Unit 1- The Contemporary Business Environment Assignment Sample

Introduction to:Unit 1- The Contemporary Business Environment

The contemporary business environment denotes the process where the market changes rapidly. This is vastly related to the cultural environment, natural environment, economic environment, and political environment. This includes external aspects such as technology, competition, and government and internal aspects such as human resources and company culture. The Non-economic environment mainly involves the natural environment, socio-cultural economy, cultural, technological, legal, and demographic environment. Economic policies are mainly part and parcel of managing the economic situation of the country. The monetary policies of the country mainly deal with the fiscal policy and money supply which helps in adjusting the government spending related to government revenue.

The report is based on Apple Inc., an American multinational corporation and technology organization. This is headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley, known for its software, electronics, and services (Apple, 2024). The organization offers a diverse range of products such as iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac and services such as Apple TV+, Apple Music, and iCloud. The organization has developed a significant presence within the different markets worldwide. The report will focus on explaining the different types, structures, scope, purpose, and size of different organizations. This will critically discuss the interrelationship among the organizational functions. Moreover, critically evaluate the impacts that macro and micro factors have on the business objectives.

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Explaining how different types, purposes, structures, sizes, and scopes of different organization

P1. Explaining different types and purposes of the organization: public, private, and voluntary sectors and legal structures

The organizations mainly operate in the various sectors of the economy with the legal structure, purpose, and role in society. Key types of organizations are mainly classified within the private, public, and voluntary sectors.

Public sector: This mainly includes the sector owned and operated by the government for the people of the state, this includes education, healthcare, and various public transportation. The major goal of public sector organizations is based on the welfare of citizens not on the profit. The major aim is to provide essential services at affordable prices, this is funded via taxation (Burns and Needle, 2023). For instance, (NHS) National Health Service UK, is mainly responsible for providing health care services to the people of the state. Public organizations particularly operate as “Government agencies” or “Statutory corporations”.

Private sector: This sector comprehends the business owned by private and individual entities that operate to create profit. The private organizations mainly involve (LLCs) limited liability companies, sole proprietorships, corporations, and partnerships. Organizations such as Apple Inc., operate in the private sector, selling and producing services and goods for profit. The private organizations are mainly driven by exploiting shareholder innovation, and value and being competitive within the market. The legal structure majorly includes “(LLCs) limited liability companies”, “Partnerships”, “corporations” and “sole proprietorships”, each of which fluctuates in liability, ownership, and regulatory obligations.

Voluntary sector: The non-profit and voluntary sector involves companies that mainly exist to aid cultural, environmental, social, and charitable determinations rather than just to generate profit. Social enterprises, (NGOs) non-governmental organizations, and charities come under this category. The funding mainly comes from fundraising activities, grants, and donations. These kinds of organizations are mainly established as “Non-profit corporations” or “charitable trusts” and develop by effective mission to develop positive influences on society. For instance, the Red Cross mainly offers humanitarian aid worldwide.

P2. Explaining the size and scope of the range of different types of organization

The organizations differ in terms of scope and size, this influences their strategies, operations, and global reach.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs): These are private sector businesses that majorly function on a smaller scale as compared to multinational corporations. These mainly operate regionally, and locally and have limited resources. For instance, an SME is a small coffee shop which is having 50 workers. The scope is limited to the effective niche, and market, thus emphasizing the local consumers and community. Apart from their size, small and medium-sized enterprises are major contributors to the job creation and economic growth. They have an informal and flexible structure which permits them to easily and quickly adapt to the changing market.

Large multinational corporations (MNCs): Large companies such as Apple Inc., particularly function on a global scale in multiple countries and with thousands of workers (Morrison, 2023). The major scope is to reach an international market, expansive with different services and products. The organizations mainly carry a hierarchical structure along with the different layers of specialized divisions of R&D, operations, marketing and finance, and management. The effective global scope such as Apple permits to have advantages from international brand recognition, economies of scale, and access to the wide consumer base. The effective resources and size offer the ability to innovate and regularly invest in research which can make them leaders in the industry.

Public sector organizations: These differ in size from the small-sized local government offices to the effective national institutions such as NHS. The organization mainly employs more than 1.4 million of people (Size and scope of different types of organizations, 2024). The major scope of companies might be local or national, depending on the mandate. The public sector companies offer essential services, including education, health care, and public safety. This may not function with the profits as the major objective, their scope and size affect their capability to serve the public effectively. The larger national agencies needed a complex structure to maintain the services across different regions.

