others. It also discusses the various kinds of business organisations
that exists in the marketplace and their advantages and disadvantages. It also determine the
importance of strategies and plans to regulate the efforts of the workforce towards a specified
organisation objectives effectively and efficiently.
4

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Apostolou, 2019. Case study of the risk management plan ensuring business continuity of a
private healthcare organisation, after a manager change.
Barnard, 2022. Secondary school organisation and home–school collaboration: a tale of two
systems. International Journal of Educational Management, (ahead-of-print).
Kodithuwakku Arachchige and et.al, 2021. Occupational falls: Interventions for fall detection,
prevention and safety promotion. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 22(5),
pp.603-618.
Metz-Galloway and Pearman, 2021. Real-life revolution: How compliance functions are
leveraging innovation to become more aligned, efficient and tech-enabled. Journal of
Financial Compliance, 5(2), pp.154-161.
Nurhadi and Purnomo, 2018. Predicting e-commerce adoption in small hotel: the role of
technology-organisation-environment framework. International Journal of Business
Information Systems, 29(3), pp.324-341.
Yong Kim and Thuc, 2021. Life Cycle Performance Measurement in Public–Private Partnership
Infrastructure Projects. Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 27(4), p.06021001.
5