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Task Environment - Definition, Factors & Example

What is task environment.

Task Environment of an organization is the environment which directly affects the organization from attaining business goals. In brief, Task Environment is the set of conditions originating from suppliers, distributors, customers, stock markets and competitors which directly affects the organization from achieving its goals. 

Suppliers, distributors, customers, competitors all form part of the entire ecosystem in which an organization operates. Every business needs the other business to make sure that the best product is created for the customer meeting the needs and also earns profit. These interdependent conditions form the task environment.

Task Environment Factors

Task environment helps in identifying the environmental factors responsible for the success of the company or a product.

Factors with Examples for Task Environment

Competitors generally look for higher margins and for this they provide unique features to its products, thus try to create differentiation.

Example : Adidas, Nike, Puma all shoe manufacturers produce shoes catering for different segments in different styles and charge premium accordingly.

Organizations also compete for customers as well as for wholesalers, retailers etc. Customers decide the fate of any company and hence companies try their level best to lure them.

Example : Customers might start looking for some other alternative due to shift in consumer behavior like moving from conventional vehicles to electric vehicles. The shift might have been caused by the competitors.

Suppliers have high bargaining power if the raw materials being supplied are rare or if there are less number of suppliers in the market. So it’s important to hold on the suppliers and maintain good relationship with them. Acting intelligently, companies often maintain more number of suppliers to reduce risk of deserting by anyone.

Example : Kriti Nutrients Ltd. in India is supplier of lecithin to Nestle (for baby foods)

Distributors

Distributors who become intermediary between retailers and wholesalers or between manufacturer and wholesaler play a vital role in a task environment.

Example : In case of CPG products, distributors are the most important players in terms of increasing reach of a product across markets, customers and channels.

Hence, this concludes the definition of Task Environment along with its overview.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team . It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

Browse the definition and meaning of more similar terms. The Management Dictionary covers over 1800 business concepts from 5 categories.

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Internal and External Environment Factors of Organizational Environment

Organizational environment denotes internal and external environmental factors influencing organizational activities and decision-making.

Let’s Learn About The Environment Factors of Organizational Environment

What is organizational environment.

Every organization, whether business or non-business, has its environment. The organizational environment is always dynamic and ever-changing.

Changes today are so frequent, and every change brings so many challenges that managers and leaders of the organization need to be vigilant about environmental changes. The environment of an organization consists of its surroundings – anything that affects its operations favorably or unfavorably.

Environment embraces such abstract things as an organization’s image and such remote visible issues as the country’s economic conditions and political situations .

The environmental forces, abstract and visible, need careful analysis. The systematic and adequate analysis produces the information necessary for deciding what strategy to pursue.

Managers cannot make appropriate and sound strategies simply based on their guesses and instincts. They must use relevant information that directly flows from their organization’s environment analysis.

Internal and External Environment Factors that Influences Organizational Decision Making

By the word “environment,” we understand the surroundings or conditions in which a particular activity is carried on.

And we know that an organization is a social entity that has a hierarchical structure where all necessary items are put together. They act within it to reach the collective goal.

Organizations or, more specifically, business organizations and their activities are always being affected by the environment. In an organization, the management body’s actions are influenced by the environment.

Types of Organizational Environment

Types Of Organizational Environment

Organizations have an external and internal environment;

  • Internal environment / Micro environment.
  • General environment.
  • Industry environment.

An organization’s operations are affected by both types of environments.

Therefore, managers need to make an in-depth analysis of the elements of the environment so that they can develop an understanding of the internal and external situations of the organization.

Based on their understanding, they will be better able to establish the required objectives for their organization and formulate appropriate strategies to achieve those objectives.

In this post, we will look at the elements of the organization’s environment.

Internal Environment of Organization

Forces, conditions, or surroundings within the organization’s boundary are elements of the organization’s internal environment.

The internal environment generally consists of elements within or inside the organization, such as physical resources, financial resources, human resources , information resources, technological resources, the organization’s goodwill, corporate culture, and the like.

The internal environment includes everything within the boundaries of the organization.

Some of these are tangible, such as the physical facilities, the plant capacity technology, proprietary technology, or know-how; some are intangible, such as information processing and communication capabilities, reward and task structure, performance expectations, power structure management capability , and dynamics of the organization’s culture.

Based on those resources, the organization can create and deliver value to the customer. This value is fundamental to defining the organization’s purpose and the premise on which it seeks to be profitable.

Are we adding value through research and development or customer service, or by prompt delivery, or by cutting any intermediary which reduces the customers’ costs?

Organizations build capabilities over a long time. They consistently invest in some areas so that they can build strong competitive businesses based on the uniqueness they have created.

The manager’s response to the external environment would depend upon the availability and the configuration of resource deployment within the organization.

The deployment of resources is a key managerial responsibility.

Top management is vested with the responsibility of allocating resources between the ongoing operations/activities and future operations of strategic nature. That is they might yield returns in some future time that require resources now to be nurtured and have some associated risks.

The top management has to balance the conflicting demands of both, as resources are always finite.

For example, General Electric is an aggressive innovator and marketer who has been ruthless in its approach to changing proactively as well as reactively to sustain its competitive positions in the respective industries.

This implies that over the years, General Electric has invested in developing those capabilities, systems, and processes that enable it to respond.

The internal environment consists mainly of the organization’s owners, the board of directors, employees, and culture .

6 elements of the internal environment are;

Owners and Shareholders

Owners are people who invest in the company and have property rights and claims on the organization. Owners can be individuals or groups of persons who started the company; or bought a share of the company in the share market.

They have the right to change the company’s policy at any time.

Owners of an organization may be an individual in the case of a sole proprietorship business , partners in a partnership firm, shareholders or stockholders in a limited company, or members in a cooperative society. In public enterprises, the government of the country is the owner.

Whoever the owners are, they are an integral part of the organization’s internal environment. Owners play an important role in influencing the affairs of the business. This is the reason why managers should take more care of the owners of their organizations .

Board of Directors

The board of directors is the company’s governing body elected by stockholders. They oversee a firm’s top managers, such as the general manager.

Employees or the workforce, are the most important element of an organization’s internal environment, which performs the administration tasks. Individual employees and also the labor unions they join are important parts of the internal environment.

If managed properly they can positively change the organization’s policy. But ill-management of the workforce could lead to a catastrophic situation for the company.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is the collective behavior of members of an organization and the values , visions, beliefs, and habits that they attach to their actions.

An organization’s culture plays a major role in shaping its success because culture is an important determinant of how well the organization will perform.

As the foundation of the organization’s internal environment, it plays a major role in shaping managerial behavior .

An organization’s culture is viewed as the foundation of its internal environment. Organizational culture (or corporate culture) significantly influences employee behavior.

Culture is important to every employee, including managers who work in the organization.

A strong culture helps a firm achieve its goals better than a firm having a weak culture . Culture in an organization develops and ‘blossoms’ over many years, starting from the practices of the founder(s).

Since culture is an important internal environmental concern for an organization, managers need to understand its influence on organizational activities.

Resources of the Organization

An organization s resources can be discussed under five broad heads: physical resources, human resources, financial resources, informational resources, and technological resources.

Physical resources include land and buildings, warehouses, and all kinds of materials, equipment, and machinery. Examples are office buildings, computers, furniture, fans, and air conditioners.

Human resources include all employees of the organization from the top level to the lowest level of the organization . Examples are teachers in a university, marketing executives in a manufacturing company, and manual workers in a factory.

Financial resources include capital used for financing the organization’s operations, including working capital .

Examples are investments by owners, profits, reserve funds, and revenues received out of a sale. Informational resources encompass ‘usable data needed to make effective decisions.

