Internal Environment, Power / Weakness, and Decision Models
Discussion must be in current APA format and must include a reference list. Reference sample make sure to include DOI-Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Development and validation of the active empathetic listening scale. Psychology & Marketing, 23(2), 161-180. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20105
There needs to be 2 scholarly references, 1 required from list below, and 1 biblical references from the King James bible in the paper Must use one of these in references:
1. Gamble, J., Peteraf, M., & Thompson, A. (2021), Essentials of strategic management, McGraw-Hill Course Content Delivery (7th ed.), New York, NY. ISBN: 9781260785791.
2. Keller, T. (2014), Every good endeavor: Connecting your work to God’s work, Riverhead Books, New York, NY. ISBN: 9781594632822.
3. Krogerus, M., & Tschäppeler, R. (2017), The decision book: 50 models for strategic thinking., W.W. Norton & Co. (Revised ed.), New York, NY. ISBN: 9780393652376.
4. Rumelt, R. (2011), Good strategy/bad strategy: The difference and why it matters., Crown Business, New York, NY. ISBN: 9780307886231.
Discussion Thread:
Internal Environment, Power / Weakness, and Decision Models
Evaluating the internal environment of the company is critical to the process of developing a company’s strategy. When evaluating the internal environment, it is important to understand key sources of power or weakness that exist. Decision models continue to impact strategy development and should continuously be evaluated, and others considered.
Discuss the process of evaluating the external environment.
Discuss a key source of power or weakness.
Discuss your current decision model(s) and others that are being considered.
Develop an Annotated Bibliography for the references used in your discussion.
Support all of your factual assertions with citations.
ANSWER
Internal Environment, Power/ Weakness, Decision Models
Internal and External environment are vital aspects in determining the competitiveness of an organization within the market. The internal environment entails the inner forces and conditions within the company while the external environment entails the outside factors that influence the performance, functionality and profitability of an organization (Shatilo, 2019). Understanding the internal and external environment allows an organization to analyze issues, making decisions and model effective strategic plans. The external and internal environment enable an organization to understand their strengths and weaknesses as well as explore the possible threats and opportunities in the competitive market.
The Process of Evaluating Internal Environment
The internal environment of a organization consists of the management, the resources, employees, corporate culture (Gamble, Peteraf and Thompson, 2021). A proper internal environment analysis enables the management to understand the resources available as well as the skills and competencies available and how much value they bring to the firm. Evaluating the internal environment entails the process of assessing the internal components to access the assets, resources, competencies, characteristics, competitive advantages and capabilities. Evaluating an internal environment focuses on the company’s resources, competency and competitive advantage. Ideally, the resources determine the capabilities of an organization in terms of understanding how to manage the strengths and competitive advantage (Wahl and Prause, 2013). The core competencies allow an organization to determine the products from its rivals and create value which gives a competitive advantage.
For an organization to effectively analyze its internal environment, there is need to follow an internal environment scanning process which allows examination of capabilities and resources which can facilitate competitive advantages. The internal environment scanning processes aims at finding and examining the weaknesses and strengths of a company. The steps of internal environment evaluation include gathering capabilities and resources, evaluating the internal strategic dynamics and classifying the dynamics into weaknesses and strengths.
The practice begins with an understanding of the capabilities, resources, and core competencies. The company then evaluates the portfolio and decides the internal strategic factors. The internal strategic dynamics are categorized as the internal weaknesses and strengths that will enable define the firm’s future. Ideally, internal environment evaluation shows the strengths and weaknesses of an organization through a concentration on the internal aspects that give the business certain disadvantages and advantages in attaining the target market needs.
Source of Power: Control of Strategic Resources
Strategic resources are a great source of power since they give the business an advantage. A strategic resource is a valuable, hard to imitate, rare and non-substitutable asset (D’Oria et al., 2021). Resource based theory states that companies that have their strategic resources have a substantial competitive advantage over other companies that lack strategic resources. The strategic resources are valuable thus improve the organization’s efficiency and effectiveness while neutralizing threats and opportunities of the competitors (Syuzeva, Zheltenkov, Antipina and Kuznetsova, (2021). They are also difficult to imitate and often have intellectual property such as copyrights and trademarks. They are had to imitate when other firms combine their resources to duplicate the property of the particular firm.
