Key Concepts in Business Practice

Jonathan Sutherland

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781403915313
• eBook ISBN: 9781350318236
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: Study Guides

Key Concepts in Business Practice is one of a range of comprehensive glossaries with entries arranged alphabetically for easy reference. All major concepts, terms, theories and theorists are incorporated and cross-referenced. Additional reading and Internet research opportunities are identified. More complex terminology is made clearer with numerous diagrams and illustrations. With over 500 key terms defined, the book represents a comprehensive must-have reference for anyone studying a business-related course or those simply wishing to understand what business practice is all about. It will be especially useful as a revision aid.

Aa

Absenteeism

Strictly speaking, ‘absenteeism’ refers to chronic absence from work. In effect, this is deliberate absence. A business can calculate the level of absenteeism within its workforce (excluding absence caused by ill-health, and genuine absences) by using the following formula:

Absenteeism can drastically affect the production and profitability of a business and, obviously, the business may need to reschedule projects, miss deadlines and ensure that any vital duties carried out by the absent individual are covered. There are, of course, a number of reasons why absenteeism could creep into the habits of an employee, such as:

The nature of the job – physical conditions may be poor, working hours inconvenient, and the job may be stressful or boring, or the employees may not have good inter-personal relations, or they may feel alienation. These problems could be overcome by offering more flexible ways of working, or perhaps considering job enrichment or job rotation systems.

Characteristics of the individual – it has been suggested that both age and gender can have an impact on absenteeism. Certainly, studies that look at absenteeism in relation to length of service suggest that longer-serving employees are less prone. Other factors may include health, family responsibilities or travelling difficulties. Again, these problems could be overcome by a more flexible approach to staffing and by closer supervision.

Motivating factors – whilst bonuses or non-financial incentives can have an impact on absenteeism, the statutory availability of sick pay has the reverse effect. Ultimately, in terms of motivation, reducing absenteeism relies on managers’ ability to persuade employees to come to work and, perhaps, the readiness of the business itself to institute disciplinary procedures in the correct places.

Most businesses will tend to develop an attendance policy which addresses the following issues:

the question of what is an allowable absence;

whether days will be paid if missed immediately before and after a holiday;

the attitudes towards excused and unexcused absences;

the setting up of a system which alerts managers to patterns of absences or lateness.

Frayne, Collette A., Reducing Employee Absenteeism through Self-Management Training. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991.

Tylczak, Lynn and Hicks, Tony, Attacking Absenteeism. New York: Crisp Publications, 1990.

Absorbed overhead

Absorbed overheads are overhead costs which are added to the direct costs of products or services. An absorption rate, such as a fixed amount per direct labour hour, is included in the costs of specific products or services. There is sometimes a difference between the overhead costs incurred and the overhead costs absorbed. In these cases, when the overhead costs are not fully absorbed, they are said to be under-absorbed. Conversely, if the overhead costs are less than the amount being absorbed, then they are said to be over-absorbed.

Bell, Jan and Ansari, Shahid, Manufacturing Overhead Allocation: Traditional versus Activity-Based. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.

ACAS

See Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) (UK).

Access control list

An access control list (ACL) is in effect a table which tells a computer operating system which access rights each user may have on a particular system. It will therefore define the files, directories or objects to which each individual may have access. For practical purposes each object, file or directory has a security attribute which identifies its importance on the access control list. Commonly, the ability to write to files or execute files implies full access to that particular part of the system. In Windows NT/2000 each system object has an access control list. Each of these has one or more access control entries, which consist of the name of a user or the names of a number of users. The system administrator or the individual who created the object in question normally creates the access control list for that object.

Schneier, Bruce, Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms and Source Code in C. New York: John Wiley, 1995.

Stallings, William, Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice. New York: Prentice-Hall, 2002.

Access rights

Access rights are designed to be flexible, giving each user tailored access rights to ensure that they have access to what they need and no access to what they do not need. Although access rights can be complex, it is usual for most users to have a normal access right to the system. Provided that individuals are assigned to a particular project, using particular software or programs, then they will have access to those elements of the system. Alternatively, the system administrator would have full access rights with the ability to add or delete projects, and to manage users, business information and other elements contained within the system. For complex projects which require a number of users to have access rights to information or programs, a project manager will normally be assigned to confirm or deny access rights to various users. The project manager will be able to change the users’ access rights in cooperation with the system administrator.

Accountability/responsibility matrix

The accountability and responsibility matrix is a concept designed by David Brin (see Figure 1). Brin contends that individuals see the top two boxes of the matrix as being good and the bottom two boxes as being bad. Businesses or society require boxes 1 and 3 since these create accountability. Businesses and society are averse to boxes 2 and 4 since they pit employees against one another.

Brin, David, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? New York: Perseus Books Group, 1999.

Accounts payable

‘Accounts payable’ is a finance-related term which refers to money owed by a business to its suppliers. Businesses keep an open account detailing the money owed to creditors for products and services purchased by the business. Financial analysts and accountants are concerned with the relationship between accounts payable and the purchases to give an indication as to the efficiency of day-to-day financial management within the business.

Figure 1 Brin’s accountability and responsibility matrix

Schaeffer, Mary S., Essentials of Accounts Payable. New York: John Wiley, 2002.

Accounts receivable

‘Accounts receivable’ is a tally of the money owed to a business by its customers. It is the measure of outstanding debt payable to the business for products and services which have been sold by the business to its customers, but where the payment has not yet been collected. Accounts receivable is a key aspect in analysing the liquidity of the business. In other words, its ability to meet...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Key Concepts
• Index