Economy and Business Terms - Charlie, your teacher of English
and lead to higher costs for consumers. [1] Alternatively, oligopolies can see fierce competition
because competitors can realize large gains and losses at each other's expense. In such
oligopolies, outcomes for consumers can often be favorable.
Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others. The
decisions of one firm influence and are influenced by the decisions of other firms. Strategic planning
by oligopolists needs to take into account the likely responses of the other market participants.
On-the-job Training: Employee training at the place of work while he or she is doing the actual job.
Usually a professional trainer (or sometimes an experienced employee) serves as the course
instructor using hands-on training often supported by formal classroom training.
Outputs: It is the quantity of a product that a company, sector, or economy can produce over a
limited period of time. For example, if a widget factory produces 30,000 widgets in April and is open
seven days a week, its output may be measured as 1,000 widgets per day. Economic output may
be expressed as a monetary value and may be compared against the costs to produce the output
(sometimes called the input).
Parties to a Contract: There are at least two parties involved in a contract: the promisor, promisee
and, sometimes, a third party beneficiary may be named. Each party has a different obligation to the
contract terms. The beneficiary in a contract generally does not have the same level of responsibility
for the contract's performance.////////////////////////////////////////
Payroll: Payroll is the sum total of all compensation a business must pay to its employees for a set
period of time or on a given date. It is usually managed by the accounting department of a business;
small-business payrolls may be handled directly by the owner or an associate. Payroll can also refer
to the list of employees of a business and the amount of compensation due to each of them. It is a
major expense for most businesses and is almost always deductible as such. Payroll can differ from
one pay period to another due to overtime, sick pay and other variables.
Peak: A peak, compared to trough, is the highest point between the end of an economic expansion
and the start of a contraction in a business cycle. The peak of the cycle refers to the last month
before several key economic indicators, such as employment and new housing starts, begin to fall.
It is at this point when real GDP spending in an economy is at its highest level.
Performance Appraisals: The process by which a manager or consultant (1) examines and
evaluates an employee's work behavior by comparing it with preset standards, (2) documents the
results of the comparison, and (3) uses the results to provide feedback to the employee to show
where improvements are needed and why. Performance appraisals are employed to determine who
needs what training, and who will be promoted, demoted, retained, or fired.
PEST Analysis: A type of situation analysis in which political-legal (government stability, spending,
taxation), economic (inflation, interest rates, unemployment), socio-cultural (demographics,
education, income distribution), and technological (knowledge generation, conversion of discoveries
into products, rates of obsolescence) factors are examined to chart an organization's long-term
plans. See also SWOT analysis.
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