J
Job analysis: The responsibilities and tasks relating to a job are identified and recorded.
Job description: Document which outline the responsibilities and duties expected to be carried out by someone employed to do a specific job.
Job enlargement: Where extra tasks of a similar level of work are added to a worker’s job description.
Job enrichment: Involves looking at jobs and adding tasks that require more skill and/or responsibility.
Job production: A single product is made at a time, usually to the customer’s exact specification.
Job rotation: Involves the workers doing each specific task for only a limited time and then changing round on a regular basis.
Job satisfaction: Enjoyment derived from feeling that you have done a good job.
Job specification: Documents which outlines the requirements, qualifications and expertise required from a person to do a specific job.
Joint account: An account, for example, one held at a bank or by a broker, that two or more people own in common and have access to.
Joint ownership: Ownership by more than one party, each with equal rights in the item owned. Joint ownership is often applied to property or other assets.
Junk bond: A bond with high return and high risk.
K
Keystone: Setting a retail price at twice the wholesale price.
Kaizen production: Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning
continuous improvement, through the elimination of waste.
L
Labor force: People of working age who are available for paid employment, including the unemployed looking for work, but excluding categories such as full-time students, careers, and the long-term sick and disabled.
Lapse: The termination of an option without trade in the underlying security or commodity.
Law of diminishing returns: A rule stating that as one factor of production is increased while others remain constant, the extra output generated by the additional input will eventually fall. The law of diminishing returns therefore means that extra workers, extra capital, extra machinery, or extra land may not necessarily raise output as much as expected.
Lead time: The margin of time between the date when stock is obtained and the date when it is sold on.
Leadership styles: Approaches to dealing with people when in a position of authority.
Lean production: Techniques used by business to cut down on any waste and therefore increase efficiency, for example, by reducing the time it takes for the product to be developed and made available for sale.
Leasing: Leasing an asset allows the firm to use an asset but it does not have to purchase it.
Lemon: A product, especially a car, that is defective in some way.
Letter of agreement: A document that constitutes a simple form of contract.
Letter of Credit: A letter issued by a bank that can be presented to another bank to authorize the issue of credit or money.
Leverage: A method of corporate funding in which a higher proportion of funds is raised through borrowing than share issue.
Liability: A debt that has no claim on a debtor's assets or less claim than another debt.
Liability insurance: Risk protection for actions for which a business is liable.
License: A contractual arrangement, or a document representing this, in which one organization gives another the rights to produce, sell, or use something in return for payment.
Lifestyle: A pattern of living that comprises an individual's activities, interests and opinions.
Limited liability: Where the owners of a company cannot be held responsible for the debts of the company they own.
Limited partnership: A legal partnership where some owners are allowed to assume responsibility only up to the amount invested.
Line managers: Managers with direct authority over subordinates in their departments; they are able to take decisions in their departmental area.
Line of best fit: A line drawn through a series of points, e.g. sales data, which best shows the trend of that data.
Liquid assets: Financial assets that can be quickly converted to cash.
Liquidity: The ability of a business to meet its financial responsibilities. The degree of readiness with which assets can be converted into cash without loss.
Loan agreement: A document that states what a business can and cannot do as long as it owes money to the lender.
Loan: Money lent with interest.
Long-term liabilities: The liabilities (expenses) that will not mature within the next year.