Business Environment Analysis: NHS and Wellington Hospitals Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the business environments of the National Health Service (NHS) and Wellington Hospital. It delves into the strategic objectives, organizational structures, and business functions of both organizations, highlighting their differences and complexities. The report examines the impact of internal and external factors, including political, economic, and social influences, on their operations. Part 1 focuses on strategic objectives, organizational structures, and functional interrelations, while Part 2 explores the positive and negative impacts of the macro environment. The report utilizes Maslow's hierarchy of needs and other strategic tools to analyze the businesses' approaches to stakeholder management, innovation, and cost optimization. The report concludes with an evaluation of the organizational structures, decision-making processes, and interlinked functions within both NHS and Wellington.

Business and Business
Environment
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
PART 1 ...........................................................................................................................................3
a)..................................................................................................................................................3
b)..................................................................................................................................................3
P3.................................................................................................................................................3
M2................................................................................................................................................4
C)..................................................................................................................................................6
D1.................................................................................................................................................6
PART 2 ...........................................................................................................................................7
P4.................................................................................................................................................7
P5.................................................................................................................................................8
P6...............................................................................................................................................10
M3 and M4.................................................................................................................................10
b)................................................................................................................................................11
D2...............................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Business environment is comprised of internal and external factors that has greater
influence on the organizational functions. Further it influence the stakeholders of the business
that involves customers, employees etc. It also includes the external factors which can affect the
organizational operations that includes demand as well as supply and the regulations of the firm.
Moreover the business environment is regarded as the great combination of the requirements of
the business as well as the way in which organization complies with needs (Giudice, Kuenzel
and Springbett, 2011). Each firm cannot be carried out in vacuum therefore there is huge
significance of environment in which business operates.
In the present study NHS as well as Wellington has been considered. National health
service is considered as organization that offers public health services. The company has
employs around 1.6 million people with the combined budget of £136.7 billion. The residents of
UK are not being charged for the most of the medical treatments. On the other hand Wellington
hospital is private organization. It is the largest independent hospital within UK and it is a part of
HCA international hospital group. The hospital is renowned for its cardiac services,
neurosurgery, liver, HPB medicine, orthopedics as well as other services. The present report
entails at understanding the several business functions and the way in which it is associated with
the objective and structure of the firm. In addition to this it involves difference and complexities
in the two business. The report includes positive and negative influence of macro environment
on the operations of firm. Moreover it covers the internal and external analysis in order to make
determination of the strength as well as weakness.
PART 1
a)
Covered in PPT
b)
P3
The organization like National Health service have strategic objectives. This includes
offering quality services to the patients and improving the health outcomes in an effective
manner. Moreover it is comprised of offering quality services to the patients and reducing the
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cost as well to a greater extent. In addition to this it has major strategic objective that is towards
complying with the customer focused approach. Under this it is significant for the NHS to
conquer higher goals as well as targets. Further it is significant to emphasize over the structure
and organizational functions. Each business is divided into several number of departments. This
is comprised of marketing, finance, production, technical as well as human resource management
(Hamilton and Webster, 2015). Each department has equal contribution and has huge influence
on attaining the targets of the firm to a significant level. The function in the organization is
divided into several parts as per such the departments are allocated. The main reason of the
assignment of the department is towards increasing the performance of the business and offer
quality services to the patients. Such reflects that varied function of firm are interrelated and
therefore it acts as an aid in attaining the target of the firm in an effective way.
The structure of the business reflects the process and work allocation that is provided to
each employee in the firm. As NHS is firm that offers health care services to the patients
therefore it needs to focus on the personalized approach so that sound relationship can be build
among the patient and health care practitioners. It makes performance of the functions based on
the functional structure of the organization. It is working with combination of equal coordination
and supervision without any type of difference within the division of work among the employees
(Lenza, Pill and Reichlin, 2010). Moreover the task are assigned to the lines of authorities that
comes in the hierarchy of the organizational structure. Absence of suitable functioning even at
smallest personnel group in the firm can result in affecting the status of the business. Maslow has
proposed the tool which is being regarded as hierarchy of the needs. Such is being utilized with
effectiveness in order meet the goals of individuals.
