This is the syllabus for both Preliminary and HSC Business Studies containing all topics areas. You can download it from here (right click and ‘Save Target as’) or view it directly on this site by clicking ‘view’.

Business Studies Syllabus

In the HSC paper the very last section (Section IV) has 2 questions. Both questions assess your knowledge from multiple topic areas but, most importantly, they require you to “use your knowledge and relevant business case study/studies“.

What this means is that in this section you must refer to the Qantas case study. However you may also refer to additional material on businesses that you have read about or that you recall from our class discussions.

In this year’s paper the 2 questions you had a choice between were as follows;

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Question 27 (20 marks)Outline the external sources of change for a business to expand internationally, and critically analyse the strategies a business may use to ensure ethical practices in a global environment.

OR

Question 28 (20 marks)

Outline the external sources of change for a business to expand internationally, and critically analyse the strategies a business may use to manage employment relations in a global environment.

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By this stage of the course you should be able to answer the first part of the question (which is the same for both Q27 and Q28). To give you a guideline about length you should be able to produce about 5-6, exam booklet, pages of material to “outline the external sources of change for a business to expand internationally”. Some of you have already been working on this as part of the in class extension work so could you post (in the comments) the plans you drew up in response to the first half of Q27 & Q28.

As a parting gift Claudia has left us with her drawing of the acronym we made up for External Sources of Change. From the syllabus;

Charging Elephants Fall, Giraffes Sleep, Lions Play Tag

nature and sources of change in business
– external influences —

• the changing nature of markets;
• economic,
• financial,
• geographic,
• social,
• legal,
• political and
• technological developments

Leading Edge is a supplier of student resources such as HSC lectures, textbooks and study guides. You can sign up at their website for free Business Studies (and Economics) resources.

The following questions come from their website. The answers to each question can be found here. It is worth taking your time to answer each of these questions and then see the suggested answers given by Leading Edge.

1. Briefly discuss how management theory evolved.

2. Identify the key function of classical-scientific management theory.

3. Using the classical-scientific management theory, justify the use of rigid hierarchies in a business.

4. Lianne is thinking of starting up her own fashion business for women. It would employaround ten full-time designers and retail workers. Discuss two functions of management that the classical-scientific school suggests Lianne will need to perform.

5. Compare and contrast the views of the worker in both the classical-scientific and behavioural schools of management.

6. Examine how Lianne’s management functions would differ from those identified in Question 4, if you used the behavioural approach to management.

7. Briefly examine the role of flat organisational structures and teams in behavioural management.

8. Summarise the role of politics and coalitions in a business as seen by political management theory.

9. Consider a large corporation such as Coles. Explain how the systems approach to management would assist in the management of this company.

10. Explain the link between the contingency theory of management and the othertheories you have studied.

Just a quick post to say that we’re both impressed with the amount of work all of you have been putting in over the last few weeks. We’re especially happy with the effort you’ve been putting into your Qantas report. Keep up the excellent start all of you have made to Year 12.

I came across this great article, written by Andrew Thiele a South Australian Police Officer, that discusses the use of power within the South Australian Police Force. The article (original source available here) discusses the 5 sources of power within the context of policing and then goes on to analyse the consequences of using each type of power. I’ve recreated the relevant parts of the article below.

Sources of power

The threat of punishment might not motivate an employee to abide by the Equity and Diversity Employee Management Manual. Much academic research has gone into the sources of power within organizations. The French and Raven Power Typography is taught in business schools the world over.

It asserts that five sources of power exist within any organization. The first three emanate from the position. Legitimate Power is the power – through the exercise of formal authority – to influence others. It is power that comes from formal positions of authority, such as the rank one holds within an organization.

Reward Power comes from a person’s ability to distribute rewards that are highly valued by others and/or remove negative sanctions. Coercive Power comes from the capacity to apply punishment. Managers and supervisors have coercive power in their authority to reprimand and demote employees. An inspector, for example, can punish people who breach general orders.

