Business Principles
In my lifetime, I have had firsthand experience in business as a subject from various sources. Initially after having finished my high school education, I didn’t enroll for college but spent the last fourteen years of high school, as a debt collector – a profession I have excelled in.
I have dealt with business personnel and large business organizations as part of my job, thereby gaining a lot of experiences regarding business and its principles. I have come to learn of this principle from a classroom setting where my experience compliments knew learning in e-business and introduction to business as seen from the transcript. These business concepts are best learned practically in the field.
Statement of Learning
The realization that I was growing older and also wanted to apply for a management post has driven me into applying for a bachelor’s degree. Currently, I do have a bachelor’s degree from The Sure Foundation Theological Institute though not a regionally accredited college. Getting one from a regionally accredited college is my target as this would make my employer view me differently; as having potential and adequate knowledge in this field and the attributed practical education to add value.
I have been able to study Introduction to business and Introduction to e-business, which covers business concepts requisite for my business career. I have gone through such books as Introduction to Business by Les Dlabay, James Burrow and Brad Klein, and Introduction to Business Administration: Special Issues of Nonprofit Administration - Overcoming Challenges and Barriers by Jacqueline M. Edwards. This knowledge coupled with my fourteen year experience has increased my understanding of the business concepts. From my life experiences, I believe I can make contributions that are more valuable to an employer: having obtained the requisite college grades necessary for my work experience accelerates the process of offering myself to employers as a college-educated candidate.
Introduction
My future is not more distinctive than anyone else’s, what I do with is its definition. My goals include completing a degree in Business field and continue in the field of Loss Prevention in Banking. The honor of college grades from Excelsior College authenticating my occupation experiences fast-tracks and boosts the prospects of accomplishing my individual and specialized goals in business. Studying different subjects including business, I was more interested in the business as a subject. Lessons learned to focus on business principles that are implemented practically and form the basis of successful businesses.
Most importantly, my field experience and day to day encounter with business terms has helped me understand the learning outcomes reflected by “Business Principles”. I have experienced a lot in the field learning about business topics such as originality, design and structure, management, human resource management, and marketing that form vital components of any business organization. This experience has, moreover, had a positive impact in my profession, and I presume employers can benefit more from the knowledge I have gained. My experience has helped me in deciding on my future career with proper understanding of what it entails.
Learning Outcome 1: The student will be able to describe the nature of American business
Different kinds of business organizations.
There are three elemental structure types employed in business. They include: the corporate where shareholders own the business and enjoy the dividends coming from the profits; sole proprietorship in which only one person is the owner of the business and enjoys all the profits besides the losses incurred and the partnership organization which is formed by either one or more parties or persons that at the end enjoy the benefits in terms of contribution and cater for the losses.
The Relationship between the issues of social responsibility and ethics affect business.
According to Pride social responsibility tells us that business activities have a very large impact on the society (Pride, Hughes, and Kapoor, 2013). We can, therefore, assess the impact from a wider scale and compare it with the relative burden the society puts in business. This helps us to deduce conclusions that can help make decisions in business depending on the society the company operates. Ethics and social responsibility together drive businesses in such a way that once the workers can relate in a professional manner and are responsible for their actions, their performance is exemplified. They tend more to give results better than when their relationships are not governed by the policies. Any business organization has to ensure it uses laws to control employee relations in order to create conducive environments for their workers. With firsthand experience in the field, I have learned the principles of employee relationship thus I can interact on a professional level that helps bring more value to the business.
Learning Outcome 2: The student will be able to describe the functions of management
Describe the skills needed by managers
More indulgence in this business led me to understanding the functions of management at a new level. Management requires incorporating certain functions, namely organizing, planning, leadership and control of the business (Maheshwari, 1997). Management ranges from the head office of the business down to the root of the employees where they handle their duties at an individual level, hence are expected to have proper time management skills in order to meet with the requirements of their employers.
Explain the purpose of an organizational structure
As a manager, being analytical, technical and having good interpersonal and communication skills are mandatory to be termed a manager as they determine how one is capable of inclining the workers to responding to their duty calls (Pride, Hughes and Kapoor, 2013). Furthermore, envisioning the future and analysis of the business from a broader perspective require that one employs conceptual skills (Goodman, Ladzani, Bates, Vries and Botha, n.d.).
Key issues involved in staffing and maintaining employees in an organization.
While working as a debt collector, I have to learned about teamwork as a factor in achieving the goals of a business enterprise. A well-coordinated and managed a staff that works as a team can accomplish so much in a very short time and most often they keep within the time limits. This is ascribed to the motivation employees have on their colleagues, which brings in the competition factor. It is upon the manager to ensure the business factors in this concept, and runs with a smooth coordination. This amounts to leadership in managerial posts. Such characteristics of a business are best learned from the practical aspect rather than a classroom setting.
