INTRODUCTION:
Organisations are built about a group of functions, each of which provides support for the operations of the business. Functional departments each serve a specific purpose with an organisation to achieve its objectives. The most common functional areas of an organisation discussed below. Information need is an individual or group’s desire to locate and obtain information to satisfy a conscious or unconscious need. The information and need in information need are inseparable interconnection. Information needs are related to, but distinct from information requirements. An example is that a need is hunger, the requirement is food. In large organizations, each of the functional departments may be separate, whereas smaller organizations may have integrated departments. Different functional areas of an organization are:

Sales
Purchase
Manufacturing
Marketing
Finance
Human resource
Administration

Comparison & Contrasting
Sales
The sales team deal with customers and generate orders. The technioques used to generate sales varies between organisation,but some of the most common are telephone,door-to-door sales,advertising,and direct sales through representatives.
Purchase
The purchasing department is responsible for monitoring how many products or stock is required at any one time and buying accordingly.
Manufacturing
Depending on the type of organisation, one of the functional departments may be manufacturing, who would deal with all of the processing of product service.
Marketing
The marketing department advertise and promote the products or service of the organisation. In some case, it may be integrated with the sales function.
Finance
The primary function of the finance department is to ensure that there is financial stability within an organisation and a steady cash flow to support day-to-day transactions.
Human resource
The role of human resources is to provide support to the employees of an organisation. The primary function is to ensure the welfare of staff, by giving advice, guidance and motivation to enable them to work productively.
Administration
The administration function is integral to almost all organisations. Administrative staff works in all departments within organisations.
Purchase: The purchasing department may also be responsible for buying in consumable products, such as stationery, to support the other functional departments within the organisation.
Sales: the sales department may also provide supporting functions to other departments, particularly if the organisation does not have a dedeicated marketing or customer service department.
Manufacturing : Large national or multi-national organisations offering a diverse range of products or services would certainly need a manufacturing department to spearhead product developments.
Marketing: The marketing department will be involved in the few activities. Such as designing & developing promotional materials, organising marketing events, likely launches and campaigns. Developing websites…
Finance: The finance department is responsible for payment and transaction, investments, accounting procedures, budges and forecasting
Human resource: Human resource departments are also responsible for overseeing the recruitment of staff and the payroll as well as resignations and redundancies.
Administration: Organising meetings, taking minutes, audio and touch typing and letter writing are some of the day to day tasks an office administrator undertakes.