Examples are sales forecasts , supplier price lists, market-related data, employee profiles, and production reports.

Organization’s image/goodwill

The reputation of an organization is a very valuable intangible asset. High reputation or goodwill develops a favorable image of the organization in the minds of the public (so to say, in the minds of the customers).

‘No- reputation’ cannot create any positive image. A negative image destroys the organization’s efforts to attract customers in a competitive world.

The internal environment of an organization consists of the conditions and forces that exist within the organization.

Internal environment {sometimes called micro-environment) portrays an organization’s ‘in-house’ situations.

An organization has full control over these situations. Unlike the external environment, firms can directly control the internal environment .

The internal environment includes various internal factors of the organization, such as resources, owners/shareholders, a board of directors, employees and trade unions, goodwill, and corporate culture. These factors are detailed out below.

External Environment of Organization – Factors Outside of the Organization’s Scope

Factors outside or organization are the elements of the external environment. The organization has no control over how the external environment elements will shape up.

The external environment embraces all general environmental factors and an organization’s specific industry-related factors. The general environmental factors include those that are common in nature and affect all organizations.

Because of their general nature, an individual organization alone may not be able to substantially control its influence on its business operations.

Managers have to continuously read signals from the external environment to spot emerging opportunities and threats. The external environment presents opportunities for growth leadership and market dominance and poses the threat of obsolescence for products, technology, and markets.

While one section of an organization faces opportunities, another faces threats from a similar environment, perhaps because of differentiation in their respective resources, capabilities, and entrenched positions within the industry .

For example, the burgeoning mobile telephone market in India provides enormous opportunities for different types of organizations, from handset manufacturers, content developers, application developers, and mobile signal tower manufacturers to service providers.

At the same time, it poses a threat to the fixed-line telephone business, which has long been the monopoly of public sector enterprises.

The increasing demand for telecommunication services in India post-deregulation was an enormous opportunity for early entrants to enter the telecom services business and compete for revenue with state-owned organizations.

At the same time, the growing demand for mobile services led to an expansion of industrial capacity, price wars, lowering of call tariffs, acquisitions, and declining industry profits.

India has one of the lowest call rates in the world. As the industry matured and consolidation took place, the old players had to alter their business models and strategies.

The external environment can be subdivided into 2 layers;

Internal And External Environment Factors Of Organizational Environment

General Environment of Organization – Common Factors that All Companies in the Economy Face

The general environment usually includes political, economic, sociocultural, technological, legal, environmental (natural), and demographic factors in a particular country or region. The general environment consists of factors that may affect operations but influence the firm’s activities.

The factors of the general environment are broad and non-specific, whereas the dimensions of the task environment are composed of the specific organization.

The external environment consists of an organization’s external factors indirectly affecting its businesses. The organization has little or no control over these factors, so the external environment is generally non-controllable.

However, there may be exceptions. The external environmental factors reside outside the organization, which can lead to opportunities or threats.

For the convenience of analysis, we can divide the external environment into two groups: (a) general environment (or remote environment), and (b) industry environment (some call it the ‘immediate operating environment,’ ‘task environment, or specific environment’).

The general environment consists of factors in the external environment that indirectly affect firms’ business operations.

The major factors that constitute the general environment include political situations, economic conditions, social and cultural factors, technological advancements, legal/regulatory factors, natural environment, and demographics in a particular country or region.

The industry environment consists of those factors in the external environment that exist in the industry in which the organizations operate their business. The industry environmental factors are generally more controllable by a firm than the general environmental factors.

Industry environment comprises those factors in the external environment that exists in tie concerned industry of a firm in which it is operating its business.

For example, US Pharma is operating its business in the pharmaceutical industry.

Therefore, all factors that are likely to affect the business operations of Incepta Pharmaceuticals Limited would be included in the ‘industry environment’ of the company.

There are 6 factors in the industry environment: suppliers, buyers & customers, competitors & new entrants, substitute products, regulators, and strategic partners.

It may be noted that some industry environmental factors, such as competitors and substitute products, may exist even outside the concerned industry.

For example, a leasing company may emerge as a competitor of the companies in the banking industry in terms of attracting deposits and providing loans to business houses.

Regarding the industry environment, the important issue to appreciate is that they reside in the immediate competitive situations of a firm.

Also, they are very specific in that they can be easily identified. For these reasons, they are often regarded as ‘specific environment’ or ‘task environment.’

The strategy-makers must understand the challenges and complexities of the general and industry environmental factors. They must appreciate that the general environmental factors are largely non-controllable because of their distantly located external nature.

When strategists take cognizance of both the general (remote) and industry (operating) environments, they are likely to become more proactive in strategic planning .

In the following discussions, you will find a broad description of the general environment.

8 Elements of the General External Environment

The general environment includes the; distant factors in the external environment that is general or common in nature. Its impact on the firm’s operations, competitors, and customers make its analysis imperative.

We can use the PESTLE model to identify and analyze the factors in the general environment. PESTLE Model covers political, economic, sociocultural, technological, legal, and environmental (natural). Along with these, we can add additional factors that suit the current modern business atmosphere, demographic factors, and international factors.

8 elements or factors of the general environment of an organization are;

Political Legal Factors

The political factors of the general environment refer to the business-government relationship and the overall political situation of a country.

A good business-government relationship is essential to the economy and, most importantly, for the business.

The government of a country intervenes in the national economy by setting policies/rules for business. We see many such policies – import policy, export policy, taxation policy, investment policy, drug policy, competition policy, consumer protection policy, etc.

Sometimes, the government pursues a nationalization policy for state ownership of a business .

Some countries, such as India, pursue state-driven mercantilism to reduce imports and increase exports. Some countries; have liberalized their economy and shifted from centrally managed economies to capitalist economies or welfare economies.

In many 3rd world countries, successive governments emphasize privatization more than state ownership. As global competition has increased, the government has also liberalized its trade policies to align with the WTO agreements.

Another important issue is political stability, which substantially affects business firms’ operations. Divert’s decision about investment is highly affected by political stability.

Managers must be able to understand the implications of the activities of these agencies and groups.

Government agencies include different ministries, the office of the Controller of Imports and Exports, the Board of Investment, the Revenue board or agency, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Employers’ Associations, the Environmental Protection Movement, and the like.

Since the pressure groups put restraints on business managers, managers should have clear ideas about the actions of these groups.

Economic Factors

The economic factor of an organization is the overall status of the economic system in which the organization operates. The important economic factors for business are inflation, interest rates , and unemployment.

These factors of the economy always affect the demand for products. During inflation, the company pays more for its resources, and to cover its higher costs, they raise commodity prices.

When interest rates are high, customers are less willing to borrow money, and the company itself must pay more when it borrows. When unemployment is high, the company can be very selective about who it hires, but customers’ buying power is low as fewer people are working.

A country’s economic conditions affect market attractiveness. The performance of business organizations is affected by the health of a nation’s economy.

Several economic variables are relevant in determining business opportunities.

Examples of economic factors include the trend in economic growth, population income levels, inflation rate, tax rates for individuals and business organizations, etc.

There is thus a need to analyze the economic environment prudently by the business firms.

The economic environment comprises a distinct variable with which management must be concerned. A country’s economy can be in a situation of boom or recession or depression or recovery, or it may be in a state of fluctuation.

Managers/strategy-makers must be able to predict the economy’s state. These warrants the necessity of studying the economic environment to identify changes, trends, and their strategic implications.

Business organizations operate their businesses in markets consisting of people. These people are likely to become customers when they have purchasing power. And purchasing power depends on income, prices, savings, debt, and availability of credit.

