This weeks lesson concerns the elements involved in doing an external analysis of an enterprise. A host of external factors influence a firms choice of direction and action, ultimately its organizational structure and internal factors. These factors, which constitute the external environment, can be divided into three interrelated subcategories: factors in the remote environment, factors in the industry environment, and factors in the operating environment. Michael Porter has a model about the competitive

a. What is external analysis and what does it show managers? b. How does the concept of an organization as an open system relate to external analysis? c. What does each of the perspectives on organizational environments say? d. What role does environmental uncertainty play in external analysis? e. Why do managers need to do more than just scan the environment?