The management process in an organization can be described as the application of certain principles and techniques to achieve organizational objectives. The task of management can therefore be conceptualised as the achievement of specified objectives by utilising the three basic resources of money, capital and people. While these resources are to an extent interdependent, it is people that are the prime concern of the personnel management function. Personnel management is therefore that part of general management which focuses on the management of people, and involves the recruitment, selection, maintenance, development, utilization of, and accommodation to human resources by the organization (French, 1987). this essay will provide a discussions on how the external organization environment can affect the New Zealand businesses, an explanation about organizational climate. as well as, an explanation about the external organizational environment, the 5 factors of the general environment. And an explanation about the 4 components of the task environment.
The Businesses in new Zealand is affected by many external factors. Some of these factors are still developing such as, transportation, steam ships, the railways and now aircraft, have all contributed to the development of trade in New Zealand. Aircraft also move people around quickly, so the sense of the size and distances of the world 'shrinks' making us feel that far-away places are no longer so strange. The internet now allows international communication in a way that was not possible before; your favourite site could just as easily be in New Zealand as in London
In every work there are dozens of organizing forces operating simultaneously on the behavior of employees (Landy,1989). While industrial/organizational psychology is concerned specifically with the behavior of individuals in their jobs, the understanding, prediction, and control of occupational behavior can only be achieved through the context of the organization. It follows that any research about personnel management practice must be considered in the context of the organization and the effect it has on those working in that organization. One of the better known ways of studying enterprises has been to measure organizational climate.
Organizational climate is a concept that enables the industrial/organizational psychologist to identify how the organization is a psychologically meaningful environment for individual organization members (Payne and Pugh, 1976). Descriptively, it represents the individual member's perceptions of the conditions, factors, and events that occur in the organization (Ekvall,1987). The concept is useful in attempting to diagnose problems in organizational settings. Just as the perceptions of the individual are at the centre of any clinical intervention in clinical psychology, so are the perceptions of the characteristics of the organization, by the members of the organization, contra to the diagnosis of organization's problems and dysfunctions. The external environment is "Those factors and forces outside the organisation that affect the organisation's performance" (Samson & Daft, 2005).there are two components of the external environment, 1- the specific environment,2- the general environment. specific environment is "Those external forces that have a direct impact on the managers' decisions and actions and are directly relevant to the achievement of the orgnisation's goals" (Samson & Daft, 2005).the general environment is "the layer of the external environment that affects the organization in directly (Samson & Daft, 2005).it has four dimension which are international "the portion of the external environment that represent events originating in foreign countries ,as well as opportunities for local organization in other countries (Samson & Daft, 2005).Technological "the dimensions of the general environment that include scientific and technological advancements in the industry and society at large" (Samson & Daft, 2005).
Socialcultural "the dimension of the general environment representing the demographic characteristics ,norms, customer and values of the population within which the organization " (Samson & Daft, 2005). Economic "the dimension of the general environment representing the overall economic health of the country or region in which the organization function (Samson & Daft, 2005). Legal-political " the dimension of the general environment that includes federal ,state and local government regulation ,and political activities designed to control organization behavior (Samson & Daft, 2005). The task environment is "the layer of the external environment that directly influences the organization's operations and performance" (Samson & Daft, 2005). Also the four components of the task are customers "people and organisation in the environment who acquire goods or services from the organisation" (Samson & Daft, 2005). Competitors "other organisation in the same industry or type of business that provide goods or services to the same set of customer (Samson & Daft, 2005). Suppliers "provide the raw materials the organisation used to produce its output" (Samson & Daft, 2005). Labor market "the people available for hire by the organisation" (Samson & Daft, 2005).
Dimensions such as structure, standards and reward policies can be conceived as being made up of attribute sets that may be generated from the way organization deal with their members and environments (Hellriegal and Slocum, 1974), and are identified through the responses of employees to questionnaires (Litwin and Stringer, 1968). There is nothing inherently good or bad about an organization' climate, rather it assumes value only when it is related to certain outcomes (Muchinsky, 1987). This is similar to when a wet day is "bad" for a day at the beach, but "good" for the growing of crops.
There is evidence to suggest that organizational climate can influence both job performance and employee satisfaction (Lawler, Hall, and Oldham, 1974). Unlike the weather, which is unable to be controlled, some organizational climates can be promoted to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals (Muchinsky, 1987). This makes organizational climate a worthwhile concept to study in industrial and organizational psychology, despite difficulties with its definition.
Because climate is best described as employee perceptions of the organization, it follows that the measurement of climate will be a function of employee attitudes and values. If the measurement of climate is considered to be a barometer, then the measures that the "barometer" yields will depend on the type of barometer used. So far as weather is concerned, barometers can give a reasonably valid measure of the climate by measuring atmospheric pressure. However atmospheric pressure is only one measure of climate. Unfortunately organizational climate measures do not have this high degree of validity.
An early definition of organizational climate is Forehand and Gilmer's (1964) suggestion that organizational climate is a set of descriptive characteristics of an organization that are relatively enduring over a period of time. These characteristics distinguish one organization from other organizations and influence the behavior of people that belong to it. This definition represents the multiple measurement-organizational approach to measurement, which is one o three approaches identified in a review of climate theory by (James and Jones 1974). The other two are the perceptual-organizational attribute, and the perceptual measurement-individual attribute approaches. According to James and Jones, the descriptive characteristics arising from definitions such as Forehan and Gilmer's are measured by a variety of methods, and the attributes or main effects will include such variables as size, structure, systems complexity, leadership style, and goal direction.
The perceptual-organizational attribute approach to measurement views climate a an organizational attribute, but, unlike the first approach, is measured purely by perceptual rather than by objective measures such as the size and structure of the organization. For instance (Tagiuri and Litwin 1968) agree with Forehand and Gilmer's definition, except that the descriptive characteristics are measured by the experiences of its members.
In those circumstances the perceptions by the organization members of the set of descriptive characteristics, rather than the objective structural realities, constitute climate. For instance if size is taken as a descriptive characteristic, the first approach would simply measure it in terms of the specified dimensions, while the second approach would measure it in terms of the employees' perceptions of these dimensions. Campbell, Dunnette, Lawler, and Weick suggest that definitions of this sort view climate as a situational or organizational main effect.
The culture of an organization can be defined as the emergent pattern of beliefs, behaviors', and interactions that uniquely characterize the organization as it operates within an industrial and a societal context (Fombrun,1984). It is therefore the set of important beliefs, values, and understandings that all members of the organization share in common (Kast and Rosenzweig,1985). Since culture defines the way the organization conducts business, it strongly affects management practice. In fact organizations with strong cultures go to great lengths to socialize new members into the prevailing beliefs and values that determine the way things are done in the organization, and this may be the major feature in employee orientation and induction practices in such organizations. Highly successful organizations tend to have strong cultures (Peters and Waterman,1982).
In conclusion, the external environment is affecting the businesses in New Zealand. Organizational climate is a concept that enables the industrial/organizational psychologist to identify how the organization is a psychologically meaningful environment for individual organization members (Payne and Pugh, 1976). The external environment are factors affecting the business performance. there are two components of external environment. 1- the specific environment, 2- the general environment. The general environment has four dimensions. while the Task environment has 5 components.
