3CO01 Business, Culture and Change in Context

Introduction to 3CO01

This unit provides insight into the importance of digital, commercial, and external influence in shaping business within an organisation’s culture, the impact of people’s behaviour on an organisation’s culture, and its ability to manage change effectively.

Learning outcomes

Learners will be able to;-

• Understand the significant external influence that impact businesses. These include legal influences, social, economic, technological and competitive environment.
• Understand the meaning of workshop culture and how it is influenced by people culture.
• Understand an organisation as a whole system and how an individual’s actions influence others.
• Understand the various ways in which employees can learn, adapt and develop in an organisation.
• Understand the concept of change as a whole in organisations. Learners will also learn various ways in which people professions impact employees.

The unit aims at helping the learners understand;

Business environment and the significant issues that affect it

Different organisations operate in different environments and face different challenges that can be analysed by;-

• Examining the primary external influences that impact an organisations environment.

Different external forces impact current and future organisations activities. These forces are the market in which an organisation operates and the steeple. Therefore, carrying out a SWOT analysis is essential for an organisation to understand better the market it operates.

• Analysing the goals of an organisation and discussing the importance of planning.

Each business should have short-term and long-term goals that include the organisation’s vision and objectives, business structure, documentation of the business and employment climate. Different organisations have different ways of informing their customers and staff, determining their objectives, planning, and linking these to their policies and people practices. Planning for business continuity is essential as it helps analyse any possible disruptions and helps an organisation keep running during a crisis. In addition, it helps maintain the reputation of an organisation; it saves on time and resources.

• Analysing an organisation’s products or services and their target customers.

The learners need to discuss the products or services that an organisation offers and their primary customers to be able to: analyse the market; analyse consumer needs; analyse features versus benefits; identify market type in terms of direct market where you sell products or services to the customers, wholesale, online or agency market; analyse the market segment to create subsets based on consumer needs, consumer priorities, demographics and consumer interests.

• Evaluate the scope of technology within people’s professions and discuss how it can be used to enhance collaboration and working practices.

Learners should understand the different types of technologies used in organisations, such as the internet, email, and electronic communication. Electronic communication is comprehensive as it is composed of: smartphones; social media, for example, Twitter, Google, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube; cloud-based communication means; dashboards; cloud hosting; Bluetooth; voice command software; face recognition software; fingerprints; artificial intelligence; file management; autoresponders; synchronising soft wares. In addition, learners will learn the collective and individual technologies that are essential in change, improvement and can affect working practices; the social and technological approaches that are used in: enhancing communication in organisations; digital marketing of products and services; serving customers; enhancing work efficiency in organisations; improving productivity and security.

Impacts of people’s behaviour in an organisations culture

People’s behaviours affect and shape the culture of an organisation by;-

• Defining the settings of organisational culture at the workplace and outlining the importance of promoting positive change towards it.

It is essential to define what culture is and explain the different types of culture in an organisational context; positive and negative cultures; impacts of culture; subcultures; norms and values; cultural diversity. In addition, learners should be able to understand: the role people professionals play in facilitating relevant and effectual organisational culture; an organisation as a holistic system; how to create diversity and inclusion principles in organisational practices; the importance of creating a diverse and inclusive environment in an organisation.

• Describing organisations as a whole system and explaining how people professionals work and actions can impact elsewhere.

Learners should be able to explain the different types, structures, designs and systems of organisations. In addition, they should be able to: identify the various approaches taken in order to achieve a productive holistic system approach; understand organisations as an organic living system; identify areas of approaches such as government influence, disseminations and communication, national and international, innovative developments, record keeping, change of laws, legality and compliance; explain the impact of value-driven organisations.

• Analysing the different ways people learn and develop with organisational assessments of employee’s skills and capabilities.

Learners should be able to understand the human capital, learning and competitiveness; how learning can be transferred to achieve high performance and competitiveness in an organisation;  the importance of learning; how to fill skill gaps, critical incidents and underperformance  in organisations; how to capture and interpret learning trends in organisations; theories and factors associated with learning;

Importance of effectively managing change in an organisation

It is essential to have effective management of change in every business. These can be achieved through;

• Outlining the importance of planning and managing change in an organisation.

Change in organisations is usually triggered by various factors that include: competitive innovation, which is essential outperforming business competitors; technological change which increases opportunities of businesses; environmental turbulence; change due to market demand; changes due to regulated government policies; business failure or divergence; social, economic and global environment. Change of initiatives and situations in an organisation can impact business. In project planning, the roles, purpose, goals, and objectives need to be clearly stated.

• Explaining the role people professionals’ plays within change and their importance.

Different people professionals play different roles that are important within an organisational change. For example, people professionals play a significant role in facilitating the agendas of change which are: being the gatekeepers of the process of change; playing the role of the representatives in change orientation; they lead the change; they play the role of facilitators of change; act as the witnesses to change; play the role of change consultants; actively participate and provide positive change insights to non-participants; offer legal guidelines and compliance; play the role of disseminators, and they are record keepers.

• Explaining the different ways in which change can impact people.

Different people respond to change differently with behavioural responses, personal and professional responses. Therefore, learners should outline the effects and impact of change. These impacts include job loss, demotion in job position; promotion; relocation; degrading, salary increment or decrease. The consequences are low self-esteem in case of demotion and mental health challenges. Other responses include improved welfare, teamwork formation, career upgrade and effects on customers views.