Therefore, business organizations must pay attention to customers’ income and consumption patterns.

However, all the economic variables in the economy must be treated holistically for the clear envisioning of the entire economy and the market.

Socio-Cultural Factors

Customs, mores, values , and demographic characteristics of the society in which the organization operates make up the general environment’s socio-cultural factors.

A manager must well study the socio-cultural dimension. It indicates the product, services, and standards of conduct that society will likely value and appreciate.

The standard of business conduct varies from culture to culture, as does the taste and necessity of products and services. Socio-cultural forces include culture, lifestyle changes, social mobility, attitudes toward technology, and people’s values, opinion, beliefs, etc.

A society’s values and altitudes form the cornerstone of society. They often drive other conditions and changes. The hand for many products changes with the changes in social attitudes .

Socio-cultural factors differ across countries. In many countries, worker diversity is now a common phenomenon.

We find in first world countries the increasing life span of population, trend towards fewer children, movement of population from rural areas to urban areas, increasing rate of female education, more and more women entering the mainstream workforce, etc.

All these have a primary effect on a country’s social character and health.

Therefore, managers of business organizations need to study and predict the impact of social and cultural changes on the future of business operations in terms of meeting consumer needs and interests.

Business firms must offer products in society that correspond to their values and attitudes. It denotes the methods available for converting resources into products or services.

Technological Factors

Managers must be careful about technological factors. Investment decisions must be accurate in new technologies, and they must be adaptable to them.

Technological factors include information technology, the Internet, biotechnology, global transfer of technology, and so forth. None can deny the fact that the pace of change in these technological dimensions is extremely fast.

Technological changes substantially affect a firm’s operations in many ways. The advancement of industrialization in any Country depends mostly on the technological environment. Technology has major impacts on product development , manufacturing efficiencies, and potential competition.

Business organizations facing changing technology problems are always more difficult than those with stable technologies.

The effects of technological changes occur primarily through new products, processes, and materials. An entire industry may be transformed or revitalized due to new technology.

Strategy formulation is linked to technological changes. An intelligent response to the ever-increasing technological advances should be entrepreneurial rather than reactive.

Strategic managers need to monitor developments in technology for their particular industry when formulating a strategy . A quick and thorough study of technological changes; helps managers achieve a higher market share because of the early adoption of new technology.

A firm must be aware of technological changes to avoid obsolescence arid promote innovation. It means that strategy managers of an organization must be adept in – technological forecasting.

Legal Factors

The legal environment consists of laws and regulatory frameworks in a country. Many laws regulate the business operations of enterprises, such as the Factories Act, Industrial Relations Ordinance, the Contract Act, and the Company law, just to name a few.

Business laws protect companies from unfair competition and consumers from unfair business practices.

Business laws also protect society at large. The laws regarding a merger, acquisitions , industry regulation, employment conditions, unionization, workmen’s compensation, and the like affect a firm’s strategy.

Even globalization has caused significant repercussions in the legal environment. Thus, business managers must thoroughly know the major laws that protect business enterprises, consumers, and society.

And the overall situation of law implementation and justice in a country indicates that there is a favorable situation in business in a country.

Environmental / Natural Factors

Strategy-makers need to analyze the trends in the natural environment of the country where it is operating their business.

The most pertinent issues in the natural environment that strategy-makers should consider include the availability of raw materials and other inputs, changes in the cost of energy, levels of environmental pollution, and the changing role of government ‘in environmental protection.

Changes in the physical/natural environment, such as global warming, will heavily affect our daily lives and the functioning of our organizations with various consequences.

Demographic Factors

The demographic environment is concerned with a country’s population.

Specifically, it is related to the population’s size, age structure, geographic distribution, ethnic mix, and income distribution.

With over 8 billion population, demographic changes are evident worldwide. There is negative population growth in some countries, and in some countries, couples are averaging fewer than two children. In general, the average age is increasing.

In many countries, rural-urban migration is rampant. These trends suggest numerous opportunities for firms to develop products and services to meet the needs of diversified groups of people in society.

Strategy-makers must analyze the demographic issues, especially the size and growth rate of the population, age distribution, ethnic mix, educational level, household patterns, and inter-regional movements.

International Factors

Virtually every organization is affected by international factors. It refers to the degree to which an organization is involved in or affected by businesses in other countries.

The global society concept has brought all the nations together, and modern network of communication and transportation technology, almost every part of the world is connected.

General external environmental factors are interrelated with organizational success.

Therefore, strategy-makers need to analyze them in an interrelated fashion to understand and visualize the ‘whole of the environment.

Industry/Task Environment of Organization – Industry Factors that are Vital for Business Functions

A business firm’s strategy is affected by the structural characteristics of the industry , it is thus considered essential for a firm to make an elaborate analysis of the industry in which the firm operates its business.

Based on Michael Porter’s research results, the Van industry structure consists of suppliers, buyers, direct competitors, new entrants, and substitutes. The strategy-makers of a firm need to be concerned with the impact of the industry structure on the firm’s strategy .

Once the external environmental analysis has been completed, they should embark upon industry analysis. Industry analysis helps them have clear information about what is happening in the industry in which their companies are operating their businesses.

Since the industry contains competition, its analysis brings to light the complexities of the competition and the consequent challenges facing the industry.

The industry environmental factors, on the other hand, are those factors in the external environment that specifically reside in a particular industry and affect competition, such as suppliers, customers, competitors, and substitute products.

The task environment consists of factors that directly affect and is affected by the organization’s operations. These factors include suppliers, customers, competitors, regulators, and so on.

A manager can identify environmental factors of specific interest rather than having to deal with a more abstract dimension of the general environment.

6 Elements of the Industry or Task environment

As a manager or entrepreneur , you should be able to identify the various elements of the industry environment so that you can take appropriate steps to respond to them effectively in order to survive in the industry.

Elements Of Industry Environment

6 elements of the task environment for an organization are;

Suppliers are the providers of production or service materials. Dealing with suppliers is an important task of management.

A good relationship between the organization and the suppliers is important for an organization to keep a steady following of quality input materials. Suppliers are sources of resources such as raw materials, components, equipment, financial support, services, and Office Supplies.

To ensure a company’s long-term survival and growth, it is essential to develop a dependable relationship between a business firm and its suppliers. Concerning its competitive position with suppliers, a company should address the following questions;

  • Are the suppliers’ prices competitive?
  • Do suppliers offer attractive quantity discounts?
  • How costly are their shipping charges?
  • Are vendors competitive in terms of production standards?
  • Are suppliers’ abilities , reputation, and services competitive?
  • Are suppliers reciprocally dependent on the firm?

Customers & Buyers

“Satisfaction of customer”- the primary goal of every organization. The customer pays money for the organization’s product or services. They are the peoples who hand them the profit that the companies are targeting .

Managers should pay close attention to the customers’ dimension of the task environment because its customers purchase what keeps a company alive and sound. Strategy managers must understand the composition of the company’s customers .

With this end in view, they need to develop an exhaustive customer profile of the present and potential customers. Managers will be in a better position to pragmatically plan the firm’s strategic operations, anticipate changes in the size of the markets, and anticipate demand patterns.

While constructing a customer profile, managers need to use information regarding customers’ geographic location, demographic characteristics, psychographic issues, and buyer behavior.

Competitors & New Entrants.

The competitors often influence the policies of the organization. Competitive marketplace companies are always trying to stay and go further ahead of their competitors.

In the current world economy, competition and competitors in all respects have increased tremendously. A firm needs to analyze the competitive intensity in the industry. It needs to understand its competitive position in the industry to improve its chance of designing winning strategies .

Many companies develop a ‘competitor profile’ to accurately forecast their short-and-long-term growth and profit potentials.

