Organisation, recruitment and communication
Businesses organise people in structures with managers who lead in different styles. They recruit, select and train workers, and need effective communication.
📌 Key points
- An organisational chart shows the structure: the hierarchy (levels), the chain of command (the route orders pass down) and the span of control (number of subordinates per manager).
- A tall structure has many levels and narrow spans of control; a flat structure has few levels and wide spans, so communication is quicker. Delegation passes authority to subordinates.
- The functions of management are planning, organising, coordinating, commanding and controlling.
- Leadership styles: autocratic (manager decides alone), democratic (workers involved in decisions) and laissez-faire (workers make most decisions themselves). Trade unions represent workers and bargain with managers.
- Recruitment process: job analysis, job description, person specification, advertising (internal or external), applications or CVs, shortlisting, interviews or tests, then selection.
- Internal recruitment fills a job from existing staff; external recruitment brings in new people with fresh ideas.
- Training: induction (introducing new staff to the business), on-the-job (learning at work from experienced staff) and off-the-job (courses away from the workplace).
- Workforce can be reduced by dismissal (sacking for poor work or misconduct) or redundancy (the job is no longer needed). Employment law covers contracts, health and safety, discrimination and minimum wages.
- Effective communication needs a sender, a medium, a receiver and feedback; two-way communication includes feedback. Barriers include jargon, noise, a long chain of command and the wrong medium.
📖 Key terms
- Span of control
- The number of subordinates working directly under a manager.
- Chain of command
- The structure that allows instructions to be passed down from senior managers to lower levels.
- Delegation
- Giving a subordinate the authority to perform particular tasks.
- Job description
- A document that outlines the responsibilities and duties of a job.
- Person specification
- A document listing the qualifications, skills and qualities needed for a job.
- Induction training
- An introduction given to a new employee, explaining the business and their job.
- Redundancy
- When an employee is no longer needed, so loses their job through no fault of their own.
- Communication barrier
- Anything that stops a message being received or understood correctly.
✏️ Worked example
A hotel needs a new sales manager. Outline the stages it should take to recruit and select one.
- Job analysis: decide exactly what the job involves.
- Write a job description (duties) and a person specification (qualifications, skills, experience).
- Advertise the job, internally or externally (e.g. on job websites).
- Shortlist the best applications, then interview and test the candidates.
- Answer: choose the person who best matches the person specification and give them induction training.
Do not confuse dismissal (the worker’s fault) with redundancy (the job is no longer needed). Also, the job description is about the job; the person specification is about the person.
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