Introduction
An organisation for efficient management has different departments having different functions. Major departments in an organisation are marketing department, finance department and HR department. This paper aims at discussing the roles and importance of these departments in detail, with a brief discussion on how teamwork promotes the mission and vision of the organisation. BP PLC and Shell are the two companies used to explain how these companies use teamwork as a key characteristic to attain success in the future. A detailed analysis is done why financial management is important for an organisation and what is the role of reporting. It shows how reporting helps in communicative relevant data and information with its stakeholders and maintain transparency.
Discussion
Marketing Department is the department that is responsible for communicating its products to the targeted customers. Marketing begins with advertisement and sales and ends with customer satisfaction and after sale services. An organisation not necessarily has marketing department. However, having this department helps the business in going a long way (Talja 2014). This department is important for any organisation due to various reasons such as:
- Creating Strategies to increase sales: Sales is an organisation main focus. Increasing sales in this competitive market is a main concern for any business. This department makes it easier by innovating ideas and techniques that can give the organisation a competitive edge.
- Customer Satisfaction: Marketing doesn’t get over once the product is sold. Any organisation’s long term goal is to create a good brand name and value in the market. This department makes sure that the customers buying their goods and services are satisfied and willing to return in future.
Finance Department is concerned with money and any finance related issue. Role of this department starts with a basic book keeping and ends at advising different department with what they should do in order to cut down cost and maximise production. This department makes sure that all the revenues and returns earned by the organisation are distributed among different departments as per the requirements (Pyka and Burghof 2013). It makes sure that no money is wasted and that all the money are invested in a way that they yield a high return. This department is important for any organisation as:
- It is responsible for cutting down costs and wastage. An organisation to maximise its profitability should make sure that the resources are utilised in a way that they earn high return on it. This department makes sure that every other department is working efficiently with its focus on minimising the cost and maximising the output.
- Investing in better opportunities. An organisation with excess return should not keep is as cash in hand. This cash should be utilised by investing in some security or land or any other opportunity through which the organisation would earn some fixed return. The finance department makes sure that the funds are invested in an efficient way, with maximum return.
Human Resource department is the department that deals with the workforce and work culture of an organisation. Both work force and the environment are as important as the sales and finances are for the business. A human resource department makes sure that the work force of the organisation is skilful and efficient enough to complete the work in minimum time (Woodrow and Guest 2014). It is an important department for any organisation due to the following reasons:
- Managing the policies and procedures: An organisation should have proper rules and regulation to ensure the smooth working of the organisation. The human resource department makes sure that all individuals adhere to these polices.
- Work force management: Human Resource Department is important as it analyses and determines the number of employees required in different departments of an organisation.
Importance of teamwork
Teamwork is the essence of the success of the organisation as it involves the mass effort carried towards the fulfilment of the common goal. Teamwork is important in an organisation as it incorporates a feeling of belonging among the employees. It promotes workflow quickness and learning among the employees. The management of the organisation promotes teamwork (Ghorbanhosseini 2013). Interaction among different departments of an organisation enables a smooth communication among these departments directed towards achieving the common goal
Royal Dutch Shell PLC, also known as Shell, is an oil and gas company assimilated in the United Kingdom. According to Gerard Penning, an executive VP of HR says, “We found that in today’s world with companies expanding into other countries where you try to build bridges and with other cultures, but also inside a business where you want to have a digitised strategy you have to build bridges with people who are good at that”. His very statement implies that the organisation focuses on bridging the gap and promoting teamwork and unity among the employees (Reports.shell.com 2020). It shows how the human resource department can affect the productivity of all the other departments by motivating teamwork and increase the efficiency of the firm.
BP PLC is another Oil and Gas Company with its headquarters in London, is one of the seven super majors of the oil and gas explains how teamwork has a significant value in the company. The CEO of the company says that the individual strengths of an individual is doubled when they work in a team. The company believes in its people and says, “We put the team ahead of our personal success and commit to building its capability. We trust each other to deliver on our respective obligations” (Bp.com 2020). This shows how irrespective of many different departments the company and its people has trust among each other.
Financial management and its importance
Financial management means managing the financial activities in an organisation. It is an important factor that deals with reducing the manufacturing and transaction cost and aims at maximising the profitability. Financial management is important as it uses various tools that helps in attaining the desired goals such as ratio analysis, cost and benefit analysis and many more (Banerjee 2015). Roles and importance of the financial management are as follows:
- Financial Planning: Finance managers are responsible for forecasting and estimating the future requirement of the funds by different departments of the organisation. Financial management then focuses on acquiring these funds through different sources after analysing the costs of acquiring and aims at minimising these costs.
- Allocation of funds: Once the funds are acquired from the most profitable source, the finance manager’s targets on allocating these funds to different departments. It also involves investing the excess funds in some securities, banks or other instruments that would give it a high return.
- Improving the wealth: The main aim of the financial management is to improve the wealth of the firm by improving shareholder wealth. This is the end result of all the activities that this departments see to.
Reporting and its significance:
Every organisation irrespective of their size and function uses reporting to communicate with the common people and the company’s stakeholders. Every year the organisation prepare a document called annual report, this report consists all the relevant information about the company, which an individual interests to know. It consists of financial statements that provide transparency about the company’s financial transaction, its profits and its outstanding liabilities (Bentley, Omer and Sharp 2013). Financial statements include Statement of Profit and Loss, Statement of Cash Flow and The Balance Sheet.
Statement of Cash Flow
A statement cash flow is that document in the financial statement that shows the inflow and outflow of cash in different activities such as operating, investing and financing activities. BP PLC Cash Flow Statement shows the net cash that is flowed by operating activities, used in investing and financial activities and the cash and cash equivalents of the group at the end of the year. Net cash provided by operating activities is calculated after deducting the expenses and adding the revenue generated from operating activities. The group generates the net value of $22,873 million from operating activities in the year 2018. Amount used in investing and financing activity of the group amounted to $25650 million in the same financial year (Bp.com 2020).
Balance Sheet
Balance sheet is the statement provided at the end of the financial year. It consists of three parts assets owned by the group liabilities outstanding of the group and the shareholders’ funds. Balance sheet as at 31st December 2018 of BP PLC shows the total assets, aggregation of current and non-current assets amounts to $282,176 million and total outstanding liabilities amounting to $180,628 million. Net asset is calculated by deducting the total liabilities from the total assets. This the total capital employed by the group amounting to$101,548 for this group (Bp.com, 2020).
Conclusion
The above study concludes that though an organisation is divided into different departments, the employees of the organisation is united and work as a single team to achieve the mission and vision of the company. A very important factor in an organisation is communication. An organisation uses annual report consisting of financial statement and other relevant information disclosing them to the common people and the stakeholders of the organisation.
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