Week5:
Discussion Essay:
The external environment of an organization comprises of all the entities that exist outside its boundary but have significant influence on its growth and survival. An organization has little or no control over its environment but needs to constantly monitor and adapt to these external changes.
Share a recent example from business news about an external organizational challenge, how the company addressed it (internal factors), and what you would do differently.
> Maintain APA format and proper citations along with page numbers.
> Make sure you cover all topics mentioned in the question. If you miss any u may lose 10 points each.
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Below are the 2 examples please dont copy the same content used here.
Example 1:
External organizational challenge
Organizations do not exist in isolation and the environment it operates in having factors that influence its operations which are beyond its control and which the organization has to act upon to remain in operation. The external environment is of two types, that is micro environment factors that impact the operations of the company directly and macro environment. These factors sometimes bring challenges to the organizations and actions must be taken to ensure that the business is not affected.
A current example of a challenge that rose is the recent outbreak of coronavirus in China which had the government of China restricts the movement of people in and out of the country with, many flights either delayed or canceled. Different organizations are dealing with the impact of the regulation differently to handle their business. For example, Facebook, have many employees working in China and they need them for the continuation of the business. However, because the company cannot control the virus spread and must follow all the regulations put by China and the world health organization (Sonnemaker, 2020, pg99). To have their employees safe and still run the business, the company halted all the travels that were scheduled to chine which are non-essential and also ordered the employees to continue working but do it from their homes. Working at home strategy has helped the company deal with the challenge easily and their operations have not been affected as it could have been affected if the employees could not be working at all.
If in the same position I would have allowed the employees to work from their homes also to ensure that all the employees are safe but I have them work only when necessary or when the workload is too much to prevent straining them in the condition of uncertainty and fear they are in
References
Sonnemaker, T. (2020, January 29). Wuhan coronavirus leads Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft to close China locations and suspend employee travel unless ‘business critical’ (AAPL, FB) . Retrieved from Business Insider: https://www.pulse.com.gh/bi/tech/wuhan-coronavirus-leads-google-apple-facebook-amazon-and-microsoft-to-close-china/5g0p2ez
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Example 2:
External Business Environment:
The external environment of a business is an important determinant of the success or failure of the business (Mackenzie, 2007). This is usually determined by the strategies employed by the management to adopt and respond to different challenges, which are most often out of the hand of the organization (Bendre, 2020, pg32). A recent example of such a scenario is the challenge posed to businesses operating in Austria regions with bush fires. The tragic bush fires hit the nation back in 2019, and since then more than 11 million hectares have been burned, billions of animals killed and about 30 people killed in the fires. The government and well-wishers seem to have exhausted their resources in fighting the fires.
Unilever Australia is a branch of the British-Dutch Company based in Netherland, London, Rotterdam and England. The company operations in the nations have been greatly affected by the ongoing bush fires. Just like any business operating in the nation, Unilever success is determined by how it will respond to the issue. The company has recently responded to the challenge by partnering with Food bank to help those affected. The effort is informed of foods, basic items and care to the victims.
I believe this is a good response made by the company, however, the move may be seen as opportunistic by the nationals. Although the company efforts are meant to help, if they are interpreted as opportunistic, the brand of Unilever could be tainted. To avoid such a backlash, this paper recommends that in addition to partnering with other private organizations, the company should partner with the local and national authorities in Austria. This would mean that the internal managers of the organization should line their strategies with those of the authorities (Bendre , 2020, pg78).
References:
Mackenzie, M. (2007). Managing in the digital environment: Leadership in the information age: A culture of continual change. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 33(4), 10-13.
Bendre, M. R. (2020). Analysis of Interrelation Between Business and Environment. Our Heritage, 68(25), 423-431.
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