Overview of Business Management
The Lesson Activities will help you meet these educational goals:
· Content Knowledge—You will describe the role of management in a business organization, especially in the context of forces that will shape it in the near future.
· Inquiry—You will conduct online research, in which you will collect information, make observations, and communicate your results.
· 21st Century Skills—You will employ online tools for research and analysis, use critical thinking and problem solving skills, and communicate effectively.
Directions
You will evaluate these activities yourself. Please save this document before beginning the lesson and keep the document open for reference during the lesson. Type your answers directly in this document for all activities.
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Self-Checked Activities
Read the instructions for the following activities and type in your responses. At the end of the lesson, click the link to open the Student Answer Sheet. Use the answers or sample responses to evaluate your own work.
1. Types of Firms
In the tutorial, you learned about the different types of business firms. In this activity, you'll collect information about different business firms and group them according to the type of ownership.
Collect information on five business enterprises around where you live, and five business enterprises that manufactured or marketed the products that you own.
Write the form of business ownership of each enterprise in the table. Also enter the products manufactured by the businesses in the second table. You can use online sources to collect more information about the business enterprises.
Sample answer:
Business Enterprise / Type of OwnershipFresh Flowers Florist / sole proprietorship
McDonald’s / corporation
Bailey’s Grocery Store / partnership
Sparkle Laundromat / sole proprietorship
Tony’s Café / partnership
Business Enterprise / Product / Type of Ownership
Reebok / shoes / corporation
Samsung / cell phone / corporation
Ray Ban / glares / corporation
Apple / laptop / corporation
Levi’s / jeans / corporation
2. Impact of Globalization
Discuss the beneficial and negative effects of globalization.Also discuss the impact of globalization on US firms in particular in the last thirty years.
Sample answer:
Beneficial effects:
As trade restrictions decreased, companies gained more opportunities to expand their business to foreign countries, allowing them to diversify and to increase the scale of production. Globalization led to a spurt in technological advances as well. As companies expanded their business, there was a huge demand for the quick transfer of personnel, material, and information, which was met by better technology.
The reduction in trade barriers around the world allowed people access to higher quality products. Increased competition made monopolies less likely. Globalization has also led to better employment opportunities, especially in developing countries, and has helped their economies to grow.
Negative effects:
Domestic companies in some countries are in danger of going out of business if they do not keep pace with the modernization adopted by multinational corporations (MNCs). Although globalization was possible due to the removal or reduction of trade barriers, when domestic industries in a country feel threatened or are on the verge of shutting down, the country's government may impose trade restrictions on foreign players. Globalization has increased the cost of coordination among employees and managements. At times, MNCs find it difficult to adapt to the local tastes and market preferences in a particular country and may suffer huge losses if they fail to find enough customers for their products.
Impact of globalization on US firms:
Many people believe that globalization and outsourcing have led to a loss of jobs in the United States. While it's true that the number of jobs in some sectors in the United States has decreased, other sectors have seen a rise in job creation. Overall, the data suggests that more jobs were created than lost due to globalization. In 2003, the United States bought services worth $77 billion and sold services worth $130 billion to foreigners.
Open trade creates opportunities in the United States by strengthening other global economies. As the purchasing power of people in other economies increases, the market for US firms to sell their products widens, benefiting the US economy, especially the export sector.
Globalization gave impetus to technological advancements which led to increased productivity and efficiency led by technological advancements. These factors may result in job losses, but economists believe that they still help the economy. In the long run, higher productivity is the key to creating a better standard of living in the country. As economic conditions improve, opportunities for the unemployed workforce to find jobs also increase.
3. Influence of Technology
Trace the influence of technology on firms through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
Sample answer:
The Industrial Revolution, which began in the year 1760, introduced a major shift in the means used to produce goods—from manual production to machine-based production. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and later spread to Western Europe and the United States. Businesses became increasingly mechanized during the Industrial Revolution.
Another landmark in the effect of technology on business was the introduction of mass production methods in the United States in the 1920s. Highly automated factories led to mass production of goods at very little cost. The US economy underwent a “boom” during this period. Industrial production doubled and most people began to experience a quality of life they'd never seen before. The technological advances in the two decades preceding the industrial boom also contributed to the prosperity of the country in the 1920s.
Information technology based on innovations in computing and electronics took root in the 1950s, and brought about a revolution in the way businesses managed data and communicated. Companies acquired the capacity to process large quantities of data very quickly. Improved telecommunication devices began to support alternative platforms for commerce and social activities. Businesses became able to advertise their products faster and to a wider audience. Better telecommunications also increased the efficiency of the workforce.
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