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General and Task Environment

Decent Essays

MGC1020 Assignment #1

Which is more difficult to gauge accurately: the general environment or the task environment? Why is it important for a manager to make a clear assessment of these environments?

The general environment and task environment are the two components that make up an organisations external environment. The external environment of an organisation includes influential elements that both directly and indirectly shape and impact its future, and as of late, has developed into an area of increasing importance to managers worldwide. However, how do managers accurately assess these environments? More importantly, why is the assessment of an organisations external environment so crucial? It is through research and …show more content…

Aldrich, 1979; Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967; Rumelt, 1974, as cited in Hurtado & Mukherji (2001) are in agreement, acknowledging that 'there is indeed a close relationship between strategic and organisational choices made...and the characteristics of an organisation's environment'. One way in which the general and task environments can be assessed is to 'consider the objective environment and to consider that it exists in an absolute form' (Porter, 1985 as cited in Hurtado & Mukherji, 2001). This means that managers generally assess the external environment under the assumption that anything and everything is likely to occur. However, it should be noted that this would obviously require large amounts of time and resources, and as argued by Aharoni, Maimon & Segev (1978), 'a full and permanent search...of all environmental forces is both too costly and intractable in terms of management time' (p.949). Another way in which an assessment of the external environment can be made is through the identification of dominant components of the environment, as discussed in Aharoni, Maimon & Segev (1978). Aharoni, Maimon & Segev (1978) also argue that by focussing on dominant environmental components, not only would it be a more effective and efficient strategy, but it would also be beneficial for a manager to increase autonomy within the organisation. Hurtado & Mukherji, (2001) also highlight the importance of a manager's assessment of the external environment when

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