World of Work 1: Functional Areas, Skills Needed for Business Success

This report examines the functional areas within a business organization, including marketing, human resources, operations, sales, and finance, and their respective roles in achieving business goals. The report uses the scenario of a lottery winner acquiring a company to illustrate the importance of these functional areas. It further discusses the essential skills that employees need to possess to perform their job roles effectively, such as communication, problem-solving, team working, technological proficiency, and self-management. The report emphasizes how these skills contribute to employee performance, smooth functioning of each department, and ultimately, the overall success and competitive advantage of the business. The report also highlights the importance of both internal and external business environment factors. Finally, the report concludes with a summary of the key takeaways and reinforces the significance of functional departments and employee skills in achieving organizational objectives.

World of Work
1

Contents
INTRODUCTION (125)............................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................3
Functional areas in business organisation..............................................................................3
Skills need to work effectively in business functional areas..................................................4
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................7
2

INTRODUCTION
Functional area can be defined as a person or department which carries out a
particular business function such as: finance, HR, sales and customer service. This present
study is going to discuss functional areas in business organisation such as: marketing,
finance, HR and finance along with their roles in accomplishing business goals. Further, it
will discuss some effective skills by which employees can perform their job roles in business
functional areas such as: communication, team working, flexibility, team working and
decision-making. All these skills help out companies in becoming successful as well as taking
competitive advantages.
MAIN BODY
Functional areas in business organisation
For running business in a smooth manner, it is important for businessman to have
proper and in-depth knowledge regarding business environment and its functional areas. In
this case, John who is 21 years old has just won £10 million in lottery and he does not have
much work experience. He has decided to buy a local company and selected company is 200
employee base over 2 main sites: Liverpool and Manchester. For making John able in
running this business in an effective manner and making customers as well as employees
beneficial, it is important to let him know about different functional areas along with their
importance. Some common functional areas that play a vital role within business include:
Marketing: Marketing is one of the important functional department that perform all
those functions by which company can identify needs of customers and satisfy their needs.
The main function of marketing department is to promote companies ‘goods and services and
attracting customers for buying them. Marketing plays a vital role in increasing sales of
company and increasing customers; experience (Sarferaz, 2022). Designing products,
communicating with sales department regarding increasing sales as per the needs of
customers, collecting data regarding customers’ needs through research and development are
main functions of marketing functional department.
Human resource: It is an important functional department that is responsible for
hiring and retaining skilled employees. Satisfying employees needs and making sure as they
are happy and safe at workplace and are performing functions in an effective manner is their
responsibility. They perform number of functions that include: staffing, recruitment,
selection, motivation to employees, training, team working and rewards. All these functions
3

help them out in increasing staff retention rate. When company has skilled employees with it
then it is more likely to become successful and accomplish goals.
Operations: Operational functional department is the one inputs as well as factors of
production are being converted in order to get qualitative products or outputs. Operation is
known as the heart of a business that provide qualitative and quantitative goods by which
employees can satisfy needs of customers (Tien and et.al., 2019). Without operations,
marketing and other functions cannot be performed. It is the one that controls supply chain
that include: logistics and procurement.
Sales: An organisation that is either business to business or business to customer,
needs to sell its products so that it can earn profit and generate revenue. Sales department
helps out company in increasing sales and for performing functions in an effective manner, it
requires collaboration of marketing. By communicating with marketing department it can
collect information about customers’ needs and market trends and accordingly, it can increase
sale and provide products to customers.
Finance: This functional department is responsible for planning, obtaining as well as
managing company’s fund. Financial manager plays a vital role as it helps out company in
managing business operations in minimum amount or fund. Financial manager plans for short
term as well as long term capital needs and accordingly provide fund to each functional
department (Le Meunier-Fitzhugh and Massey, 2019). It suggests to businessmen about
better ways of raising funds, long term cost of borrowing funds and ways in decreasing cost
without affecting business operations.
Along with these functional departments, there are other main departments that also
play a vital role in accomplishing organisations’ goals and vision as well. Research and
development, information technology, purchasing, administration are some other common
functional departments. John needs to focus on hiring skilled department heads and
employees so that they can perform each function in an effective manner. It is also important
for John to understand that business environment is made up of 2 types of factors such as:
internal and external. Internal business environment factors are those that happen within
business and can affect performance of company in a critical manner. Company’s internal
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, strategies, employees and structure are known as
internal business environmental factors.
4