A competitor profile may include such variables as market share, product line , the effectiveness of sales distribution, price competitiveness, advertising and promotion effectiveness, location, and age of the facility, production capacity, raw material costs, financial position, etc.

This positive effect is that the customers always have options, and the quality of products goes high.

The new entrants are the upcoming competitors of the firm. They are potential competitors because the competitive intensity increases when they enter the industry with similar products.

Regulators are units in the task environment that have the authority to control, regulate or influence an organization’s policies and practices.

Government agencies are the main player in the environment, and interest groups are created by their members to attempt to influence organizations as well as the government. Trade unions and the chamber of commerce are common examples of interest groups.

Substitute Products

The producers of substitute products are indirect competitors.

Substitute products serve the same categories of customers. They can meet the similar needs of customers and, therefore, emerge as threats.

For example, when the detergent powder is capable of meeting customer needs in a much better way, or even in the same way as the laundry soap does, the detergent powder becomes a strong indirect competitor of laundry soap.

Strategic Partners

They are the organization and individuals with whom the organization is to an agreement or understanding for the benefit of the organization. These strategic partners, in some way, influence the organization’s activities in various ways.

The industry environment is the competitive environment of a business organization. The industry environment substantially affects a firm’s business operations because it is the ‘immediate’ external environment of the firm, also known as the ‘immediate operating environment.’

Every firm operates its business in an industry. Therefore its activities are directly affected by any change in the industry, and therefore its activities are directly affected by any changes in the industry environment.

Changes in the general environment can directly impact any of the factors in the industry environment.

An organization has greater control over the industry’s environmental factors than the general environmental factors.

One point is to be noted that although the industry environment affects all the firms in the industry, in reality, all firms are not affected equally.

Influence of Internal and Environment on Business

Business managers must understand the various facets of the impacts of the external environment.

They need to recognize that the external environment has many aspects that can significantly impact a firm’s operations. They need to undertake an analysis of the environment regularly.

This is particularly important for the reason that developments/changes in the remote environment influence business organizations. They also need to understand the influences of changes in the industry environment.

Managers are benefited in several ways when they have a deep understanding and appreciation of the impact of environmental factors on business:

  • Knowledge of the environment helps managers identify the direction in which they should proceed. They will travel along with a distinct way of changing direction whenever necessary. Without an understanding of the environment, managers are like a bicycle without a handlebar – no way of maneuvering while riding on a street.
  • Managers can isolate those factors, especially in the external environment, which are of specific interest to the organization.
  • Managers can take preparation to deal with a predicted crisis in any of the factors in the environment. They can develop crisis plans for overcoming crises that affect an organization.
  • The key to achieving organizational effectiveness is understanding of the environment in which the firm operates its No knowledge or inadequate knowledge is very likely to lead managers to ineffectiveness because of ‘running on the wrong road for reaching the goals.

A manager must clearly understand the environment, irrespective of its external or internal nature.

Normally, you would not go for a walk in the rain without an umbrella, because you understand the environment and know you can get wet when it rains.

Similarly, suppose a manager does not know and understand the organization’s environment. In that case, he or she will definitively get wet or dry, and the organization is also in today’s fast and hyper-moving organizational environment.

Now that we have covered internal and external environment factors of organizational environment; read our materials on fundamentals of management and strategic management .

  • 3 Levels of Management in Organizational Hierarchy
  • Functional Departmentalization: Advantages and Disadvantages
  • Departmentalization of Organization by Process Types
  • 6 Barriers to Goal Setting in Organization
  • Managerial Skills: 5 Skills Managers MUST HAVE!
  • Internal Control System: Definition, Components, Features
  • Budgetary Control: Meaning, Objectives, Techniques, Steps
  • Functional Authority: Delegation of Functional Authority
  • Henri Fayol’s Contribution to Management
  • 4 Roles Played by Third Party in Negotiation
  • Modern Management Theories: Evolution, Schools, & Approaches
  • Goal Setting Theory of Motivation
  • Choose Best Alternative in Decision Making
  • Expectancy Theory of Motivation – Explained
  • Equity Theory of Motivation
  • Emerging Industries: Strategies For Emerging Industries
  • Fragmented Industry: Strategies For Fragmented Industry
  • Evaluating Strategies of Diversified Companies in 8 Steps
  • 3 Components for Building a Capable Organization
  • Stakeholder Analysis
  • Corporate Strategy: Meaning, Implementation, Elements
  • Horizontal Integration Strategy
  • Late Mover Strategy: Benefits & Key Examples
  • Five Forces Model by Porter: Competition and Industry Analysis
  • Seven Forces Model by Thompson and Strickland
  • Management By Objectives(MBO): Meaning, Steps, Benefits
  • Cost Leadership Strategy (Low-Cost Strategy)
  • Competitive Strategy: Four Types of Competitive Strategy
  • Operation Management: Definition, Importance, Decisions

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Organizational Environment

In today’s constant changing environment, all organizations face tremendous uncertainty in dealing with events in the external environment.

  • The giant packaged food companies such as General Mills Opens in new window , Kraft Heinz Opens in new window , and Kellogg's Opens in new window , for example, are seeing their market share decline as consumers increasingly turn to fresh foods and more natural and organic choices.
  • Cybercrime, such as recent data breaches at Dunkin Donuts Opens in new window , Under Armour Opens in new window , Rush University Medical System Opens in new window , and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) Opens in new window , is a growing threat from the environment to every organization.

Most organizations at some point have to adapt quickly to new competition, economic turmoil, changes in consumer interests, or innovative technologies.

The crucial point is that changes in the environment can create threats and opportunities for organizations.

Assessing the Organization and Its Environment

In a broad sense the environment is infinite and includes everything outside the organization. However, the analysis presented here considers only those aspects of the environment to which the organization is sensitive and must respond to survive.

Thus, organizational environment is defined as everything that exists outside the boundary of the organization and has the potential to affect all or part of the organization.

The environment of an organization can be understood by analyzing its domain within external sectors.

An organization’s domain is the chosen environmental field of action. It is the territory an organization stakes out for itself with respect to products, services, and markets served.

Domain defines the organization’s niche and defines those external sectors with which the organization will interact to accomplish its goals.

The environment comprises several sectors or subdivisions that contain similar elements. Eleven sectors can be analyzed for each organization:

  • raw materials,
  • human resources,
  • financial resources,
  • technology,
  • economic conditions,
  • government,
  • sociocultural, and
  • international.

The sectors and a hypothetical organizational domain are illustrated in Figure X-1.

Figure X-1 An Organization's Environment

For most companies, the sectors in Figure X-1 can be further categorized as either the task environment or the general environment .

Task Environment

The task environment includes sectors with which the organization interacts directly and that have a direct impact on the organization’s ability to achieve its goals.

The task environment typically includes the industry, raw materials, and market sectors, and perhaps the human resources and international sectors.

The following examples illustrate how each of these sectors can affect organizations:

  •    Industry sector

In the industry sector , the retail industry in South Korea has always been dominated by big department stores, but as smartphone use surged in the country over the past few years, companies saw new ways to reach consumers.

South Korea has a low number of women in the workforce, so there is a ready audience of affluent television and Internet shoppers. Online and home shopping competitors are growing in popularity, and posters on subway station walls allow people to make purchases simply by snapping a picture of a barcode.

  •    Raw materials sector

In the raw materials sector, sales growth at Adidas slowed in early 2019 because the company’s suppliers in Asia were having trouble keeping pace with the fast growth as Adidas Opens in new window shifted more production from high-end products to mid-priced clothing.

