VCE Business Management: Comprehensive Study Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Business Foundations, Human Resource Management, Operations Management, Reviewing Performance, and Implementing Change.

Sole Trader

A business owned and operated by one person who is not a separate legal entity from the business and has unlimited liability for all business debts.

Partnership

A business owned by 2 or more people who are not a separate legal entity, share profits and workload, and are subject to personal unlimited liability.

Private Limited Company (Pty Ltd)

An incorporated business with a minimum of one and a maximum of 50 non-employee shareholders whose shares are offered only to people approved by the directors.

Public Listed Company (Ltd)

An incorporated business with a minimum of one shareholder whose shares are openly traded to the general public on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Social Enterprise

A business that operates with the primary objective of fulfilling a community or environmental need, reinvesting the majority of its profits back into that purpose.

Government Business Enterprise (GBE)

A business that is government owned and operated with the goal of making a profit while delivering essential community services, such as Australia Post.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The obligations a business has over and above its legal responsibilities to ensure the wellbeing of employees, customers, shareholders, the community, and the environment.

Autocratic Management Style

A style where the manager centralises authority, dictates work methods, tells staff what decisions have been made, and allows no employee input.

Consultative Management Style

A management style where the manager recognises the importance of relationships and seeks employee opinions before making the final decision themselves.

Participative Management Style

A decentralised management style where the manager unites with employees to share decision-making power through two-way communication and staff ownership.

Delegation

The ability of a manager to transfer formal authority and responsibility to an employee to carry out specific tasks while remaining accountable for the final outcome.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A motivation theory presenting five sequential human needs—physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualisation—where lower-order needs must be satisfied before higher-order needs motivate.

Locke and Latham's Goal Setting Theory

A motivation theory stating that employees are driven by setting clear, challenging goals and receiving constructive feedback on their achievement across five principles.

Lawrence and Nohria's Four Drive Theory

A motivation theory proposing that human behavior is driven by four fundamental, innate drives: the drive to acquire, the drive to bond, the drive to learn, and the drive to defend.

Performance-Related Pay

A financial motivation strategy that provides monetary compensation—such as pay increases, bonuses, commissions, or profit sharing—based on achieving set performance standards.

Management by Objectives (MBO)

A performance management strategy where managers and employees collaborate to set individual goals that directly support the overarching objectives of the business.

Modern Award

A legally binding document established by the Fair Work Commission that sets out the minimum wages and working conditions for an entire industry or occupation.

Enterprise Agreement

A legally binding agreement negotiated at the workplace level between employers and groups of employees (or their representative union) outlining wages and conditions.

Arbitration

A formal dispute resolution process where an independent third party hears evidence and arguments from both disputing parties and makes a legally binding decision.

Materials Management Process Flow

The coordinated operations sequence where customer orders, forecasting, and current inventory inform the Master Production Schedule (MPS), which drives Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) and Just in Time inventory control.

Master Production Schedule (MPS)

A detailed materials planning document that specifies what goods will be produced, in what exact quantities, and at what specific times to meet future delivery deadlines.

Materials Requirement Planning (MRP)

An itemised list completed after the MPS that details the exact types and quantities of materials required, supplier lead times, and current stock on hand.

Just in Time (JIT)

An inventory management strategy that ensures materials and component inputs arrive at the production facility only as they are needed, reducing storage costs and waste.

Quality Control (QC)

A reactive quality management strategy involving inspections at various stages of production to detect, record, and filter out defects before products reach customers.

Quality Assurance (QA)

A proactive, process-oriented quality management system where a business establishes set production standards certified by an external body to prevent flaws entirely.

Kaizen

A Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement central to the Toyota Production System, encouraging all employees to identify problems and make incremental changes.

Takt Time

The rate of production needed to match customer demand, calculated as the average time that passes between starting production on one unit and the start of the next.

Force Field Analysis

A decision-making tool developed by Kurt Lewin that identifies, evaluates, and assigns numerical weightings to the driving forces and restraining forces surrounding a proposed change.

Cost Leadership Strategy

A generic Porter strategy where a business gains a competitive advantage by having the lowest production and operating costs in its industry through efficiency and waste reduction.

Differentiation Strategy

A generic Porter strategy where a business gains a competitive advantage by offering a good or service with unique features, high quality, or strong branding that sets it apart from rivals.

Systems Thinking

The cornerstone of Peter Senge's Learning Organisation concept, representing the ability of leaders and staff to see the entire 'big picture' and understand how business parts interact.

Lewin's Three-Step Change Model

A change management framework consisting of Unfreeze (preparing the business and breaking current habits), Change (introducing new practices and behaviors), and Refreeze (consolidating the change into ongoing policy and culture).