Chapter Three - Management 371
Affects an organization indirectly and includes social, economic, legal-political, international, natural, and technological factors that influence all organizations about equally.
General environment
A figure who exemplifies the deeds, character, and attributes of a strong culture.
Hero
Includes the elements within the organization's boundaries. Composed of current employees, management, and especially corporate culture.
Internal environment
As managers plan for expansion into global markets, they have to consider the ________ dimension of the external environment.
International
A dimension of the general environment that includes events originating in foreign countries, as well as new opportunities for U.S. companies in other countries.
International dimension
Emphasizes an internal focus on the involvement and participation of employees to adapt rapidly to changing needs from the environment. This culture places high value on meeting the needs of employees, and the organization may be characterized by a caring, family-like atmosphere. Managers emphasize values such as cooperation, consideration of both employees and customers, and avoiding status differences.
Involvement culture
Involves a strategic alliance or program by two or more organizations, and typically occurs when a project is too complex, expensive, or uncertain for one firm to handle alone.
Joint venture
Market that represents people in the environment who can be hired to work for the organization.
Labor market
Includes government regulations at the local, state, and federal levels, as well as political activities designed to influence company behavior.
Legal-political dimension
If the external environment requires careful technical decision making, the culture should reinforce:
Managerial decision making
Occurs when two or more organizations combine to become one.
Merger
The dimension that includes all the elements that occur naturally on Earth, including plants, animals, rocks, and resources such as air, water, and climate.
Natural dimension
A system formed by the interaction among a community of organizations in the environment. Includes organizations in all the sectors of the track and general environments that provide the resource and information transactions, flows, and linkages necessary for an organization to thrive.
Organizational ecosystem
A phrase or sentence that succinctly expresses a key corporate value.
Slogan
The organization's external environment does not include those events:
So far removed from the organization that their impact is not perceived.
A dimension of the general environment that represents the demographic characteristics as well as the norms, customs,, and values of the general population.
Sociocultural dimension
What are the four categories associated with these two dimensions?
(1) Adaptability (2) Achievement (3) Involvement (4) Consistency
The internal environment within which managers work includes:
(1) Corporate culture (2) Production technology (3) Organization structure (4) Physical facilities
Boundary-spanning roles serve two purposes for the organization, what are they?
(1) Detect and process information about changes in the environment. (2) Represent the organization's interest
The organization's external environment can be conceptualized further as having two component's. What are they?
(1) General environment (2) Task environment
What are three sociocultural trends that smart managers may want to consider?
(1) The connected general or generation C (2) Organizations are rushing to create senior-friendly products and services (3) Half of all babies born in 2011 were members of minority groups
Cultural leaders typically influence in two key areas:
(1) The cultural leader articulates a vision for the organizational culture that employees can believe in. (2) The cultural leader heeds the day-to-day activities that reinforce the cultural vision.
Studies suggest that the right fit between culture, strategy, and the environment is associated with four categories , based on two dimensions. What are the two dimensions?
(1) The extent to which the external environment requires flexibility or stability (2) The extent to which a company's strategic focus is internal or external
What are the 3 labor market forces affecting organizations right now?
(1) The growing need for computer-literate knowledge workers (2) The necessity or continuous investment in human resources through recruitment, education, and training to meet the competitive demands of the borderless world (3) The effects of international trading blocks, automation, outsourcing, and shifting facility locations on labor dislocations, creating unused labor pools in some areas and labor shortages in others.
The external organizational environment includes things such as:
- Competitors - Resources -Technology -Economic conditions that influence the organization
What are some examples of the economic dimension?
- Consumer purchasing power - The unemployment rate - Interest rates
Being that organizations today are operating in a global environment, the economic dimension has become? And creates what?
- Exceedingly complex - Creates enormous uncertainty for managers
The invisible layer of culture includes:
- Expressed values such as "The Penney idea" or the "HP way" - Underlying assumptions and deep beliefs, such as "people here care about one another like family."
Corporate culture is both shaped by the ______________________ and shapes how managers _________________ in the external environment.
