BUSINESS ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT
Units:
Organisation and Management
Criteria:
Knowledge and Understanding, Reflection Processes and Action Skills
Task:
The first stage of the assignment is to research a production company, compile a
company profile and undertake a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats) analysis in order to determine how the company might wish to reorganise its
various operations.
Following on from the SWOT analysis, you have been asked to propose any resulting
organisational changes that you feel would be of strategic benefit to the company.
It has been requested that you provide the company with an indication of the likely
reasons why there might be resistance from the workforce to the changes you are
proposing and the most appropriate ways to overcome such resistance.
Finally, as part of a recruitment process, you have been asked to provide the content for
a job advertisement for the post of the Managing Director, which will be placed in the
national newspapers.
Length:
800-1000 words
Due Date:
Week 7
CONTENTS:
Introduction
You are a business consultant and have been contracted to assist a company of your choice.
The company has recently had a number of problems that have seriously affected its overall
profitability. The main problems are:
 Failure to adopt new working practices, which has meant that the costs of products have
become more expensive than its competitors, with the result that sales and market share are
decreasing. It has also resulted in conflict between the management and trade union.
 All manufacturing sites are old and require significant investment to bring them up to the
standards required by health and safety laws.
 The morale of the production workers is very low because of poor working conditions,
disputes over new working arrangements and loss of overtime working.



Two of the sites are located on the edge of residential areas and investigations have shown that
it would be relatively straightforward to obtain planning permission to build residential
houses on either of these sites. The company has already been approached by three property
developers with a view to selling either or both sites, but to date it has turned these
approaches down.
The company had decided to outsource their administrative processes offshore.
The Managing Director of the company has recently retired and the Board of Directors has
asked you to assist in recruiting a successor.
Task 01
You need to do some research to familiarise yourself with the subject area and to gain some ideas
about how you can carry out the rest of the project. There are a number of manufacturers with their
own web sites. Review these resources, identifying the range of products offered and the approaches
that have been adopted to market these products. Bookmark the relevant sites and make notes of
information that you can use in your assignment. Provide a basic profile of your chosen company
including their location, contact person, background, core activities, mission statement, current
organisational structure and ownership structure.
Task 02
Produce a work plan for the way you intend to complete the rest of this assignment. For planning, use
the timescale you have been allocated for this assignment i.e. from the date you start to the date you
submit your assignment. Submit a copy of your plan to your teacher BEFORE you proceed further with
the assignment.
Task 03
Carry out a SWOT analysis on behalf of the company. Consider the current situation in terms of the
strengths and weaknesses, together with the major threats to the business and the opportunities that
exist to develop current product lines or exploit new business opportunities. Use the issues outline
above along with any other issues your research has highlighted within the company (ensure you
consider the current economic climate). You should summarise the conclusions arising out of the
SWOT analysis in no more than 250 words to ensure that you focus upon the key issues.
Task 04
Draw up an organisational chart for the company that reflects the major conclusions arising out of the
SWOT analysis. The chart should indicate the site(s) at which staff are to be located and the product
lines upon which manufacturing staff are involved. You should make your own assumptions about the
numbers of staff and associated levels of supervision for each product line. For the purposes of the
chart you do not need to indicate each individual member of production staff, simply show the total
number of production staff associated with each product line. You should also include a short
commentary of no more than 200 words explaining your reasons for the structure of the organisation
chart.
Task 05
Identify two reasons why there might be resistance from the staff to the recommendations that you
are making for the organisational structure as a result of the findings of the SWOT analysis. As part of
this, you should bear in mind the previous conflict between management and the trade union, as well
as the problems that have been experienced in terms of the morale of the workforce. For each reason
identified, give a brief description of a method that could be used to counter this type of resistance.
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