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ACCA F1 Organisations

VIVA
View all ACCA Paper F1 lectures >>This F1 lecture is based on OpenTuition slides view/download here>>

An organisation can be defined as:

“A social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which is a boundary separating it from its environment.”

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This is, perhaps, a deceptively simple definition. Probably the most important word is ‘social’. Organisations consist of people and we are all social animals. We have to get on with our colleagues; ideally we would like our boss, or at least respect our boss. We have to get on with customers; we have our own ambitions; we have our own motivations.

Early management theory tended to neglect the social side of organisations and management and had a rather cold, militaristic approach. Modern theories have changed this considerably.

Another important aspect of the definition is that of ‘collective goal’s. There has to be an assumption that people within an organisation are ultimately aiming at the same end results, if they are not, then chaos is likely to rule. One of the functions of management is to arrange the business and the people in it so that everyone is pulling in the same direction, and the collective goals are ultimately established.

Types of organisations

You need to be aware of the characteristics of several types of organisation.
Commercial organisations are profit-seeking. They can be sole traders, partnerships,
limited liability partnerships and limited companies. The main advantage of limited
liability partnerships and limited companies is that if the organisation hits hard times
and has to go to liquidation, the owners of the organisation are protected. Creditors
and banks can pursue only the assets which are in the company. Sole traders and
partners, on the other hand, have unlimited liability for all the business’s debts.

The second type of organisation is a not-for-profit organisation. An example of a notfor-
profit organisation could be a charity, such as a charitable hospital. Instead of
producing a profit and loss account, they tend to produce income and expenditure
accounts. Ultimately their income has to exceed their expenditure or they will run out
of money.

Public sector organisations are owned by the state either at a national level or at a
local level. Examples could be the defence department, many health services and
educational systems. In some economies other industries or businesses are also
owned by the state. For example, many national airlines are state-owned.

Non-governmental organisations tend to be not-for-profit organisations but with an
international brief. Many United Nations organisations will fall into this category.

Co-operatives are owned by the people who work in the organisation. Some farmers,
for example, set up co-operatives to market their products more effectively than they
could on their own. Usually they seek some sort of profit, but the ownership is shared
widely amongst the people who are working in the organisation.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. vikesha says

    March 28, 2012 at 8:04 pm

    thanks due to these lectures doing ACCA has become a pleasure, and its also very helpful

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  2. opoku818 says

    March 28, 2012 at 11:25 am

    admin your answer to the question about the video being undownloadable I think is not the best,because there are so many people in communities around the world who do not even have access to internet so how do you expect them to always come online to watch the videos.that is bad.

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    • admin says

      March 28, 2012 at 12:21 pm

      do you shout at your television, because you can’t watch it when you are commuting? 😀

      there are many people in the world without PC as well, so what are you going to do about it?

      we are online resources, not offline,
      that’s the only way to keep the site alive and free

      if you do not like it, go to kaplan or bpp?
      ask them for offline downloads

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  3. lulu11 says

    March 27, 2012 at 11:11 am

    love the way u helped us acca students
    thank u

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  4. malkyrox says

    March 25, 2012 at 2:35 pm

    Thanks for great work!
    If the videos cannot be downloaded, do you at least sell them for pay that I can buy them?
    Thanks!

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    • admin says

      March 25, 2012 at 4:31 pm

      sorry we do not sell videos, you can watch them on line free as many times as you need

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  5. maykhaing says

    March 25, 2012 at 5:59 am

    Thank you very much.
    Very helpful.
    I have encouragement to continue ACCA after i find opentuition.com
    Your organization did a very good job.
    All the best…

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  6. armin says

    March 11, 2012 at 11:29 pm

    Thanks

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  7. lieutamthanh says

    March 7, 2012 at 11:01 pm

    thanks so much

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  8. xiaxuewei180 says

    March 7, 2012 at 4:25 am

    Thank you very much for the helpful information.
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  9. shahzadumer123 says

    March 6, 2012 at 7:49 pm

    you open tution are more better than facebook,you are giving the poorer a chance to come forward.keep it uo god bless you

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  10. kamilapro says

    March 4, 2012 at 12:48 am

    I was just wondering if you can count sole trader as a commercial type of organisation??? According to Kaplan books, sole traders are not organisations due to lack of the ‘collective goals’ aspect or does it depend on the definition of organisation we use?

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  11. fatir says

    February 25, 2012 at 8:19 am

    very helpful

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  12. Dudu says

    February 22, 2012 at 12:02 pm

    Thanks very very helpful

    Log in to Reply
  13. aliawan111 says

    February 19, 2012 at 5:51 pm

    Thnx admin, its very helpful. thanks again

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  14. btmutepfa says

    February 3, 2012 at 10:07 am

    keep it up opent… its better that being ripped off by some greedy people

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  15. qweasd848494 says

    January 26, 2012 at 6:11 am

    why i can not see this

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  16. monalyssa says

    January 23, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    Can l read the notes using my phone?

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    • admin says

      January 23, 2012 at 9:38 pm

      try and then you will see 🙂

      how are we to know what phone you have..

      Log in to Reply
  17. fortunate says

    January 23, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    you are the best. thanks a lot .

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  18. kyawkyiko says

    January 23, 2012 at 9:13 am

    very good

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  19. mdyaur says

    January 21, 2012 at 12:43 am

    Very good information

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  20. onoori says

    January 18, 2012 at 5:24 am

    Thank U sir,
    @ Polo you are right, but i think thats in benefit of site and us, coz if we download all then who will visit and might people make pirated dvds of these valueable assets

    Log in to Reply
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