Business, Culture and Change in Context 3CO01

Business, Culture and Change in Context

The unit helps learners understand the external influences that determine the development of organisational culture. The students use insight from this unit to understand the digital and commercial environment and its effectiveness in creating change. People professionals develop unique behaviours that enhance the management of change in the most appropriate ways possible.

The learning objectives and assessment criteria for the unit are:

• Understanding the business environment and the people professional issues affecting the business operations.
• Understanding the workers’ behaviours to work and how these affect and shapes organisational culture.
• Understand the need to understand change, create the change and engage people professionals in managing change.

1. Business environment and people professionals’ operations

External influences impacting the business environment

Learners will understand the use of PESTLE, SWOT and Porter’s Five Forces analysis tools to understand the external environment. This helps people professionals understand the current business operations and activities and work towards managing future activities. The tools are the basis to which the professionals become more informed of the choices they make and the decisions they consider solutions to some of the challenges experienced in the organisation.

Organisational goals and delivery of products and services

Learners in understanding business, culture and change should first understand the organisational goals and their impact in enhancing organisational performance. The goals are determined based on the type of business and the vision set to establish business goals and objectives. For effective continuity of businesses, employers and professionals should work to enhance effective planning and create support for the organisation.

Learners should additionally work on understanding the products and services that the organisation offers to the consumers. Learners pursuing the course should identify the goods and services that the organisations they work for produces and offer to the customers. Professionals should also consider delivering the goods and services to customers depending on the goals and objectives set to promote organisational success. Achieving organisational goals and objectives contributes significantly to the development of efforts to keep the organisation on the right path to attaining organisational success.

Use of technology in improving working practices

Students learn of the different types of technologies and how they are used to support work practices. They have to understand the platforms where they are expected to use technology and take advantage of it to improve work practices. Learners should be ready to identify the changes brought about by technology use and deliver the best practices to support improvement at work. There is also a need to understand the different approaches to using technology. These are considered appropriate in ensuring that the social media platforms are well developed to support work activities such as communication, customer service, improved productivity, and high security at work. Technology has transformed the digital work environment, with many changes coming in due to different technological tools. These tools are the source of improved work practices that contribute to improved performance.

2. People behaviour and culture at work

Fostering a positive workplace culture

Workplace culture refers to the organisational contexts, systems, strategies, values, and norms impacting business settings and general organisational operations. Developing cultures within organisations require professionals to take charge of the most appropriate actions to creating a holistic system effective in developing positive cultures that support working relationships at work. Learners should understand the role of people professionals in building positive cultures, which supports diversity and inclusion. The unit, therefore, provides insight on the principles effective in building positive organisational practices.

To effectively achieve a holistic approach and system to work within the organisation, the people professionals should understand the different types of work and create positive impacts at work. People professionals impact organisations by being involved in organisational decisions and actions. For example, the whole organisation system is developed when professionals implement laws and guidelines necessary to support business operations. Positive organisational cultures attract highly talented professionals whose personal values relate to organisational values supporting future success.

Learning and development in relation to people’s skills and capabilities

Learners taking this unit should understand the value of learning and development in developing professionals’ skills and capabilities to deliver and create value to organisations. In this assessment criteria, the learners have to understand the concept of human capital and the need to invest in professionals to support improvement in work. Developing people’s skills enhances learning and contributes significantly to the development of a competitive work environment. The learners understand the importance of workplace learning and the theories that support learning. Investing in human capital through learning contributes significantly to high organisational performance and results in professionals understanding the learning trends that contribute to improvements at work. Professionals should strive to deliver success by developing cultures that support learning and improved skills and knowledge to manage different organisational issues. Additionally, professionals should have the core knowledge that acknowledges passion for learning and achieving the correct organisational values.

3. Importance of effective management of change

Planning and managing change

Learners should understand the need to plan for change in order to identify the factors that trigger change. Among the factors taught in the unit, including competition, chaos within the organisation, technological changes and challenges to implementing change. Planning for change is crucial in helping employers, managers, and professionals become engaged in implementing effective initiatives to improve business performance. People professionals should understand the roles and purposes of planning to enhance effective change. People professionals act as gatekeepers to organisational goals and should represent the activities and issues performed to create organisational success. The professionals are also guardians of other employees, and their contribution to managing change is highly evident. Professionals act as friends to the people involved in the change process. They provide support, influence and support them to accept and accommodate change. Finally, people professionals act as communicators to share change information. This contributes to improvement in the relationships established between the employees and the professionals.

Impacts of change

Change is essential, and it is impossible to avoid change in the workplace. Change impacts may be behavioural, personal and professional. Impacts to change at work may be job loss, downgrading of employees’ careers and changes in their perceptions and relationships at work. Changes affect people’s well-being in psychological, mental, physical and social ways of life. With these, professionals need to understand change and make an effort to ensure that they support the change process. Professionals taking the unit should be keen to identify whether the changes are positive or negative. With these, they can identify strategies to manage negative changes and become engaged in delivering approaches to make changes more successful and appropriate.