How the External Environment

Affects Managers?
Environmental constraints & challenges:
1. Through its impact on jobs and employment
2. Through the environmental uncertainty that
is present
3. Through the various stakeholder
relationships that exist between an
organization and its external constituencies.

How the External Environment

Affects Managers?
1. JOBS AND EMPLOYMENT
- global recession
- many employers use flexible work
arrangements to meet work output demand.
For instance, work tasks may be done by
freelancers hired to work on an as-needed
basis or by temporary workers who work fulltime but are not permanent employees or by
individuals who share jobs

2. ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL
UNCERTAINTY & COMPLEXITY

Environmental Uncertainty
If the components in an organizations
environment change frequently, its a dynamic
environment.
If change is minimal, its a stable one. A stable
environment might be one with no new
competitors, few technological breakthroughs by
current competitors, little activity by pressure
groups to influence the organization, and so forth

Environmental Uncertainty
If change is predictable, is that considered
dynamic? No. Think of department stores that
typically make one-quarter to one-third of their
sales in November and December. The drop-off
from December to January is significant. But
because the change is predictable, the
environment isnt considered dynamic. When we
talk about degree of change, we mean change
thats unpredictable. If change can be accurately
anticipated, its not an uncertainty for managers.

Environmental complexity
An organization with fewer competitors, customers,
suppliers, government agencies, and so forth
faces a less complex and uncertain environment
Complexity is also measured in terms of the
knowledge an organization needs about its
environment. For instance, managers at
Sulit.com must know a great deal about their
Internet service providers operations if they
want to ensure that their Web site is available,
reliable, and secure for their customers.

3. MANAGING STAKEHOLDER
RELATIONSHIPS

Current Issues
in Organizational Culture
1. Creating an Innovative Culture
2. Creating a Customer-Responsive Culture
3. Spirituality and Organizational Culture

Creating an Innovative Culture

What does an innovative culture look like?
According to Swedish researcher Goran Ekvall, it
would be characterized by the following:
Challenge and involvement Are employees
involved in, motivated by, and committed to longterm goals and success of the organization?
Freedom Can employees independently define
their work, exercise discretion, and take initiative
in their day-to-day activities?
Trust and openness Are employees supportive
and respectful to each other?

Creating an Innovative Culture

Idea time Do individuals have time to elaborate on new
ideas before taking action?
Playfulness/humor Is the workplace spontaneous and
fun?
Conflict resolution Do individuals make decisions and
resolve issues based on the good of the organization
versus personal interest?
Debates Are employees allowed to express opinions
and put forth ideas for consideration and review?
Risk-taking Do managers tolerate uncertainty and
ambiguity, and are employees rewarded for taking
risks?

Example of business culture

For example, Google describes the company as still
feeling like a small company even though it has
grown tremendously: "At lunchtime, almost
everyone eats in the office caf, sitting at whatever
table has an opening and enjoying conversations
with Googlers from different teams... Every
employee is a hands-on contributor, and everyone
wears several hats... no one hesitates to pose
questions directly to Larry or Sergey in our weekly
all-hands (TGIF) meetings or spike a volleyball
across the net at a corporate officer.
Source: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/jobsearchglossary/g/glossary-definition.htm

Characteristics of a Spiritual
Organization
1. Strong sense of purpose. Spiritual
organizations build their cultures around a
meaningful purpose.
2. Focus on individual development. Spiritual
organizations recognize the worth and value
of individuals. They arent just providing jobs;
they seek to create cultures in which
employees can continually grow and learn.

Characteristics of a Spiritual
Organization
3. Trust and openness. Spiritual organizations are
characterized by mutual trust, honesty, and openness.
Managers arent afraid to admit mistakes. And they
tend to be extremely upfront with employees,
customers, and suppliers.
4. Employee empowerment. Managers trust employees
to make thoughtful and conscientious decisions.
5. Toleration of employee expression. The final
characteristic that differentiates spiritually based
organizations is that they dont stifle employee
emotions. They allow people to be themselvesto
express their moods and feelings without guilt or fear
of reprimand