COM4807 Assignment 1 Interactive Communication Technologies and the Organisational Environment 2023

COM4807 Assignment 1 Interactive Communication Technologies and the Organisational Environment 2023

1. INTRODUCTION Web 2.0 technologies have brought about changes to the organisational landscape along with political, socio-economic, and environmental factors. These technologies provide interactivity, flexibility and are not affected by location or time. Web 2.0 technologies are indicative of the time in which we live, and organisations are starting to realise that for effective workplace communication, effectiveness and performance, these technologies need to be implemented. Users of these have now found a communication means that does not need them to be physically interacting with someone in the organisation but at the press of a button are able to start a dialogue with the respective individuals they need. The technologies have facilitated that dialogue to take place and where the organisations is hearing the voices of many instead of just the one. They have also allowed the organisation to look and interact with stakeholders and be permeable to its surroundings. The organisation no longer operates in its on environment but needs to open to allow changes to happen and needs to also be able to adapt to these changes. Paradigmatic shifts have also taken place and stakeholders are finding that the operations of the organisation are littered with diversity, complexity, instability, and ambiguity. Resources and strategies needs to be implemented to work with and around these factors. 2. THE ORGANISATIONAL ENVIRONMENT The organisational environment is defined as “a set of characteristics that describe the organisation and distinguish from other organisations within a given period affecting behaviour of personnel therein” (Almanae,2007:10). The organisational environment comprises of the informal and external factors (characteristics ) that influence organisational activities and its decision making, as the business environment of the organisation is dynamic and frequency changing, organisations need to put into place strategies and tools to assist with challenges, disruptions and opportunities that may arise. Managers and leaders need to be vigilant to the environmental changes and be ready to counter and act on what changes in and around their organisation, whilst maintain their success and existence in the business environment. The organisational environment can be divided into external and internal environment. The external environment. “The external environment comprises of those relevant 5 physical and social factors outside the boundaries of the organisation that are to be taken directly into consideration” (Duncan, 1972:314). These are elements the organisation has no control over such as competition, political issues, economic trends (interest rates hires, industry growth or decline) as well as legal policies and regulations. Although managers and leaders cannot directly change these elements, they can work on strategies to help the organisation mitigate the turbulent times and take advantage of when things do seem favourable. A STEEP (Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Environmental(ecological), and Political) analysis can be used in such as it is a tool to map the external factors that impact an organisation” (Cuofano, 2013). The external environment of an organisation consists of those factors within the organisation and are able to be controlled. Elements such as organisational objectives, human resources, the image, financial resources, organisational culture ,management and the organisational structure. A SWOT analysis can be used to identify all those areas that need to be prioritised in dealing with the organisation internal and external environment, it gives the organisation a situation analysis of its position within and external to its operating space. In exploring the sphere of internal and external environments of an organisation “a distinction can also be made on three levels, macro, meso and micro” (Van Rijn, 2021). 2.1 Macro organisational environment (contextual level) The macro organisational environment are all the variables that are beyond the control of the organisation but need analysis to realign the corporate and marketing strategies to shift the business environment” (Sammut-Bonnici, 2015). This contextual level in the organisations environment is external and has the social, technological, economically, environmental, and political developments. These are issues the organisation needs to recognise and be reactive to after they have identified, analysed and a strategy created to counter them, frequent tracking of steep developments form part of the macro environment. 2.2 Meso organisational environment (Transactional level) This level of organisation consists of “suppliers, supply and demand ,distribution, competitors and strategic alliances” (Van Rijn,2021). The meso environment is made 6 up of all those stakeholders who are dependent on the organisations product and services and whom the organisations need for their operations, functions, services profits, and successes. This level or aspect of the organisations environment is where threats and prospects are found.