The other two sources of power emanate from the person. Expert Power comes from special knowledge or skill held by one particular person but required by another person or group. It is an individual’s capacity to influence others through their need for the specialist skills or knowledge he or she possesses. Referent Power is largely a function of one’s interdependent skills, and usually develops slowly. People have referent power when others identify with them, like them or otherwise respect them.

Consequences of power

Some might ask how these power sources apply to them within SAPOL. The power source upon which one relies, and the way in which one acquires it, determines whether one is met with resistance, compliance or commitment. It determines one’s effectiveness and ability to contribute to continuous improvement within SAPOL.

Coercive Power is generally the least desirable source of power because it generates resistance. Those targeted tend to oppose the attempt at influence and resent undertaking a task. The more vigorous the attempt, the harder others push in opposition. The application of coercive power reduces trust between the parties, and increases employee dissatisfaction. Resistance and distrust occur when coercive power is used manipulatively.

Reward and Legitimate Power tend to engender compliance. People are motivated to implement the power-holder’s request purely for instrumental reasons. They will only ever do enough to satisfy the person who makes the request, or whatever it takes to get the reward. Relying on this form of power will only ever achieve mediocrity, and never foster excellence.

Commitment is the most common consequence of Expert and Referent Power. Commitment is the strongest form of influence: people identify with the power-holder’s request and strive to accede to it, even when there are no extrinsic benefits for doing so.

Why, to ensure the completion of a task, would a leader threaten a subordinate with punishment? Such a leader would only be setting himself or herself up to face resistance. Why, to get a job done, would a leader simply rely on the insignia of rank that lies impressively on his or her epaulettes?

Subordinates would no doubt comply with the orders of such leaders – in their presence. But who knows how they might respond in these leaders’ absence?

Benefits

The benefits of Expert and Referent power are immense, and include:

• Increased productivity.
• Reduced absenteeism.
• Improved morale and commitment.
• Lower staff turnover.
• Fewer WorkCover claims.
• Increased creativity and innovation.
• An interesting and dynamic workplace.

Source: http://www.policejournalsa.org.au/0404/24a.php

You’ve probably seen this orange box on the left a few times before. It’s there to tell you that you can subscribe to this site (or any other site that has this symbol) so that you can be notified whenever that site updates.

Its a very powerful tool especially if you visit various sites (newspapers, facebook friends, blogs etc) to find out what’s new. By subscribing to their RSS feed (the orange box) you don’t need to visit each and every site. Whenever those sites update their information your “feed” will be updated with whatever new information has been posted.

For example the feed for this blog is http://scholsbiz.edublogs.org/feed/. To find out when this blog updates go through these simple steps;

1. Go to this website http://www.google.com/reader
   
2. Either setup a google account or login to google with an account you already have
3. Click the box in the left hand side of the page that says “Add subscription”
4. Paste into that box the feed address for this blog http://scholsbiz.edublogs.org/feed/
5. That’s it … easy as. Now everytime you go to http://www.google.com/reader you will see any new information we have updated without having to visit this site each time.

• You can add lots of other feeds … for example you can add blogs from your friends myspace pages by adding something like this http://blog.myspace.com/blog/rss.cfm?friendID=0000000 (change the numbers obviously)
• In bebo you can click on the link that says “subscribe to feeds”
• You can add a feed from the Sydney Morning Herald http://feeds.smh.com.au/rssheadlines/top.xml
• You can add feeds from most websites nowadays. Once you’ve added a lot of feeds you can then use Google Reader as a way of keep track of all of these sites and not have to go to each site individually to find out what’s new.

You don’t only have to use Google Reader. There are other alternatives. Personally I use bloglines but Google Reader is easy to use and straight forward.

If you prefer to see a vid that explains all of this then, rather than trawling through all the blurb above, have a look at this youtube vid from commoncraft

Came across this great article in TIME magazine that talks about how Cathay Pacific (one of Qantas’ main competitors) is using team work to increase productivity. This is a great way to show one of the key concepts of Behavioural Theory (i.e. teamwork increases morale and therefore increases productivity) in action.

Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007

Flight School

By Krista Mahr

Running a multinational airline, says Cathay Pacific CEO Tony Tyler, is a little like playing rugby. It might look like a group of “large and rather ugly men running around a muddy field,” he says, but when they work together, it’s a thing of beauty. “For the team to win, every player has to do their job well.”

That team ethic has helped the Hong Kong-based airline please both passengers and shareholders. Cathay’s profit so far this year has surged 55%, built largely on a reputation for excellent service on international long-haul flights. Cathay isn’t immune, however, from high fuel costs and competitive pricing. “All airlines are under pressure to reduce their cost base,” Tyler says. But rather than relying on slashing amenities, as many airlines have done, Cathay has focused on “increasing the productivity of our people,” he says. That means embracing the unabashedly corny team-building exercises that have fallen far out of fashion in the rest of the corporate world.

It’s the only way to get Cathay’s 25,000 employees working in harmony. The cabin crew, ground staff, gate agents and customer-service reps for any given flight are always different, so “every time you a have a flight that takes off, you have a new group thrown together for a project,” says Jeremy Perks, a director in Beijing for IWNC, a corporate-team-building firm that has worked with Cathay. When those teams break down, Cathay is vulnerable to the same problems facing every other airline. For example, in June a mechanical problem delayed a Cathay flight in San Francisco, forcing 400 passengers to sit on the runway for seven hours and hitting the airline with a rare round of negative publicity.

So Cathay has tried to turn its global training headquarters near Hong Kong International Airport into a temple of team spirit. Employees can wander into classes for yoga and belly-dancing and get a drink at Dhakota’s, the company bar. “It’s like a big playground,” says Steve Lawrence, one of Cathay’s training and development managers. The rooftop patio hosts just about every hokey team-building exercise ever invented. Trainees regularly participate in 100-person lap sits, in which each person sits on the next one’s knees, forming a circle while trying mightily to stay balanced. There are blindfolded “trust walks” and, until recently, group-dancing first thing in the morning. Sadly, Morning Boogie was phased out after the speaker system got blown away in a typhoon.

These exercises can do only so much. “Team-building events just create a shared experience for people,” says Lawrence, “nothing more, nothing less.” So managers help employees make a clear connection between the exercises and their daily responsibilities. At a recent session in which the trainees played the game red/black (teams score higher by coordinating their strategies), a supervisor from Indonesia linked the exercise to dealing with lost luggage without passing blame.

Cathay’s team-building isn’t just for the rank and file. At a recent event in Bangkok, top managers, including former CEO Philip Chen, were sent into local Thai grocery stores with 500 baht and the task of planning and cooking new economy- and business-class meals.

The next team challenge? Cathay acquired the Chinese domestic airline Dragonair last year, but integrating its new partner could be tricky. “Chinese carriers do not have a good reputation for customer service,” says Richard Aboulafia, an airline analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. Tyler says he wants “to make sure Dragonair staff feel they belong–to make sure nobody was having lunch alone.” Perhaps it’s time to bring back Morning Boogie.

• Find this article at:
• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1673253,00.html

Your assignments all require that you use the Harvard Referencing System. Attached to this post is the handout given to all of you at the beginning of Year 11 on how to use the system.

Just as a quick recap here are a couple of examples to get you started (you will still need to refer to the attached document for more specific information).

When Citing in text (which you must do everytime a new idea or concept is mentioned)
Long (1991) conducted an experiment which proved….
OR
An experiment was conducted that proved the validity of this argument (Long 1991).

When writing up your list of references/bibliography (at the end of your document)
Douglas, M & Watson, C 1984, Networking, Macmillan, London. Long, PE (ed.) 1991, A collection of current views on nuclear safety, Penguin, Harmondsworth.

harvard-referencing-system.doc

For some further reading on one of Australia’s premier business theorists, Elton Mayo, have a look at this link and this link