Unit 10 Key Terms Business A-Level

Incremental change

Small adjustments made, usually over a long period of time, towards a desired end result; it usually does not alter current working practices in any significant way.

Disruptive change

An irreversible change to products, processed and markets; a change that alters the future completely from what was expected before the change.

Lewin's force field analysis

The 'force field' consists of two opposing forces - one set of forces, the driving forces, are working for change, and the other set, the restraining forces are working against change; change occurs when the driving forces are stronger than the restraining forces.

Flexible organisation

An organisation that can respond quickly to changes taking place in the external environment; includes a flexible workforce structure that allows capacity to be increased or reduced quickly and easily in response to external pressures.

Delayering

The removal of one or more layers of hierarchy from the management structure of an organisation; it leads to a flatter hierarchical structure with a wider span of control.

Flexible employment contracts

Working arrangements that give some degree of flexibility about how long, where, when and at what times employees work; the flexibility can be in terms of working time, working location or the pattern of working.

Organic structures

Features include flat organisational structures; horizontal communication and interactions; low levels of specialisation because knowledge resides wherever it is most useful; decentralisation involving a great deal of formal and informal participation in decision making.

Mechanistic structures

Features include hierarchical and bureaucratic organisational structures; highly centralised authority; formalised procedures and practices; highly specialised functions.

Knowledge and information management (KTM)

The practice of organising, storing and sharing vital knowledge and information, so that everyone in an organisation can benefit from its use.

Kotter and Schlesinger's four reasons for resistance to change

Parochial self-interest; misunderstanding and lack of trust; different assessments; and low tolerance for change.

Kotter and Schlesinger's six ways of overcoming resistance to change

Education and communication; participation and involvement; facilitation and support; negotiation and agreement; manipulation and co-optation; explicit and implicit coercion.

Organisational culture

The unwritten code that affects the attitudes and behaviour of staff, approaches to decision making and the leader ship style of management.

Task Culture

Power is derived from the expertise required to complete a task or project; it is usually associated with a small team approach or small organisations co-operating to deliver a project; the emphasis is on results and getting things done.

Role Culture

Power is hierarchical and clearly defined in a company's job descriptions; a person's power derives from their place or role within a highly structured organisation; detailed rules indicate how people and departments interact with each other, customers and suppliers.

Power Culture

Power is concentrated in a small group or a central figure, who determines the dominant culture.

Person culture

A culture where the organisation exists as a vehicle for people to develop their own careers and expertise; the individual is the central point; if there is a structure, it exists only to serve the needs of individuals within it.

Hofstede's national cultures

A model of cultural dimensions that distinguishes one country's culture from another; the model measures and compares the cultural dimensions of different countries and demonstrates that there are national and regional cultural groups that affect the behaviour of organisations.

Strategic implementation

The stage when a strategic plan is put into effect in order to achieve the objectives for which it has been designed; the stage where strategies are translated into policies, rules, procedures and operational targets within the different functional areas.

Network analysis

A method of planning business operations in order to identify the most efficient way of completing an integrated task or project. The main form of network analysis is critical path analysis.

Critical path analysis (CPA)

The process of planning the sequence of activities in a project in order to discover the most efficient and quickest way of completing.

Critical path

The sequence of activities in a project that must be completed within a designated time in order to prevent any delay in overall completion of the project.

Total float for an activity

The number of days that an activity can be delayed without delaying the project.

Planned strategy

Where the main elements of the strategy have been planned in advance and implementation involves putting the precise plan into effect in order to achieve the previously agreed objectives; also known as intended strategy.

Emergent strategy

Unplanned strategy that emerges in response to unexpected opportunities and challenges; a response to internal and external changes that were not envisaged at the time of the original planned strategy.

Strategic drift

A situation where a company responds too slowly to changes in its external and competitive environments.

Divorce of ownership and control

Separation of the two functions of ownership and control in public limited companies; ownership entails providing finance and therefore taking risks.

Corporate governance

A set of relationships between a company's management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders; a system for protecting the interests of the owners (shareholders) of a company.

Strategic planning

The process of determining an organisation's long-term goals and then devising a plan (strategy) to achieve them.

Contingency planning

Planning for unexpected and, usually, unwelcome events that are, however, reasonably predictable and quantifiable; the objective is to reduce the risks and costs of such events on an organisation.