Tag Archive: organisation


Stakeholders

Filed Under: Businesses by Kirsty — Leave a comment
April 15, 2010

The definition of a stakeholder is people or groups who have legitimate interest in activities of businesses and other organisations in their society.
The stakeholder concept is important for 2 main reasons. Firstly it emphasises the fact that stakeholder groups have differing interests. Secondly it highlights the relationship between businesses and their external environment.
There are 4 points that also need to be kept in mind when thinking about stakeholders:

• All businesses have internal stakeholders. They also have external stakeholders these are usually either strongly linked or affected by the business.
• A pretty obvious fact considering that stakeholders are human beings is that they can have differing interests which may conflict
• Culture, structure and control systems within a business will determine how conflicts, or trade-offs, are resolved, and in practice the interests of one stakeholder group often have a dominant position.
• Some stakeholder interests are protected by law, but not all. The interests of other stakeholders are protected, if at all, only by regulation or management discretion whereas owners and shareholders are protected by property and company law.
All businesses have difficulty balancing the interests of their different stakeholders, mainly when the political reality is that different groups have varying amounts of power. Such as:

• Commercial businesses have structures that recognise the dominance of shareholders. However, the legislative and regulatory environment, over, for example CO2 emissions, is increasingly imposing constraints to protect the interests of the other stakeholder groups.
• Voluntary organisations are typically less tightly structured, and priorities may depend on the power of their management committees or trustees. Employees may exhibit greater dominance than those in the commercial sector.
• Government bodies are answerable to taxpayers and to service users, both of which are represented by elected representatives (politicians); in some instances, the reality is that the dominant stakeholder is the employee.

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STEEP Theory

Filed Under: Businesses by Kirsty — Leave a comment
March 30, 2010

The external environment is the world in which the business operates, it is a large ever changing place made up of:

• Organisations
• Employers
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Other Stakeholders

A business can’t operate with being influenced by and impacting upon the external environment. A key success factor for any business is an accurate understanding of the external environment. A long-term analysis of what is happening in all areas of a business can be monitored, anticipated and dealt with accordingly. The external environment can be defined & analysed using on of the following:

• STEEP – Sociological, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political
• STEP – Sociological, Technological, Economic, Political
• PEST – Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological
• PESTLE – Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, Environmental
• STEEPLE – Sociological, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, Ethical
The idea is the same for all of the models; that there are several main external influences on a business.
The STEEP model uses the 5 headings listed above.

Sociological Factors:

These include demographic changes in:
• Age
• Structure of the population
• Patterns of work
• Gender roles
• Patterns of consumption
• Changes in culture

Technological Factors:

• ICT is lowering the barriers of time and place
• ICT creates new industries
• Many individual jobs and internal service functions have been transformed and are now largely or solely based on ICT systems.

Economic Factors:

• Rate of economic growth
• Interest rates
• Inflation rates
• Energy prices
• Exchange rates
• Levels of employment

The state of a country’s economy pervades all aspects of business life as it affects demand for goods and services, the availability and cost of resources (land, labour, materials & buildings). Both individuals’ and businesses’ behaviour reflects their expectations of economic trends. Governments use changes in the interest rate to try to achieve short-term in levels of demand, investment and spending. Global communication technology has resulted in very high levels of currency trading, which leads to a great volatility in exchange rates.

Environmental Factors:

These are of growing importance as people all over the world are very concerned about the impact of businesses on the natural environment. The following are factors that businesses need to consider:

• Legalisation – Environmental Legalisation is increasing, with the emphasis on pollution control and waste disposal. However there are regulations affecting packaging, transport and distribution and sourcing materials.
• Information – Businesses report regularly on their environmental performance.
• Employees – Employees are interested &concerned about the environmental credentials of their employers.
• Shareholders – Most shareholders of larger businesses are financial institutions who are driven by financial performance. However in several countries a category of ethical investors is emerging.
• Pressure Groups –In the late 20th Century there was a massive growth in pressure groups, most of which were established to deal with particular issues. Many of them broadened their membership bases and became a permanent part of the political scene; these groups include groups such as Greenpeace and Stonewall.
• Customers – There are opportunities for businesses that are operating to high environmental standards to gain market advantage.

Political factors

Political influences affect/most of what we all do. Here are only a few political factors for businesses:
• Legislation – This affects a lot of different aspects of business life. The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development).
• Trading Relationships – Examples of this are the World Trade Organisation and the European Union.
• Government- In many cases the Government is either the largest employer or purchaser of goods and services or in some cases the only customer.
• Public Services – Health Services, Education and the Police Force are all determined on political grounds.
• Taxation – This is a pretty big one for businesses.

The distinction between the factors defined in the STEEP model are rather artificial, this is because in reality the factors are often interlinked.

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Clinical Business Excellence

Filed Under: Healthcare Products, The NHS and Healthcare by Kirsty — Leave a comment
February 19, 2010

The definition of business excellence is: a state of organizational performance achieved through the successful integration of a variety of operational and strategic elements that enables an organization to become one of the best in its field. Excellence is initially evident when an organization rises above its competitors, and it is usually measured by the ability to sustain a leading or significant market share. The strategic and operational elements contributing to excellence include the organization’s approach to total quality management, quality assurance, quality awards and quality standards, core competency, benchmarking, customer service, the balanced scorecard, and leadership. Taken altogether, these components should produce an organizational approach to the generation, development, and delivery of products and services that is better, cheaper, and smarter than that of the competition. Attempts at becoming an excellent organization have spawned terms such as best practice, best-in-class, and world class manufacturing and are usually associated with a holistic approach to competitive advantage.

So clinical business excellence takes this definition and applies it to clinical settings. Medicology has a centre of excellence in this area. They are already running courses to help the NHS staff develop on both a professional and a personal level. Now they are holding a conference on, yes you guessed it, Clinical Business Excellence. This conference will be held on the 29th June 2010 at Park Crescent Conference Centre. For more details see clinicalbusiness.co.uk.

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