OOI YONG JIE 201900036 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES 15/12/19

Student Name: OOI YONG JIE

Student ID: 201900036

Subject Title: Business Management Techniques

Date :15/12/19
OOI YONG JIE 201900036 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES 15/12/19

Tutorial #1a : Engineering Business Functions

Subjective Questions:
1) Explain what is meant by the terms

a. Business

Ans: The term business is used for any person or group of people who sell goods or services.

b. Organization

Ans: The term organization is used for a group of people working together over a period of time to
achieve a common objective.

2) What are the purpose/functions of having the following departments in an organization:

a. Marketing

Ans: Decide the product price, decide the promotion of the product.
OOI YONG JIE 201900036 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES 15/12/19

b. Finance

Ans: Decide how much money is required, where the money is to come from, how it is to be used.

c. Production

Ans: Deciding on how, where, what with, when the items/services should be produced.

d. Human Resource

Ans: Decide who to employ, how to motivate the employee, take care the health and safety of the
employee, decide the conditions of employment.

3) List three different types of local business which you consider will have engineers employed, giving

three examples in each case of the types of jobs they could be doing.

Ans: Purchasing. Investigating sources of supply, prices and delivery times for the raw materials,
components. Obtaining quotations from suppliers. Matching delivery times of the raw
materials and components, etc. with production schedules.

Sales. Developing and maintain contacts with customers. Obtaining orders & negotiating
contracts. Keeping the customer informed of new products, changes of existing products,
prices, etc.

Stores and warehousing. Storing and keeping safe materials and components. Checking the
incoming materials and goods against delivery notes. Issuing materials and components
against requisitions.

4) List the activities that might typically be involved in a production department.

Ans: Establishing production schedules.

OOI YONG JIE 201900036 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES 15/12/19

Case study:

John was interested in bicycles and in his spare time, as a favour to friends, bought components and

assembled tailor-made bicycles for his friends. The number of friends increased rapidly and after a
while. John decided to quit his job in a local factory and start his own business producing tailor-made
bicycles. The business grew and, after a while, John found he could not cope with all the work. So, he
took on two workers. John still did some of the assembly work, along with the two workers, but dealt
exclusively with the buying-in of the parts and sales to customers. The business grew and John took
on more workers. He now found he had insufficient time to do any assembly work and had to leave all
that to his workers. He also found that he had to have one of the workers specialize in dealing with
the customer while he concentrated on the financial side and controlling and coordinating the
activities of the workers.

Questions:

a) Identify the functions that are likely to be present in the business when it just consisted of John

and then later when it had grown.

Ans: Purchasing, John bought components and assembled tailor-made bicycles. Sales, John found that
he had to have one of the workers specialize in dealing with the customer.

b) Explain how this case study is an example of division of labour and list the benefits that might be

obtained from such a division.

Ans: Because John start found some worker to help him It become a division of labour. The benefits
of this division is the company will become bigger and bigger.

Tutorial #1b : Organization

Subjective Questions:
1) State what information is supplied by an organization chart and illustrate your answer with an

example.

Ans: The relationship among employees can be represented by organization chart. Example,
relations might include managers to sub-workers, directors to managing directors, chief
executive officer to various departments, and so forth.
OOI YONG JIE 201900036 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES 15/12/19

2) Explain what is meant by

a. Flat organizational structure

Ans: Flat organizational structures have fewer levels of authority and wide spans of control,
structure results in quick communications but can lead to overworked managers.

b. Tall organizational structure

Ans: Tall structures have many levels of authority and narrow spans of control. As hierarchy levels
increase, communication gets difficult creating delays in the time being taken to implement
decisions. Communications can also become distorted as it is repeated through the firm.

c. Matrix organizational structure

Ans: The matrix structures discussed so far have grouped activities along a specific, single
dimension of the organization’s operations (function, product, geographic, or customer base).
In some cases, there is a need to focus on two or more dimensions at the same time

3) Explain how organizational structures obtained by function differ from those given by product

divisional.

Ans: Organizational Structure refers to a system describing an organisation’s hierarchy within

which all the managerial tasks are performed. It represents the authority-activity
relationship in an organization. The two most commonly used structures of the
organization are functional structure and divisional structure. The functional organisational
structure is one where employees are grouped together, according to their area of
specialisation.

On the other hand, divisional organisation structure refers to the structure wherein the
organisational functions are grouped together, into divisions, depending on product, service,
market or geographies. Take a glance at this article to know the difference between
functional and divisional structure.

4) Suggest possible organization charts for

OOI YONG JIE 201900036 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES 15/12/19

(a) A medium sized company making computers by assembling bough-in components

Ans: Matrix Organization Structure. The structures discussed so far have grouped activities along a
specific, single dimension of the organization’s operations . In some cases, there is a need to
focus on two or more dimensions at the same time. It is best in medium-sized organizations
with multiple products.

(b) A small garage business maintaining and repairing cars

Ans: Funtional Organization Structure. Functional Organization Structure is able to focus on

performing a particular job or task effectively and efficiently. It is best with only one or few
products.

(c) A large car making company with factories at a number of sites.

Ans: Divisional Organization Structure.The Divisional Organization Structure is a type

of organizational structure that groups each organizational function into a division.Each
division contains all the necessary resources and functions within it to support that product
line or geography. It is best in large organizations with several products

Give reasons for each of the respective organizational structures that you’ve suggested.