- The external environment - Respond to changes
The visible layer of culture includes:
-Artifacts such as dress, office layout, symbols, slogans, and ceremonies
Task environment is typically thought to include people or markets like:
-Competitors -Suppliers -Customers -Labor market
What are the (6) dimensions of the general environment?
-International -Technological -Sociocultural -Economic -Legal-political -Natural
What is the 'Connected Generation' or 'Generation C?'
A new generation of technologically-savvy consumers
Suited to organizations concerned with serving specific customers in the external environment, but without the intense need for flexibility and rapid change. This results-oriented culture values competitiveness, aggressiveness, personal initiative, cost cutting, and willingness to work long and hard to achieve results.
Achievement Culture
Emerges in an environment that requires fast response and high-risk decision making. Managers encourage values that support the company's ability to rapidly detect, interpret, and translate signals from the environment into new behaviors. Employees can make decisions and act freely to meet new needs. Managers also actively create change by encouraging and rewarding creativity, experimentation, and risk-taking.
Adaptability Culture
Link to and coordinate the organization with key elements in the external environment.
Boundary-spanning roles
Results from using sophisticated software to search through large amounts of internal and external data to spot patterns, trends, and relationships that might be significant.
Business intelligence
What type of economic system does the US encourage?
Capitalism
A planned activity at a special event that is conducted for the benefit of an audience.
Ceremony
Refers to activities to get as much information as possible about one's rivals.
Competitive intelligence
Means that customers check out products in stores and then buy them cheaper online.
Competitors
Organizations in the same industry or type of business that provide goods or services to the same set of customers.
Competitors
Uses an internal focus and a consistency orientation for a stable environment. Following the rules and being "thrifty" are valued, and the culture supports and rewards a methodical, rational, orderly way of doing things.
Consistency culture
Defines employee behavior in the internal environment and how well the organization will adapt to the external environment.
Corporate culture
A leader who defines and uses signals and symbols to influence corporate culture.
Cultural leaders
A pattern of shared values and assumptions about how things are done within the organization.
Culture
A set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms shared by members of an organization.
Culture
Those people and organizations in the environment that acquire goods or services from the organization.
Customers
The ___________ dimension represents the general economic health of the country or region in which the organization operates.
Economic
Includes all elements existing outside the boundary of the organization that have the potential to affect elements existing outside the boundary of the organization that have the potential to affect the organization.
External organizational environment
If the external environment requires extraordinary customer service, the culture should encourage:
Extraordinary service
A narrative based on true events and is repeated frequently and shared among organization employees. Paint pictures that help symbolize the firm's vision and values and help employees personalize and absorb them.
Story
Events or forces either inside or outside an organization that are likely to alter its ability to achieve its objectives.
Strategic issues
Provide the raw materials that the organization uses to produce its output.
Suppliers
A network of multiple business and individuals that are connected through the flow of products or services.
Supply chain
An object, act, or event that conveys meaning to others.
Symbol
The ______________ environment includes those sectors that have a direct working relationship with the organization, among them customers, competitors, suppliers, and the labor market.
Task
The environment which is closer to the organization and includes the sectors that conduct day-to-day transactions with the organization and directly influence its basic operations and performance.
Task environment
A dimension of the general environment that includes scientific and technological advancements in a specific industry, as well as in society at large.
Technological dimension
Why do organizations care so much about factors in the external environment?
The environment creates uncertainty for organization managers, and they must respond by designing the organization to adapt to the environment.
True or false: Changes in federal regulations or an economic recession are part of the organization's general environment.
True
When was the 'Connected Generation' or 'Generation C' born?
Typically defined as people born after 1990.
Means that managers do not have sufficient information about environmental factors to understand and predict environmental needs and changes.
Uncertainty
What are some ways that the federal government influences organizations?
-OSHA -EPA -Fair trade practices -Libel statutes allowing lawsuits against businesses - Consumer protection -Privacy legislation -Product safety requirements -Import and export restrictions -Information and labeling requirements
Culture can be analyzed at two levels, what are they?
-Visible -Invisible