The strategies used by organizations to improve employee motivation and job satisfaction and how the performance of employees can be evaluated
An appropriate organizational structure is useful in deploying accountability and responsibility across the social system that ensures efficient execution of tasks to meet the objectives stated for the firm (Dreikorn, 2003). The purpose of a good organizational structure is to ensure internal and external customers get satisfied. An organized structure enables proper and modularized management of tasks, thus the idea of social responsibility is well cultivated in such an organization where all contribute to one particular accomplishment of a task. The structure serves to ensure teamwork which is very essential in business and the order of authority is well channeled to the least rank in the organization. This way individuals can work while they are comfortable and share their ideas locally without the fear of direct implication from the top management, which in most cases has very detrimental effects to the jobs of the employees involved. It is a strategy to create unity and achieve one common goal (Kates and Galbraith, 2010).
Learning Outcome 3: The student will be able to describe the processes involved in human resource management
The components of the marketing mix.
Field experience in what entails human resource management has made me understand the complexity of the work that organizations do. The Human resource perspective of management is the broadest study of management since it incorporates all the characteristics described by a manager utilizing every aspect of them. I had previously been involved in the human resource management process working as a debt collector. I also learnt the practical issues involved in staffing and maintenance of employees in an organization while working in the field.
Staffing is where certain key people come together and decide to hire employees. This are usually the managers or business owners and stakeholders who include: interviewers; administrative staff; human resource personnel; operations and line managers and third parties – outsourcing agencies (Turnbull and Canadian Privacy Institute 2009). According to (Bechet, 2008), for a business to have a complete staff, they have to consider several processes such as: they have to analyze the various jobs where employees are changed significantly; design job categories in accordance with the strategy implementation; evaluate the job categories in order to determine the basis for their hiring of staff for instance based on the capabilities of applicants; determine those positions that are difficult to fill and positions that have long learning curves.
Further involvement in business made me realize that there were several strategic measures formulated by organizations that allow them to ensure the employees are well motivated and have job satisfaction in their undertakings.
Effective management practices create a high level of employee motivation whereby a manager has to treat people as respectable individuals. He/she has to empower workers, provide an effective reward system, redesign jobs, and create a flexible workplace.
The key elements of promotion
Empowering employees can be done through giving employees such privileges as autonomy, authority, trust and encouragement to man a given task and see it to completion. Such practice encourages intrepreneurship and promotes the workers’ responsibility for assigned tasks. Organizations also use rewards as a strategy to keep the motivation of the employees for helping meet their objectives. Employees are therefore stimulated to do their best. Furthermore, skilled managers use the concept of job redesigning where they change the working environment in order to avoid the ‘burnout’ effect. The result is that employees are motivated to do new things in their scope of work. The workers get more convinced accomplishing new tasks different from their normal day to day tasks, hence they are often enthusiastic about the idea. Incorporating the modern aspect of flexibility where workers can define their working hours helps them be able to manage their time properly. Workers who balance their time properly factoring all other factors that are not job related is subject to be a very motivated and satisfied employee.
There are several ways of evaluating the performance of employees. I experienced a 360-degree feedback mechanism where our managers collected feedback about me from my colleagues besides having to report my progress. This form is very useful in collecting the performance of the employees. Moreover, one could use other assessment forms such as the use of check-in records to collect data about the employees working time comparing it to the output the employees submit. For an organization to be successful such an assessment is very vital in determining the direction the organization is taking as well as complimenting the managerial aspect of the organization.
Learning Outcome 4: The student will be able to discuss the elements of marketing
With a profound passion for business, I have managed to obtain varied skills from different angles of the business. For instance, marketing was introduced to me during this period as another very critical aspect of every business. Fourteen years’ experience in a business oriented job has made me understand the basics of marketing. There are components of the marketing matrix which I have come practice, most of them in the field. These items are usually designed and specified by the top management in an organization. From the study, price, product, place and promotion (Tata Mcgraw-Hill, 2009), form the main constituents of marketing.
The key elements of distribution.
In order to do marketing, an organization must identify a product that is the service or good to trade with and includes its labeling, packaging and branding (Leader and Kyritsis, 1994). The product prices have to be well stated by considering research on trends in the markets and the places of trading which have to be situated in locations that are easy to access by customers hence realize profits (Hall and Mitchell, 2008). There are however other components that are not very mandatory in designing the marketing of products, but need consideration before a successful marketing is done. They include the personnel, procedures used and the physical evidence of how the marketing is done (Kotler, 2007).
Marketing requires one to be very much involved in the marketing of the products, hence is a very fundamental aspect. The primary objective of promoting is to communicate with the distribution channels and customers in order to increase sales. Strategies used in the marketing include packaging and branding, sales, marketing, advertising and selling, reconsidering points of sale, direct marketing, use of exhibitions and through sponsorships (Smith and Taylor, 2004). Understanding of these elements has made me a better marketer than I was in the job field.
There are also essential elements of distribution that ensure the products of a business are well channeled to the customers. The target of good distribution is to make sure the consumers can reach the products from a very ample space. Such distribution places include segmented channels, channel number, sales support and trade channels (Dave, 2008). As a debt collector, I have had a lot of first hand experience with the channels, customers use to get such services as debts. All that complimented with the knowledge from my general studies makes me a better businessman.
