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Level 4 Diploma in Business Management

How functional relationships shape structure: charts, authority and accountability

BM402 · Business Operations — Week 6 of 16

CourseBM402
Week6 of 16
SemesterI
TutorOnline in the course chat

This week’s topics

How functional relationships shape structure: charts, authority and accountability

  1. Relationships between business functions
  2. Organisation structure chart
  3. Lines of authority and accountability

What you will be able to do

  • 2.4 Suggest how functional relationships impact on how an organisation is structured.

Study materials

Further resources

  • Introduction to Business 2e, ch. 10.4: Resource planning – purchasing and suppliers · PDF · OpenStax (2026), how procurement links operations, finance and HR; pp. 337–341 · for registered students
  • Organizational Behavior, ch. 9.4: Intergroup behaviour and performance · PDF · OpenStax (2019), how departments depend on each other; pp. 268–280 · for registered students
  • Introduction to Business 2e, ch. 7.4–7.5: Authority, delegation and centralisation · PDF · OpenStax (2026), tall vs flat structures; pp. 231–233 · for registered students
  • Introduction to Business 2e, ch. 7.6: Organisational design considerations · PDF · OpenStax (2026), choosing the right structure; pp. 234–237 · for registered students
  • Internal marketing for internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation · Open-access article · Xu et al. (2023), PLOS ONE. Treats employees as internal customers: looking after staff improves how they serve external customers. · for registered students
Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.
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Course plan
  • Week 1: Business sectors: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaterna…
  • Week 2: Types of business: profit, not for profit, NGOs, micro, SME…
  • Week 3: Legal structures: sole trader, partnership, limited company…
  • Week 4: Business functions and how they work together
  • Week 5: Organisational structures: hierarchic, bureaucratic, matrix…
  • Week 6: How functional relationships shape structure: charts, autho…
  • Week 7: The internal environment of a business and why it is import…
  • Week 8: Midterm evaluation
  • Week 9: Quantifying the internal environment with SWOT/TOWS
  • Week 10: Assessing the internal environment: capacity assessment gri…
  • Week 11: The external environment of a business and why it matters
  • Week 12: Measuring the external environment with PESTLE
  • Week 13: Competition: Porter's Five Forces and the Ansoff matrix
  • Week 14: Assessing a business’s external environment alongside its i…
  • Week 15: Review and coursework completion
  • Week 16: Final evaluation and project assessment
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