IOM Electronics Ltd: Functional Areas and Employee Skills Report

This report examines the functional areas within a business organization, including marketing, human resource management, finance, operations, and technology. It highlights the significance of each function in achieving business goals, emphasizing their interconnectedness and the need for coordination. The report then delves into the essential skills required for employees to effectively perform in these functional areas, such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, creativity, leadership, technical proficiency, and decision-making. It uses IOM Electronics as a case study, a regional organization with 200 employees, to illustrate these concepts. The conclusion stresses the importance of understanding each functional area and the skills needed for success, suggesting that organizations should build teams with the necessary skills to optimize operational benefits and achieve greater success.

World of Work

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
Functional areas in organisation..................................................................................................2
Skills required for employees to achieve functionality...............................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The business activities consist of wide range of functions which works in alignment to
achieve a common goal. A successful business relies on multiple functions which help in
understanding business environment and needs and to respond accordingly. Each of the business
function plays a significant role in making business reliable and operative. It is also required that
these functions must have cooperation and coordination with each other so that functional and
operational gaps can be identified and business goals can be achieved. This report will discuss
the various functional units which comprises of any business. It will also provide a critical
evaluation of the necessary skills which are required to effectively complete the business
functions.
MAIN BODY
Functional areas in organisation
The key functional aspects which constitute a business are as follows:
Marketing: One of the key functional units in any organisation is marketing which emphasis on
utilising strategies to build long term customer or public relationship as well as to maintain good
brand value. The marketing efforts of the organisation are considered as key to represent any
organisation in wide business environment. Marketers used to conduct market audits so that
competitive and innovative business trends can be identified and necessary changes can be made
into promotional, pricing, product or process strategies of the company (IsmailKhater and Zaki,
2017). For long term success it is vital that public relations must be improved and a positive
brand perception is build. Even for survival in competitive environment it is expected to adopt
strategies and services which can provide a unique value proposition for the company. It is
possible only when organisation has highly innovative and interactive marketing team. The
customers have direct interaction with marketers which motivates them to choose the product or
services of the organisation.
Human resource management: This function forms the foundation of any organisation by
ensuring that organisation has all necessary resources including human resource which performs

all necessary operations of the company. It is one of the most important functions of business
because all other functions need trained and skilled employees who are capable to achieve
business goals (Pellegrino and Piva, 2020). It is the responsibility of HR function to ensure that a
productive and good working culture is developed within company and staff members are
provided all necessary motivation so that they can complete their tasks without any restrictions.
For this purpose its functions also include activities like training, development and recruitment.
Finance: Managing funds and accounting functions is also one of the important functions of
business. This functional unit manages the work like evaluating and managing investment needs,
budgeting and forecasting process. The function helps organisation to predict and maintain
profitable cash flow and to properly plan expenditures and potential revenues. The lack of
finance or accounting functions can make business process unclear and risk involving which can
even lead to bankruptcy or organisation. If financing does not function in desired manner then it
can result in lack of investors and funds (Păunescu and Argatu, 2020). Also to regularly monitor
and evaluate the cash flow or financial performance of any company it is required that there must
be an expert team which is capable of conducting detailed financial analysis of all the activities
and business operations.
Operations: This function involves processes as well as equipment so that product or services
can be delivered and created to customers. The operational aspect ensures that needs of
customers are fulfilled in competitive way so that organisation can provide best services to its
customers than its competitors. Operational functions are responsible for selecting the
mechanism which can deliver the quality services on time to customers with optimisation use of
resources and business values. If there will be operational errors then company will not be able
to gain trust of its customers and to establish the supremacy of quality products and brands.
Technology: In current situations it is not possible for any organisation to survive the fierce
competition and broad opportunities of global market without using technology. Hence each
organisation must also have separate functional unit which identify and addresses the issues and
needs related to technological advancement. The technology functional team is responsible for
finding the more feasible and reliable technology solution for the organisation which can manage
the data of company. At present all firms uses technology for data handling as well as for
communication with its teams and customers (Cagle, Yılmaz and Doğru, 2020). Thus it becomes

