Unit M/617/1145 Business Environment

Level 4 15 Credits

Sample Assignment

You have gained an internship with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), an organisation that
supports UK businesses through its London office and a network of regional offices. You are working
in a regional office in an area of high unemployment and the CBI has been approached to offer a
series of lectures and seminars to support business development in the area. Some of the lectures
and seminars will be aimed at those wishing to set up businesses; others will be aimed at established
businesses, which may benefit from a more ‘global’ outlook.

You have been given the following tasks:

Task 1

You are to produce an informal talk/workshop for people who are considering setting up their own
business.
Prepare a presentation about the purposes of business organisations with supporting notes. Use
hand-outs to provide detailed information which you can distribute to your delegates. Your
presentation and supporting notes and / or handouts must:

(a) Explain the different types of organisations and discuss their purposes.
(b) Analyse responsibilities of organisations.

LO1 AC 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

Merit Task

To achieve a Merit, your presentation and supporting materials must also analyse the extent to which
a specific organisation meets its stated purposes. You may select an organisation where you have
worked or one that you will research.

LO1 1M1

Task 2
One of the seminars will focus on the structure of organisations. You are in charge of this seminar.

 You will start by writing a discussion paper on the different organisational structures. This will
be the first part of a handout package to be delivered to the participants. In the paper you must
evaluate the different types of organisational structures.

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  Secondly, you must prepare short case studies to be distributed to each of the five tables at the
seminar. Each case study should explain the functions of different departments in
organisational structures and their inter relationship.
 Thirdly, you should write an article for the delegate handout pack evaluating the influence of
global factors on organisational structures.

LO2 AC 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

Distinction Task

To achieve a Distinction, your handout package must include assessment of the organisational
structure of a selected existing organisation. The critical assessment should identify areas for
improvement, either with regards to specific structural elements or to their inter relationships.

LO2 2D1

Task 3
A day’s conference and networking opportunity has been set up for local business leaders who may
be interested in government support and local partnerships.

You have been asked to project manage the event and have arranged for experienced local business
leaders, as well as local government representatives to present specific workshops.

You are required to prepare a written paper which will be sent to the local business leaders before the
event and discussed during the conference. Your written paper needs to:

 analyse the impact of supply and demand on the prices of goods and services in markets
 analyse possible planned interventions in the market place and their impact on organisations
Merit Task

To achieve a Merit, your paper must include an assessment of the response of a selected organisation
to changes in its market.

LO3 3M1

Task 4
You must provide a leaflet which will help participants in the lectures and seminars pursue their
business ideas.

The leaflet should be titled ‘The nature of the national environment in which organisations operate’.

You must ensure that the sections in the leaflet include:

(a) An explanation of the importance of national entrepreneurship strategy.

(b) An explanation of the role of monetary and fiscal policy and the possible impact on
organisations and their activities.
(c) An evaluation of the impact of competition policy and other regulatory mechanisms on the
activities of a specific organisation

LO4: AC 4.1, 4.2, 4.3

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Distinction Task

To achieve a Distinction, your leaflet must include a case study which compares and contrasts the
benefits and challenges to a specific business operating in different economic environments.

LO4 4D1

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Guidelines for assessors
Work submitted by learners must achieve the learning outcomes and meet the standards specified by
the assessment criteria for the unit. To achieve a merit or distinction grade, the learners must
demonstrate that they have achieved all the criteria set for these grades. Where work for the pass
standard is marginal, assessors can take account of any extension work completed by the learners.
The suggested evidence listed below is how learners can demonstrate that they have met the required
standards.

Task LOs Suggested evidence Suggested Suggested

number and AC PASS additional additional
evidence MERIT evidence
DISTINCTION

1. 1.1, AC 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 1M1: When

1.2, completing 1M1,
1.3, The learner must produce a the learner needs
1M1, presentation and supporting notes to identify a
and / or handouts that are specific
appropriate for the audience given. organisation,
provide evidence
In the explanation learners need to and make
describe relevant information on judgements and
the types of organisations in detail reasoned
including a range of examples. conclusions on
The purposes of the organisations how it meets its
should be discussed so there is stated purpose.
clear understanding.

AC 1.3: The explanation of the

differing responsibilities of
organisations should be broad
ranging and clear.

2 2.1, AC 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 2D1: For the

2.3, distinction task the
2.3, The learner must produce seminar learner needs to
2D1, handout material which is divided demonstrate higher
into sections in line with the guide analytical skills
provided in the assignment. when assessing
organisational
AC 2.1: The learner must structure of a
demonstrate appropriate specific business.
understanding of different types of The learner should
organisational structures, clearly identify strengths as
evaluating their efficient use and well as areas for
the respective challenges. improvement.

Examples should be given for

each, demonstrating the reasons
for the suitability of the specific
organisational structure.

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 AC 2.2: The learner must select
five departments within an
organisation. The functions of
each of these should be clearly
explained and the learner work
must fully explain the inter-
relationships which exist and how
the different departments need to
function in order to meet the needs
of the business.

AC 2.3: The article required for

this task should be appropriately
structured. The evaluation of
global factors should focus on how
these factors impact on structure
of organisations. The evaluation
should be balanced and lead to
reasoned judgements.

3 3.1, AC 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 3M1: For the merit

3.2, task, a
3.3, The learner needs to prepare a comprehensive
3M1, written paper which will be sent to assessment needs
the local business leaders before to be prepared on
the event and discussed during a selected
the conference. organisation,
evaluating the
AC 3.1: The learner needs to company’s
analyse the impact of supply and response to
demand on the prices of goods certain market
and services in markets. A range changes. The
of practical examples would change may be for
enhance the learner work and the example a local
learner could include diagrams to governmental
illustrate the points which are intervention, global
made. economic change
etc.
AC 3.2: The written paper
produced for this task must show
that the learner is able to analyse
possible planned interventions in
the market place considering
different interventions in detail and
the impact they make. The learner
may wish to include diagrams to
illustrate the points which are
made.

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 4 4.1, AC 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 4D1: For the
4.2, distinction task, the
4.3, The learner needs to prepare a learner needs to
4D1, leaflet on the nature of the national state the name of a
environment. specific business
which operates in
AC 4.1: The learner needs to different economic
explain the concept and environments. The
significance of national economic
entrepreneurship strategy, environments
indicating how it can contribute to should be identified.
the success of enterprises. There needs to be
a comprehensive
AC 4.2: The leaflet must clearly assessment of the
explain the fiscal and monetary benefits and
policies. The learner will then be challenges posed to
able to clearly assess their the organisation.
impacts. There must be a
reasoned assessment of the
impact of fiscal and monetary
policies with examples of specified
business organisations.

AC 4.3: The evaluation of

competition and regulatory
mechanisms should focus on how
different policies impact on the
activities of a selected
organisation. The evaluation must
consider the evidence from
different views leading to
conclusions.

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