As another example, Tyson Foods Opens in new window invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build 90 chicken farms in China to guarantee a supply of high-quality birds, which the company then processes and sells to fast food companies, wholesalers, and other meatpackers in the country that use the meat in sausage and other products.

  •    Market sector

In the market sector , executives at Univision Communications Inc.’s Opens in new window flagship Spanish-language television network are working to adapt programming to appeal to younger and U.S. born Hispanics.

Nearly 60 percent of Hispanics in the United States are Millennials or younger, so managers know it is essential to add edgier, more fast-paced programs that interest this large segment of the market.

  • Human resources sector

The human resources sector is of significant concern to every business. A tight labor market is affecting organizations in all industries.

Even the FBI is having trouble finding enough qualified candidates for the 900 or so special agent positions that open each year. The agency received 68,500 applications in 2009 for the coveted positions, but that number was down to 11,500 in the year ending September 2018. Officials say it takes about 16,000 applicants to get a healthy pool of candidates to fill the special agent jobs.

  • International sector

For most companies today, the international sector is also a part of the task environment because of globalization and intense competition. For example, thousands of products were removed from Amazon.com’s India website in early 2019 after that country’s new e-commerce rules went into effect.

The new restrictions are aimed at helping local retailers better compete against foreign owned giants such as Amazon. The rules could affect as much as 40 percent of Amazon’s sales in India.

General Environment

The general environment includes those sectors that might not have a direct impact on the daily operations of a firm but will indirectly influence it.

The general environment often includes the government, natural, sociocultural, economic conditions, technology, and financial resources sectors. These sectors affect all organizations eventually. Consider the following examples:

  •    Government sector

In the government sector , regulations influence every phase of organizational life. In addition, companies often find themselves fighting legal battles in local or national courts.

Johnson & Johnson Opens in new window , for example, has at some point faced series of lawsuits over the safety of its baby powder.

  • Natural sector

The natural sector of the external environment, including all elements that occur naturally on Earth, is of growing importance as consumers, organizations, and managers become increasingly sensitive to diminishing natural resources and the environmental impact of a company’s producrts and business practices.

Caesars Entertainment Opens in new window , one of the world’s largest gaming companies, created a scorecard to keep track of how well the company was doing at reducing energy consumption, recycling waste, and meeting other “green” goals.

Managers found that the more information guests had about Caesars’ environment practices, the better they felt about the company and the more likely they were to enjoy their stay at the casino and to book future visits. Protection of the natural environment is also emerging as a critical policy focus around the world.

  • Sociocultural sector

One significant element in the sociocultural sector is pressure from various advocacy groups.

An amusing example comes from Nabisco Opens in new window and its parent company Mondelez International Opens in new window , where managers decided under pressure from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Opens in new window to let the animals on its circus-themed Barnum’s Animal Crackers boxes Opens in new window (caged for more than a century) roam free.

The box now shows a zebra, gorilla, elephant, lion, and giraffe wandering side by side rather than captured behind bars. “Big victories can come in small packages,” PETA’s website Opens in new window proclaimed about the package redesign. “The new box … perfectly reflects that our society no longer tolerates caging and chaining exotic animals for circus shows.

  • Economic conditions

General economic conditions often affect the way a company must do business. Looking back, the global recession Opens in new window that began in 2008 affected companies in all industries.

For example, Briggs Inc. Opens in new window , a small New York City company that plans customized events for corporations wanting to woo top clients or reward staff or client loyalty, had to make some changes when it began losing customers.

Briggs Opens in new window began looking for ways to save clients money, such as moving events to smaller venues, scaling down décor, and adding extras that didn’t add to the cost. The strategy was a financial burden for Briggs, but it helped the company hold onto clients for the long term.

  • Technology sector

The technology sector is an area in which massive changes continue to occur because of the rise in artificial intelligence (AI) Opens in new window and digital technologies Opens in new window . In countries from the United States to Canada to Japan, studies have found substantial drops in white-collar jobs linked to adoption of new technology.

Today, AI software is picking out worrisome spots on medical scans, spotting profits in stock trades in milliseconds, sifting through documents for evidence in court cases, and recording power usage beamed from digital utility meters in millions of homes.

Yet technology also can create jobs in new areas. Several companies are working on technology for driverless cars. Waymo Opens in new window launched Waymo One Opens in new window , the country’s first commercial ride-share service using self-driving cars, for limited service in late 2018.

  • Financial resources

All businesses have to be concerned with financial resources , and this sector is often first and foremost in the minds of entrepreneurs.

Many small business owners turned to online person-to-person (P-to-P) lending networks for small loans because of bank’s tight lending standards. Jeff Walsh, for example, borrowed around $22,000 through Prosper.com Opens in new window for his coin laundry business.

Alex Kalempa needed $15,000 to expand his business of developing racing shift systems for motorcycles, but ranks offered him credit lines of only $500 to $1,000. Kalempa went to LendingClub.com Opens in new window , where he got the $15,000 loan at an interest rate several points lower than the banks were offering.

International Environment

The international sector can directly affect many organizations, and it has become extremely important in the last few years. The auto industry, for example, has experienced profound shifts as China emerged as the world’s largest auto market.

In response, some car makers have moved international headquarters into China and have been designing features that appeal to the Chinese market, including bigger, limousine-like back seats, advanced entertainment systems, and light-colored interiors. Ride-sharing service Uber Opens in new window was also hoping to rap into China’s huge market, but eventually sold its business in that country to Chinese-owned Didi Chuxing.

Every company faces tremendous uncertainty when it enters an international market. International events can also influence all the domestic sectors of the environment.

For example, adverse weather and a workers’ strike in Western Africa, which supplies about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa beans, sharply increased raw material costs for Choco-Logo, a small maker of gourmet chocolates in Buffalo, New York.

Countries and organizations around the world are connected as never before, and economic, political, and sociocultural changes in one part of the world eventually affect other areas.

All organizations have to adapt to both subtle and massive shifts in the environment. In the next entry, we discuss in greater detail how companies can cope with and respond to environmental complexity and dynamism.

The series:

  •  Organizational Environment Opens in new window
  • Environmental Uncertainty Opens in new window
  • Adapting to Complexity and Dynamism Opens in new window
  •  Differentiation and Integration Opens in new window
  •  Planning, Forecasting, and Responsiveness Opens in new window
  •  Abundance/Scarcity of Needed Financial Resources Opens in new window
  • Organization Theory & Design By Richard L. Daft

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External Components of Business Environment | The Task Environment

External components.

External components of the business environment remain outside of the organization. They influence the ability of an organization. They can be classified into two categories- task general and general environment. Competitors, suppliers, customers, regulators, strategic allies, etc. are task environments and political-legal, economic, socio-cultural, and technological(PEST) are general environments. These factors are beyond the control of the business organization. The management should utilize them in favor of the organization by using their knowledge, ability, and skill. Some popular definitions of external environment given by J. Stoner and R.W. Griffin are as follows:

The external environment can be defined as all elements outside an organization that is relevant to its operations. —J.Stoner The external environment is everything outside an organization that might affect it. —R.W. Griffin

Eventually, components of tasks and the general environment are the major external factors of the business environment. They remain outside the organization and directly and indirectly influence the ability of the organization. External components are harder to predict and control. These factors can be more dangerous for an organization. Careful analysis is a must to make rational decisions.

1 . The task environment

Competitors, suppliers, customers, regulators, strategic allies, etc. are the major components of the task environment. These components, directly and indirectly, influence business decisions from outside. They remain outside but very close to the organization.

External Components of Business Environment | The Task Environment

Competitors:

The competing firms are the competitors of the organization. They influence business organizations. Competitors can launch a new product in the market, they can reduce the price of the product, can launch a new promotional scheme, and so on. The competitors also compete for resources. All these activities of competitors provide threats to the organization.