Skills need to work effectively in business functional areas
As it is known that there are number of business functional areas that play a vital role in
accomplishing goals. But there is need for employees to possess some skills by which they
can perform their job role related to these functional areas. Some common skills that each
employee need to possess whether he is in financial department, marketing, HR or other.
Skills include:
Communication: It is the main common skill that everyone need in order to perform their
job roles in an effective manner. By having this skill, employees can interact with their
colleagues, managers and customers. If employees have this skill, then they can influence
customers and can motivate them for buying products and investing in business (Lin and
Chang, 2018). It is beneficial for company. Lack of this skill can create problems as it can
increase miscommunication among employees that can increase conflicts. It can then affect
business environment. So, on the basis of this example, it can be said that employees need to
possess oral as well as written communication skill for working in above discussed functional
areas.
Problem-solving: As it is known that business environment is made up from internal and
external environmental factors that can lead changes. Covid-19 is one of the main examples
of it. At these situations, employees need to solve problems and by having this skill, they can
take better decision as well as can perform their functions without getting affected in a
negative manner. It is believed that employees who possess this skill are more likely to be
stressed free and refreshed at workplace.
Team working: Employees need to have an ability to work in a team in an effective manner.
There are number of projects that needed to be completed in a group. If employees do not
have this skill, then it can affect overall group performance and can affect quality of group
project (Azmi and et.al., 2018). So, for learning new things, completing projects with
effectiveness, employees need to possess this skill.
Numerical or technological: Nowadays, number of functions are being performed with the
help of advanced technology and software. Employees need to have knowledge to use
computer, network access and ways to identify difference between right and wrong links so
that they can protect their company from breach of privacy and other problems. By having
this skill, employees of marketing, finance and HR department can research, collect
information, make budgets and hire employees in a timely and effective manner.
5

Self-management: It refers an ability by which employees can manage their workflow,
behaviour and productivity at workplace without being dependent on others. By having this
skill, employees can perform tasks without help of others and individually. It is found that by
managing behaviour of own and working independently, employees can boost their
confidence and it can help them out in improving their overall performance. It motivates and
encourages them towards accomplishing long term goals and career development as well.
Along with these skills, there are number of other skills that also play a vital role such
as: flexibility or an ability to adapt changes, critical analysis, research and development,
passions and an active listening (Martela, 2019). By having all these skills, employees can
work in any kind of situation without feeling frustrated and depressed. When employees have
time management and flexibility skills then they are more likely to make a balance between
their personal and professional lives. By working on these skills, John can run its business in
an effective manner and can make it successful. Employees can also be hired on the basis of
these skills so that they can perform their functions with effectiveness.
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized from the above study that functional departments of business
play a vital role. Each functional department helps out companies in accomplishing their
goals of increasing customers’ satisfaction, employees’ retention, profitability and increasing
sales. This study has shown importance of marketing and human resource functional
department and ways by which they help out manager in attracting customers, satisfying their
needs and retaining them with business for the long run. It has shown some skills that
employees need to perform their functions in an effective manner in functional areas such as:
team working, technological, communication, decision-making, problem solving and self-
management. All these skills make them able in improving performance as well as smooth
running of each functional department.
6

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Azmi, A.N. and et.al., 2018. Towards industrial revolution 4.0: employers’ expectations on
fresh engineering graduates. International Journal of Engineering &
Technology, 7(4.28), pp.267-272.
Le Meunier-Fitzhugh, K. and Massey, G.R., 2019. Improving relationships between sales and
marketing: the relative effectiveness of cross-functional coordination
mechanisms. Journal of Marketing Management, 35(13-14), pp.1267-1290.
Lin, C.C. and Chang, C.H., 2018. Evaluating skill requirement for logistics operation
practitioners: based on the perceptions of logistics service providers and academics
in Taiwan. The Asian Journal of Shipping and Logistics, 34(4), pp.328-336.
Martela, F., 2019. What makes self-managing organizations novel? Comparing how
Weberian bureaucracy, Mintzberg’s adhocracy, and self-organizing solve six
fundamental problems of organizing. Journal of Organization Design, 8(1), pp.1-23.
Sarferaz, S., 2022. Functional Departments and Enterprise Domains. In Compendium on
Enterprise Resource Planning (pp. 55-65). Springer, Cham.
Tien, N.H. and et.al., 2019. Human resource development strategy of Ton Duc Thang
University to improve its position on the international rankings. Human resources,
p.8.
7