What does “BA” mean
According to abbreviationfinder, the abbreviation “BA” stands for “Business Administration”. In contrast to “Economics”, business administration deals with decisions that relate to processes in the respective company . “Economics”, on the other hand, focuses on macroeconomic processes .
Based on the designation of the individual areas, their focus, “business” or “national economy”, can be clearly read. Nevertheless, there are overlaps in everyday life.
Development of business administration
A basic form of business administration emerged as early as the 17th century. Above all, the time of the 1890s can be seen as a real turning point. Because: this is where the first commercial colleges emerged, including in Leipzig and Aachen. At the same time, the term “commercial management” became increasingly popular. “Privatwirtschaftslehre” later found its way into common usage. The term “business administration” became more and more popular in the period after 1918.
Apart from linguistic developments, the fundamentals of business administration can be traced back much further, to around 2000 BC. Similar knowledge was already used in ancient Egypt and, among other things, teaching was based on this in writing and arithmetic.
What does business administration deal with?
The various sub-areas of business administration are characterized, among other things, by their complexity. The main goal of business administration is to make decisions that will help the company in question economically. It is characteristic that the company in question is here – at least in the first step – delimited from the rest of the economy and considered separately.
What does business administration include?
Among other things, the business administration can be divided into further areas, which are divided into …:
- the production of goods
- the investment in entrepreneurial projects
- the financing
- the development of new products and services
- research
- marketing
Respectively. Always in focus: the economic success of the company in question. In order to guarantee this, specific questions have to be asked, for example about …:
- the location of a company
- the production and its framework conditions
- the investment in various projects
be answered again and again. Because: of course, the current framework conditions can change. It is also a typical phenomenon that the individual areas overlap and are therefore highly dependent on one another.
Business principles
Decisions that are made in a company within the framework of business administration are usually based on clear business management principles. This is to ensure that the economic possibilities can be optimally exploited.
In order to ensure this, however, it is essential to adapt the respective procedures to the company and its circumstances. In order to be able to work even more profoundly here, it is possible to fall back on the rules of both general and special business administration.
Differentiation between general and special business administration
Basically, general business administration, or “GBA” for short, can be applied to all industries. It relates, among other things, to …:
- planning
- organizational
- arithmetic
Developments and can help, among other things, to better understand the basic rules relating to this exciting area. Accordingly, it is self-explanatory, which is why general business administration forms the basis of the course, which can then be further developed over the course of the semester.
In contrast to general business administration, special business administration deals with industry-specific peculiarities that must be taken into account in the course of the respective decisions. At the same time, it is possible to refer to functional aspects and bring them into focus. Among other things, in the course of the special variant, the special characteristics with regard to …:
- the banking management
- the commercial management
- business administration decisions in connection with cooperatives and health companies
- the media management
to carry. Here, among other things, special circumstances in connection with marketing-related decisions, logistics, business taxation and foreign trade must be taken into account.
The type of business administration used in the company, in turn, depends on several factors. As a rule, however, it makes sense to make both general and specific decisions in order to ensure an even better overview.
Business areas of business administration
Due, among other things, to the fact that business administration is one of the most popular courses in Germany and because business administration can be applied to a wide variety of application scenarios, the areas of work in business administration are particularly broad.
Based on the relevant knowledge, there are professions in the field of …:
- IT
- Human Resources
- Controlling and Accounting
- Marketing
- Media
Those who specialize further in the course of their studies can often further increase their chances of finding the respective “dream job”.
Where do you need knowledge of business administration?
Well-founded decisions in the field of business administration play an important role in the most varied of company areas and with regard to the most varied of jobs. But for which professional groups is a business background almost inevitable?
In management
Management positions are usually associated with managerial responsibility and the making of important decisions. Accordingly, it is self-explanatory, which is why the economic efficiency factor also plays an important role here. In the course of business studies, it is important in most cases to consider both general and special business management aspects. In this way, a sound basis for further steps in business operations can be created – especially at management level.
In sales department
The sales department deals, among other things, with the pricing of a product or service and should therefore not be underestimated in the course of business management aspects. It is the task of the sales department to assess the value of a product and to carry out a pricing or price calculation , which among other things helps to stand out from the competition and to defend one’s own market position .
In finance
What would be more obvious than to relate business management decisions to the area of finance? After all, the respective employees deal with questions about the financing (and the profitability) of individual projects. Often these are far-reaching decisions that can influence the success of a company in the long term and must therefore be made well-founded.
Business studies in research
This shows how important it can be to assess the benefits of business decisions, especially in connection with developments in the coming years. However, the further development of products and the orientation of a company on the basis of meticulous research must also be financed. Investing in business administration in research means acting in the long term and, to a certain extent, also daring to look into the “crystal ball”. Questions such as “Is it worth expanding product X … and if so, how?” Are topical here.
Qualitative and quantitative methods of business administration
In order to make the overview a little easier in connection with business administration, a division into qualitative and quantitative methods can first be made.
The “rule of thumb” here is that the quantitative methods deal, among other things, with carrying out experiments and surveys . Statistics are generated on this basis, which can be evaluated in the next step.
The qualitative research proves, however, as something targeted and provides observations and interviews with members of a specific audience in focus. The relevant findings are then transcribed.
Intercultural business administration in times of globalization
In the area of intercultural business administration, the fundamental factors of business administration naturally also play an important role. Above all, the area of global action or thinking is brought into focus here even more.
It is not just a matter of operating economically, but also of taking into account the factor of international success . Large companies in particular are increasingly relying on this particular area of business administration in the age of globalization. Especially…:
- cultural characteristics
- geographical conditions
- market-specific developments in the respective countries
are taken into account in the course of business decisions.
Objectives of business administration and key figures of business administration
The fundamental aim of business administration is to describe entrepreneurial decision-making processes , which as a rule depend on several people, in order, among other things , to identify any need for optimization .
In order to be able to achieve this goal, the company in question is initially considered isolated from the rest of the economy and then, if necessary, related to it. Decisions in the field of business administration can be found in connection with all economic processes and are accordingly broad.
Above all, the specific key figures in the field of business administration play an important role when it comes to measuring the quality of business processes . With the help of the relevant data, problems should be better identified and weak points identified. On the basis of the relevant key figures, the relationships between different sub-areas can also be explained even better. In some cases, companies also decide to publish the relevant figures in order to be able to present their businesses even more transparently.
What is the difference between business administration and economics?
Even if the areas of business administration and economics repeatedly overlap in everyday business, both areas can be distinguished from one another. So the question arises, what is the difference between economics and business administration? While the business administration refers exclusively to the company, the economics refers to a certain economic area , i.e. with macroeconomic connections. This can be regional , national or international in nature .
