Organisation Structures

Three Main Types of Organisation

• Commercial (Companies)
• Public Service (E.g. Schools, Colleges, Hospitals and Inland Revenue)
• Charitable (E.g. Save the Children, Oxfam or the National Trust)

Ownership

• Sole Traders
• Partnership
• Companies; Liabilities either Limited or Unlimited, owned by shareholders, covered by the Companies Act.
  Large companies are likely to be Public Limited Companies (plcs)

Modes of operation

• Primary sector consists of activities in the process of dealing with natural resources i.e. farming, forestry, coal mining and commercial fishing.
   
• Secondary sector consist of activities that add value to natural resources such as car manufacturing and any other form of manufacturing.
   
• Tertiary sector consists of activities aimed at providing established services such as, education, health services, retailing, banking, other financial services, legal services, tourism and transport.
   
• Quaternary sector consist of new information based services such as, Internet, mobile telephones.

ICT can be used to support all of the above sectors.

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

An Organisation usually comprises of four main internal functions,  which need to be managed.

• Production
• Sales and Marketing
• Personnel or Human Resources
• Finance and Accounting.

Larger companies sometimes have two other internal functions:

• ICT
• Research & Development.
  

External Pressures on an Organisation

 

Competitors:
An organisation needs to be aware of similar products on the market, pricing and quality to be successful in marketing it's own products.
Management may require intelligence gathering about competitors activities to enable them to make executive decisions.

Customers:
Preferences, price resistance and other market pressures.

Government:
Legislation can be a variety of forms; Health & Safety, Data Protection, Factories Act, Employment Laws as well as new EEC legislation.

Environment:
Social trends regarding population shifts, economic and social factors.
Effect of production on both the immediate environment and the macro environment.