Distinguishing large-scale organisations

There are many ways that large-scale organisations can be classified and a variety of forms which they may take. The main way of distinguishing between large-scale organisations is by the ownership of the entity and its principal form of operation. Hence, we are able to distinguish between 
government (public sector) and 
non-government (private sector) organisations or, 


put in another way, between publicly owned and privately owned organisations.

By 'publicly owned' we mean that the community as a whole owns the organisation and that it is operated on their behalf by the government. 

Public sector or government organisations may in turn be categorized into three distinct forms - 
General government entities, providing non-market goods and services (e.g. roads, hospitals and the like),

Public trading enterprises, providing market goods and services which meet their community service obligation and finally,

Public financial enterprises providing financial services e.g. government, banks and insurance offices.

Next, we can distinguish between those large-scale organisations which have as their primary or core objective, the 
'profit motive', and those which are nonprofit oriented. 

Also, We can distinguish between large-scale organisations according to the industry to which they belong - 
primary, secondary or tertiary, or as to whether their core function is manufacturing or service provision.


We could also distinguish between 
organisations according to their legal status and the extent of their legal liability (e.g
1.Sole trader, 
2.Partnership,
3.Company,
4.Statutory authority,
5.Government department, and those large-scale organisations which have limited and those which have unlimited liability), and their size in terms of the number of employees, production levels and turnover.