Management & Organization Behavior class Two Discussions
The External and Internal Environments
Chapter Two
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Learning Objectives
LO 1 Describe how environmental forces influence organizations and how organizations can influence their environments.
LO 2 Distinguish between the macroenvironment and the competitive environment.
LO 3 Explain why managers and organizations should attend to economic and social developments.
LO 4 Identify elements of the competitive environment.
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Learning Objectives (cont.)
LO 5 Summarize how organizations respond to environmental uncertainty.
LO 6 Define elements of an organization’s culture.
LO 7 Discuss how an organization’s culture and climate affects its response to its external environment.
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Organization Inputs and Outputs
Figure 2.1
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Open Systems
Open systems
Organizations that are affected by, and that affect, their environment.
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Open Systems
Inputs
Goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services.
Outputs
The products and services organizations create.
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Open Systems
External environment
All relevant forces outside a firm’s boundaries, such as competitors, customers, the government, and the economy.
Competitive environment
The immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes suppliers, customers, rivals, and the like.
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Open Systems
Macroenvironment
The general environment; includes governments, economic conditions, and other fundamental factors that generally affect all organizations.
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The External Environment
Figure 2.2
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The Economy
The economic environment dramatically affects managers’ ability to function effectively and influences their strategic choices.
Interest and inflation rates affect the availability and cost of capital, growth opportunities, prices, costs, and consumer demand for products.
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Percent Change in Nonfarm Payroll Employment since Start of Each Recession
Figure 2.3
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The Economy
In publicly held companies, managers may feel required to meet Wall Street’s earnings expectations.
Managers may focus on short-term results at the expense of long-term success
Some managers may be tempted to engage in unethical or unlawful behavior that misleads investors
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Technology
Technological advances create new products, advanced production techniques, and better ways of managing and communicating
As technology evolves, new industries, markets, and competitive niches develop
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Laws and Regulations
Regulators include agencies such as:
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
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Demographics
Demographics
Measures of various characteristics of the people who make up groups or other social units
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Demographics
Demographic trends
Growth of the labor force
Increasing education and skill levels
Immigration
Increased numbers of women in the workforce
Increasingly diverse workforce
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Social Issues
Societal trends regarding how people think and behave have major implications for management of the labor force, corporate social actions, and strategic decisions about products and markets.
Family leave, domestic partner benefits, flexible working hours, and child care assistance.
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The Competitive Environment
Figure 2.4
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Competitors
Competition is most intense when:
There are many direct competitors
Industry growth is slow
Product/service is not easily differentiated
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New Entrants
Barriers to entry
conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry
government policy, capital requirements, brand identification, cost disadvantages, and distribution channels.
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Substitutes and Complements
Substitutes
alternative products or services
Complements
products or services that increase purchases of other products
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Question
____________ costs are fixed costs buyer face if they change suppliers.
Exchange
Lever
Switching
Transfer
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The correct answer is C – switching.
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Suppliers
Suppliers
provide resources or inputs needed for production
Switching costs
fixed costs buyer face if they change suppliers
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Suppliers
Supply chain management
managing the network of facilities and people that obtain materials from outside the organization, transform them into products, and distribute them to customers
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The goal of effective supply chain management is to have the right product in the right quantity available at the right place at the right cost.
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Customers
Final customers
purchase products in their finished form
Intermediate customers
purchase raw material or wholesale products before selling them to final customers
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Environmental Analysis
Environmental uncertainty
Lack of information needed to understand or predict the future.
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Environmental Uncertainty
Environmental complexity
The number of issues to which a manager must attend as well as the interconnectedness of these issues
Environmental dynamism
The degree of discontinuous change that occurs within an industry
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Environmental Analysis
Environmental scanning
searching out information that is unavailable to most people and sorting that information to interpret what is important and what is not.
Competitive intelligence
Information that helps managers determine how to compete better.
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Environmental Analysis
Scenario development
A narrative that describes a particular set of future conditions
Best-case, worst-case
Forecasting
Method for predicting how variables will change the future
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Question
What is the process of comparing an organization’s practices and technologies with those of other companies?
Comparative technology
Benchmarking
Process synchronization
Process asynchronization
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The correct answer is B – benchmarking.
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Environmental Analysis
Benchmarking
The process of comparing an organization’s practices and technologies with those of other companies.
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Changing the Environment You are In
Strategic maneuvering
An organization’s conscious efforts to change the boundaries of its task environment
Domain selection
Entrance to a new market or industry with an existing expertise
Diversification
Occurs when a firm invests in a different product, business, or geographic area
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Changing the Environment You are In
Mergers
One or more companies combine with another
Acquisitions
One firm buys another
Divestiture
A firm sells one or more businesses
Prospectors
Continuously change the boundaries of their task environment by seeking new products and markets, diversifying and merging, or acquiring new enterprises
Defenders
Stay within a stable product domain as a strategic maneuver
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Influencing Your Environment
Independent strategies
Strategies that an organization acting on its own uses to change some aspect of its current environment.
Cooperative strategies
Strategies used by two or more organizations working together to manage the external environment.
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Independent Action
Table 2.3
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Cooperative Action
Table 2.5
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Adapting to the Environment
Buffering
Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs.
Smoothing
Leveling normal fluctuations at the boundaries of the environment.
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Organization Culture
Organizational culture
The set of important assumptions about the organization and its goals and practices that members of the company share
In strong cultures, the majority of people within the organization agree on organizational goals
In weak cultures, different people hold different values and there is confusion about corporate goals
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Competing Values Model of Culture
Figure 2.6
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Video: Opportunity International
Which social issues in the macroenvironment are addressed by Opportunity International?
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