AQA AS Business Studies Case Study Thread

Can anyone help me with these unit two questions?

Examine two benefits to Smile Magazines Ltd of using internal recruitment to recruit more staff
-Should improve motivation- employees may work harder if there is the prospect of promotion
-Reduces advertising costs- No need to advertise the vacancy in expensive media forms
-Employees will know the company- The way it runs for example. The employee should settle into their new job far quicker than if someone from outside the company was being recruited.
-Smile will know the employee already- No risk of recruiting a worker who may upset the pleasant working environment that Smile currently possesses.

Leah implemented a traditional hierarchy based on functional divisions. (see fig 1) Analyse two benefits the company might experience as a result of implementing this organizational structure.
Functional divisions- This is just a posh term for departments- for example Sales and operations.
-Employees will become specialized in a particular field- For example if a worker is doing the same job in the printing department, they are going to gain a much higher level of expertise than one of the reporters actually writing the magazine. In the printing department, this leads to the risk of machinery breaking being reduced- The machine is more likely to break if someone who has never used it before is operating it, than someone who uses it every day.
-Much easier to manage- If the whole business is just one giant department, communication will be much harder; the streamlined nature of the business is lost.


Polar Plc and Leah insisted that employees received training. Discuss the benefits that Smile Magazines Ltd may have received as a result of this.
Training aims at improving current skills to make the employee more efficient at doing an existing job, or giving them extra skills enabling them to do a larger variety of jobs.
The first will improve the overall efficiency of the business- In the printing department for example, less chance of waste being created. Lowers costs, increases profits.
Second will enable workers to switch jobs every so often- Job variation- Motivates them, increases productivity, lowers costs, increases profits.
Will also enable workers to cover for absent colleagues. Saves costs, and keeps productivity relatively stable, as outside temporary cover will not have to be sourced- Temporary cover would cost money, as well as taking time to settle in, thus reducing efficiency/ productivity.
Explain two possible problems to Smile Magazines Ltd of introducing a system of quality assurance.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages to Smile Magazines Ltd of using kaizen groups.
Kaizen groups means continuous improvement in Japaneses. These are groups that sit down with each other and look at ways of improving the production process-usually in the form of cutting out waste.
Advantages include
- Reduces cost of production by means of reducing waste- increases profit margins.
- Employees talk about the work with each other- Everyone else within the group gains an incite into that particular area of work. Understanding the overall process usually helps when trying minimizing waste.
-Employees in the group feel they are being listened to and that their thoughts/ideas count. This motivates them which again increases productivity, decreases costs, increases profits

Disadvantages include
-Takes up time. Jemery heads one of the groups which obviously takes a great deal to organize/action any ideas put forward. This time could be spent elsewhere. For example looking for new ways to exploit new potential target markets.
-Employees within the group may disagree on ways to improve. Causes tension between them, which inevitably demotivates the group.

Have started some answers but any help would be great!

For you first question, you could make sure of the six marks by quoting a specific situation. For example, in the shareholder bit, say that Jeremy gave away total control by offering part ownership to Kate, Sam and Polar.

This bit isn't relevant to the question. It's asking what are the consequences of ALLOWING Sam and the journalists to have the copyright. So for example, you could talk about saving on legal costs by passing them on to Sam should the copyright be infringed. As an evaluative point, you could talk about the dangers of Sam being drawn away from Smile if someone offered to buy the rights from him, so Smile has less control.