Conclusion
My field experience of these aspects of business has really been an eye opener whence I have been very much able to understand business organizations; the structures they use in order to ensure that they can comfortably maintain the established principles of business. My experience as a debt collector served me well in helping me gain the necessary know how mandatory of any person who wants to be involved in business. It is very clear that business is a concept that affects the life of every Peter and Jane on this earth. Developing a career in business requires experience and at least one has to get an educational background in order to have the requisite skills necessary to analyze the business environment from a very broad perspective. From my employee background, I have understood the building blocks of a successful organization, the nature and issues that affect it ranging from the social responsibility to the ethical necessities. This learning perspective has boosted my passion for pursuing a business degree in Liberal Arts, hence specialize my career in the field of Loss Prevention in banking business.
References
Maheshwari, R . P. (1997). Principles of Business Studies. Pitambar Publishing
Bechet, T. P. (2008). Strategic Staffing: A Comprehensive System for Effective Workforce Planning. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn
Combe, C. (2012). Introduction to e-Business. Routledge Publishers
Dlabay, L., Burrow, J., and Kleindl, B. (2008). Intro to Business. Cengage Learning
Dave, C. (2008). E-Business and E-Commerce Management. Pearson Education India
Devettere, R. J. (2009). Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics: Cases and Concepts. Georgetown University Press
Dreikorn, M. J. (2003). The Synergy of One: Creating High-performing Sustainable Organizations Through Integrated Performance Leadership. ASQ Quality Press
Edwards, J. M. (2007). Introduction to Business Administration: Special Issues of Nonprofit Administration - Overcoming Challenges and Barriers. Lulu.com
Amarnani, A., and Amarnani, N. (n.d.). Ms-01 Management Functions & Behaviour. Dotcom Publications
Fernando, A.C. (2009). Corporate Ethics, Governance, And Social Responsibility: Precepts And Practices. Pearson Education India
Fox, W. M. (2009). The Management Process: An Integrated Functional Approach (PB). IAP
Goodman, S., Ladzani, W., Bates, B., Vries, C., and Botha, S. (n.d.). Fresh Perspectives: Business Management. Pearson South Africa
Hall, C. M., and Mitchell, R. (2008). Wine Marketing: A Practical Guide. Routledge
Haneberg, L. (2010). The High-Impact Middle Manager: Powerful Strategies to Thrive in the Middle. American Society for Training and Development
Kates, A., and Galbraith, J. R., (2010). Designing Your Organization: Using the STAR Model to Solve 5 Critical Design Challenges. John Wiley & Sons
Kazmi, S. H. H. (2007). Marketing Management: Text and Cases. Excel Books India
Kotler, P. (2011). Marketing Insights from A to Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know. John Wiley & Sons
Leader, W. G., and Kyritsis, N. (1994). Fundamentals of Marketing. Nelson Thornes
Lewis, P., Goodman, S., Fandt, P., and Michlitsch, J. (2006). Management: Challenges for Tomorrow's Leaders. Cengage Learning
Lister, J. (2014). How Organization Theory of Ethical and Social Responsibility Affects the Workplace. Retrieved 11 November 2014 from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/organization-theory-ethical-social-responsibility-affects-workplace-17849.html
Lussier, R 2011, Management Fundamentals: Concepts, Applications, Skill Development. Cengage Learning
Murray, P., Poole, D., and Jones, G. (2006). Contemporary Issues in Management and Organisational Behaviour. Cengage Learning Australia
O'Rourke, J., and Collins, S. (2008). Module 5: Interpersonal Communication Listening and Responding. Cengage Learning
Panwar, R. (2008). Corporate Social Responsibility in the Forest Products Industry: An Issues Management Approach. ProQuest
Pride, W., Hughes, R., and Kapoor, J. (2013). Business. Cengage Learning
Schmidt, W. D., and Rieck, D. A. (2000). Managing Media Services: Theory and Practice. Libraries Unlimited
Schulz, M., and Wasmeier, O. (2012). The Law of Business Organizations: A Concise Overview of German Corporate Law. Springer Science & Business Media
Sim, F., and Wright, J. (2014). Becoming a Public Health Practitioner: An Introduction to Careers in Public Health. Routledge
Smith, P. R., and Taylor, J. (2004). Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach. Kogan Page Publishers
Tata Mcgraw-Hill. (2009). Qb In Business Studies Xii 7E. Tata McGraw-Hill Education
Turnbull, I. J., and Canadian Privacy Institute. (2009). Privacy in the Workplace. CCH Canadian Limited
Vallabhaneni, D. (2009). What's Your MBA IQ: A Manager's Career Development Tool. John Wiley & Sons
Verma. (2007). Services Marketing: Text And Cases. Pearson Education India
Werther, W. B., and Chandler, D. (2010). Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment. SAGE Publications
