MGMT 371: Chapter 3

Organizations face high uncertainty when...

...external factors change rapidly.

General environment

A part of external organization environment -- things that affect ALL companies indirectly such as economic conditions, social, political and technology.

Task environment

A part of external organization environment -- things that affect the company directly (and related specifically to them) and includes sector that does business with them on a daily basis such as competitors, suppliers, customers.

Achievement culture

A results oriented culture that values competitiveness, personal initiative and achievement.

Guanxi

China; that business is driven through personal relationships and without those success would be difficult.

Growing minority groups

Diversity has large implications for business

Sociocultural dimension

General environment, deals with demographic characteristics as well as the norms, customes and values of the general population. Important sociocultural characteristics are geographical distribution, population density, age and education levels.

Connected generation or generation C

Have woven technology in all aspects of their lives; will make up 40% of the population by 2020, typically born at 1990

Baby boomers

Make up 1/3 population, organizations making products and services for this portion of the aging population.

Competitors

Part of task environment, organizations within the same industry or type of business that vie for the same set of customers; traditional stores such as target and walmart are competing with online retailers such as amazon and zappos.

Suppliers

Part of task environment, provides the raw materials the organization uses to produce its output. Supply chain and JIT method so that inventory is there 'just in time' for what's needed and not sitting around for months.

Customers

Part of the task environment, includes people and organizations that acquire goods or services from the organization.

Hero

a figure who exemplifies the deeds, character and attributes of a strong culture (ex steve jobs for apple)

Joint venture

a strategic alliance or program by two or more organizations.

External stability

achievement culture

External flexibility

adaptability culture

Symbol

an object, art, or event that conveys meaning to others.

Strategic issues

are events and forces that alter an organization's ability to achieve its goal. As environmental turbulence increases, strategic issues emerge more frequently.

Adaptability culture

characterized by values that support the company's ability to interpret and translate signals from the environment into new behavior processes.

Internal stability

consistency culture

For an organization to be effective

corporate culture should be aligned with organizational strategy and the needs of the external environment. Organizations within the same industry often reveal similar cultural characteristics because they are operating in similar environments.

Cultural leaders

define and articulate important values that are tied to a clear and compelling mission, which they communicate widely and uphold through their actions.

Cultural leadership

enables solid business performance through the alignment of motivated employees with the mission and goals of the company. With this managers create and sustain adaptive high-performance cultures.

International dimension

events originating in the foreign market, and the opportunities for US companies in other countries. Provides new competitors, customers, and suppliers and shapes social, technological and economic trends.

Organizational ecosystem

forced by the interaction among a community of organizations in the environment. Includes organizations in all the sectors of the task and general environments that provide the resource and informal transactions, flows and linkages necessary for an organization to thrive.

External organization environment

includes all elements existing outside the boundary of the organization that have the potential to affect the organization. Includes competitors, resources, technology, and economic conditions.

Natural dimension

includes all elements that occur naturally on earth, including plants, animals, rocks and resources such as air, water and climate. Score -- Switzerland is at top, Iraq is bottom. US is 49.

Legal-political

includes government regulations at the local, state and federal levels as well as political activities designed to influence company behavior. US system encourages capitalism, and government tries not to overregulate. We have OSHA and EPA, fair trade policies, libel statutes.

Technological dimension

includes scientific, and technological advancements in a specific industry as well as in society at large. E-books have driven Barnes & Noble to reinvent their store with a digital edge.

Internal environment

includes the elements within the organizations boundaries. Composed of current employees, management and corporate culture.

Internal flexibility

involvement culture

Boundary-spanning roles

link to and coordinate the organization with key elements in the external environment.

High performance culture

managers emphasize both values and business results

Ceremonies

managers hold these, planned activities, at special events to reinforce company values.

Story

narrative based on true events and is repeated frequently and shared among organizational employees.

Merger

occurs when two or more organizations combine to become one.

Labor market

part of task environment, represents the people available for hire by the organization.

Involvement culture

places high value on meeting the needs of employees and values cooperation and equality.

Inter-organizational partnerships

reduce boundaries and increase collaboration with other organizations.

Competitive intelligence

refers to activities that get as much information as possible about one's rivals (ex visa has ppl search web for insights on other companies)

Economic dimension

represents the general economic health of the country or region in which the organization operates. Consumer purchasing power, unemployment rates, and interest rates are all part of this. Because of expansion into the global environment, economic dimension has become more complex.

Business intelligence

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.

Organizational culture

set of key values, beliefs and understandings, and norms shared by members of an organization.

Slogan

succinctly expresses a key corporate value

Consistency culture

values and rewards a methodical, rational, orderly way of doing things.