15 of the Business glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
Payments to employees calculated according to the number of hours worked (a time rate) or the amount produced (a piece rate), usually paid weekly or monthly.
Desires for goods and services that are not essential for survival but improve the quality of life; people's wants are almost unlimited.
Any activity or use of resources that adds cost or time but no value for the customer, such as excess stock, waiting, unnecessary movement, overproduction or defects; called muda in lean production.
An organisational culture in which values and norms are unclear, inconsistent or not widely shared, so that employees behave differently across the organisation and need more rules and supervision.
Internal factors that put an organisation at a disadvantage compared with its competitors or limit its ability to achieve its objectives, such as high costs, poor cash flow or a narrow product range.
An intermediary that buys large quantities of products from producers, stores them and sells them in smaller quantities to retailers.
A form of creative accounting in which a business makes its final accounts look more attractive just before the reporting date, for example by delaying payments or temporarily selling assets.
The maximum length of a piece of assessed work; for the business research project 1,800 words, counting the introduction, main body and conclusion but not tables, diagrams, calculations, citations, the bibliography or the documents.
A form of industrial action in which employees follow their contracts and the official rules exactly, refusing any voluntary or extra work, so that output and efficiency fall.
A cooperative owned and democratically controlled by the people who work in it, who share its surplus.
The process of forecasting an organisation's future labour needs (the number of workers, the skills required, and when and where they are needed) and planning how to meet them from internal and external sources.
The money available for the day-to-day running of a business, measured as current assets minus current liabilities.
The period of time between a business paying cash for stock, materials and labour and receiving cash from the sale of the finished goods or services.
A body of elected employee representatives that management must inform and consult on workplace matters such as working hours, restructuring and new technology, common in many European countries.
The transfer of messages using written words, on paper or on screen, such as letters, reports, memos, minutes and emails, which gives a permanent record.