|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
INTRODUCTION
According to a study of high-tech firms, Richard (2004, pg145) pointed out that 97 percent of competitive failures resulted from lack of attention to market changes or the failure to act on vital information. It indicates that an organization canˇ¦t survive if it ignore the change in environment or respond appropriately. However, for most of the organizations, the problem is not due to low motivations but the ways to do it. It is because they are facing different kinds of environment as well as different degree of uncertainty. This essay will try to discuss the ways how organizations manage the environment and argue their effectiveness with evidence.
DEFINITION OF ENVIRONMENT AND ENVIRONMENT UNCERTAINTY
In a board sense the environment is defined as ˇ§infiniteˇ¨ and ˇ§everything outside the organizationˇ¨ (Daft, 2004, pg 136). ... Besides, Daft further divided an organizationˇ¦s environment into task environment and general environment according to the interaction between environment and the organization is direct or not. Fives sectors included industry, raw material, market, human resources and international often have direct impact on the organization are classified into task environment and other five sectors included the government, sociocultural, economic conditions, technology and financial resources often with indirect influence are classified into general environment. Following is a diagram to show an organizationˇ¦s
environment. ...
Environmental uncertainty is defined as "the degree to which future states of the world cannot be anticipated and accurately predicted. ... Duncan (1972) proposed a two dimensional model of uncertainty in which he identified environmental changeability and environmental complexity as the determinants of uncertainty. In summary, organizational uncertainty exists because organizations are lacking in information and resources for anticipating and it increases or decreases with the environmental changeability and environmental complexity vary. We will discuss more about the relation between organization and uncertainty with the help of diagram in the following section. ...
LEVELS OF ENVIRONMENTAL UNCERTAINTY
Following diagram summarizes organizational responses to uncertainty discussed in last section. From the diagram we can see four level of environment exists. ...
The combination of a stable environment and low complexity leads to low uncertainty for organization. ... Therefore, the environment they face permits them to manage their organization in mechanistic structure, with operation and production process in ways of centralization and high levels of formalization. ...
A stable environment combined with a high level of complexity leads to low to moderate uncertainty. Example is some non-profit social services organizations in Hong Kong like Richmond Fellowship of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Caritas etc. In this environment, there are many different elements like government policy, increasing demand, unstable funding and competitive but steady change that lead to mechanistic structure, with centralization and high formalization.
Approximate Word count = 2160
Approximate Pages = 8.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|