The basic strategic resources that can give a competitive advantage to a firm include the capital, physical, human and organizational resources. The physical resources comprise of things such as finances, equipment and plant. The human capital resources include the employee’s knowledge, skills, intelligence, and relationship. The organizational resources include the culture, structure, policies, management control systems as well as the control and coordination of the human resource systems. For instance, the organizational culture is a strategic resources since it has value in ensuring the continued success and existence of an organization. Culture includes the attitudes, behaviors and norms in the management system (Aboramadan, Albashiti, Alharazin, and Zaidoune, 2020). These parameters are used in allocating authority, power, respect and rewards within the organization.
The culture of an organization cannot be replicated thus when used effectively it can be a source of power and competitive advantage. Ideally, the roles of employees and their daily responsibilities is the starting point of culture. How things are done and by who greatly determines the organizational performance. Therefore, an organizational culture is the reason behind the actions of people.
Considerably, organizational culture as a strategic resource is valuable, rare, and inimitable thus creating a competitive advantage to the firm. Organizations with competitive, innovative and strong cultures have been able to adapt to the changes and new situations thus thriving at a constant flux in the industry. Relatively, the skills, experience and knowledge and commitment of employees within a firm and their relationships also provides competitive advantage. Therefore, the fact that the management can effectively control their strategic situations depending on the situation and strategy, they can have a great sources of power.
Decision Models
Decision making models are a structured approach for organization to make decisions. The decision models are frameworks that identity the benefits and limitations of various approaches to help the management determine the most suitable choice (Garcia-Perez, Gheriss and Bedford, 2019). There are a number of decision models that organizations consider. Picking a decision making model depends on the situation thus helping make well-rounded decision. My current decision models are rational and incremental decision making model. These models relies on a series of steps that are used in making decision. They are effective if the situation or problem is well defined or has quantifiable options.
Rational decision making is not define by the adherence to the process but also by the data and logical data that follows the steps of the process. The rational decision making focuses on the objective data, analysis and logic rather than intuition and subjectivity to help solve an issue and accomplish a specific help. The steps include identifying the problem, researching the possible solutions, setting standards of the potential failure or success of the alternatives, choosing the best solution and testing, tracking and analyzing the outcomes of the solution. Rational decision making is significant since it brings a reasonable and thought structured process to the decision making process. The rational model can also help ensure consistency and discipline while making decision due to the logical order in making a decision.
Additionally, the step by step approach enables problem identification, selection of a solution from a number of alternatives and finding the most suitable answer to the issue. Relatively, the incremental model divides the decision making process into three steps which entail identification, development and selection. In this case, the decision is not fully rational but there is a tendency of considering a certain alternatives. Incremental model is very cost effective and flexible in choosing the alternative. It’s possible to map the effects and choose the most suitable alternative thus lowering the cost of deciding. 2nd John 1:8 says that “watch yourselves that you do not lose all that you have accomplished but that you may be rewarded. Employees and the management should focus on strategic approaches and right decisions to ensure that they may gain competitive advantage and achieve success.
References
Aboramadan, M., Albashiti, B., Alharazin, H. and Zaidoune, S. (2020), “Organizational culture, innovation and performance: a study from a non-western context”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 39 No. 4, pp. 437-451. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-06-2019-0253
D’Oria, L., Crook, T. R., Ketchen Jr, D. J., Sirmon, D. G., & Wright, M. (2021). The evolution of resource-based inquiry: A review and meta-analytic integration of the strategic resources–actions–performance pathway. Journal of Management, 47(6), 1383-1429. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0149206321994182
Gamble, J., Peteraf, M., & Thompson, A. (2021), Essentials of strategic management, McGraw-Hill Course Content Delivery (7th ed.), New York, NY. ISBN: 9781260785791.
Garcia-Perez, A., Gheriss, F. and Bedford, D. (2019), “Decision-Making Models and Factors”, Designing and Tracking Knowledge Management Metrics (Working Methods for Knowledge Management), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 21-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-723-320191004
Shatilo, O. (2019). The impact of external and internal factors on strategic management of innovation processes at company level. Ekonomika, 98(2), 85-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.15388/Ekon.2019.2.6
Syuzeva, O., Zheltenkov, A., Antipina, N., & Kuznetsova, I. (2021). Problems of managing strategic resources of companies in the conditions of the ecological requirements toughening. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 937, Issue 2, p. 022088). IOP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/937/2/022088
Uzonwanne, F. C. (2016). Rational model of decision making. Global encyclopedia of public administration, public policy, and governance. Springer International. https:/doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2474-1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2474-1
Wahl, M. F., & Prause, G. (2013). Toward understanding resources, competencies, and capabilities: business model generation approach. In M. Tvaronavičienė (Ed.), Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues (Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 67–80). Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center. https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2013.1.2(1)
