External Influences in Business

This document includes

Page

Teacher resources2

Outline2

Activity 1 - Quiz3

Activity 1 – Quiz - Worksheet3

Activity 2 - External influences - Worksheet6

Student notes7


External influences in business

Lesson outline

Suggested Timeframe

1-2 hours

Learning Intention

The purpose of this lesson is to assist students in becoming more familiar with the external influences on a business.

Success Criteria

By the end of this lesson students will be more familiar with:

  • Various external influences that can impact on a business
  • Business ethics
  • What makes and ethical business
Questions to help students link to prior knowledge about the topic
  • Do you know what ‘ethics’ are?
  • Do you know what ‘business ethics’ are?
  • What are some of the things you value most in your life?
  • How would these values affect you as a business person?
  • What are the most significant influences in your life? How do you know this?
  • What sorts of effects do these influences have on your life?

External influences in business

Activity 1

Numbered Heads Quiz – a fun introduction to the notes!

This cooperative learning activity is based on a resource from “Cooperative Learning” by Spencer Kagan

Get students working in teams of 4 by randomly pulling names out of a hat or select them yourself.

The following quiz set up is a great way to ensure all team members are involved in the learning activity. The order by which things are done is important. In preparation, each team should have a piece of paper with their team name on it and placed on a table at the front of the class. This will be the team’s answer sheet and needs to be separate from other teams.

  1. Students number themselves off from 1-4
  2. The teacher can now use these numbers to call up particular students. In this scenario we are simply running a quiz but there are other ways to use the numbered heads too!
  3. Each team has a copy of the External Influences notes provided in the student and teacher resources section of this lesson. Get teams to read through all of the notes individually then allocated various topics to each student. They then become the ‘expert’ on those topics.
  4. The teacher asks a question from the quiz sheet provided for the teams to answer. There is no calling out instead teams put their heads together and decide on the best answer. Put the pressure on and keep the timeframe short and sweet but achievable.
  5. The teacher then calls a number at random e.g.: “number 3 come up and write your answer on your team’s answer sheet!”
  6. The student who has been allocated the number goes up to the front of the class to write the answer on the team’s answer sheet and turns it over.
  7. The teacher then glances over the answers quickly and gives one point to each team if they have it correct.
  8. The next question is asked, heads together, random number called…and so on.
Questions to help clarify the learning:

Feel free to add some relevant but slightly random questions in there just for fun e.g. a question about a local sports team or an event that happened on a popular TV show. The point of this learning activity is as much about the content as it is about the WAY the students are cooperating in their learning.

External influences in business

Quiz questions and answers

What would be another example of a ‘pressure group’ other than Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth?

Give points accordingly for good ideas

Refer to the notes on Business Ethics.

(Give students a few minutes per question to discuss and decide on an answer.)

Why should products which might damage the health of consumers be withdrawn from the market? / Points given for a good attempt at discussing and articulating each point.
Why should the firm make sure that the business activities do not damage the environment? / Points given for a good attempt at discussing and articulating each point.
Why shouldn’t the firm take a bribe to secure an overseas contract? / Points given for a good attempt at discussing and articulating each point.

Give THREE ways that ethical business operations benefit business.

Improved reputation

Highly motivated staff

Increased efficiency and productivity

Reduced costs

External influences in business - Worksheet

Activity 1

Quiz

What would be another example of a ‘pressure group’ other than Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth?

Refer to the notes on Business Ethics.

Why should products which might damage the health of consumers be withdrawn from the market?
Why should the firm make sure that the business activities do not damage the environment?
Why shouldn’t the firm take a bribe to secure an overseas contract?

Give THREE ways that ethical business operations benefit business.

External influences in business - Worksheet

Activity 2

External influences

Use your notes and the scenarios provided on your worksheet to write a series of newspaper articles highlighting to the public the unethical business and their practice.

Dangerous supermarket produce

It has been reported that leading supermarket Besco has refused to withdraw dangerous toys from its shelves.

The products have been marketed for children aged 18 months and over, however it has been discovered that the toys are only actually suitable for children over the age of 5.

The Managers of Besco have spoken to the press.

New restaurant with no disabled access

Italian restaurant chain ‘Ronaldo’s’ has recently opened a string of new restaurants across Scotland. Recently a disabled customer went to their new Falkirk restaurant, only to be told there was no space for her and her guest, and that they did not cater for people in wheelchairs

Contaminating emissions

There has been a demonstration by Greenpeace outside the factories of leading soap powder manufacturer Farial. Emissions from the factory have been recorded, and it has been discovered that they are damaging the environment nearby.

Local vegetation and animals have been affected negatively by the emissions

Choose one of the newspaper articles you created from the information in the stories above and make a presentation to your class to suggest (with reasons!) what improvements the businesses could make to deal with the unethical problems. Also highlight the consequences that would occur, if the business continued to conduct its unethical operations.

Questions to help clarify the learning:
  • Is there a business you now of that you would consider ethical? Why?
  • Is there a business that you know of that you would consider unethical? Why?
  • In your opinion, how important is it for business to be socially responsible?

External influences in Business

Student notes

External influencers in Business - Student notes

External Influencers

Business is part of the society in which it operates. The decisions firms make affect communities of which they are part. They may have an effect on society as a whole. Business is said to have social responsibilities and stakeholders. It is expected to take these into account when making decisions.

The main external influences on a business

External influencers in Business - Student notes

Business ethics

Businesses must consider the external influences on the previous page. Businesses also have the responsibility to ensure that that their operations do not have a negative affect on society and it for this reason that ethical business is important.

Ethics are values and principles which influence how individuals, groups and societies behave. Business ethics are therefore the values and principles which operate in the world of business.

In business, it is possible to carry out many practices which are not strictly ethical, and yet stay within the law. However, many successful companies are based on strict ethical principles, and most people would argue that businesses ought to keep within some form of moral framework.

Below are examples of Ethical questions that a business might have to face. A firm that answers ‘Yes’ to these questions might be described as operating in an ethical way:

Ethical Question
/ Should products which might damage the health of consumers be withdrawn from the market?
/ Should the firm make sure that the business activities do not damage the environment?
/ Should the firm take a bribe to secure an overseas contract?

In contrast, a firm that pays a 17 year-old employee £1.47 for working in a shop, or one that imports cosmetics ingredients from the Amazon region of South America, paying only a pittance to the local people, could be considered to be behaving in an UNETHICAL way

External influencers in Business - Student notes

Internal and external responsibilities of a business

Responsibilities
INTERNAL
/

Shareholders

  • Managers
  • Employees
  • Members
  • Owners
  • Employees

EXTERNAL
/

Customers

Suppliers

  • Trading Partners
  • Government
  • Competition
  • Community
  • The Economy

Social responsibility

A business, which behaves ethically towards the local community and society as a whole, can be described as socially responsible.

External influencers in Business - Student notes

What makes an ethical business?

Different individuals and groups will have different views about what makes an ethical business. The diagram below illustrates some of the characteristics of an ‘ethical business’.

Benefits of ethical business operations
  • Improved reputation and goodwill.
  • Highly motivated staff
  • Increased efficiency and productivity
  • Reduced costs

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