AQA GCE Specification 2007 - Littleover Community School

Business Studies - Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced, 2007 examination14.3 Human ResourceManagementWorkforce planningMethods of remunerationMeasurements of personneleffectiveness (labourproductivity, labour turnover,absenteeism and health andsafety)OperationsManagement14.4 Productive EfficiencyResearch and DevelopmentCritical path analysis14.5 Controlling OperationsApplication of IT within andbetween organisationsThis section emphasises the alternative approaches to HRM(dependent upon leadership style) and the criticisms of them. HRMcan be a strategy for the personal development of all staff or a controlmechanism.As an integrated process bearing in mind production, marketing andcorporate plans.As AS Module Section 11.2 - Financial incentives, but with addedemphasis on goals of HRM.Ability to calculate and evaluate; causes and effects; importance asindicators of personnel strategy.Candidates are expected to gain an understanding of operations management in anintegrated context within the organisation and the wider environment. Thematerial set out below should be related to that of the AS Subject Content,especially the Operations Management section of Module 2. Candidates arerequired to analyse and evaluate the use of different operations management tools toenhance decision-making in order to improve efficiency and quality.Function of R & D; importance of science and technology ininnovation and developing product quality; relationship of R & D toproduct design, product life cycles and market research.Drawing simple networks, calculating Earliest Start Times and LatestFinish Times, identifying the critical path, calculating total float;understanding the business implications of CPA, especially forefficiency, business decision-making, time-based management andworking capital control.Impact on stock control, production eg CAD/CAM, communicationseg Internet, accounting (especially budgetary control), employmentand location, eg teleworking.14.6 Facilities The focus must be on business based decision-making using methodssuch as break-even analysis or investment appraisal (but qualitativefactors should not be underestimated).Regional locationInternational locationThe business approach to location decisions, including costs,resources, infrastructure, the market, government intervention andqualitative factors.As above, plus multinational strategies, including avoidingprotectionism and achieving high economies of scale.26 klm