Title: Week 3
Course: Principles of Management

The environment of organizations and managers

Aim of the topic: To introduce you to the environment in which organizations and managers operate. Environment is basically the surrounding conditions that affect organization's operations.

Intended learning outcomes: At the end of this topic, you will be able to;

1. Describe internal environmental factors influence on organizational decision making.
2. Explain the effect of external environment on organization operations.
3. Describe the ideal business environment for quality production in organizations.

Over to you: Before you come to class this week there are some fundamental concepts that you will explore in the pre-topic activity i.e. Resource 3.  In class, we are going to ensure that you have a clear grasp of the concepts before you start to derive your own definitions of these ideas.  There will also be some reading for you to do. You will read the article on; ‘The organization's internal environment and its importance in the organization's development’ available at:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318732316_ . Read the article on The organization’s external environment available at  https://opentextbc.ca/organizationalbehavioropenstax/chapter/the-organizations-external-environment/. To further help consolidate your understanding of key concepts  watch a video clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFdso_AV5PQ. This will introduce you to the external forces that influence organizational activities. These activities will help you complete E-tivities 3.1 and 3.2.

E-tivities: The following e-tivities are meant to help achieve the topic's intended learning outcomes.

E-tivity 3.1: The purpose of this e-tivity is to help you comprehend the organization internal environment influence on organization operations.

Tasks:

- Read the pre-topic activity i.e Resource 3.
- Read the journal on; Organization's internal environment and its importance in the organization's development available at;https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318732316.
- After reading the two items, discuss in your Groups, how the major internal environmental forces affect organization operations.
- Then describe key internal environmental factors that can influence organizational decision making.
- Submit individually as Assignment 1 week 3.

E-tivity 3.2: The purpose of this e-tivity is to help you understand how external environmental forces influence organizational activities.

Tasks:

- Read the webpage on the organization's external environment at; https://opentextbc.ca/organizationalbehavioropenstax/chapter/the-organizations-external-environment/
- Watch the video at; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFdso_AV5PQ to complement the reading.
- Outline the key elements of the external environment and explain how they affect organization's operations then submit as Assignment 2 week 3.
- Describe the ideal business environment for quality production then post in the Discussion Forum 1 week 3.

Anticipated time requirement for E-tivities: 5 hrs