Glossary
Administration - The function that deals with organising paperwork to support other functions.
Aims - Long-term plans of the business from which its corporate objectives are derived
Customer service - The function that provides assistance to customers with their purchases. This may be to help them find the right product or offering after sales service.
Finance - The function that manages money within the organisation. This may include setting budgets and producing financial statements.
Flat structure - Staff are organised into larger teams with supervisors and managers having wide spans of control with fewer levels between senior leadership and floor staff
Functional areas - The different sections of an organisation that specialise in tasks and knowledge, e.g. marketing, finance, operations, human resources and administration.
Functional objectives - Targets or goals given to each function that are specific to their skill set and relate to the overall organisational objectives.
Hierarchical structure - A traditional method of organising staff with levels of power and chains of command
Holacratic structure - Staff are not give set teams to work on but given more freedom to choose the people they work with based on the projects.
Human resources - The function of a business that aims to support employees. They manage recruitment, payments, staff welfare, training and dismissal.
IT - The function that sets up and maintains computer systems.
Marketing - The function that best understands the needs of the customer and can make predictions on their future needs. They work with other functions to ensure these needs are met in a profitable way.
Matrix structure - Employees may be part of a functional area such as marketing but also be working on a project with employees from other functions. They may report to multiple managers as a result
Mission statement - a short, specific written statement of the reason a business exists and what it wants to achieve
Not-for-profit objectives - education, housing, alleviating poverty, healthcare
Organisational objectives - Desired goals, outcome or specific result that organisation intends to achieve which are derived form their aims
Organisational structure - The way employees within an organisation are arranged to carry out activities
Private sector objectives - Making profits, profit maximisation, break-even, survival, growth, market leadership
Production and quality - The function responsible for manufacturing the products
Public sector objectives - service provision, cost control, value for money, service quality, meeting government standards
Purchasing - The function of a firm that deals with suppliers to ensure that all resources needed are bought, are of a good standard and best price.
Research and development - The function of a business that investigates potential improvements to products and processes.
Sales - The function that aims to maximise the number of products sold through promotion and developing customer relationships.
SMART targets - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound objectives
Vision - A picture of where owners of a business want it to be in the future