The
course focuses on the American
business environment and its business
organizations and institutions, examines
the role played by American business culture
and society, and introduces the practical
operations that must exist if businesses
are to create goods and services.
The
course provides a broad overview of the functions,
institution, principles, and practices of
business.
The
matrix explains the learning strategies, objectives,
communication, and technology
options currently available. This is a partial list of
strategies, methodologies and technologies which are changing continuously. We will
be regularly reviewing and updating our recommended strategies.
The economic history of the United States has
its roots in European settlements in the 16th, 17th, and
18th centuries. The American colonies progressed from marginally
successful colonial economies to a small, independent farming
economy, which in 1776 became the United
States of America . In 230 years the United States grew
to a huge, integrated, industrialized economy that makes
up over a quarter of the world
economy . The main causes were a large unified market,
a supportive political-legal system, vast areas of highly
productive farmlands, vast natural resources (especially
timber, coal and oil), and an entrepreneurial spirit and
commitment to investing in material and human capital. The
economy has maintained high wages, attracting immigrants
by the millions from all over the world.
Etiquette,
one aspect of decorum ,
is a code that governs the expectations of social
behavior, according to the contemporary conventional norm within
a society , social
class , or group .
Usually unwritten, it may be codified in written form.
Etiquette usually reflects formulas of conduct in which society or tradition have
invested. An etiquette may reflect an underlying ethical
code , or in may grow more as a fashion ,
as in eighteenth century Britain where apparently pointless
acts like the manner in which a tea cup was held became
associated with the upper
class . Like " culture ",
it is a word that has gradually grown plural, especially
in a multi-ethnic
society with many clashing expectations. Thus,
it is now possible to refer to "an etiquette" or "a culture",
realizing that these may not be universal. In Britain,
though, the word etiquette has its roots in the eighteenth
century, becoming a universal force in the nineteenth
century to the extent that it has been described
as the one word that aptly describes life during the
reign of Queen Victoria [1].
The
economy of
the United
States is the world's largest nominal economy. [11] Its nominal
GDP was estimated at $14.2 trillion in 2009,
which is about three times that of the world's second
largest national economy, Japan.[2] Its GDP
by PPP is almost twice that of the second largest, China.
The U.S. economy maintains a very high level of output per
person (GDP
per capita, $46,442 in 2009, ranked at around
number ten in the world). Historically, the U.S.
economy has maintained a stable overall GDP growth
rate, a low unemployment rate,
and high levels of research and capital
investment funded by both national and, because
of decreasing saving rates,
increasingly by foreign investors. In 2006, consumer
spending made up 70 percent of the United States Gross
Domestic Product.[12]
Since
the 1960's, the United States economy absorbed
savings from the rest of the world. The phenomenon
is subject to discussion among economists.
Like other developed countries, the United
States faces retiring baby
boomers who have already begun withdrawing
from their Social
Security accounts; however, the American
population is young and growing when compared
to Europe or Japan. The United
States public debt is in excess of $12
trillion and continues to grow at a rate
of about $3.83 billion each day.[13]
Commercial
law includes within its compass such titles
as principal and agent; carriage by land
and sea; merchant shipping; guarantee; marine,
fire, life, and accident insurance; bills
of exchange and partnership. It can also
be understood to regulate corporatecontracts, hiring
practices, and the manufacture and sales of consumergoods.
Many countries have adopted civil
codes that contain comprehensive statements
of their commercial law. In the United States,
commercial law is the province of both the United
States Congress, under its power to regulate
interstate commerce, and the states, under
their police power. Efforts have been made
to create a unified body of commercial law
in the United States; the most successful
of these attempts has resulted in the general
adoption of the Uniform
Commercial Code, which has been adopted
(in whole or in part) in all 50 states, the District
of Columbia, the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico, Guam,
and the U.S.
Virgin Islands.
Various
regulatory schemes control how commerce is
conducted, particularly vis-a-vis employees
and customers. Privacy laws, safety laws
(e.g., the Occupational
Safety and Health Act in the United States),
and food and drug laws are some examples.
The executive
branch is headed by President and is
independent of the legislature. Legislative
power is vested in the two chambers of
Congress, the Senate and
the House
of Representatives. The judicial branch
(or judiciary), composed of the Supreme
Court and lower federal courts, exercises judicial
power (or judiciary). The judiciary's
function is to interpret the United
States Constitution and federal
laws and regulations. This includes
resolving disputes between the executive
and legislative branches. The federal government
of the United States was established by
the Constitution. Two parties, the Democratic
Party and the Republican
Party, have dominated American politics
since the American
Civil War, although other parties have
also existed.
There
are major differences between the political
system of the United States and that of most
other developed democracies.
These include increased power of the upper
house of the legislature, a wider scope of
power held by the Supreme
Court, the separation
of powers between the legislature and the
executive, and the dominance of only two main
parties. The United States is one of the world's
developed democracies where third parties have
the least political influence.
The federal entity created by the Constitution is
the dominant feature of the American governmental
system. However, some people are also subject to
a state government,
and all are subject to various units of local government.
The latter include counties, municipalities, and
special districts.
This multiplicity of jurisdictions reflects the
country's history. The federal government was created
by the states, which as colonies were established
separately and governed themselves independently
of the others. Units of local government were created
by the colonies to efficiently carry out various
state functions. As the country expanded, it admitted
new states modeled on the existing ones.
Corporate
finance is an area of finance dealing
with financial decisions business
enterprises make and the tools and analysis used
to make these decisions. The primary goal of corporate
finance is to maximizecorporate
value[1] while
managing the firm's financial risks.
