Foundations of Business - Assignment Example

Foundations of Business Institution Name Tutor Course Date B1 High school principal works exactly like the managers of business entities. They carry out various managerial responsibilities to ensure that the school run in the expected ways and come up with ways to improve the general performance of the school. In terms of Planning, he has the responsibility of allocating all the available resources to the other teachers so as to ensure that they carry out their duties effectively and improve the academic performance of the students. The principal as well ensures that students have enough resources which are necessary to fulfill their academic desires. For instance, ensuring that there is a well-equipped library (William et al,. 2016, 183). In terms of organizing, the high school principal ensures that the activities which are carried out within the school mainly works towards utilization of the resources which will indubitably lead to the realization of the goals of the school in terms of academics and the disciplines being imparted to the students so as to become the responsible future leaders. Consequently, the school principal directs all the activities of the school, by providing a focus for the school teachers and other staff and motivating them so that they can have the willingness to work hard so as to achieve the organizational goals. In this, they offer them the advice which is needed and rewarding them when it’s due for the work done. Moreover, he carries out control tasks which entail comparing the actual performance of the teachers and the academic performance of the students and checking it with the expected performance and carrying out corrective measures. B2 An organizational structure can be described as a way in which the activities of an organization are allocated and coordinated together with being supervised and most importantly directed towards the realization of the organizational goals. In essence, this can be considered as the observation of one's business environment. The hierarchical organizational structure is a kind of a linear structure in which people are directed from the top and are expected to adhere to an instruction to the latter. This type of structure is best used for the disciplined forces. The functional structure is as well used in which the people who have some various skills are put together to perform similar tasks. This kind of structure ensures that the departments have people of required skills. This is best for the companies which are carrying out manufacturing activities so that various departments such as procurement, sales and there are distinct in their functions. Additionally, the divisional organization structure in which the tasks are divided and allocated to various managers to oversee that. This type is very good applied to the larger organizations such as the government corporations and the manager allocated such duties for single departments while being coordinated (William et al, 196). Matrix organizational structures as well are used which entails using of the various specialists in various departments so as to achieve the goal of the organization. This is best used in medical products manufacturing industries since it requires specialists. Line structure as well is very useful and it uses various management for various lines of products, this is best used in industries producing diverse products. B3 Various leadership styles have various impacts on the organizational performance. The types of the styles of leadership applied by the organization give the employees diverse control over the staff of an organization. For the leaders who practices authoritarian, such leaders give their followers little or no control over the business environment. They give all the instructions and expect to be adhered to at all times. A democratic leader, on the other hand, gives their followers partial control with regard to the control as well as decision making with regards to the operations of the organization. Laissez-faire leaders as well have a different style of handling their followers, they give them total control over their work environments, and thus the followers make their own decisions and ensure they achieve organizational goals. With regards to the three types of leadership styles above, it can be depicted that all they styles are effective in different organizational settings and thus work together in achieving the organizational goals. In this regards, the most effective type of leadership style is the democratic style. This is because, with such kind of leadership style, the leaders will involve the staff members when it comes to solving some complex issues which have to do with the organization. This implies that the staff and their leaders will have the chances to work with each other and come up with very good opinions which will provide the ways of doing other activities the perfect ways. As well, the acts of being innovative are encourages making the employees productive (William et al, 207). B4 Transactional leadership is a style which employs the rewards as well as punishment activities for motivating the employees into achieving the organizational goals. Transformational leadership style, on the other hand, employs acts of charisma as well as enthusiasm as to ensure that their employees are motivated toward working and achieving the organizational goals. Moreover, with transactional leadership style, the leader put across his emphasis with regards to his relation with the employees of the organization as well as attracting their employees by ensuring that they put their own self-interest before the employees. Transformational as well lays their emphasize for the employers who are based on the values and morals which are deemed to be necessary for the followers. Moreover, they stimulate their employees by ensuring that the activities taken, the employees are the priorities. Transformational leadership is the best style since in motivating its employees; they believe that the vision of the organization is mainly to inspire the employees as they are the ones who will work towards the achievement of the goals which have been set by the organization. In this regards, by putting into consideration the fact that the employees are as well human beings and need to be treated with care, the leaders apply the tactics which will make them happy, and thus remain more motivated to works towards achieving the organizational goals. This implies that, with this kind of leadership, the employees are given the first priorities which are very crucial as they will make them willing to work. Thus, transformational style should be adopted by organizations (William et al, 209). B5 In the problem-solving process, some stipulated steps ought to be followed so that an effective solution can be found. The first step is the problem definition in which it entails the definition of the problem and deciding on what is to achieve with regards to solving such a problem. In essence, the definition of the problem ensures that one is looking for a solution to the problem which is really at hand. Secondly, the problem analysis is done which involve checking the current situation of the problem as well as identifying the real course of the problem. This will ensure that the process which is followed as well as the time which will be spent is actually right and thus, need to be adhered to so that the solution can be found. Consequently, generations of the possible solutions are done which will lead to discovering of the real problem which is to be solved. At this stage, one will be concentrating on the generations of the solutions which are believed to solve the problems. The generated solutions as well are evaluated. In most cases, all the ideas are properly and carefully evaluated in a bid to develop a superb solution. After that, the analysis of these solutions is done so as to check the potential solutions. This entails determining its effectiveness and the costs of carrying out such activity. The best solutions are then selected basing on the analysis carried out. When selected, it is then implemented and monitored to check its effectiveness (William et al, 227). B6 Virtual teams exhibit