Functional Areas of Business Essay

The functional areas of business are areas that allow the organization to operate, develop, and progress abiding by laws and regulations when implementing policies and procedures in the organization to all employees and management. There are 10 functional areas of business: Management, law, human resources management, leadership, accounting, finance, economics, research and statistics, operations management, marketing, and strategic planning. The two functional areas that will be covered are human resources management and strategic planning because these are the two related to the human resources manager and developing the organization into a successful one. Human Resources Management Employees and applicants may think of human resources management as a department that hires and terminates employees and nothing more, but this is not the case. Human Resources Management is a vital department of any organization because with this the organization is built and develops. The department is responsible recruiting, interviewing, hiring, consulting, strategic planning, and many others tasks that involve operating the organization. It must confirm the personal information, knowledge, skills, experiences, and creativity of all applicants before making them employees while abiding by all laws set forth by the specific state. Organizations must follow these laws to avoid facing fines or facing other implications that could be set forth by the state. Once the applicants become employees, the organization will strengthen the employees’ knowledge, skills, experiences, and creativity by further training and development systems offered. Human Resources Management uses two strategies: buy-bureaucratic strategy that emphasizes outside recruiting, limited training, exact job definitions, and seniority as the criteria; and make-organic strategy that emphasizes internal promotions, extensive training, comprehensive job definitions, and the employees’ abilities or performance as the criteria (Keh-Luh, Chi, & Chiu-Mei, 2012). These strategies are used to gain knowledgeable employees who will benefit the organization. Strategic Planning Strategic planning in any organization is essential to being successful, changing, and growing in the future. â€Å"Strategic planning is a formal, administrative process that calls for an explicit procedure to determine specific, long-range objectives and generate alternative strategies, requires both strict implementation and a system to monitor results† (Song, Im, Bij, & Song, 2011, p 505, para 4). This can be determined by performing a SWOT analysis, which states an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The SWTO will help to determine what needs looked at, what needs improved, and how the organization will improve it. The strategic plan will improve these details and enhance the organization when implemented. Developing a strategic plan involves several steps: developing a clear understanding of opportunities and challenges, assessment of the organization’s strengths and limitations, an inclusive approach, a planning committee, involvement, sharing responsibility, learning from the best practices, clear priorities and plan, patience, and a commitment to change (Mittenthal, 2002). These steps will need broken down and followed closely to develop a plan that will benefit the employees and management it is affecting. The organization will be able to implement the changes and record the results to see if the strategic plan was successful. If the results were negative, the organization will have to look at the information again and try different changes in the organization that will benefit more than the previous changes that were made. Mostly following these steps will provide the organization with the success and progress it is looking to gain moving into the future of its operation. Role in Functional Areas In the Human Resources Management and Strategic Planning areas, the specific role of the human resources manager would be greatly involved. First, because the role is acting as a Human Resources Manager, the role in the Human Resources Management area would be recruiting, interviewing, hiring, consulting, strategic planning, and any other tasks that may be presented. The human resources manager is one, if not the only, key person in the organization. This person staffs the organization while following all laws and regulations associated with the specific state it represents. Along with staffing the organization, this person is also responsible for creating and implementing all policies and procedures for employees to follow. This allows the organization to run smoothly and efficiently to complete the tasks it has to get done. Strategic Planning is also part of a human resources manager role because the human resources manager is involved in the strategic plan process of the organization. The human resources manager is involved in assessing the organization to see where it stands, where it needs to be, and how to get there. This is completed only after following specific steps, performing a SWOT analysis, and implementing what is necessary to change. Once the strategic plan is created, it must be presented and explained to the employees involved. The change must be adhered to by everyone to be successful, if not it will not work, and the organization will be where it started. If the organization needs to relook at the strategic plan, it will need to start at the beginning and follow the steps once again. This will help the organization to determine what needs changed and how to implement to see if this change will make a difference. Conclusion The functional areas of a business are important to develop and build the organization further than it is currently. Human Resources Management and Strategic Planning are two of the key areas that help an organization operate and progress further than what it is currently. These two areas complement each other with Human Resources operating the organization and also working with others to establish the strategic plan. Human Resources are responsible for employing qualified candidates for positions and abiding by all laws and regulations when implementing policies and procedures in the organization. Strategic planning is worked on my upper management, including human resources, to identify problem areas of the organization, what to fix, how to fix it, and where to go once the problem areas are fixed. The key to any organization is everyone working together to complete all tasks assigned and making changes as required to progress even further.