necessary to have a functional unit which can help in maintaining and upgrading the technology
needs and services within firm. The technology devices are used by all other functional units and
employees within organisation. Thus technology functional department ensure that each
individual is able to access and utilise the technology resources in secure and efficient manner.
Skills required for employees to achieve functionality
IOM electronics is operating from different sites and has huge work force of nearly 200
employees. Thus it is essential that its staff members must have some particular skills so that
business functions can be accomplished with more efficiency. Some of these skills are as
follows:
Communication: It is one of the most fundamental skills which every employee must have to
properly function within organisation. Communication is not only required for executing any
particular functional department but also for interaction with other functions and stakeholders.
Without communication it is not possible for employees to understand each other and to work in
collaboration to meet the business and stakeholder needs (Jiang and Hu, 2019). This skill can be
developed by means of building an interactive or flexible culture, training programs and
communication skill development courses.
Team work skill: In order to make company successful individuals are required to be efficient
enough to overcome the personal or cultural differences and to work successfully in teams. Thus
team work skills are also mandatory for employees to operate in business environment. The lack
of team work skills can cause delayed decision making and conflicts which has direct impact
upon work culture and execution of shared goals. Poor team work can cause failure in
organisational objectives. Different functions such as marketing, HR and financing needs to be
performed in teams.
Problem solving: Employees need this skill to cope up with every day challenged faced by them
in completing their job roles (Fareri and et.al., 2018). For instance each of the function such as
accounting, marketing and operations faced different types of problems like resource
management, control and quality management. Thus it is expected that employee must have
capabilities to identify and solve the problem so that work progress can be maintained.

Creativity: For completing functional aspects it is also necessary that staff members must be
creative enough. Though this skill is required by every functional areas but it has its prominence
mainly in marketing and HR functions. Marketers need to be highly creative to attract and retain
the customers for long term (Macchi, Savino and Roda, 2020). Similarly the HR function also
needs to include creativity so that a productive and better work culture can be build and
employee turnover can be improved.
Leadership and management: For reaching new heights of business and competitive benefits
employees must also have management skill. The proper management of knowledge and
resources helps employees to make their work more progressive and quick. With leadership
skills individuals are also allowed to express themselves and to take decisions which are helpful
for their professional as well as personal goals.
Technical skills: In current situations each of the function is carried out by digital or networking
technology. Thus technical skill is one of the essential elements for improving the functional
outcomes. For instance by using social media technology HR and marketing functions are more
transparent and wide. Similarly automation technology can be used to make operations more
accurate. So while selecting employees technical skills must also be given priority because they
makes function business competent.
Decision making: In business there are frequent situations when one must make good and quick
decisions. Thus an efficient employee also has decision making skill so that business risks can be
minimised and each of the function can be performed with greater accuracy(Kotlarsky, Van den
Hooff and Geerts, 2020). For instance operational teams have to make regular judgement and
decision about the production techniques so that quality and operational cost can be balanced. If
employees will not have decision ability then business will never be able to explore the possible
opportunities or to identify the emerging threats.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that it is essential that entrepreneurs must
understand the characteristics and need of each functional area. The understanding helps in
improving the functional outcome of organisation. It has been also analysed from the above

discussion that to effectively accomplish the functional requirements of company individuals and
teams must develop certain skills. The development and continuous improvement of these skills
improve the efficiency of business outcomes and makes organisation more successful. It is
suggested that organisations must develop teams which have essential skills to optimise the
functional benefits of various operations.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cagle, M.N., Yılmaz, K. and Doğru, H., 2020. Digitalization of Business Functions under
Industry 4.0. In Digital Business Strategies in Blockchain Ecosystems (pp. 105-132).
Springer, Cham.
Fareri, S., and et.al., 2018. Workers 4.0: skills, profiles and jobs in different business
functions. Economy, employment and skills: European, regional and global
perspectives in an age of uncertainty, p.95.
Ismail, M.H., Khater, M. and Zaki, M., 2017. Digital business transformation and strategy: What
do we know so far. Cambridge Service Alliance, 10.
Jiang, Y. and Hu, Z., 2019. Discussion on Business Administration Functions, Management
Principles and Methods.
Kotlarsky, J., Van den Hooff, B. and Geerts, L., 2020. Under pressure: Understanding the
dynamics of coordination in IT functions under business-as-usual and emergency
conditions. Journal of Information Technology, 35(2), pp.94-122.
Macchi, M., Savino, M. and Roda, I., 2020. Analysing the support of sustainability within the
manufacturing strategy through multiple perspectives of different business
functions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 258, p.120771.
Păunescu, C. and Argatu, R., 2020. Critical functions in ensuring effective business continuity
management. Evidence from Romanian companies. Journal of Business Economics
and Management, 21(2), pp.497-520.
Pellegrino, G. and Piva, M., 2020. Innovation, industry and firm age: are there new knowledge
production functions?. Eurasian Business Review, 10(1), pp.65-95.