M2
NHS is regarded as the firm that is offering health care services to the patients who are
suffering from certain health care problems. The business has the mission that has focus on the
attaining the outcomes from the treatment in an appropriate way. The major mission of the
business is towards demonstrating that it desires towards becoming the leading health care firm
and increases the experience of the patients to a significant level. It makes sure by the business
that firm that its stakeholders have complete knowledge regarding the mission statement so that
organization is able to achieve predetermined targets in an effective manner. For the sake of
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attaining such target, the firm is engaged in making innovation in its services. In this regard it
has made adoption of differentiation strategy as per which the organization base its function in
relation with bringing innovation and creativity in the services. The firm has made development
of its personnel in this respect so that they can be promoted in relation with bringing
enhancement within the product quality and services. In order to ensure improvement within the
bottom line structure the stated organization has made adoption of the strategy that is focusing on
optimization of the cost in the functions of the organization. For the purpose of executing the
specific strategy in an effective way the business needs to develop IT field, concentrated
strategies etc (Mariappanadar, 2012). The health care organization is involved in making
development of group strategy that act as an aid in gaining knowledge regarding the patient's
need. Apart from the above stated functions the organization use tool in order to develop skills
and qualities of the employees. They are to offer them appropriate training and increase
appropriateness in handling the issues that are attached with the patient. The organization's
managerial level is devised effective by means of promoting them so that they are proactive in
their attitude. Such attitude assist in conducting appropriate forecast with respect to strategies in
relation to marketing. Moreover the managers needs to involve bottom line personnel within the
procedure of decision making. This is required to be as per the employees. Such assist in
minimizing the amount of conflicts that are taking place within the firm. The major objective of
the business in towards attaining satisfaction of the patients (Milner and Tingley, 2011). Such
can be achieved by means of employees development in relation with creativity and offering
them motivation. The HR department of the business is hiring the health care practitioners who
have greater experience and works with full zeal and enthusiasm in conducting the work with
greater effectiveness. NHS is making utilization of sponsorship strategy for the purpose of
devising and increasing its services in the new areas. The name of firm is renowned local brand
and it carries out performance of all the function in an appropriate manner. Such is being
determined that once the brand attain success is particular area then organization can make
development of its own brand name (Freytag and Munksgaard, 2011). This kind of innovation
strategy of the firm act as an aid in enhancing the goodwill of the corporation as well as increase
the satisfaction among the patients to a significant level.
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The main merit in relation with such strategy is that it is becoming leader in the market in
UK and with this it can gain greater share within the market. Thus its major mission is attained to
a greater extent. NHS achieves its targets by means of outsourcing the employees so that work of
the firm can managed along with this targets can be achieved (Brinkman, Navarro and Harper,
2014). This outsourcing has made the form overdependent on organization as it is making
utilization of the outsourcing. It is significant that requirement has to be dependent over the
employees as they are hired from such business that sometimes results in increasing the cost of
operations. The main disadvantage is that it leads to enhancing the cost of the business.
C)
D1
The structure of the business such as NHS is flat that demonstrates the manner in which
the employees are managing as well as assigning the work does not involves various layers. On
the other hand Wellington makes adoption of highly complex and larger structure. The major
advantage of such structure which is adopted by NHS is that the process of decision making
within the internal system that is to a significant level is instant and quick. Such results in
determining all the errors and disruptions that occurs within the system to a significant level
(Dutta, 2011). On the other hand due to presence of several layers in the hierarchy appropriate
decision making can be carried out as all the decision are passed through several checks.
However the level of complexity in Wellington is huge as compared to NHS. This is due to the
reason that every process takes huge time period and includes suitable system of communication
within the organization. Whole function in NHS and Wellington has the features like interlinked.
For instance, the department of finance is making development of the budget for every function
within the business. Therefore after making issue of the budget by the finance department the
budget is assigned for every function. Moreover with such the procedure of planning is
conducted. On the basis of budget allocated the department of human resource is required to
devise strategy with respect to recruitment of new employees for the sake of enhancing the
functioning of the business (Fernando, 2011). In situation the HR department is carrying out the
function in an effective manner then only other department will carry out the function in an
appropriate manner. Therefore it is presented that all the functions within the business are inter-
connected with each other.
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PART 2
P4
Macro environment affect the operations of business up to high extent. Macro
environment is comprised of varied influencing factors which makes both positive and negative
impact on the business operation. These includes political, social, economic, technological,
environmental and legal factors. On the other hand, business operation can be defined as
different set of activities conducted by business enterprise for the purpose of attaining the goals.
It includes marketing, allocation of fund, staffing, HR planning, organisation structure, business
forecasting, leadership strategy and other related aspects. Considering the case study of NHS, it
is affected majorly by political, economic, legal and social factors. Being a public company, it
witnesses forces from different bodies within external environment. Business operation of NHS
that are influenced from external factors are daily function, structure, working practices, policies
and employee relations. Underneath mentioned the influence of varied macro environment factor
over NHS:
Political factor: It is comprised of government spending, political leadership, government
agenda, development of working standards, political instability and other factors that affects the
business operation of NHS. It is evident that there is complex standard set of CQC (Care Quality
Commission) due to which the organisation need to reframe it strategies to meet such standards.
