Business Management 27 November 2025
Definitions
Human resource management
Department of a business that is in charge of managing people in an organization, including
recruitment, training, and employee motivation.
Part time and temporary contract
Employment with fewer hours than full-time or for a short-term period. For example, most
students work part time as they are not able to both learn at their university and have a full
time job.
Labor turnover
The percentage of employees who leave a business over a specific time. This can be
calculated by:
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑓𝑓 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔
𝐿𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 = × 100
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑓𝑓
Delegation
Passing authority from a manager to a subordinate to carry out a specific task. For example,
a head of studies in a school can delegate the task of finding new Business Management
teacher to a Business Management teacher.
Span of control
The number of subordinates directly supervised by a manager. A short span of control means
that a manager supervises a less amount of subordinates, whereas a high span of control
means that a manager supervises a higher amount of subordinates.
Motivation
The internal and external factors that make employees to work eMectively. These can be non-
financial and financial motivation techniques.
Corporate culture
The shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how people in an organization work.
CASE STUDY 1
Identify all of the diMerent management functions that the principle fulfilled during this busy
day [6]
1. Recruitment
2. Integration within the workplace
3. Making and deciding on employment contracts
4. Cost review of employees
5. Analyze the performance of the staM
6. Firing staM
7. Interviews
8. Motivation
9. Helping employees with poor performance and demotivated
10. Handling complaints from employees.
Propose and analyze 4 other financial and non-financial incentives that could increase the
motivation of Japanese teacher [6]
Financial
Implementing a performance-related-pay system, where employees are given a bonus
depending on their performance over a specific period of time, which therefore incentivizes
workers to work harder and achieve greater performance, thereby increasing the amount of
bonus received. Although, workers may feel too much pressure in the long run as they feel
as if they must achieve a higher standard as before in order to be paid as desired.
Implementing company shares towards workers, making them feel part of the company,
and overall bosting motivation. By issuing company shares when starting at the company,
workers may feel as if they own part of the company and they are both a part and valued
within the company. Although, this method means that the company must issue shares
towards workers with no guaranteed increase in profits, as a diMerence to performance
related pays.
Non-financial
A way that workers can be rewarded non financially, is through job rotation, where
employees rotate between tasks of similar that need similar qualifications. This method
ensures workers are not working on the same tasks repeatedly and ensure that by changing
constantly the tasks workers will remain motivated. Although some workers can feel as if
they are working more than before.
Another way is through job enrichment, where employees are given a slightly more
challenging task to fulfill. This challenge motivates employees as well as gives the
opportunity for managers to delegate some of the workload. Again, workers may perceive
this as extra work for the same amount of pay, as thereby feel demotivated.
CASE STUDY 2
Outline two factors that may have aMected Porche’s corporate culture [4]
One factor that may aMect a company’s culture, specifically Porche is the location of the
company. As stated in the text, many US companies adopt a shareholder culture, where
shareholders come first, and after all other stakeholders. For Porche, as a German brand, its
location must have influenced its corporate culture, where the client comes first.
Additionally, the industry where the company operates aMects its corporate culture. As
Porche is a high-end car manufacturer that allows for deep customization of its cars,
consumers are able to decide on what specific accessories and aspects its car is going to
have. This is why Porche’s corporate culture of “First come the client” as its corporate culture
is highly tied to the industry it works in.
Discuss the problems of adapting the corporate culture of a car manufacturer when it is
taken over or merges with a foreign car manufacturer. [10]
Corporate culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how people
in an organization work.
A merge is when two business join forces and create a new company, whereas a takeover is
when a company acquires another company and still is the same firm as before. Takeovers
can be horizontal, when both businesses operate in the same production step, whereas a
vertical takeover is when both businesses operate in diMerent levels in the production
process.
When two companies merge or one takes over, the new or existing company must make
changes, in order to satisfy its new employees as well as its consumers. Regarding the
corporate culture, many problems may arise when two business merge or take over due to
the change in the businesses dynamics.
Firstly, employees have to adapt to the new companies corporate culture, and its new
values, beliefs, behaviors and work culture. As the merge/takeover is between a foreign car
manufacturer, it means that due to the geographic diMerence, the firms values and culture
can be vastly diMerent. Some employees may not believe or accept this new culture and
therefore be demotivated.
Furthermore, employees can fear change or feel as if things are changing too fast or too
much, which can further demotivate employees.
Moreover, some employees can feel demotivated if the companies long term goal is
changed, as they can feel as if what they were working for has changed. For example, if
Porche’s long term goal is to become the biggest electric car manufacturer in Germany, and
it is taken over by Mercedes, its long-term goal will change, meaning that Porche’s workers
are not aiming at the initial goal. This overall can demotivate the companies staM.
Additionally, this new work environment can mean that workers may need to take additional
training to be able to work eMectively in this new environment. For example, one of the
businesses did not use technology, employees must be trained, either on the job or oM the
job, to be able to use this new technology. This means that the business must invest on this
training in order to ensure that the employees are able to work as intended.
Also, if a company merger or takes over a foreign company, the employees and managers
may have issues when communicating with the new staM. This problem can mean that the
employees have diMiculties understanding what their task is or how they must perform this
task.
Other issues may that can arise due to an acquisition, regarding the company’s corporate
culture is the management style of the managers. Employees may have been used to a
specific management style or do not align with another management style, which can cause
problems if the companies management style changes after a merge or takeover.
Overall, all these problems can be overcome. The HR department must work intensively in
order to recruitment, train and motivate its new employees which means that the business
must invest both money and time.