Suppliers are those organizations that provide resources to business organizations. It is good for any organization to keep long-term relationships with suppliers for quality, effective, and prompt delivery of resources. Suppliers may be raw material suppliers, machinery suppliers, human resource suppliers, financial resource suppliers, and so on.

Customers purchase products or services of an organization. They can be of different types such as household, government, industry, commercial enterprises, etc. An organization should make efforts to have different kinds of customers and has to develop different programs to retain quality customers. They are king in the market. An organization’s success depends on profitable relationships with quality customers.

The regulator controls the policy and behavior of an organization. Regulators may be regulatory agencies and interest groups.

Regulatory agency:

The regulatory agency is a unit formed by the government. It provides protection to people and organizations by curbing unfair business practices. It protects consumers’ rights.

Interest group:

An interest group is another form of the regulator. The group formed to influence an organization is an interest group. The such group works for the interests of its members. For example, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers-MDD is an interest group that gives pressure on liquor producers to paste warning levels on their products, gives pressure on automobile producers to manufacture difficult automobiles/cars to start by intoxicated persons, puts pressure on the government to make rigid legal provisions against liquor drinking, and give pressure to bars and restaurants not to sell liquors to the habitual drunkards.

Strategic allies:

When two or more companies work together as a joint venture, it is called strategic allies. such allies are formed for doing important work for the benefit of involving parties. One company can learn special skills and knowledge from others in strategic allies. Along with this, the risk is shared among companies or parties. For example, Ford and Mazda Companies establish strategic allies and they have jointly established Probe Automobile.

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the effects of task environment and organizational agility on perceived managerial discretion and strategy implementation in a pharmaceutical company.

International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing

ISSN : 1750-6123

Article publication date: 30 December 2021

Issue publication date: 26 April 2022

This study aims to investigate the relationship between task environment, organizational agility, perceived managerial discretion and strategy implementation on unit performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the literature review, a structural model was developed. A 74-item questionnaire was circulated among middle managers in sales and marketing. The data collection method used purposive sampling. A total of 228 valid responses were obtained. This study was conducted in a leading pharmaceutical company in Indonesia. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Based on the data analysis, this study shows that task environment and organizational agility act as antecedents of perceived managerial discretion, which drives strategy implementation resulting in unit performance.

Originality/value

Different from previous studies that examined the linkage of inertial forces and discretion, this research scrutinized the effects of organizational agility on perceived managerial discretion and the direct role of perceived managerial discretion on internal strategy implementation.

  • Pharmaceutical
  • Strategy implementation

Theodore, W. , Kasali, R. , Balqiah, T.E. and Sudhartio, L. (2022), "The effects of task environment and organizational agility on perceived managerial discretion and strategy implementation in a pharmaceutical company", International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing , Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 204-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPHM-11-2021-0116

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No credit card required, anatomy of a task.

No, this article is not about the book called  Hamlet, the anatomy of tasks by Ann Louise Hentz or a review of the popular ABC network’s show called  Grey’s Anatomy . But rather, it refers to the specific unit of work called a task in project management.

Every day we all do all sorts of tasks if we like or not. Our lives are filled with doing this task or another. It seems at times our tasks never end.

So what is a task and how do you define it? How do you create a task in a collaborative project environment ? What elements are essential when defining a task?

Some confuse a to-do list with tasks done for projects using project management software. At best a do-list is a very simplified form of a task management system.

In this post, I will cover everything you ever wanted to know about tasks. The definition of a task, the anatomy of a task, and support needed in managing and visualizing tasks in projects.

In short, in this article, we cover everything related to tasks and leave nothing unanswered for.  

anatomy of a task 1

Tasks are not created in a vacuum or out of thin air. They come into existence as part of the objective to finish a product or service. Tasks could be standalone, like “Buy Milk” or part of a much larger project.

The diagram above is a refinement of the state transition diagram for to-do tasks from IBM Corporation  which was done a few years back. The new diagram shown above supports the current approaches like continuous delivery  in software development.

Their purpose is to solve a real-world problem. A task is a complete description of how to start and finish work in a given time to reach a goal.

Tasks are usually an element of a project consisting of many small and large tasks. Not all tasks are equal. Some are simple and take a short time.

Others are complex and need to be broken down into smaller tasks, assigned to multiple people, and will take much longer.

To create, manage and complete tasks, a task management tool, usually, part of a project management software is used.

The following is a list of all elements of a task:  

Each task needs a title that describes in a short sentence the objective of the task.

Description-

The description provides more detail on what needs to be done and how. The person reading the description should have all details needed to finish the work.

Start Date- 

Work needs to start at a given time. The start date shows the date the team is planning to start working on the work.             

All work needs to finish at some time, obviously the sooner the better. The due time is calculated based on the duration of the work needed to finish the task.

The duration is the total time it takes for work to start and finish. How do you estimate duration? Small tasks are easy since they are short, even if you are wrong the error will be small too.

Large tasks are a different story. A systematic approach is needed to estimate them with a certain degree of accuracy. 

Fortunately, there is a solution for this. It is called three-point estimation. If you are not familiar with 3 point estimation , I encourage you to check the link above.

Some tasks need to finish at a certain time on their due date. For example papers to court need to be submitted by 5:00 PM on January 12, 2019.

Here the due date is January 12, 2019, and due time is 5:00 PM. If the papers are handled later than 5:00 PM they don’t count!

Task Owner-

The person who creates a task is called a task owner. He or she could be assigned the task to himself/herself or assign it to someone else.

Please note that task owner could be the same or a different person other than the project owner/manager  

Somebody needs to work and finish the job. It could be one person or multiple people. It could be full time or part-time.

The software should allow all possibilities when the work is assigned.

Dependencies-

Some tasks are not related to other work done in the project, but some do.

If your job is to install the doors in a new house under construction, you can’t do that until the wall and the ceiling is finished.

There could be just one dependency (or predecessor) or multiple dependencies.

The task management application should allow the addition of unlimited dependencies.

As we said before all tasks are not equal. Some need extra attention and should be tackled before lower priority tasks.

Usually, the priorities are marked from 5 (very high) to 1 (very low).  

Unfortunately only few task management applications in the market today support priority.   

Recurring Tasks-

Many tasks are one time events. After they are done successfully, they are not repeated again unless for future enhancements.

On the other hand, there are tasks that repeat for a period of time or go forever. 

If you are a business owner you file federal and local taxes every 3 months. 

This means every few months you repeat the same work over and over again. The only thing that changes is the date you use to file your taxes.

For work that is repetitive and essentially the same, just different set of data, we need recurring tasks.

Gantt Charts-

To view your work graphically, you need a Gantt chart . Even though Gantt has been used for decades, it is still the best visual presentation of tasks in time.

A Gantt chart also shows the relationship of tasks to each other, which is not possible with other nongraphical methods.

Work breakdown structure-

When work is too complex and too large, it is very hard to estimate how long it takes to complete accurately.

Work breakdown structure or the WBS is the process of breaking down difficult tasks into smaller tasks. This process continues until all tasks in the project are small and well understood.  

Completion rate-

While people working on long tasks, there is a need to show what percentage of the work is done already. The is shown by completion rate which measures the work done from 0% (not started yet) to 100% (completed already).    

In collaborative environments, we need to discuss issues that are raized while working on tasks. 

Most SaaS-based project management applications allow adding and reviewing comments.

A task has many stakeholders. The project manager, the task owner and those who have an interest in the outcome of the task are all stakeholders.

