AQA, Business, AS, People in Business defintions.

Organisational Structure - The relationship between different people and functions in an organisation - both vertically, from shop-floor workers through supervisors and managers to directors and horizontally between different functions and people at the same level.

Organisational Chart - A diagram showing the lines of authority and layers of hierarchy in an organisation.

Organisational Hierarchy - The vertical division of authority and accountability in an organisation.

Levels of Hierarchy - The number of different supervisory and management levels between the shop floor and the chief executive in an organisation.

Span of control - The number of coordinates whom a manager is required to supervise directly.

Delegation - The process of passing authority down the hierarchy from a manager to a subordinate.

Responsibility - Being accountable for one's actions.

Authority - The ability or power to carry out a task.

Accountability - The extent to which a named individual is held responsible for the success or failure of a particular policy, project or piece of work.

Communication - The process of exchanging information or ideas between two or more individual groups.

Internal Communication - The exchange of information that takes place within an organisation (e.g. at departmental meetings, in team briefing sessions and in memos to staff.)'

External Communication - The exchange of information that takes place with individuals, groups or organisations outside the business (e.g. via advertising material, telephone, calls to suppliers and letters to customers.

One-way communication - Communication without any feedback ( e.g. putting a notice on a notice board, or giving instructions in an authoritarian manner that allows no comment or questions from the listener.)

Two-way communication - Communication with feedback ( e.g. giving instructions in a manner that allows for questions to be asked or comments to be made, a discussion or a question-and-answer session).

Communication Channels - The route through which communication occurs.

Open channels of communication - Any staff member is welcome to see, read or hear the discussions and conclusions.

Closed channels of communication - Access to the information is restricted to a named few.

Formal Channels of communication - communication channels established and approved by senior management, within which any form of communication is regarded as formal ( e.g. meetings of departmental heads personnel department, meetings and production team briefing sessions ).

Vertical Communication - When information is passed up and down the chain of command.

Lateral Communication - When people at the same level within an organisation pass information to eachother.

Labour Productivity - A measure of the output per worker in a given time period.

F...Labour Productivity = Output per period / Number of employees per period.

Labour Turnover - The proportion of employees leaving a business over a period of time - usually a year.

F...Rate of Labour Turnover - ( Number leaving per period / Average number employed per period ) x 100.

Absenteeism - The proportion of employees not at work on a given day.

F...Rate of Absenteeism = ( Number of staff absent on one day / total number of staff ) x 100.

F...Rate of absenteeism due to health and safety = ( NUmber of working days lost per year due to H & S / Total number of possible working days per year ) x 100.

Internal Recruitment - Filling a job vacancy by selecting a person who is already employed in the organisation.

External Recruitment - Filling a job vacancy by advertising outside the firm.

Training - The provision of work related education, either on-the job, or, off-the-job, involving employees being taught new skills or improving skills they already have.

Induction Training - Education for new employees, which usually involves learning alot about the way business works rather than about the particular job that the individual will do.

On-the-job training - Where an employee learns a job by seeing how it is carried out by an experienced employee.

Off-the-job training - All forms of employee education apart from that at the immediate workplace.

Motivation - The causes of poeples actions, why people behave as they do.

Motivation Theory - The study of factors that influence the behaviour of people in the workplace.

Scientific Management - Business decision making based on data that are researched and tested quantitatively in order to improve the efficacy of the organisation.

Piecework - Payment based on the number of items each worker produces.

Performance-Related Pay - A bonus or increase in salary usually awarded for above-average employee performance.

Profit Sharing - A financial incentive in which a proportion of a firm's profit is divided among its employees in the form of a bonus paid in addition to an employees salary.

Share Ownership - In this context, a financial incentive whereby companies give shares to their employees or sell them at favourable rates below the market price.

Share Options - A financial incentive in which chief executives and senior management are given the choice of buying a fixed number of shares at a fixed price, by a given date.

Fringe Benefits - Benefits recieved by employees in addition to their wages or salary.

Job Enrichment - A means of giving employees greater responsibility and offering them challenges that allow them to utilise their skills fully.

Job Enlargement - Increasing the scope of a job, either by job enrichment or by job rotation.

Empowerment - Giving employees the means by which they can excercise power over their working lives.

Teamworking - A system where production is organised into large units of work and a group of employees work together in order to meet shared objectives.