Introduction

The business organisation includes a variety of functions roles and processing, which is needed to be learned by its employees and managers. When a new individual is introduced to an organisation, they must learn the basic briefing about functions, processing and goals of the organisation. The study introduces a discussion about Saudi Arabia based multinational dairy firm Almarai Company. The information and knowledge about the company goals, purpose and functions help the new manager to persuade their roles and contribute to further growth of the organisation.   

Task 1: 

1.1 Describe the purpose and goals of an organisation. 

Almarai Company in Saudi Arabia based dairy products and services providing firm which has been enlisted in Tadawul Stock Exchange. The company has been specialised in the manufacturing and production of food and beverage products. It has been stated that the company has introduced with 350 cows during its initiation in 1977 (Almarai, 2020d). In today’s date, the company is responsible and manages about 200000 cows around the world for producing dairy products and services in the market. The prime purpose of this Middle East largest diary company is to introduce high-quality dairy products, high and rich nutrition-based food and beverage products in the global market. 

The goal of the organisation is to become of the leading dairy firm in the international marketplace. The company is focused on creating its brand positioning based on the high-quality diary product presentation in the market (Almarai, 2020d). It has been focused to enrich healthy and nutrition life for its prioritised customer base. The company purpose is to be the first choice for the customers in regards to dairy, food and beverage products in the market.

1.2 Describe the products, services and customers of an organisation 

The product portfolio of Almarai Company includes dairy-based beverages and foods under different categorised brands. The company operates four major brands Almarai, Alyoum, Lusine, 7 days. In these different brands, the products include dairy liquids, dips, yoghurts, food, desserts, juices, chicken products, and frozen chicken, ready to cook chicken, cupcakes, muffins, burger and sandwiches (Almarai, 2020a). The other products include puffs, bread, croissants, swiss rolls, bake rolls. The company includes food services for the customers in cafe, restaurants, fast food outlets, hotels businesses, bakeries and common business trading firms. The company provides food services and products to about 27000 retail customers; the company manages about 100000 individual calls for an order of different food products. The company distributional vehicles have been enhanced to 15% in the recent year (Almarai, 2020a).           

1.3 Analyse how external factors impact on the business activities of an organisation

Political factors 

The government of the Middle Eastern country has been making reliable contributing in bring the dairy and related industry to the international market. This has been benefited for Almarai to make instant growth and development in the domestic and international market (Konuspayeva et al., 2017). There has been an ongoing tension around the gulf region, which has limited the distributional channel of the business entities like Almarai. Their government of the country has made control over the costs and prices of the product, which has reduced independency of the firms to manage its profit growth in the market.  

Figure 1: PESTLE analysis

(Source: Stoyanova & Harizanova, 2017)

Economical factors 

Almarai has been going through a phase of out of balance situation in regards to demand and supply in the market. There has been an excess supply in the market matching the demand originated; this might make changes in the pricing of other dairy products in the market. The GDP of Saudi Arabia has made a slight fall in the present year of 2019 (Tradingeconomics, 2020). This applies the in spending power of the customers and business units have been reduced. Thus, there might be a negative change in the demands of the dairy products, foods and beverages for Almarai.     

Figure 2: GDP of Saudi Arabia

(Source: Tradingeconomics, 2020)

Social factors 

The population has become much more health-conscious after increasing risks of disease and health issues in the market. The nutrition and organic related products have seen a stiff rise in the demand, as the customer’s desires for a healthier lifestyle (Singh & Hagahmoodi, 2016). Thus, the demands for the dairy products, food and beverages of Almarai have been positively benefited for the company. The diary products, desserts, bakeries products have a higher demand in the festival seasons, so the company like Almarai gains maximum orders and profitability in this seasonable business period.  

Technological factors    

Almarai Company still has been dependent on the international sources and firms to bring technological advancements in their business (Almarai, 2020). There has been high investment offered by the company to increase technological upgrades as there is lack of own technological platform of the company. The technological advancements have increase pace in production and distribution, although it has included pressure on the cost of product and profit of the firm. 

Environmental factors

The environmental factors include standards and regulations which presents the business activities from damaging the environmental resources. The Almarai includes huge investments in CO2 emission and carbon footprints. It has stated that the company has taken imitative for regular developing in reducing the wastage and using recycling efforts for its productions and services (Almarai, 2020). The investments in other environmental initiatives all together increase business expenses for the firm.  

Legal factors   

As per the legal forces, the changes in the labour laws and regulations make changes in the employee turnover of the business. The regular rising demand for wages increment and employee benefits has been forces which increase investment and costs of Almarai. The regulatory compliance related to the employability laws, health and safety laws; equal opportunity regulations by the governmental bodies put a direct impact on the business entity and its operational activities. 