The follow feature fund in some PM applications let everybody to be kept up to date on the status of the projects  

Most tasks have associated files and nowhere is better to store these files other than the task itself.

Some PM applications allow attaching of files to tasks and their comments.  

To make it easier to find tasks in a huge project, tags are a great tool. UsersThe user can create any tags they want and assign it to tasks.

This makes searching and finding of tasks much easier.   

Another useful feature found in some task management applications is the category.

A task could have only one category compared to many tags. For example, a task could be part of development category for a project and have “testing” and “urgent” as tags.   

Start work-

When the person assigned to a task, starts working on it, the task is marked as started. This lets everyone know that work has begun. 

Completed work-

Like above when the work is finished, the task is marked as completed. During this time the work is constantly tested either by the developer or by a third party and is errors are fixed.

When the developer feels the work is complete, the task is marked as completed. This triggers a notification for final verification and approval.

Verify work-

Before a work is approved as finished, it is testing one more time a part of a complete system. This work is called final verification. 

Approve work-

After work has been verified, someone usually the project manager or the task owner approves the work for release.    

After the approval, the work is released to the internal or external customers. 

This is the end of a task life cycle. When the product or service is released the people working on the project are assigned to other projects.  

Time Tacking-

In some industries like contract workers and freelancers, there is a need to record how much time each worker spends on the project.

Time tracking software enables team members to record the time they spend on projects.

This data is used to create invoices and bill the clients. 

Notification-

Again, in the collaborative environment, there is an urgent need to keep everybody informed and in the loop.

Real-time notification automizes this need. As soon as there are any changes in the project, the relevant stakeholders get email or SMS notifications. 

In huge projects finding the tasks which you are looking for could be quite daunting! 

A robust search like elastic search in the task management tool is a God sent to the project manager and team members. 

Unfortunately, sometimes things do go the way we planned them. When this happens tasks are terminated.

A system that allows easy termination of tasks and informing all stakeholders is a huge time saver.     

Conclusion-

We have covered here everything related to tasks. If the reader finds anything is missing from this list, we appreciate to contact us and let us know.

This is a live document and from time to time we will be updating it as we get more feedback.   

                                     

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Related posts:

  • Introduction to Task Management Software
  • Task Management Software
  • The best way for Task Estimation
  • Task Management fundamentals

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David Robins is the founder and CEO of Binfire. David studied at both Cornell and MIT, and was the Director of Software Engineering at Polaroid for 11 years.

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  • Elements of Micro Environment

The micro environment relates to the immediate periphery of an organization and directly influences the organization on a regular basis. Hence, it is also known as the task environment. It is important for an organization to monitor and analyze all the elements of its micro environment like customers, competitors, etc.

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Let’s take a quick look at all elements of a micro environment:

Elements of Micro Environment: Customers, Intermediaries, Market etc.

  • Customers and Consumers

Customers are people who buy an organization’s products/services. In simple words, an organization cannot survive without customers. A consumer , on the other hand, is the ultimate user of the product/service.

For example, a husband might purchase a product for his wife. In this case, the husband is the customer and the wife is the consumer.

A successful business keeps a close watch on both customers and consumers of its products/services. It must monitor and track any changes in tastes and preferences of the consumer along with changes in the buying habits of the customer.

  • Competitors

Every business has competition. Competitors are other organizations that compete with each other for both resources and markets. Hence, it is important that an organization is aware of its competitors and in a position to analyze threats from its competition. A business must be aware of its competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, and the most aggressive and powerful competitors at all times.

Further, an organization can have direct or indirect competitors. When organizations are involved in the same business activity, they compete for both resources and markets . This is Direct Competition.

For example, Pantene and Sunsilk shampoo companies are direct competitors. On the other hand, a five-star holiday resort and a luxury car company are Indirect competitors since they offer different products but vie for the same market.

  • Organization

One of the most important aspects of the micro environment of an organization is the self-analysis of the organization itself. It must understand its own strengths and weaknesses, objectives and goals of the business, and resource availability. The following non-specific elements of an organization can affect its performance:

  • Owners – People who have a major shareholding in the organization and have vested interests in the well-being of the company.
  • Board of Directors – The board of directors is elected by the shareholders for overseeing the general management of the business and ensuring that the shareholder’s interests are met.
  • Employees – People who work in the organization are major contributors to its success. It is important that all employees embrace the organization’s goals and objectives.

The market is much more than the sum of all the customers. The organization must study the market in terms of its actual size, the potential for growth, and its attractiveness. Some important issues are:

  • The cost structure of the market
  • Price Sensitivity of the market
  • Technological structure of the market
  • The existing distribution system of the market
  • The maturity of the market

Suppliers are another important component of the micro environment. Organizations depend on many suppliers for equipment, raw material, etc. to maintain their production. Suppliers can influence the cost structure of the industry and are hence a major force.

  • Intermediaries

Intermediaries are also a major determining force in business. Most customers are unaware of the manufacturer of the products they buy since they approach retailers, departmental store, chain stores or online stores for their purchases.

Solved Question on Elements of Micro Environment

Q1. List the important elements of the micro environment of an organization.

Answer: The important elements of the micro environment of an organization are:

