All businesses need to carry out a number of basic functions in order for them to produce goods or provide services. Since these functions rely on staff with particular knowledge and skills and the use of specialist equipment, each one tends to be done by specialist teams.<\/p>\n
Organisations are usually structured around main activities. The activities are usually grouped into functional areas (or departments\/divisions).<\/p>\n
In a large manufacturing organisation there are likely to be departments which carry out the functions of Purchases, Human Resources\/Personnel, Finance, Production, Sales and Marketing, and Administration. There will usually be a Senior Manager in charge of each area with the Senior Manager being responsible for the direction of their functional area within the organisation.<\/p>\n
The 4 main functional areas are:<\/p>\n
The marketing department is concerned with finding out the needs and wants of potential customers and promoting the company\u2019s products or services.<\/span><\/p>\n The main functional activities carried out by the marketing department are:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0It is the job of the marketing department to decide how and when to advertise and to develop <\/span>advertising campaigns<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n To find out if a product or service would meet the needs and wants of customers and would they be willing to purchase them. This can be done through <\/span>surveys<\/a><\/span>, observations or interviews.<\/span><\/p>\n The marketing department will decide which form of promotion would be best suited to the product to persuade customers to buy it.<\/span><\/p>\n The operations department is responsible for making the product or providing the service. It is their responsibility to ensure that the product or service is of the required quality to satisfy the customer.<\/span><\/p>\n The main functional activities carried out by the operations department are:<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Advertising<\/span><\/h3>\n
Market research<\/span><\/h3>\n
Promotion<\/span><\/h3>\n
\nOperations\/Production<\/span><\/h2>\n