A2 Business Studies Unit 3 Strategies for Success AQA

Student Workbook Teach er Notes● An increase in competition may cause demand to fall, thus leaving the firm with an oversupplyof employees — the workforce plan may be affected and redundancy notices issued.4 Introducing training programmes or retraining existing employees can ensure that there areappropriately qualified staff within the firm, meeting the needs of the workforce plan.Good training provision will also attract more external candidates, making it easier to meetany targets for recruitment. In both cases, efficiency targets can also be assisted.5 Good employer/employee relations will help the effectiveness of workforce planning becausethey will encourage two-way communication and active support for the workforce plan. Theemployees can also advise on the feasibility of certain elements of the workforce plan.6 The workforce plan will help the business to ensure that the number of employees in theworkforce matches the projected changes in sales volume. Estimating the skills that will beneeded will enable the firm to introduce an appropriate training programme.Competitive organisational structures1 Advantage of centralisation: consistent policies on marketing and production mean greatercontrol and standardisation of procedures.Disadvantage of centralisation: the manager of a local branch may have far better knowledgeof customers’ needs but has little input into the decision-making process.2 Advantage of decentralisation: it gives greater responsibility to the workers at lower levels,so it increases their motivation and enjoyment of their job, potentially increasing productivity.Disadvantage of decentralisation: the local branches may become too narrowly focused andlose sight of external developments and opportunities beyond the focus of the existingproduct range or local branch, thus losing competitiveness.3 Delayering is the removal of one or more layers of hierarchy from the management structure.Reasons include: by eliminating a level of management, the organisation can reduce its wagebill and save money; it gives scope for subordinates to take more responsibility and so maymotivate staff, reducing absenteeism and labour turnover.4 Core employees; the contractual fringe; the flexible or contingent workforce.5 The organisation is able to respond more quickly to market conditions by expanding orcontracting capacity through adding to or reducing the number of temporary/contingentworkers.The skills of the workforce can be adapted to short-term needs by using the contractual fringeto provide specialist skills for the time that those skills are needed. However, once the needhas been met, the firm does not need to use and pay them further.6 ● The business will be dependent on other organisations and agencies outside of its directcontrol, so it may have less direct control over the quality of activities taking place.● If a company is downsizing and focusing on core activities, there may be less opportunityfor future expansion as skills and experience previously held by employees may be permanentlylost.AQA A2 Business Studies15