Also, political imperative in order to reduce demand that influences business functioning of
NHS. However, the cited institute being a public body gets specific attention from government
bodies in terms of development and budget (Francis, 2013). Through this, better service is
offered to user and hence meet their satisfaction level. NHS even affected by the changing
policies of government and hence are not in a position to develop long term strategy. Hence,
political factor includes both positive and negative factor.
Economic Factor: This includes factor related to financial performance, funding, recession,
wages and salary of employees, NHS tariff and other related factors. With these factors, overall
revenue of the company is affected and also affects the salary structure. This affects overall
business function of NHS (NHS, East of England, 2011). Recession is another element that
affect the service of NHS which certainly declines its earning.
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Legal factor: Legal factor involve legislation related to employment, health and social care,
safety standards and other legislative aspect that affects business operation. Recent case of junior
doctor contract results into strike that affects working pattern of the hospital. However, Bribery
Act and European Working Time Directive support the organisation in creating positive work
life balance. Further, Liberating the NHS helped the organisation to put the patient and public
first. Also, it assisted to improve healthcare outcomes, aids in reducing bureaucracy along with
improving efficiency. Hence, there is a positive impact of legal factor on the operations of NHS.
Social Factor: It includes shared beliefs and attitudes of population. Major component of this
factor includes age distribution, population, income level, beliefs, health consciousness and other
related. Operations of NHS is developed in a manner that it can offer high amount of benefits to
society. With the increased ageing population in UK, pressure is increasing on the operations of
NHS (Battilana, 2011). To settle such demand, large number of doctors and medical practitioners
and required. Also, changing health needs of society required re-framing of business operation.
This incurs cost and time.
P5
NHS being a public company affects with varied factors. It is required to conduct the
internal and external analysis in order to frame sound strategies. Underneath mentioned internal
analysis of NHS.
Internal analysis is conducted in order to assess the internal aspect of the company.
Through this, strength and weakness has been identified that been enumerated below:
Strength of NHS from Internal analysis
Performance Improvement: In the recent past, overall performance of the organisation has
increased tremendously. There is significant improvement in care facility along with treatment
which developed sense of belongingness among society. Further, there is significant rise in the
facility and treatment offered to society which eventually boosted its market presence. From this,
there is high performance of the company (Mannion and Braithwaite, 2012).
High Reputation: Further, NHS enjoys high reputation in UK market that aids in capturing larger
market share. There is successful service rationalisation and high support from staff members
which develop strong bond between medical practitioners and patients. Also, it is evident that
there is very low infection rate from NHS which even increase the trust among society.
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Weakness of NHS from Internal Analysis
Liquidity: NHS is having low liquidity due to which it cannot able to invest in major or
expensive projects. With this, there are insufficient capacity especially at Watford because of
increased instances of emergency services. From this, marginal cost is increased by average cost.
Fail to meet demand: It is even found that increased pressure from society leads to a situation of
fail to meet demands (Tuffrey-Wijne, and et.al., 2013). Also, there is increased pressure on the
staff member which somewhere affects their performance. Hence, it is required to increase its
staff and unit size for the purpose of meeting with market demand.
Apart from internal analysis, there are strength and weakness from external analysis as
well. These have been enumerated underneath:
Strength of NHS from External Analysis
Rigorous Expansion into Care Service: NHS can expand heavily into care service along with its
hospital in order to capture larger market share. It is found that demand of care service is
increasingly in UK and hence by focusing more into it will help in meeting the diverse needs of
customers. Presently NHS is having different set of experienced staff which can easily aids in
expanding more into care services (West, Dawson and Topakas, 2011).
Government Funding: Government bodies is focusing on NHS and for its development so that
better facilities can be offered to patients. Also, there is good government funding scheme which
helps in developing its base. However, NHS can focus on private funding as well in order to
increase its business operation and functional area. This can be done under private public
partnership agreement.
Weakness of NHS from External Analysis
Political Instability: Due to high influence of political party on the operation of NHS, high
pressure is witnessed over it. From this, the company need to changed its policy and strategies in
order to accommodate with political party. Also, NHS is not able to frame long term policy due
to intervention of government (Grove and et.al., 2010).
Economic Stability: Further, UK has undergone huge recession in past time and this can be the
situation in future as well. This affects the operation of NHS along with project undertaken by it.
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P6
The macro environment includes political, economical, socio-cultural, technological,
demographic as well as economical factor that has greater influence of the organization to a
significant level. For the purpose of running in smooth way the business is required to keep
balance among its strengths as well as weakness in addition to the external factors. The firm such
as NHS is making use of technological updation from the past several years. This has leads to
recognition. Increase in quality services in attracting the patients (Mockler, 2002). Further the
health care outcomes is considered as boon in increasing the service delivery by the firm. The
factor like economical is influencing the capital of the firm and the patients power to take
treatment for renowned health care firm. The vision of the company is to provide quality services
to the patients that is bringing improvement in the treatment outcome. The focus of the
organization is towards carrying out the review of the feedbacks on regular time interval and
takes into account necessary suggestions. The organization has recovered in an effective manner
from the external factors and has fulfilled the expectations of the customers.
