Lecture 03
Environment of
Organisation
Slide content created by Charlie Cook, The University of West Alabama
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The Organization’s
Environment
• External Environment
– General environment: everything outside an
organization’s boundaries—economic, legal,
political, socio-cultural, international, and technical
forces.
– Task environment: specific groups and
organizations that affect the firm.
• Internal Environment
– Conditions and forces present and at work within
an organization
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Figure 3.1: The Organization
and Its Environments
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The External Environment
• The General Environment
– The set of broad dimensions and forces in an
organization’s surroundings that create its overall
context.
• Economic dimension
• Technological dimension
• Sociocultural dimension
• Political-legal dimension
• International dimension
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McDonald’s General Environment
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McDonald’s Task Environment
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The Internal Environment
• Conditions and stakeholder forces
within an organization
– Owners.
– Board of directors
– Employees
– Physical work environment
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How Environments Affect
Organizations
• Change and Complexity
– Environmental change occurs in two ways:
• Degree to which change in environment is
occurring
• Degree of homogeneity or complexity of the
environment
– Uncertainty
• A driving force that influences organizational
decisions.
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How Environments Affect
Organizations (cont’d)
• Competitive Forces
– Porter’s Five Competitive Forces
• Threat of new entrants into the market
• Competitive rivalry among present competitors
• Threat of substitute products
• Power of buyers
• Power of suppliers
• Environmental Turbulence
– Unexpected changes and upheavals in the
environment of an organization.
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Porter’s Five
Competitive Forces
• Threat of new entrants
– Extent to and ease with which competitors can
enter market.
• Competitive rivalry
– Competitive rivalry between firms in an industry.
• Threat of substitute products
– Extent to which alternative products/services may
replace the need for existing products/services.
• Power of buyers
– Extent to which buyers influence market rivals.
• Power of suppliers
– Extent to which suppliers influence market rivals.
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How Organizations Adapt to Their
Environments
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How Organizations Adapt to
Their Environments (cont’d)
• Information Management in Organizations
– Boundary spanners
– Environmental scanning
– Information systems
• Strategic Response
– Maintaining the status quo, altering the current
strategy, or adopting a new strategy.
• Mergers, Acquisitions, Alliances
– Firms combine (merge), purchase (acquisition), or
form new venture partnerships or alliances with
another firm.
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How Organizations Respond to
Their Environments (cont’d)
• Organizational Design and Flexibility
– Adapting to environmental conditions by
incorporating flexibility in its structural design.
• Mechanistic firms operate best in stable environments.
• Organic firms are best suited for dynamic environments.
• Direct Influence of the Environment
– Attempting to change the nature of the competitive
conditions in its environment to suit its needs.
– Pursuing new or changed relationships with
suppliers, customers, and regulators.
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Figure 3.6: A Model of
Organizational Effectiveness
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Table 3.1: Examples of Admired
and High-Performing Firms
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Key Terms
• internal environment • interest group
• external environment • strategic partners
• task environment (strategic allies)
• economic dimension
• owner
• technological dimension
• sociocultural dimension
• board of directors
• political-legal dimension • organization culture
• international dimension • uncertainty
• competitor • five competitive
• customer forces
• supplier
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