various challenges. When launching a virtual project team, getting a very right set of competent members who are dedicated is very hard to find. In this regards, it affects the functionality and the effectiveness of such members. To overcome this, the project requirements should be used in the determination of the right skills to be used. This will ensure that the capability of the virtual team is guaranteed. Moreover, the virtual team members may also be uncertain with regards to the project which is yet to be undertaken. This might entail them not knowing what the project is about as well as how that project will seek to fulfill the organization goals. They should, in this case, be presented with an overview of the project which includes describing to them the role of the project and the stakeholders of such projects and most importantly the rewards which will be gained from such a project. Consequently, the virtual team members may as well be unfamiliar with the case with the new people meeting for the first time, and this does not know the strengths as well as the skills which each of them exhibit and their roles in the project being undertaken. This requires a compilation of the member’s qualification for each of the team members to see and understand each other's roles. Additionally, the virtual projects are mainly characterized by a lot of uncertainties with regards to working in such a virtual setting. This can be solved by engaging the team in discussion with regards to the challenges which lies ahead (William et al, 132). B7 The team working ought to have certain rules for conducts as well as carrying out the assigned tasks with other team members. The team members should get together physically which implies that they should be well staying together and be communicating with each other freely. This is important since it will help in building trust with each other and knowing the experience of one another which will help in achieving the goal of the team. Moreover, the team leaders ought to clarify the tasks as well as the goals and the roles of each team member towards the projects. In doing this, the leaders need to align such team roles with coordination to ensure that the attention of the members is focused on the main objectives of the project and thus aims at saving the resources of the organization. Most importantly, the team members should commit to the projects communication charter. This is very important since it helps in interaction as well as understanding each other easily as it seeks to improve the team member’s interactions with each other. These will entails that each member should have a well acceptable behavior and thus should respect each other. Leveraging on the communication technologies as well should be used properly could result in the saving of the resources of the company including the time. Moreover, all the allocated tasks should be ensured that the members responsible should be accountable. This means that the members ought to act responsibly which is aimed at promoting the achievement of the organizational goals (William et al, 146). B8 For the motorcycles, the marketing segmentation which mainly involve the demography which is mainly the youths and some of the older adults who have various business activities whom they prefer using the motorcycles to carry out various businesses. Geographically, it will be good forte places which the motorcycles are used as the main means of transport. In terms of behaviors, the individuals who like riding using the motorcycles. For the iPod, the marketing segmentation id different since the usage of the item is very much different from that of motorcycles. However, the demography targeted most will as well be the youths who are in line with the technology and thus require such items. This will mean that geographically, urban centers and other small towns are the best places. Behaviorally, the people who seem and act to be in line with technology are targeted. With regards to the timeshares, which involve the vocational opportunities, the targeted demography is the older adults and some more young adults who are working. This is because the people who should be targeted in this are the working individuals who may sometimes need time off from work and relax. This in terms of geographical location is everywhere in the country but targeting the companies in such areas. Consequently, the behaviors of such employees and the management of the companies like to offer their employees a fully paid holiday so that they can relax after some good performances a reward. Thus, the marketing segments for the above products are diverse (William et al, 157) B9 Coming up with a calculator which have a help key when one who needs to use it is very good idea since it will improve its usability and enhance more understanding of the system. In this regards, when such products are ready to enter the market, penetration pricing will be used. This is effective since there will be no much competition since the price will be too low for the competitors to think into venturing to such business. Moreover, since the price will be low and the customers will have seen how it is useful, good will from them will be achieved. This will imply that the customers themselves will become the agents of the company by telling all of their friends the benefits of the product and thus contributing to the products demanded (William et al, 165). In the long term, since the products will have been used to by the customers with a strong customer base established, prestige pricing will be used in selling such since it will show that the calculator is of high quality and thus expensive. The prestige pricing is very effective as well since the company will be able to achieve more of the revenues trough this as the many prestigious individuals will buy such kind of calculator and therefore increase the revenues. Moreover, when the sales will have started to decline, the prices will still be the same and some who need such products will continue to buy from the company as they believe such products are of high quality. B10 The purpose of promotions is to make the customers understand and know more regarding the product. The target market will well be based on the age group which likes the products. In reaching such target markets, transport system available can be used. Product features to be emphasized are the qualities of the products. Products differ in quality from that of competitors (William et al, 165). B11 The product life cycle ranges from the introduction stage where the product is launched then introduced into the market where it grows. This implies that the sales start increasing at the first rate as the customers are still interested in such. Maturity stage then follows where the sales are near the highest, but sales are slowing down. This is due to competitors. Finally, it declines, and sales begin to fall (William et al, 177). B12 Accounting information is used by various people. Investors used it to find if investing in a company is profitable or not. As well the creditors use it so that they can know if the company will be able to meet its obligation. Government as well uses such information to check the tax income from the organization. B13 Item Amount Truck 50,000 Furniture 80,000 Inventory 100,000 Loan 270,000 Total 500,000 B14 The source of funds will be from the savings which the company had from the operations and the profits from such operations. As well, the loans from the financial institutions will be used to arrive at the figures stipulated. B15 By to gamble claiming that is a form of incentives, it is not ethical since gambling discourages the forms of hard work and thus, productivity will be achieved from the members of the organization since they will depend on the gambling. B16 Various people do not like buying things over the internet. This is because there are various risks which are experienced which include the poor quality of the materials being ordered and also comment who when they receive cash for such goods, they disappear with the money. Reference William M. ‎Robert J. & ‎Jack R. (2016). Foundations of Business, First Edition. Faculty of Business, Government & Law, University of Canberra.  Read More