Managing People

What Managing People covers

Managing people is the fourth section of Theme 1. It covers how a business builds a workforce that can flex with demand, how it recruits, selects and trains, how it arranges people into a structure, the main theories of what motivates them, and the leadership styles that sit on top.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Approaches to staffingStaff as an asset or as a cost, flexible workforces, multi-skilling, part-time, temporary and home working, outsourcing, dismissal against redundancy, and the individual approach against collective bargaining, with the arguments each way.Open →
• Recruitment, selection and trainingInternal and external recruitment and the case for each, the costs of recruiting, selecting and training, induction, on-the-job and off-the-job training, and the recruitment and selection process from job analysis to references and the final choice.Open →
• Organisational designHierarchy, chain of command and span of control, centralised and decentralised organisations, tall, flat and matrix structures and their effect on efficiency and motivation, and delayering.Open →
• Motivation in theory and practiceTaylor, Mayo, Maslow and Herzberg, and the financial and non-financial methods a business uses to put their conclusions into practice.Open →
• LeadershipHow leadership differs from management, and the autocratic, paternalistic, democratic and laissez-faire styles with the circumstances each suits.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Managing People further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Centralisation vs Decentralisation

  Centralisation: important decisions retained by senior managers. Decentralisation: decision authority delegated to lower levels or local units.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does it mean to view staff as an asset?

   Model answer

   Recognising employees as valuable resources who contribute to competitive advantage through their skills, knowledge, and productivity.

2. 2

   What does it mean to view staff as a cost?

   Model answer

   Treating employees primarily as an expense to be minimised, focusing on wages, training costs, and overheads.

3. 3

   How do businesses that view staff as an asset typically manage their workforce?

   Model answer

   They invest in training, development, and retention strategies to maximise long-term value from employees.

4. 4

   What measures might a business take if it views staff primarily as a cost?

   Model answer

   Reducing labour expenses through minimising wages, reducing headcount, or using cheaper labour sources.

5. 5

   Define a flexible workforce.

   Model answer

   A workforce that can be adapted in size, skills, or working patterns to meet changing business needs.

6. 6

   What is multi-skilling?

   Model answer

   Training employees to perform a variety of different tasks or roles within the organisation.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Managing People revision questions

What does Managing People cover in Edexcel A-Level Business?

5 subtopics: approaches to staffing, recruitment, selection and training, organisational design, motivation in theory and practice and leadership. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Managing People organised?

By the Edexcel 9BS0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.