TABLE OF CONTENTS Unless you keep up-to-date with the news, you may not always be aware of many political, economic and social developments. All can have a major impact on you and your team.
The government in power, and the policies that the government pursues, can have a major impact on organizations. A government decision, for example, to have low inflation as a chief goal results in interest rates being set low, which in turn means that people are happy to borrow more and spend more in the shops. They are also prepared to spend a lot more on housing, which means an increase in business for estate agents, banks and building societies.
Returning to the example of increasing the number of public examinations for school children: by 2002 children had up to 87 official tests in their school careers. As a result, there has been a huge expansion of business for the organizations responsible for the setting and marking of examination papers all the result of political changes.
Some developments in the economy are dictated by government policies, notably measures announced in the annual budget, such as a cut in corporation tax for small businesses, or an increase in employers' national insurance contributions.
Other economic developments have nothing to do with the government. The destruction of New York's World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001 by two planes that had been hijacked by terrorists had major worldwide effects. One...
