Environmental Scan
Internal environment
The organizational setup of the firm is that of a rapidly developing business that is spreading out into new areas, especially in technology and financial solutions. Some of the elements that have characterized my present level of success in the firm include the manner in which skills and abilities are being matched with requisite roles that as employees, we have been assigned to perform. As such, there are a number of favorable elements within the organization’s structure that serve to foster personal growth and the level of performance or output. Some of these include the nature of organization structure and opportunities for progression and training. Some of these aspects are what has been utilized greatly in career progression and development of leadership skills. (Nixon, 2010) Among the elements of strength within the organization include its level of performance and the manner in which it aligns its objectives to the needs of its employees.
The firm is designed in such a manner that the lower cadre employees have an opportunity for growth and participation in the process of exercising decision making, team work and leadership among other performance elements within the firm. Additionally, there are training opportunities that allow us employees to exercise growth in their skills and academic prowess. Further, the organizational design is such that there is a flat structure that allows for lateral flow of information, communication and decision making. Ultimately, the prospects of growth within the organization also serve as the greatest instigator of strength and preference for growth. Growth will bring with it additional roles and responsibilities that would be a clear progression platform for employment and development in terms of career, skills and leadership roles. (Nixon, 2010) Other players include the ownership of the firm and its exposure to elements of competition.
External environment
These are elements that are not directly under the influence of the mechanisms put in place by the firm or affected by the course of activities and structure of the organization. In an environmental scan, analysis of the external factors involves looking at the political, economic, social-cultural, technological, legal and environmental aspects that affect the course of business and operations within the firm. The process of environmental scanning is crucial in formulation and alignment of strategy as would affect the welfare of employees and their prospects within the firm. The business would be affected and as such needs to consider the political environment in the course of their strategy formulation. From risk, instability and the effect of government policies, these are factors that will affect the course of business tremendously. (Armstrong, 2012) For instance, nationalization may result in takeover of a firm by the government or a change in labor laws may result change of trends and costs on the organization’s workforce. Political effects would also affect taxation and related policies, regulations on trade and the level of unemployment as would affect the employees within the firm.
Economic factors of interest in this case include the purchasing power of the consumer as influenced by money variables, development and an influence of the exchange rate on the value of money. Some of the effects on purchasing power would result from interest rates, recession and resultant inflation levels. Further, socio-cultural aspects pertain the demographic and population aspects that affect the business in terms of the composition of the workforce and its consumer segment. Further, an organization and its values are based on these social elements that include language, values and beliefs, education levels and lifestyle. Technological aspects have greatly affected the mode of business operation by provision of new opportunities for transaction and exchange, communication and the use of the web for business. Legal factors bring into view regulation aspects that have been put in place to ensure that business operations are carried out in a fair manner. (Costa, 1995) Ultimately, environmental factors lie in the measures put in place to ensure pollution and effluent release by the firm is limited. Image and compliance issues would be affected by the same.
The manner in which forecasting is done on these specific areas determines the future prospects of the firm and the course that it would take in operation within the business environment. As such, formulation of long term objectives and day to day operation and conduction of business would be dependent on the manner in which the firm carries out its scan and forecast on the same. To this regard thus, short term ad long term goals are projected and skewed in line with the expected changes in the various elements within the external environment. (Armstrong, 2012) Ultimately, these various elements and the manner in which they prevail will serve to affect the achievement of these set out short term and long term goals.
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References
Armstrong, G. (2012). Principles of Marketing. N.S.W: Pearson Australia.
Costa, J. (1995). “An Empirically- based Review of the Concept of Environment Scanning”. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Nixon, J. (2010). “Exploring SWOT analysis – where are we now? A review of academic research from the last decade”. Journal of Strategy and Management.
