MANAGING LARGE SCALE ORGANISATIONS

Managing large scale organisations

This course covers defining large-scale organisations, management functions, economics,
and business environments.
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Characteristics of large scale organisations

So what is a large-scale organisation?
There are a number of characteristics that may be used to classify a business enterprise as
a large-scale organisation rather than as a small or a medium business enterprise.
The following characteristics may be used as a basis of such a classification. Before we
attempt this classification, however, we should recall the basic rules of classification exhaustiveness and exclusivity. The organisations we are attempting to classify as either
small, medium or large-scale must all be able to be placed in at least one of the three
categories (exhaustiveness) and the organisation being classified must be placed in one,
and only one, of the categories (exclusivity).
If we take these characteristics and apply them to a large-scale enterprise then the
following will normally be true. However, not all large-scale organisations will necessarily
exhibit all of the following characteristics:

Distinguishing large-scale organisations

There are many ways that large-scale organisations can be classified and a variety of forms
which they may take. The main way of distinguishing between large-scale organisations is
by the ownership of the entity and its principal form of operation. Hence, we are able to
distinguish between government (public sector) and non-government (private sector)
organisations or, put in another way, between publically owned and privately owned
organisations. By 'publically owned' we mean that the community as a whole owns the
organisation and that it is operated on their behalf by the government. Public sector or

government organisations may in turn be categorised into three distinct forms - general
government entities, providing non-market goods and services (e.g. roads, hospitals and
the like), public trading enterprises, providing market goods and services which meet their
community service obligation and finally, public financial enterprises providing financial
services e.g. government, banks and insurance offices.
Next, we can distinguish between those large-scale organisations which have as their
primary or core objective, the 'profit motive', and those which are nonprofit oriented. Also,
we can distinguish between large-scale organisations according to the industry to which
they belong - primary, secondary or tertiary, or as to whether their core function is
manufacturing or service provision.
We could also distinguish between organisations according to their legal status and the
extent of their legal liability (e.g. sole trader, partnership, company, statutory authority,
government department, and those large-scale organisations which have limited and those
which have unlimited liability), and their size in terms of the number of employees,
production levels and turnover.

POLC CCM
There is a wide range of essential functions that must be performed by managers in largescale organisations. These functions may be categorised into two broad types - generic
functions and specific functions.
The generic management functions which all managers perform to some extent include the
'POLC CCM' functions: P - planning - managers must perform the task of planning at their designated level
(the strategic, tactical or operational level) everything that the organisation must do
to achieve its objectives, i.e. the long-term, the mid-term and the short-term plans
O - organising - managers must ensure that all of the necessary resources, i.e. the
natural resources, the human resources, the capital resources and the
entrepreneurial or 'street smart' resources are available and are able to be used to
perform the required tasks or for the required purposes so that the service can be
provided or the product manufactured
L - leading - managers must lead the way for employees, customers and competitors;
they must be at the forefront of trends and fashions and lead by example in the
workplace through their technical skill and competencies

 C - controlling - managers must perform a supervisory and control function to ensure

that work is performed to the optimal level and that the quality of service provision of
product manufacture is at world's best practice level
C - communicating - managers must keep everyone in the organisation informed of
what is occurring within the organisation as well as members of the wider community
C - creating - managers must be able to create innovative ways to perform tasks and
to market the organisation's products or services in order to enhance the
organisation's effectiveness and efficiency

M - motivating managers must be able to motivate staff to maintain them in the first
instance and then to ensure that their performance is optimised both for their own
benefit and also for the benefit of the organisation

C - creating - managers must be able to create innovative ways to perform tasks and
to market the organisation's products or services in order to enhance the
organisation's effectiveness and efficiency

M - motivating managers must be able to motivate staff to maintain them in the first
instance and then to ensure that their performance is optimised both for their own
benefit and also for the benefit of the organisation

Contributions of large-scale organisations to the economy

Large-scale organisations make a significant contribution to the economy as a whole and it
is for this reason that governments take a special interest in the successful operation of
these organisations
The main significant contributions that these organisations make include:

employment - any downturn in organisational performance which sees these

organisations downsize the number of their employees or close part or all of their
operations will have a significant impact on the community. Also, these organisations
provide indirect employment through the many organisations from whom they
purchase their components or parts

goods and services - these organisations provide a significant number of important

goods and services not only for the general public but for other organisations as well.

In addition, these organisations undertake extensive research and development to

extend the type and the range of products and services available, as well as to
improve their quality and serviceability

revenue - these organisations are a major source of revenue for the government
through the taxation system

competition - these organisations provide a source of competition between

themselves, which benefits the consumers and the community as a whole through
lower pricing structures and better quality products or service

community welfare - some of these organisations provide the necessary

infrastructure or goods and services, which enable members of the community to
achieve minimum levels of welfare. They may also have a community service
obligation to provide certain goods and services to the general community at zero
cost or at a cost which simply recovers expenses. Some of these organisations also
sponsor certain activities and groups within the community and undertake research
into ways to preserve our environment and our heritage

foster international relations - many of these organisations are multinational

corporations and as a result are de facto diplomats which represent their country in
their international dealings and, as such, assist with government policy
implementation.

Business environments
Large-scale organisations do not operate within a vacuum, they operate within constantly
changing commercial and non-commercial environments. These organisations are not
static, they are dynamic organisations operating within an open (as opposed to a closed)
system. It is important for managers within these organisations to understand the
environment within which they operate so that they can
be proactiveabout any likely impacts that the environment may have on the organisation.
In this way managers can make any necessary changes to ensure the continued success of
the organisation and the attainment of its goals and objectives.
Large-scale organisations operate within essentially two broad environments - the internal
environment and the external environment. The external environment may be further
divided into the task environment and the general environment.

There are three major sectors or contributors to the internal environment which may
impact on the organisation - management, employees and the culture of the
organisations.
Management obviously has a significant impact on the way that the organisation operates
and functions, through the management functions already discussed. The employees may
impact on the organisation through the tasks that they perform and the way that they
execute those tasks. The culture of the organisation is a significant impactor as it
incorporates 'the way that things are done within the organisation'. The culture of the
organisation includes the 'system of shared values' inherent within the organisation, i.e.
what people both within and outside the organisation believe the organisation stands for
and how it operates, e.g. the quality of its service and the level of the organisation's
employee relations. If the culture was to alter then the operations of the organisation
would change as well. It is worth noting that the organisation has a fair degree of control
over these sectors and the impact that they have on the organisation.