Task 2:

2.1 Describe the structure of an organisation and the functions within it.

Almarai introduces centralised organisational structure, the five processing plants and departments of the entity have been restructured under one single headquarter for better processing. Almarai has been able to create a clear chain of command and control over unnecessary cost and investments with the application of this structure (Almarai, 2020). Every employee of the entity learns about their reporting individual, this helps to develop delegation of authority by the new manager’s fir their employees. The function of the centralised structure is it provides a sense of quick decision making and implementation. 

The human resource management is one of the functions which manages the performance and develop talented staff memes for the organisation. The marketing functions of the organisation are based on increasing promotion and awareness of the product and services proposed by Almarai. Financial functions of the business are managed under the centralised structure for controlling costs, investment, budgeting and improvise the profit margin of the firm (Bai et al., 2017). The production department of Almarai under the centralised structure is focused on the coo goal of high quality, taste and constant improvement of dairy, food and beverage products.  

Figure 3: Organisational functions

(Source: Strese et al., 2016)

2.2 Explain how the different functions work together to optimise performance.

The four primary functions of the organisation work together under the centralised structure about achieve three basic goals of Almarai in the market. The human resource management of the organisation worked with marketing, financial and production department to regularly motivate and boost the performance of the employees by regulated appraisals and rewards (Almarai, 2020b). The human resource management better understands the roles and responsibilities of financial, production and marketing department, based on which recruits talented peoples to achieve organisation goals. 

The financial department works with the marketing department to forecast and create a budget for further sales targets to achieve the next revenue margin. The financial department also designs the salary and additional for all departmental employees as per their performance for supporting their contribution. Production department works with the marketing department to gain information about present requirements, needs and trends of the market. Based on the information and customer reviews, the products are presented to meet the market needs (Almarai, 2020b). Marketing and sales department shares information about product and service with production department for advertising and rooting them in the market. The department collaborates with the financial department to plan for sales targets for the teams in the market.     

2.3 Explain how the culture of an organisation affects its operations.

Almarai engages a diversified organisational culture which provides a flexible working environment, standards, rules regulations, moral values centralised towards the benefit and development of the employees. The company includes reliable job security, flexible work timing, and different promotional and appraisal techniques to keep the employees engaged and productive (Nazarian, Atkinson and Foroudi, 2017). The diversified organisational culture of Almarai has increased the focused and determination of employees to meet their goals effectively. It provides every opportunity to improve skills, abilities and knowledge of the employees. Thus, the performance of the employees can be upgraded ever time. It has stated that the company has been able to maintain the high quality of food and beverage products due to implementation of the flexible diversified workplace, as it helps to engage innovation creativity and development from the employee's end to organisational growth. 

Task 3: 

3.1 Describe how HR activities support an organisation’s strategy

The strategic application of Almarai is to increase its business expansion in the international market by developing the distribution of its high-quality food, dairy and beverage products in the market (Singh & Hagahmoodi, 2016). It has been stated that Almarai is focused on three basic strategies development and growth of organic products, innovation and development of new products and expansion of the company geographically. The recruitment and selection are one of the activities under the human resource management. The management of the company includes different tests and interviews for observing the skills, abilities, potentiality of an employee match with the job requirements (Guest, 2017). Performance appraisal is another activity of HR, which is focused on increasing the motivation and performance of the staff members of the entity. This helps the entity to create a talented workforce to meet the production and expansion strategy. As per HR activities, the company includes on the job and of the job training programs for continuously develop skills and knowledge of employees. The updated workforce can provide efficient results in organic productivity and innovation.   

Figure 4: HR activities

(Source: Boon et al., 2018)

3.2 Explain the role of HR professionals in supporting line managers and their staff

The role of the HR professional is to build up skills, abilities and productivity of employees of the Almarai. HR professionals share certain responsibilities towards overall development and growth of employee satisfaction. Training and development are one of the roles which come under the HR professionals in an organisational (Delery & Roumpi, 2017)). The initiatives of training and development increase learning, information, self-development and empowering new skills of the staff members. 

The compensation planning is another factor of the HR division, which deals with providing financial benefits to the employees who put extra contribution to the organisational growth. It naturally increases the motivation and determination of the staff members working under line manages (Boon et al., 2018). Promotional rules and criteria are set by the HR professionals it is one of the roles practised by the HR management. It has been stated that the role of the HR professional is to set targets and performance criteria to provide a promotional opportunity for the employees of Almarai. 

Conclusion 

Almarai is one of the multinational companies specialised in dairy, food and beverage products in the market. The new manager of the organisation has been able to understand that the company includes a centralised organisational structure and diversified culture. The political, economical and environmental forces are unfavourable to Almarai, although social and technological forces favour the company growth in the market. The marketing, human resource, financial and production department of the company set as per the goals and objectives to achieve in the international market. The human resource management of Almarai is focused on boosting the productivity of the workforce by establishing performance appraisal and other employee benefits.