Reference no: EM132533619

Assessment activity 1:

Carry out an investigation into two contrasting types of business organisation from different sectors (you could choose one in the private sector and one in the public sector or voluntary sector). You should consider stakeholder influence in the two organisations, and your report should focus on:
• business activity, for example, local, national, global
• business sector
• business purpose
• ownership of the business
• key stakeholders of the business.
1. Describe the type of business, purpose and ownership of two contrasting organisations.
2. Describe the different stakeholders who influence the purpose of these contrasting organisations.

Grading tips

1. An Internet search using the name of the business/organisation will be a good starting point. You should send off for a company report for any private sector company-addresses will be supplied on the company website. You should also study recent news reports to get the latest changes in the activities of these organisations. Make sure yoi describe the activities of the two organisations You should not spend too much time on the history, but it may be helpful to give a brief introduction showing how and why the business was set up, and how it has changed to become what it is today.

2. Reading company reports about your chosen organisations and other literature they produce will give you a good idea of who the main stakeholders are in these organisations. Look through the report to identify specific mentions of stakeholder groups and ways that the organisation is seeking to engage with these groups, for example, through meetings and other communications. What sorts of relationships is the company seeking to build with different groups? You may feel that some groups get more attention than others. Why do you think this happens?

Assessment activity 2:

You work as a junior journalist for the local newspaper, which is planning to run a feature article on local businesses. Produce an article on two local, contrasting businesses covering:
• purpose
• ownership organisational structure
• strategic planning.
1. Describe how each business is organised.
2. Explain how the style of organisation helps each one to fulfil their purposes.
3. Explain the points of view of different stakeholders seeking to influence the aims and objectives of two contrasting organisations.
4. Evaluate the influence that different stakeholders exert in one of the organisations.

Grading tips
1. Remember that organisations need to be arranged into a structure that will enable them to meet their purposes - for example, to make a profit or to achieve their mission aims as a charity. Can you identify a chain of command or line of control in the organisations? How do you think this helps the organisations to contro their activities?

2. To gain a merit, you will need to elaborate on the points of view of the various stakeholder groups. What are they trying to achieve from influencing the organisations? What impact have they had in shaping the aims and objectives of the organisations?

3. To gain a distinction you need to provide an in-depth evaluation of the influence that the stakeholders have. For example, do some of the stakeholders work together? What common interests do they have? What opposing interests do they have? How are these differences resolved?.

Assessment activity 3:
For this activity you need to look at how different economic environments affect two selected business organisations. One of these businesses should be based in Britain and the other in a different country. You should look at one of the organisations you have been studying so far. It should be operating within the context of the British economy (you can find statistics about economic trends in Britain.

The second organisation should be operating in a different country. You can research it by examining its annual report, which you should be able to obtain online. You can then look at statistics for inflation, employment and GDP for the organisation's country by using the latest statistics produced by the national statistical office in that country.
The types of issues you should be looking at include:
• the economic environment facing the business (for example, recession, rising demand and so on)
• levels of inflation
• government policy in relation to business
• changes in GDP and in demand in economies studied
• changes in conditions of supply.

You should also examine issues involving global interdependence that affect the business, including the supply chain and ownership of the business, as well as how it acquires capital for its activities.

Describe the influence of two contrasting economic environments on business activities within a selected organisation.
2. Compare the challenges to selected business activities within a selected organisation in two different economic environments.
Grading tips
1. Use newspapers, and data from the Internet setting out economic data. Every day newspapers and the BBC produce economic updates on what is happening to consumer spending, GDP, inflation rates, interest rates and so on. You should study reports in newspapers like the Guardian and the Independent to identify current economic trends. To find an up-to-date graph illustrating such data you can access Google Images, and search for the data you require, for exam le: 'UK Consumer Price Index March 2010'.
2. You will need to analyse the data that you gather for P5. You will soon get a picture of whether national demand and GDP are rising or falling, whether changes in interest rates favour business or not, and so on. You then need to make sense of this data to identi the key challenges to your two businesses.

Assessment activity 4:
For the assignment, you have been examining two contrasting business organisations. The final part of the assessment asks you to examine how your chosen organisations are affected by changes in their political, legal and social environments.
1. Describe how political, legal and social factors are impacting upon the business activities of selected organisations and their stakeholders.
2. Analyse how political, legal and social factors have impacted on two contrasting organisations.
3. Evaluate how future changes in economic, political, legal and social factors may impact on the strategy of a specified organisation.

Grading tips
1. You only need to examine the main political, legal and social factors that affect your business. It is helpful to use the three headings
but remember that there will be a certain amount of overlap between the three areas.

To achieve a pass you simply need to describe some of the important changes that are taking place using appropriate facts and figures.

2. You need to analyse the changes. For example, which of the factors are most significant and what sort of impact are they having on the business? What sorts of changes in business planning have resulted from these external changes? How is the business coping with these changes?

3. You have already looked at how changes are currently affecting your business. But what about the future? What are likely to be the new challenges facing the business? Can you find predictions and forecasts about likely changes in the economy, possible implications of a change in government policy, new laws that are likely to come in and changes that are taking place in socieiand are likely to continue in the future?