M3 and M4
Such is mainly in relation to gaining insight to both internal and external analysis of NHS
in order to carry out in-depth analysis of the present market position. This section is configuring
the main external factors of NHS by executing the tool like PEST analysis. Political factor is
related with outlining of the potential measures of NHS market place within UK that is
configuring debatable situation due to existing intercession of Brexit that has made changes in
EU laws (Madura, 2006). Economical factors is in relation to addressing the economic
stipulation of UK market with respect to acknowledging the present rate of interest, inflation and
taxation. This reflects the flow of income of firm wherein NHS is performing in stabilized
market condition. Socio-cultural presents that needs of the patients needs to be centered as with
this they can be satisfied in an effective manner. Further it is significant to make use of updated
technology in the field of health care as it enhances the treatment outcome with greater
effectiveness.
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b)
D2
This case study is basically about the analysis on the environmental factors which greatly
affects the operations & functions of the organization. Collected data are analysis & evaluate the
impact on the organizational functions. Environmental factors are of two types Micro & Macro.
Macro factors are further divided in also two types internal & external factors. both the
internal & external factors together influence the work of the organization. Internal factors are
those factors which are exist within an organization. The internal factors are comprised with the
organization financial condition, organizational structure & culture, managerial policies &
company brand image. On the other hand external factors are exist outside the organization but
greatly affects the organizational functions. under the external environment political, social,
economical, technological, natural & geographical factors (Yu and Ramanathan, 2012). political
factors are governmental activities & conditions in which factors are change according to the
governmental change like laws & regulations & other trade barriers. economic factors are also a
two types micro as well as macro. In micro market size, demand, supply & relationship with
suppliers and distributors. while in macro the interest rate, currency exchange rate, recession &
depression. In social factors consumer preferences, taste, age group and culture are change
according to the change in the fashion as well as technology. Economic factors may have a great
impact on the organization in longer or shorter term.
The economic condition in the UK are favorable in nature due to the low moderate
interest rate which shows the country economic health. Sometimes company makes the
customized products & services according to their customers needs & their expectation that
increases the product demand which also creates the great impact on the economy. Under
discussion on the NHS faces the many kind of challenges regarding to the changes in the
technological factors (Zhu and et.al., 2012). It provides the unique quality services with respect
to others. In a comparison manner they also provide the online facility like payment as well
online conversation and tends to fulfill the customer requirement in order to growth. Further the
organization also helps the poor people who are not able to afford the expensive treatment that
time firm helps to give the free services to the people & sometime take lower charges for the
facility. NHS are very conscious about to expand the wide range of services to meet the
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customers demand & enhancement in the number of customers which in turns to increase the
organization profitability. The firm also focuses on the modification of the existing products &
services in order to improve the efficiency. some times NHS faces the legal issues when their
main motive is to earn profit unless to resolve the barriers regarding to the legal issues & other
aspects. NHS should maintains the great relationship with suppliers & distributors those are the
main elements for the success of any organization because any type of violation create the issues
& service related risk like delay in service. The environmental factors are more competent for the
growth of the organization which is also in suitable manner for effective eco-friendly practices
as well as tools those helps in achieving the predefined targets with an higher efficiency. NHS
should follow the structure and schedule for an on going processes which helps in controlling,
monitoring all the activities in an effective manner for a better result. All the practices must be
eco-friendly which maintains the reliable nature in the organization for overcoming the
obstacles. the strength & weaknesses are the internal factors of any organization which makes a
great impact on the set objective. Every organization should evaluates their strengths,
weaknesses after that by using strength in terms to enhance performance of the organization.
Along with this it assist in taking an advantage from delivering the unique services in an cost
effective manner. Weaknesses is the negative key element for the organization either it can
improve or avoid, because it is harmonious for the lose of selling. On the other hand the
weaknesses of the organization is effectively determined in order to perform at optimum level
rather than to stop. find out the areas where they want to improve and remain competitive like
higher than average turnover, inadequate supply chain & lack of capital. Opportunities are refers
to favorable external factors for that organization in order to take competitive advantages.
various areas where we take opportunities for increasing the sales as well as capture the wide
market share maintains the great position in the market place (Capon, 2009). Threats are those
factors that have potential to harm the organizational operations by the recession in the country
economy, increase the cost of the raw material & intense competition in the market and find out
the competent factors which can be improve. Sometimes also organization faces the strike of the
union regarding to fulfill the demand because this factor is greatly affect the operations of the
organization. Now days organization follow the flexible nature in this they can alter the
processes & method in the operation to meet the demands and expand their operations at various
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