NGOs and Non-profit: These mainly range from small-sized charities based on communities to larger-sized international NGOs such as Greenpeace (Thomas et al, 2019). The organizational scope of the operations mainly relies on the mission; this might be global, national, and local. The size mainly varies based on the different levels of available resources and funding. The larger-sized NGOs can majorly have formal structures with the different departments of communications, operations, and fundraising. However, small-sized NGOs can function with a flatter structure and, a small number of staff members.

M1 Analysing how the structure, size, and scope of different organizations link to the business objectives and products and services offered by the organizations.

The scope, size, and structure of the organizations are particularly linked with the services, products, and business objectives. Large multinational corporations such as Apple, this is having vast resources and hierarchical structures. This emphasizes global market penetration and innovation, aligning with the operation to offer cutting-edge technology. The smaller businesses, that operate with flat structures, might prioritize agility and local consumer satisfaction (Shapiro and Willig, 2019). The public sector organizations are mainly structured with service delivery; this aligns with the goals related to public welfare. The Non-profits are focused on the mission; and operate to adjust the use of resources for attaining the environmental and social goals.

D1 provides a critical analysis of the complexities of different organizations and structures.

The various companies mainly face different complexities which are based on the size, structure, legal framework, and size. Large corporations such as Apple direct the complex global market, with diverse consumers and regulatory environments. This requires specialized departments and hierarchies. SMEs struggle with scalability and resource limitations (Weatherly and Otter, 2018). The public sector organizations mainly face the different bureaucratic challenges and need to balance effectiveness with the accountability of the public. The Non-profits are dependent on donations; and need to engage with the stakeholders while working with the budget limitation. Every structure showcases the different operational challenges, along with the increasing complexities as the companies grow in scope and size. This demands strategies based on sophisticated management to manage the mission alignment and effectiveness.

Critically analyzing the interrelationships between organizational function.

P3 Discuss the relationship between different organizational functions and how they link to organizational objectives and structures.

Organizational functions including marketing, research and development (R&D), operations and human resources play a major role in gaining the overall objectives of the business. Every function creates synergies and interconnected which develop the organizational performance and mainly align with the vision and mission. The organizational structure, whether flat, divisional, matrix, or hierarchical, impacts how the functions collaborate and operate to fulfill the organizational goals.

Finance: The finance function is mainly responsible for maintaining the resources of the organization, this makes sure that sufficient capital is to offer support in the growth, investment, and operations (Streeck, 2019). Within large organizations such as Apple Inc., this innovation is one of the major objectives; finance plays a core role in budgeting for R&D, making sure of effective finance planning and obtaining resources for the development of products. The management of the financial department related to the investment decisions and cash flow has impact on the organizational capacity to enter in novel market and launch novel products. Within the smaller firms, the finance function is less complex, this plays a major role in making sure about the business sustainability. A well-structured company makes sure about seamless communication among the different functions and finance, this provides help to the organization in gaining strategic and financial objectives.

Marketing: Marketing is particularly accountable for promoting the company’s services or products and also identifying the different opportunities within the market. The role of function includes advertising, market research, and consumer relationship management (Worthington et al, 2023). Within larger organizations such as Apple Inc., the department of marketing functions closely with the research and development to make sure that the product can fulfill the consumer expectations and is also positioned well within the market. The marketing strategy of Apple emphasizes the making a loyal consumer base and branding, this offers support to the goals of an organization to be a lead within the customer electronics. The marketing functions required to collaborate with the finance and operations to make sure that the different promotional activities mainly align with the available budget and production schedules. For example, a successful launch of a product relies on the marketing’s capability to develop demand while effective operations make sure that the product is prepared for delivery.

Human resources (HR): The HR function emphasizes on the retaining talent, training, and recruiting, thus supporting the workforce with the objectives of the organization. HR plays a major role in making sure that the workers are equipped and motivated to achieve the objectives (Tompkins, 2023). For instance, within tech-driven organizations such as Apple, HR cooperates with research and development to attract talent in design and engineering. The HR functions diligently with the finance to mainly set out the compensation strategy which can easily retain and attract the workers without surpassing budget constraints. Within small companies, HR has a limited role but this plays a major role in aligning the worker's performance along with the business objectives.

