Business Enviroment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business Enviroment - Essay ExampleEnvironmental see drives an organizations strategic planning process-the quality of the planning depends on the quality of the scan.The scanning manager faces a traffic circle of challenges because the remote environment is changing rapidly in complex ways there are many sources of knowledge and this information is often ambiguous. (Auster and Choo, 1994). The organisation has to use this information to make consequential decisions or long-term commitments by the organisation.Scanning involves several modes of information seeking. Aguilar (1967) usefully differentiates between searching for information about a specific question, and viewing information or being exposed to information without a specific information need in mind. According to Auster and Choo (1994). Scanning could range from a casual conversation at the lunch table or a chance observation of an angry customer dumping a product, to an coarse market research programme to identif y business opportunities. At a conceptual level then, environmental scanning may be seen as an extended case of information seeking, in that scanning not only includes searching for particular information, but also simply being exposed to information that could concern the firm. (Auster and Choo, 1994). Duncan (1972) defines the environment as the totality of physical and social factors that are taken directly into consideration in the decision-making behavior of individuals in the organization (p. 314). Draft et al. (1988) suggest that a firms external environment can be divided into six environmental celestial spheres including1. Customer sector refers to those companies or individuals that purchase the products made by the respondents firm, and includes companies that film the products for resale, as well as final customers.2. Competition sector includes the companies, products, and competitive tactics companies that make change products products that compete with the respond ent firms products and competitive actions between the respondents firm and other companies in the same industry.3. Technological sector includes the development of new production techniques and methods, innovation in materials and products, and everyday trends in research and science germane(predicate) to the respondents firm.4. Regulatory sector includes federal and provincial legislation and regulations, city or community policies, and political developments at all levels of government.5. Economic sector includes economic factors such as stock markets, rate of inflation, foreign clientele balance, federal and provincial budgets, interest rates, unemployment,and economic growth rate.6. Socio-cultural sector comprises social values in the general population, the work ethic, and demographic trends such as an increasing number of women in the work force (Daft et al., 1988, pp. 137-38).By understanding the above environmental sector a company can better understand how to mess hall with the requirements of each sector. There is a general model proposed by Mintzberg (1973) which deals with managerial use of information acquired from the external environment. According to this framework, a managers interpersonal roles provide access and exposure to