The Business Environment free essay sample

In this task I will be describing how political, legal and social factors are impacting upon business activities on the NSPCC and Wal-Mart. Larger companies would use a tactic called ‘PEST analysis’; PEST stands for, Political Factors, Economic Factors, Social Factors and Technological Factors. PEST analysis is usually used when a company is in need to evaluate its risks in the economy. Political factors that affect the NSPCC are based on the economic difficulties which have led to cutbacks in local authority provision and Government spending in other community and voluntary areas, this will impact on the workload. The Government has a responsibility to support causes like the NSPCC as childhood murders and child abuse are frequently being reported within the media, the charity itself puts pressure on the Government to protect and respect children and improve child safety. The different political parties also have their commitment to charities as part of their campaigns. We will write a custom essay sample on The Business Environment or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Legal factors that affect the NSPCC will mainly be legislations that are based around the protection to children, for example the NSPCC would need to follow the legislation that states about the children’s rights which ensures the right of the child to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceeding affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, another example would be ‘Children Act 2004’ which establishes in law childrens rights to participation in decisions regarding their care and require a local authority to ascertain the wishes of a child in need about the provision of suitable services and to give those wishes due consideration. The NSPCC would also need to be aware of employment and health and safety and equal opportunity laws. Social factors that affect the NSPCC include the awareness of the charity is strong standing, we can see through the long standing history of the charity since 1884, the success of their advertising campaigns, and that they were able to achieve and exceed the expectation of their fundraising FULL STOP campaign. Other social factors in relation to the NSPCC are unemployment, poverty, lack of housing etc. The political factors that affect Wal-Mart would be based on how the Government runs the country for example; Wal-Mart would get a certain amount of support for being a public company. Political factors for Wal-Mart are based on how taxes on products have risen over the years, minimum wage and benefits for staff. Legal factors that affect Wal-Mart will mainly be legislations involved with selling products, but will also include health and safety, data protection and equal opportunity laws. For example, Wal-Mart would need to follow the Consumer protection Act which is to help safeguard the consumer from products that do not reach a reasonable level of safety. Social factors that affect Wal-Mart would include population of area’s – higher population would be more beneficial, healthy eating; increase in unemployment; poverty; social behaviour; attitude to male and female roles or even religions.