Running head: THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT Research Question: In a global environment how important is it to understand the external environment to promote quality management and a thriving organization? Research Topic: The External Environment and Quality Management Tv Management 610-Organizational Theory (Section 9045) October 23 2015 Turnitin Score: 17% Similarity 1 THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT 2 The key to quality management and a thriving organization is to understand the interplay between the internal and external environments. On its part, the external environment is more diverse and complex due to the many components that it has. For a business to be fully competitive on the global scale, it must derive a set of strategic principles to aid in the leveraging of the opportunities and advantages that come with the competition. The following is a look at the most important components of the external environment and how they can be demystified to enable the organization utilizes its resources and strengths to the maximum (Moss, McGrath, Tonge and Harris, 2012). The environment in which current organizations operate is very dynamic. The only way they can adapt to it is through the management's diversification of their strategic orientations. The probability of a firm surviving in a highly competitive and thriving market depends on the suitability of its strategies. An organization that is able to match its situation to its immediate environment has high chances of thriving. Two dimensions guide the relationship between an organization and its environment in the context of strategy-making. The first is found in the scope or the mission, which must be in agreement with the needs of the environment. Second and most importantly, the organization must thrive in order to attain a competitive edge with other similar organizations that are competing in the same match. The global market is comprised of influential variables that are complex, interrelated and interconnected, which make it imperative for segmenting to be done so as to be fully up to the task. Scholarly findings by Pagell, Krumwiede and Sheu, (2007) suggest that macro- THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT 3 environmental uncertainty pertains to factors like statutory, political, economic and regulatory conditions. In general, the government plays a central role in this type of risk. A firm that wishes to thrive must have the capacity to identify and explore the government policies and practices. This will help it to deal with the set of problems, including some internal issues, thus helping the management to remain in control of the activities of the organization. According to Filatotchev and Najikama (2010) a firm that conveys a harmonized view of the two different streams finds it easy to advance with a more global outlook for productivity and success. What's more, such a firm is likely to benefit from many future explorations presented by its strength in uniting the two types of environments. However, if not handled carefully, uncertainty can drastically reduce the capacity of an organization to map out and pursue its strategic choices. The general effect of this is that it hampers the functionality of the management, and consequently, the growth and expansion of the organization becomes limited. The global business environment also demands that an organization handles its public affairs in a manner that portrays the managerial capabilities of the firm. The main argument behind this is that competitors are likely to take advantage of the leakages in the public affairs of another company. Technological advancement is yet another aspect that must be factored in when valuing the capacity of a firm to thrive in a highly competitive global market. The author Su-Hyun agrees that the macro-environment and technology are somehow intertwined, and it calls for collaborative efforts by the management to link the success of one to the other. For instance, Su-Hyun, and Im-Yeong, (2015) demonstrates the use of cloud computing environments in scenarios where there is an encoding of the consumer figures. In such a case, there is abundant consumption of the dispersed servers that were formerly applied to THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT the loading of such records. The authors suggest that this information can be encrypted to prevent it from reaching unauthorized hands. A major issue in the current global business perspective is the emergence of high capacity distributed management. This issue is primarily prominent in the area of diverse data services where the privacy and security vulnerability are at risk of invasion by malicious hackers and some internal users. Ones the information leaks out to the wrong hands, efforts to restore the organization to its initial path become futile. The only approach out of this is to have a total overhaul of the firm's strategies. This, however, is still undesirable as it leads to loss of precious time that could have otherwise been utilized in increasing the company's competitiveness. The best way to address this issue is to \"to play it safe\" by sealing all the existing and potential loopholes that could aggravate the conditions (Pheysey, 1977). In conclusion, the external environment constitutes the biggest percentage of the business. Therefore, a safe and conducive environment on a global scale means good tidings for the organization. Management plays a tacit role play in all this by ensuring that the quality approaches taken by the firm will eventually lead to consistent quality assurance in the products and services of the company. There must be systematic testing and control so that it is easy to detect in the first instance when there is a variation. The cause of this change has to be established and then addressed using appropriate mechanism. 4 THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT References Filatotchev, I., & Nakajima, C. (2010). Internal and external corporate governance: An interface between an organization and its environment. British Journal of Management, 21(3), 591-606. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00712.x Moss, D., McGrath, C., Tonge, J., & Harris, P. (2012). Exploring the management of the corporate public affairs function in a dynamic global environment. Journal of Public Affairs Pagell, M., Krumwiede, D. W., & Sheu, C. (2007). Efficacy of environmental and supplier relationship investments - moderating effects of external environment. International Journal of Production Research, 45(9), 2005-2028. doi:10.1080/00207540600634931 Pheysey, D. C. (1977). Managers' occupational histories, organizational environments, and climates for management development. Journal of Management Studies, 14(1), 58-79. doi/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1977.tb00617.x/abstract Su-Hyun, K., & Im-Yeong, L. (2015). Study on user authority management for safe data protection in cloud computing environments. Symmetry (20738994), 7(1), 269-283. doi:10.3390/sym7010269 5