Business Management - Characteristics of large scale organisations Characteristics of large scale organisations Business enterprises can be classified according

to certain characteristics. So what is a large-scale organisation? There are a number of characteristics that may be used to classify a business enterprise as a large-scale organisation rather than as a small or a medium business enterprise. The following characteristics may be used as a basis of such a classification. Before we attempt this classification, however, we should recall the basic rules of classification - exhaustiveness and exclusivity. The organisations we are attempting to classify as either small, medium or large-scale must all be able to be placed in at least one of the three categories (exhaustiveness) and the organisation being classified must be placed in one, and only one, of the categories (exclusivity). If we take these characteristics and apply them to a large-scale enterprise then the following will normally be true. However, not all large-scale organisations will necessarily exhibit all of the following characteristics: Large scale organisations will normally exhibit these characteristics.

Distinguishing large-scale organisations There are many ways that large-scale organisations can be classified and a variety of forms which they may take. The main way of distinguishing between large-scale organisations is by the ownership of the entity and its principal form of operation. Hence, we are able to distinguish between government (public sector) and non-government (private sector) organisations or, put in another way, between publically owned and privately owned organisations. By 'publically owned' we mean that the community as a whole owns the organisation and that it is operated on their behalf by the government. Public sector or government organisations may in turn be categorised into three distinct forms - general government entities, providing non-market goods and services (e.g. roads, hospitals and the like), public trading enterprises, providing market goods and services which meet their community service obligation and finally, public financial enterprises providing financial services e.g. government, banks and insurance offices. Next, we can distinguish between those large-scale organisations which have as their primary or

core objective, the 'profit motive', and those which are nonprofit oriented. Also, we can distinguish between large-scale organisations according to the industry to which they belong primary, secondary or tertiary, or as to whether their core function is manufacturing or service provision. We could also distinguish between organisations according to their legal status and the extent of their legal liability (e.g. sole trader, partnership, company, statutory authority, government department, and those large-scale organisations which have limited and those which have unlimited liability), and their size in terms of the number of employees, production levels and turnover. POLC CCM There is a wide range of essential functions that must be performed by managers in largescale organisations. These functions may be categorised into two broad types - generic functions and specific functions.

POLC CCM is a mnemonic for the ingredients of overseeing business functions The generic management functions which all managers perform to some extent include the 'POLC CCM' functions:

P - planning - managers must perform the task of planning at their designated level (the strategic, tactical or operational level) everything that the organisation must do to achieve its objectives, i.e. the long-term, the mid-term and the short-term plans

Three important levels of planning

O - organising - managers must ensure that all of the necessary resources, i.e. the natural resources, the human resources, the capital resources and the entrepreneurial or 'street smart' resources are available and are able to be used to perform the required tasks or for the required purposes so that the service can be provided or the product manufactured

Essential resources needed for business organisations

L - leading - managers must lead the way for employees, customers and competitors; they must be at the forefront of trends and fashions and lead by example in the workplace through their technical skill and competencies

C - controlling - managers must perform a supervisory and control function to ensure that work is performed to the optimal level and that the quality of service provision of product manufacture is at world's best practice level C - communicating - managers must keep everyone in the organisation informed of what is occurring within the organisation as well as members of the wider community

Communication is vital for successful organisations

C - creating - managers must be able to create innovative ways to perform tasks and to market the organisation's products or services in order to enhance the organisation's effectiveness and efficiency M - motivating managers must be able to motivate staff to maintain them in the first instance and then to ensure that their performance is optimised both for their own benefit and also for the benefit of the organisation

Specific management functions The specific management functions a manager will perform are determined by the structure of the organisation and by the area of expertise that the manager specialises in within the organisation. Examples of these functions include:

Marketing and Public Relations managers must ensure that the right products and services are produced in the right style, at the right time for the right consumers, and to satisfy all consumer complaints if the organisation is to be successful Banking and Finance - managers must ensure that the organisation has the necessary financial

Human Resource Managers are responsible for motivating employees to achieve their organisational objectives.

resources to achieve its objectives and then they must control these organisational finances

General Administration -

Operations managers meet customer demands and organisational objectives.