Operations: The operations mainly emphasise on the delivering efficient services and producing goods effectively. Operations function plays a major role in making sure that the product can meet high quality standards, be manufactured on time, and be delivered to the consumers without delay. In the case of Apple, the operations make sure about the vast global supply chain which coordinates with the manufacturers and suppliers such as Mac and iPhone. The operations are mainly linked with the effective finance to maintain cost and marketing which makes sure about the product availability particularly align with the different promotional campaigns. Effective collaboration among the marketing, finance, and operations play a major role in making sure about the effective product process and prevent the bottleneck. A matrix or divisional structure offers help to large organizations such as Apple to effectively manage the operational complexity.

Research and development (R&D): This is the core innovation for organizations such as Apple, this mainly drives the development of the technologies and novel products that can keep the organization competitive. The primary objective is to develop the product and research novel technologies that align with the innovation. The R&D functions with effective marketing to smoothly understand the needs of consumers and finance to make sure about the budgets for the R&D projects. A matrix and flat structures can be beneficial for the research and development functions to boost creativity and collaboration across the departments. Within smaller companies, R&D can be limited to the development of products rather than innovations.

Interrelationships and organizational structure: The relationships among the different organizational functions play a major role in organizational success (Heide et al, 2020). For instance, whenever marketing particularly forecasts the needs of novel products the effective operational department needs to adjust the schedules of productions, while finance can make sure that the funds can be available to offer support to boost output. The HR requires recruiting more staff and offering training for the existing workers to meet the novel products. Without effective interdepartmental collaboration, gaining the objectives of an organization can be challenging.

The different organizational structures impact how the different functions work which can interact. The hierarchical structure carries a clear chain related to the command and making sure of the accountability but this can make silos at the time of making collaboration. The matrix structure permits communication and flexibility among the different departments. Large organizations such as Apple can adapt the matrix and divisional structure in which the operations can work semi-independently. Within small businesses, the flat structure functions commonly, in this the fewer layers can make collaboration and communication easier. However, the resource limitation of small organizations can develop different challenges in managing the different functions.

M2 analyzes the interrelationships between organizational functions and the impact these can have on organizational structure.

The interrelationships among the different organizational functions can impact the structure of the organization. The different functions such as marketing, R&D, HR, operations, and finance do not operate within isolation but this demands close collaboration to gain the goals of the organization. Within larger organizations, matrix and divisional structures develop collaboration by making specialized teams that emphasize the region and product line. Within smaller organizations, with flat structures, dependencies among the functions can increase the communication barriers.

Critically evaluating the impacts that both macro factors and micro factors have on business objectives and decision-making.

The macro and micro factors majorly influence the decision-making process and business objectives of the organization. The Macro factors include the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors that can shape the external environment within business is operating. On the other hand, Micro factors involve the suppliers, consumers, stakeholders, and competitors. This had a direct immediate impact on the operational decision-making of Apple.

P4 identifies the positive and negative impacts the microenvironment has on the business operations, supported by specific examples.

Macro factors

Globalization: The regularly increasing interconnectedness within the global market can directly affect consumer demand, supply chains, and competitors. For instance, Apple needs to adapt the different strategies to regional preferences and global demand while maintaining the supply chain globally. On the other hand, globalization can impact operations and effective decision-making.

Cultural shifts: The change in societal values, consumer preferences, and different attitudes towards sustainability and data privacy might drive organizations to reorient their objectives (Rosenau, 2021). For instance, Apple’s s emphasis on green energy and the use of privacy in response to the culture changes. On the other hand, cultural shifts can affect the consumer’s preferences and decision-making.

Demographic changes: Migration patterns, aging populations, changes in the workforce compositions (such as remote work trends), and customer demographics, influence labor markets, this requiring businesses to adopt workforce strategies and product offerings.

 The factors required businesses to be responsible and flexible in the decision-making to majorly align with the developing macroeconomic dynamics.

Micro factors

Consumers: Apple benefits from an effective and loyal consumer base, majorly in the developed market in which brand loyalty plays a major role. The reputation of Apple for innovative, premium products, including the MacBook and iPhone, increases repeat purchase and drives consumer retention. On the other hand, consumer preferences can change, majorly in the emerging market in which the price sensitivity is considered higher. The premium pricing strategy which Apple utilizes can alienate consumers who are looking for affordable alternatives (Apple, 2024).