Although it is in principle different from managerial
finance which studies the financial decisions
of all firms, rather than corporations alone, the
main concepts in the study of corporate finance are
applicable to the financial problems of all kinds
of firms.
The discipline can be divided into long-term and
short-term decisions and techniques. Capital
investment decisions are long-term choices about
which projects receive investment, whether to finance
that investment with equity or debt,
and when or whether to pay dividends to shareholders.
On the other hand, the short term decisions can be
grouped under the heading "Working
capital management". This subject deals with
the short-term balance of current
assets and current
liabilities; the focus here is on managing cash, inventories,
and short-term borrowing and lending (such as the
terms on credit extended to customers).
The terms corporate finance and corporate financier
are also associated with investment
banking. The typical role of an investment
bank is to evaluate the company's financial needs
and raise the appropriate type of capital that best
fits those needs.
A
large percentage of electronic commerce is
conducted entirely electronically for virtual items
such as access to premium content on a website,
but most electronic commerce involves the
transportation of physical items in some
way. Online retailers are sometimes known
as e-tailers and
online retail is sometimes known as e-tail.
Almost all big retailers have electronic
commerce presence on the World
Wide Web.
Electronic
commerce that is conducted between businesses
is referred to as business-to-business or
B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties
(e.g. commodity
exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified
participants (private
electronic market). Electronic commerce
that is conducted between businesses and consumers,
on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C.
This
is the type of electronic commerce conducted
by companies such as Amazon.com. Online
shopping is a form of electronic commerce
where the buyer is directly online to the seller's
computer usually via the internet.
There
is no intermediary service. The sale and purchase
transaction is completed electronically and
interactively in real-time such as Amazon.com
for new books. If an intermediary is present,
then the sale and purchase transaction is called
electronic commerce such as eBay.com.
Electronic
commerce is generally considered to be the
sales aspect of e-business.
It also consists of the exchange of data to
facilitate the financing and payment aspects
of the business transactions.
Management
styles are characteristic ways of making
decisions and relating to subordinates. Different
management styles can be employed dependent on the culture of
the business, the nature of the task, the nature
of the workforce and the personality and skills of
the leaders. This idea was further developed by Robert
Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt (1958, 1973)[1] who
argued that the style of leadership is dependent
upon the prevailing circumstance; therefore leaders
should exercise a range of management styles and
should deploy them as appropriate.
Incorporated
Companies
The corporation is established as a legal
personality and in terms of the legal status
of ownership, membership, responsibilities to shareholders,
ability to forge contracts, its purposes and scope
of trading, Company
Director and Management roles Executive and
non-executive directors, Company Secretary
The
Company as a Holding Company
Parent company, subsidiary and associated companies,
PLCs, benefits of a holding company, annual accounts
and accounting rules.
Cooperatives and Not-for-Profit
Organisations
Co-operatives, central and local government departments
and agencies and charities, churches, social care
establishments, schools, clubs. Even for some of
these the profit motive - or surplus of income
over expenses is a significant organisational objective.
Strategic
or institutional management is the conduct
of drafting, implementing and evaluating cross-functional
decisions that will enable an organization to achieve
its long-term objectives.[1] It
is the process of specifying the organization's mission,
vision and objectives, developing policies and plans,
often in terms of projects and programs, which are
designed to achieve these objectives, and then allocating
resources to implement the policies and plans, projects
and programs. A balanced
scorecard is often used to evaluate the overall
performance of the business and
its progress towards objectives.
Strategic management is a level of managerial activity
under setting goals and over Tactics.
Strategic management provides overall direction to
the enterprise and is closely related to the field
of Organization
Studies. In the field of business administration
it is useful to talk about "strategic alignment" between
the organization and its environment or "strategic
consistency". According to Arieu (2007), "there is
strategic consistency when the actions of an organization
are consistent with the expectations of management,
and these in turn are with the market and the context."
“Strategic management is an ongoing process
that evaluates and controls the business and the
industries in which the company is involved; assesses
its competitors and sets goals and strategies to
meet all existing and potential competitors; and
then reassesses each strategy annually or quarterly
[i.e. regularly] to determine how it has been implemented
and whether it has succeeded or needs replacement
by a new strategy to meet changed circumstances,
new technology, new competitors, a new economic
environment., or a new social, financial, or political
environment.” (Lamb, 1984:ix)[2]
Human
resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach
to the management of
an organization's most valued assets - the people
working there who individually and collectively contribute
to the achievement of the objectives of the business.[1] The
terms "human resource management" and "human
resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel
management" as a description of the processes
involved in managing people in organizations.[1] In
simple words, HRM means employing people, developing
their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and compensating
their services in tune with the job and organizational
requirement.
Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop
Business
Ethics Fifth Edition
O. C. Ferrell, Colorado State University
John Fraedrich, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Linda Ferrell, University of Wyoming
Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop
Mary Munter, Tuck School
of Business at Dartmouth College
1.
Communication Strategy.
Communicator
Strategy. Audience Strategy. Message Strategy. Channel
Choice Strategy. Cultural Strategy.
2.
Writing: Composing Efficiently
Composing
Under Normal Circumstances. Composing Under Special
Circumstances.
3.
Writing: Macro Issues.
Document
Design for “High Skim Value.” Structural
Signposts for Connection. Effective
Paragraphs or Sections.
4.
Writing: Micro Issues.
Editing
for Brevity. Editing for Style.
5.
Speaking: Verbal Structure.
Tell/Sell
Presentations. Questions and Answers. Consult/Join
Meetings. Special Speaking Situations.
6.
Speaking: Visual Aids.
Designing
the Presentation as a Whole. Designing Each Individual
Chart. Choosing Visual Aid Equipment. Practicing with
Visual Aids.
