MANAGEMENT

Business Management

Business Management

1. Outline David needles business in context model and critically assess its value in formulating business strategy?

The Business in Context model given by David Needle talks about business in the light of the various contexts of a business entity. The purpose of the business is to meet the needs of the society. This is a very broad definition of business. One very important element of business is profit making. However, there are other businesses that are not profit making but are working on a business model are also included in the definition. Hence, this model challenges the idea that businesses are only profit based (Needle, 2010, p. 5).

The model divided the business contexts into four categories. These are activities level, structural level, organizational level and environmental level. The model points out at a number of business activities. It is interesting to note how the model includes innovation as part of the business activity. This is so because the model believes that in this era of cut throat competition, it is imperative for all organization to embed innovation and creativity in the very culture of the organization. Other activities of the model include operations, marketing, finance, and human resource management (Needle, 2010, p. 5). These are broad categories or functions that take place in an organization. This must be understood with reference to the value chain. The value chain suggests that the different functions in an organization are interlinked and a fault with one has implications on the rest of the functions. In addition, the model suggests that there are various sub functions that take place within these. For instance, supply chain management is broad enough to be covered as a separate domain but is covered operations in certain organizations (Sheard & Kakabadse, 2004, p. 81).

The structural level of the organization is used to decide upon business strategy. All management decisions are taken in line with the strategy. The direction of business activities is a function of the decisions taken by company management. At the strategic level, the organization determines the opportunities in the external environment and performs an elaborate internal analysis. This is where the organization takes decisions keeping in view the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.

The organizational level of the Business in Context model strives at developing an understanding of the structure of the business, that is the business model that is being used by the business. It also determines the ownership of the organization. For instance, the ownership of a partnership is different from the ownership of a corporation and hence, the satisfaction and stake of different stakeholders is different. The size of the organization is studied (Foti & Hauenstein, 2007, p. 347). The organization culture also depends on the philosophy of the organization which is linked with the organizational level. The culture in proprietorships is often centralized and authoritative while that in multinational corporations is highly decentralized and democratic. Employees in the latter form of organizations generally enjoy more authority and power ...