Suppliers: Apple manages the effective relations with the key suppliers, including Foxconn, which permits to production the components with the high quality. The long terms partnership can offer support in the apple’s innovation objectives and also make sure about the supply chain. On the contrary hand, Apple relies on a small number of suppliers, which can pose the risk on the supply chain The different disruptions such as geopolitical factors, natural disasters, and trade restriction can increase the product delays.

Competitors: The competition with the organizations such as Huawei, Google, and Samsung motivates Apple to do ongoing innovation (Makarius et al, 2020). The high competitive pressure encourages Apple to boost its software and hardware. However, the competition is boosting within the market of smartphones, this can hinder the market share of Apple. The rivals can provide the same products at an affordable price which limits the expansion efforts of Apple.

Stakeholders: The strong relationship of Apple with its stakeholders such as investors, shareholders, and employees can strengthen the business foundation. The stakeholders majorly contribute to the process of decision making which can offer support in the profitability, growth, and sustainability initiatives. On the other hand, The short-term financial expectations directly from apple’s shareholders can affect the ability to emphasize on the research and development.

M3 Apply the appropriate PESTEL model to support the detailed analysis of the microenvironment in an organization

Political factors: Apple benefits from the effective and stable political environments within the markets, including Europe and the U.S. In this, the favourable trade policies and agreements offer support to the supply chain and global expansion. Government initiatives can develop technological innovation which can offer opportunities to Apple for R&D investment.

Economic factors: The success of Apple is closely secured with the economic prosperity within the core markets, within the enhanced economies along with disposable income, the customers regularly purchase the premium products of Apple, which mainly contributing to the revenue growth (Apple PESTEL analysis, 2024).

Social factors: The customer’s preferences for innovative technology and high quality work well in the favor of Apple. As this is a lifestyle brand, the organization’s products can work well as effective status symbols, which mainly drives the strong demand within the developed markets.

Technological factors: Technological development is helpful in the success of Apple, The organization demonstrates the innovation to make sure that it remains ahead of its rivals by developing ground-breaking services and products (Lumineau et al, 2021). The ongoing investment of Apple offers help in managing the technological leadership within sectors like wearable and mobile devices.

Environmental factors: The Efforts of Apple towards sustainability, includes utilisation of recycled materials and carbon neutrality goals, these have had positive impacts on the brand's reputation. The customers mainly value the organization which emphasises the environmental responsibilities and also aligns with the sustainability objectives of Apple.

Legal factors: The strong laws related to intellectual property protection help the organization to safeguard proprietary technology and innovation, thus preventing competitors from the products copying. It offer support to the leadership in market differentiations and innovation within Apple.

D2 Critically evaluate the impacts that both macro factors and micro factors have on the business objectives and decision-making

Micro and macro factors both majorly influence the decision making and business objectives. Macro factors such as technological development, regulatory changes, and global economic shifts create external pressures that can force organizations to adapt different strategies for growth and sustainability. For example, Apple needs to continue innovating because of the technological distribution and mainly complies with the global regulations (Iglesias-Pradas et al, 2021). The Micro factors include supplier relationships, consumer demand, and competitor actions, which can put impact the product development and premium pricing of Apple. These are developed by competitor innovation and consumer expectations. Balancing the different factors makes sure that the business can be responsive, competitive and aligned with internal dynamics and external opportunities.

Applying an appropriate SWOT/TOWS analysis by conducting internal and external analysis

P5 conducts internal and external analyses of specific organizations to identify the strengths and weaknesses

P6 Explain how strengths and weaknesses interrelate with the external macro factors.

The strengths and weaknesses of Apple are interrelated along with the external “Macro factors”, which include political, technological, and economic environments. For example, Apple’s innovation capabilities (the internal strengths) and financial strengths permit it to implement the “Technological macro factors”. This is maintaining the market leadership and driving the development of products (Volberda et al, 2021). Though macroeconomic factors such as currency fluctuations and economic recessions can disturb premium pricing strategy, this mainly limits the sales within the frugally vulnerable regions. Political factors such as tariffs, and trade restrictions, pose major difficulties to apple’s dependency on the major Chinese suppliers (weakness), thus exposing organization to hazards from the “political macro factors” such as trade wars. The technological macro factors such as 5G development AI aligns with the strength of Apple in the innovation and encourage the organization for ongoing investment in R&D.

M4 apply appropriate SWOT/TOWS analyses and justify how they influence decision making.

