Chapter 4: The Organizational Environment

Question 1

Organizational environment

Answer 1

The factors, forces, and groups both inside and outside an organization that impact everyday activities

Question 2

Stakeholder

Answer 2

Any individual or group who is impacted by the organization

Question 3

Internal stakeholders

Answer 3

Company owners, stockholders, employees and board of directors.

Question 4

The internal environment

Answer 4

Elements that occur within an organization, such as strategy, culture, technology, policies, procedures, and intellectual capital. Created by internal stakeholders.

Components of the internal environment:
- Corporate strategies
- Organizational culture
- Technology
- Policies and procedures
- Intellectual capital

Question 5

External environment

Answer 5

The factors, forces, and groups outside the boundary of an organization that may impact everyday activities.

External stakeholders: individuals or groups outside the organization who have an interest in it.

Question 6

An organizations EXTERNAL environment can be divided into 2 areas:

Answer 6

1. The task environment
2. General environment

Question 7

The task environment

Answer 7

A group of sectors that directly and immediately impact the organization and influence its decision making on a daily basis. subcontracting with outside vendors to provide specific services, thereby freeing up the organization to focus on other activities in-house

Components of the task environment:

• Customers
• Suppliers and distributers
• Competitors
• Government
• Special interest groups
• Local communities
• strategic partners

Question 8

2. General environment

Answer 8

everything outside an organization’s boundaries—economic, legal, political, socio-cultural, international, and technical forces.

The general environment – 6 Forces that have an indirect effect on both the organization and its task environment, including political, legal, and ethical forces; economic forces; technological forces; demographic forces; sociocultural forces; and global forces

The general environment deals with market forces that are both dynamic and uncontrollable.

• Political forces
• Legal forces
• Ethical forces
• Economic forces
• Technological forces
• Demographic forces
• Sociocultural forces
• Global forces

Question 9

Supply chain management

Answer 9

The control and coordination of inventory through transportation and logistics

Question 10

Competitors

Answer 10

Organizations or individuals that produce a similar product or service aimed at customers who would traditionally be served by your company.

Question 11

Competitive advantage

Answer 11

Factors that set an organization apart from others and provides it with a distinctive edge when it comes to meeting customer needs in the marketplace.

Question 12

Labor union

Answer 12

A legal representative of a group of worker

Question 13

Union security agreement

Answer 13

An agreement that forces new members of an organization to join a union

Question 14

Right to work laws

Answer 14

State laws forbidding union security agreements, thereby disallowing union membership as a requirement for employment

Question 15

Geographic clusters / agglomerations

Answer 15

A group of similar organizations located close to each other to enhance the specialization of a particular region; also called agglomerations

Question 16

Strategic alliances

Answer 16

formed when two organizations must serve the same customer and each cannot preform this task alone.

Question 17

Mass media

Answer 17

includes all forms of communications intended for large audiences (newspapers, magazines, televisions, radio, social media and the internet.

Question 18

Political forces

Answer 18

include governmental power, regulations and enforcement

Question 19

Legal forces

Answer 19

include the creation and interpretation of the law through the legislative and judicial processes

Question 20

Environmental analysis

Answer 20

the ways in which organizations monitor what is happening in the environment

• Buffering
• Boundary spanning
• Forecasting
• Benchmarking

Question 21

Buffering

Answer 21

Absorbing uncertainty from the environment so the organization can perform its primary roles efficiently

Question 22

Boundary spanning

Answer 22

Scanning the environment to detect information organizations believe is important for their business

Question 23

Business intelligence

Answer 23

The process of using complex software programs to gather and analyze large amounts of internal and external data to detect certain patterns or trends; also called analytics

Question 24

Quantitative forecasting

Answer 24

Using numerical data from past performance to predict future performance

Question 25

Qualitative forecasting

Answer 25

Subjective methods that tend to focus on judgments and opinions of experts

Question 26

Benchmarking

Answer 26

Evaluating organizational performance by comparing it with standards set by other organizations

Question 27

Diveristy -

Answer 27

Degree to which members of a group differ from one another in terms of any attribute that may be used as a basis for categorizing people. The different personal characteristics that set individuals apart in the workplace (such as gender, age, race, religion, or sexual orientation) are collectively referred to as

Question 28

Globalization -

Answer 28

Increased interaction and integration of different nations economically, politically, socially, and culturally

Question 29

Gig Economy

Answer 29

Labor market characterized by temporary and freelance contract work rather than permanent jobs

Question 30

Innovation

Answer 30

Looking at things differently and being creative in choosing solutions

Question 31

Knowledge management

Answer 31

Assessing and systematizing knowledge resources to find new solutions to ongoing problems, so that companies can gain a competitive advantage

Question 32

Sustainability

Answer 32

Integrating environmentalism and social responsibility into an organization’s business strategies

Question 33

Out sourcing

Answer 33

Process of contracting work to an external source that the organization used to do as part of its own operations / subcontracting with outside vendors to provide specific services, thereby freeing up the organization to focus on other activities in-house

Question 34

Offshoring

Answer 34

Practice of basing part of a company’s operations overseas, in which the company is still in charge of the operational process

Question 35

Ethics

Answer 35

Code of moral principles that governs whether a person’s behavior is right or wrong