Teaching Cambridge A-Level Business Studies: Class Activity 1

Students are broken up into groups of 3 or 4.  Then each of them will receive one of the challenging full 20 marks questions from Section B of Paper 1 of Business Studies past year exam.  They are later required to elect a representative to come forward to the class and make a presentation on the following.

• Identify the keywords in the question; students must show in their presentation what are the important keywords that the other students need to include in the writing of their answers.
• Outline of ideas and structure of writing
• Elaboration - how they can link their ideas to other concepts and theories; how can they provide a detail discussion
• Conclusion

Questions for class discussion and presentation:

1. "Because there is conflict between profit and corporate social responsibility (CSR), private sector businesses should not have CSR as an objective." Do you agree? Justify your view. (20 marks) [9609/11/M/J/16]
2. "The most effective way to realise human potential in a manufacturing busienss is to give high rates of financial rewards to the workforce." Do you agree? Justify your view. (20 marks) [9609/13/M/J/16]
3. Discuss the view that employee participation is not always desirable in the management of a profit maximising business. (20 marks) [9609/13/M/J/16]
4. "In a business organisation, having an effective leader is more important than having an effective manager."  Do you agree? Justify your view. (20 marks) [Self-created question]

The above questions covers Unit 1 and Unit 2 of the AS Business Studies syllabus.