From the depth analysis of SWOT, this has been identified that the strengths of Apple within innovation and brand reputation align with the enhancing “technological macro factors”. This leads to effective decision-emphasised product diversification and R&D investment. However, weaknesses such as supply chain risks and dependency on the iPhone revenue and different risks based on the supply chain interconnects with the “economic and political macro factors”, mainly influencing the decision of the organization to explore alternatives manufacturing and diversify the product portfolio.

CONCLUSION

Conclusively, it states that the organization operates within operate in the different economic sectors with purpose, legal purpose, and role within the society. The public sectors involve essential and affordable prices, which are majorly funded through taxation. The private sector, this mainly followed by the owned private and individual entities that can operate to develop profit. The voluntary sector, includes organizations that functions to aid social, environmental, cultural, and charitable factors. SMEs, can be considered as private sector businesses, this might be considered as the smaller scale. MNCs, and large organizations like Apple Inc, mainly operates on the global scale.

REFERENCES

Books and journals

• Burns, J. and Needle, D. 2023 Business in Context: An Introduction to Business and its Environment. 8th Ed. Andover, Hants: Cengage Learning EMEA.
• Heide, M., von Platen, S., Simonsson, C. and Falkheimer, J., 2020. Expanding the scope of strategic communication: Towards a holistic understanding of organizational complexity. In Future Directions of strategic communication (pp. 124-140). Routledge.
• Iglesias-Pradas, S., Hernández-García, Á., Chaparro-Peláez, J. and Prieto, J.L., 2021. Emergency remote teaching and students’ academic performance in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study. Computers in human behavior, 119, p.106713.
• Lumineau, F., Wang, W. and Schilke, O., 2021. Blockchain governance—A new way of organizing collaborations? Organization Science, 32(2), pp.500-521.
• Makarius, E.E., Mukherjee, D., Fox, J.D. and Fox, A.K., 2020. Rising with the machines: A sociotechnical framework for bringing artificial intelligence into the organization. Journal of business research, 120, pp.262-273.
• Morrison, J. 2023 The Global Business Environment: Sustainability in the Balance. 6th Ed. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Rosenau, J.N., 2021. Governance in the Twenty-first Century. In Understanding global cooperation (pp. 16-47). Brill.
• Shapiro, C. and Willig, R.D., 2019. Economic rationales for the scope of privatization. In The political economy of public sector reform and privatization (pp. 55-87). Routledge.
• Streeck, W., 2019. Interest Heterogeneity and Organizing Capacity Two Class Logics of Collective Action?. In Political choice (pp. 161-198). Routledge.
• Thomas, J., Kneale, D., McKenzie, J.E., Brennan, S.E. and Bhaumik, S., 2019. Determining the scope of the review and the questions it will address. Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions, pp.13-31.
• Tompkins, J.R., 2023. Organization theory and public management. Waveland Press.
• Volberda, H.W., Khanagha, S., Baden-Fuller, C., Mihalache, O.R. and Birkinshaw, J., 2021. Strategizing in a digital world: Overcoming cognitive barriers, reconfiguring routines and introducing new organizational forms. Long Range Planning, 54(5), p.102110.
• Weatherly, P. and Otter, D. 2018 The Business Environment: Themes and Issues in a Globalizing World. 4th Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Worthington, I., Thompson, E. and Britton. C. 2023 The Business Environment.

Online

• Apple PESTEL analysis, 2024. Online. Available through https://businessmodelanalyst.com/apple-pestle-analysis/
• Apple SWOT analysis, 2024. Online. Available through https://businessmodelanalyst.com/apple-swot-analysis/
• Apple, 2024. Online. Available through <https://www.apple.com/in/store?afid=p238%7Cs8Vs8GkTq-dc_mtid_187079nc38483_pcrid_714003042914_pgrid_112258962467_pntwk_g_pchan__pexid__ptid_kwd-10778630_&cid=aos-IN-kwgo-brand--slid---product->
• Size and scope of different types of organizations, 2024. Online. Available through https://www.howandwhat.net/size-scope-different-types-organisations/

Author Bio

Jordan Clarke   7 Years | Masters

I am Jordon and I am a resident of London. I have completed my master's from Imperial College. I have gold medals in bachelor's as well as master's. I have been a certified academic writer for 7 years or more. My passion is to help students write flawless assignments. I have also been a professor at two or three renowned universities in London, so I am very well aware of what the guidelines demand.