1. The Organisation in context

2. The nature of organisations
A simple way of looking at an organisation is to picture the core of the organisation as a system that transforms inputs into outputs that are provided to customers.

3. The context in which organisations work
The internal environment
The industry environment
The external environment

4. Three levels of environment
Three levels of the environment are:
Micro (internal) environment - small forces within the organisation that affect its ability to serve its customers.
Meso environment – the industry in which an organisation operates and the industry’s market(s).
Macro (external) environment - larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment.

5. Micro (internal) environment
This examines how different aspects of the internal environment affect the organisation and its ability to achieve its goals.The level involves forces that address the internal environment. Think about: vision, mission, strategy, resources, processes, products and services.
Usually this organisational analysis focuses on four areas:
Products and services
People and their skills
Finance
Resources

6. Meso environment
The transactional level consists of ‘market forces’, think about: suppliers, supply and demand, distribution, competitors and strategic alliances.

7. Macro (external) environment
The macro environment refers to all forces that are part of the larger society and affect the micro environment. It includes concepts such as natural forces and culture.
It consists of ‘global forces’, think about: economical developments, demographics, politics, technological developments and social developments.

8. How do you analyse your business environment?
The answer is to use a variety of environmental analysis tools to help you, tools such as;
The balanced scorecard
Portfolio analysis Stakeholder analysis
Market research Porters Five Force model
Ansoff’s matrix Benchmarking
Activity

9. Environmental analysis tools
Micro (internal) environment – balanced scorecard, portfolio analysis, SWOT Analysis.
Meso environment – stakeholders, market analysis, benchmarking.
Macro (external) environment – PEST/LE analysis.

10. Why analyse the organisations environment?
The general purpose of doing it is to combine the energy into one focused effort to achieve superior performance. It is usually done through the following steps of the process
In essence, it answers the following 4 questions:
Where are we?
Where are we going?
How are we getting there?
How are we doing?