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Business Environment

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  • Macro Environment – Demographic Environment
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  • 8.5 The Internal Environment
  • Introduction
  • 1.1 What Do Managers Do?
  • 1.2 The Roles Managers Play
  • 1.3 Major Characteristics of the Manager's Job
  • Summary of Learning Outcomes
  • Chapter Review Questions
  • Management Skills Application Exercises
  • Managerial Decision Exercises
  • Critical Thinking Case
  • 2.1 Overview of Managerial Decision-Making
  • 2.2 How the Brain Processes Information to Make Decisions: Reflective and Reactive Systems
  • 2.3 Programmed and Nonprogrammed Decisions
  • 2.4 Barriers to Effective Decision-Making
  • 2.5 Improving the Quality of Decision-Making
  • 2.6 Group Decision-Making
  • 3.1 The Early Origins of Management
  • 3.2 The Italian Renaissance
  • 3.3 The Industrial Revolution
  • 3.4 Taylor-Made Management
  • 3.5 Administrative and Bureaucratic Management
  • 3.6 Human Relations Movement
  • 3.7 Contingency and System Management
  • 4.1 The Organization's External Environment
  • 4.2 External Environments and Industries
  • 4.3 Organizational Designs and Structures
  • 4.4 The Internal Organization and External Environments
  • 4.5 Corporate Cultures
  • 4.6 Organizing for Change in the 21st Century
  • 5.1 Ethics and Business Ethics Defined
  • 5.2 Dimensions of Ethics: The Individual Level
  • 5.3 Ethical Principles and Responsible Decision-Making
  • 5.4 Leadership: Ethics at the Organizational Level
  • 5.5 Ethics, Corporate Culture, and Compliance
  • 5.6 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
  • 5.7 Ethics around the Globe
  • 5.8 Emerging Trends in Ethics, CSR, and Compliance
  • 6.1 Importance of International Management
  • 6.2 Hofstede's Cultural Framework
  • 6.3 The GLOBE Framework
  • 6.4 Cultural Stereotyping and Social Institutions
  • 6.5 Cross-Cultural Assignments
  • 6.6 Strategies for Expanding Globally
  • 6.7 The Necessity of Global Markets
  • 7.1 Entrepreneurship
  • 7.2 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs
  • 7.3 Small Business
  • 7.4 Start Your Own Business
  • 7.5 Managing a Small Business
  • 7.6 The Large Impact of Small Business
  • 7.7 The Small Business Administration
  • 7.8 Trends in Entrepreneurship and Small-Business Ownership
  • 8.1 Gaining Advantages by Understanding the Competitive Environment
  • 8.2 Using SWOT for Strategic Analysis
  • 8.3 A Firm's External Macro Environment: PESTEL
  • 8.4 A Firm's Micro Environment: Porter's Five Forces
  • 8.6 Competition, Strategy, and Competitive Advantage
  • 8.7 Strategic Positioning
  • 9.1 Strategic Management
  • 9.2 Firm Vision and Mission
  • 9.3 The Role of Strategic Analysis in Formulating a Strategy
  • 9.4 Strategic Objectives and Levels of Strategy
  • 9.5 Planning Firm Actions to Implement Strategies
  • 9.6 Measuring and Evaluating Strategic Performance
  • 10.1 Organizational Structures and Design
  • 10.2 Organizational Change
  • 10.3 Managing Change
  • 11.1 An Introduction to Human Resource Management
  • 11.2 Human Resource Management and Compliance
  • 11.3 Performance Management
  • 11.4 Influencing Employee Performance and Motivation
  • 11.5 Building an Organization for the Future
  • 11.6 Talent Development and Succession Planning
  • 12.1 An Introduction to Workplace Diversity
  • 12.2 Diversity and the Workforce
  • 12.3 Diversity and Its Impact on Companies
  • 12.4 Challenges of Diversity
  • 12.5 Key Diversity Theories
  • 12.6 Benefits and Challenges of Workplace Diversity
  • 12.7 Recommendations for Managing Diversity
  • 13.1 The Nature of Leadership
  • 13.2 The Leadership Process
  • 13.3 Leader Emergence
  • 13.4 The Trait Approach to Leadership
  • 13.5 Behavioral Approaches to Leadership
  • 13.6 Situational (Contingency) Approaches to Leadership
  • 13.7 Substitutes for and Neutralizers of Leadership
  • 13.8 Transformational, Visionary, and Charismatic Leadership
  • 13.9 Leadership Needs in the 21st Century
  • 14.1 Motivation: Direction and Intensity
  • 14.2 Content Theories of Motivation
  • 14.3 Process Theories of Motivation
  • 14.4 Recent Research on Motivation Theories
  • 15.1 Teamwork in the Workplace
  • 15.2 Team Development Over Time
  • 15.3 Things to Consider When Managing Teams
  • 15.4 Opportunities and Challenges to Team Building
  • 15.5 Team Diversity
  • 15.6 Multicultural Teams
  • 16.1 The Process of Managerial Communication
  • 16.2 Types of Communications in Organizations
  • 16.3 Factors Affecting Communications and the Roles of Managers
  • 16.4 Managerial Communication and Corporate Reputation
  • 16.5 The Major Channels of Management Communication Are Talking, Listening, Reading, and Writing
  • 17.1 Is Planning Important
  • 17.2 The Planning Process
  • 17.3 Types of Plans
  • 17.4 Goals or Outcome Statements
  • 17.5 Formal Organizational Planning in Practice
  • 17.6 Employees' Responses to Planning
  • 17.7 Management by Objectives: A Planning and Control Technique
  • 17.8 The Control- and Involvement-Oriented Approaches to Planning and Controlling
  • 18.1 MTI—Its Importance Now and In the Future
  • 18.2 Developing Technology and Innovation
  • 18.3 External Sources of Technology and Innovation
  • 18.4 Internal Sources of Technology and Innovation
  • 18.5 Management Entrepreneurship Skills for Technology and Innovation
  • 18.6 Skills Needed for MTI
  • 18.7 Managing Now for Future Technology and Innovation
  • How and why do managers conduct an internal analysis of their firms?

A firm’s internal environment is illustrated in Exhibit 8.4 by the innermost orange circle. The internal environment consists of members of the firm itself, investors in the firm, and the assets a firm has. Employees and managers are good examples; they are firm members who have skills and knowledge that are valuable assets to their firms. Evaluating a firm’s internal environment is not just a matter of counting heads, however. Successful firms have a wide range of resources and capabilities that they can use to maintain their success and grow into new ventures. A thorough analysis of a firm’s internal situation provides a manager with an understanding of the resources available to pursue new initiatives, innovate, and plan for future success.

Resources and Capabilities

A firm’s resources and capacities are the unique skills and assets it possesses. Resources are things a firm has to work with, such as equipment, facilities, raw materials, employees, and cash. Capabilities are things a firm can do, such as deliver good customer service or develop innovative products to create value. Both are the building blocks of a firm’s plans and activities, and both are required if a firm is going to compete successfully against its rivals. Firms use their resources and leverage their capabilities to create products and services that have some advantage over competitors’ products. For example, a firm might offer its customers a product with higher quality, better features, or lower prices. Not all resources and capabilities are equally helpful in creating success, though. Internal analysis identifies exactly which assets bring the most value to the firm.

The Value Chain

Before examining the role of resources and capabilities in firm success, let’s take a look at the importance of how a firm uses those factors in its operations. A firm’s value chain is the progression of activities it undertakes to create a product or service that consumers will pay for. A firm should be adding value at each of the chain of steps it follows to create its product. The goal is for the firm to add enough value so that its customers will believe that the product is worth buying for a price that is higher than the costs the firm incurs in making it. As an example, Exhibit 8.8 illustrates a hypothetical value chain for some of Walmart’s activities.

In this example, note that value increases from left to right as Walmart performs more activities. If it adds enough value through its efforts, it will profit when it finally sells its services to customers. By working with product suppliers (procurement), getting those products to store locations efficiently (inbound logistics), and automatically keeping track of sales and inventory (information technology), Walmart is able to offer its customers a wide variety of products in one store at low prices, a service customers value. Primary activities , the ones across the bottom half of the diagram, are the actions a firm takes to directly provide a product or service to customers. Support activities , the ones across the top of the diagram, are actions required to sustain the firm that are not directly part of product or service creation.

Using Resources and Capabilities to Build an Advantage over Rivals

A firm’s resources and capabilities are not just a list of equipment and things it can do. Instead, resources and capabilities are the distinctive assets and activities that separate firms from each other. Firms that can amass critical resources and develop superior capabilities will succeed in competition over rivals in their industry. Strategists evaluate firm resources and capabilities to determine if they are sufficiently special to help the firm succeed in a competitive industry.

The analytical tool used to assess resources and capabilities is called VRIO . As usual, this is an acronym developed to remind managers of the questions to ask when evaluating their firms’ resources and capabilities. The four questions of VRIO, which focus on v alue, r arity, i mitation, and o rganization, are illustrated in Exhibit 8.9 .

If each question can be answered with a “yes,” then the resource or capability being evaluated can be the source of a competitive advantage for the firm. An example will help you better understand the VRIO process.

Imagine that you are a top manager for Starbucks and you want to understand why you are able to be successful against rivals in the coffee industry. You make a list of some of Starbucks’ resources and capabilities and use VRIO to determine which ones are key to your success. These are shown in Table 8.1 .

You look at your list and decide to pick a few of the entries to evaluate with VRIO ( Table 8.2 ):

According to the evaluation above, Starbucks’ brand helps it compete and succeed against rivals, as does its excellent customer service. However, simply having a lot of locations globally isn’t enough to beat rivals—McDonald’s and Subway also have thousands of worldwide locations, and both serve coffee. Starbucks succeeds against them because of their brand and customer service.

Concept Check

  • What are firm resources and capabilities?
  • Describe a value chain and what the activities in the chain represent.
  • What is VRIO? What questions do the letters stand for, and how does using VRIO help a manager make decisions?

Managing Change

Technology and innovation: uber, lyft, and the self-driving car: the transportation of the future is coming soon.

Although the ride-sharing industry is still relatively new, it has seen explosive growth, and its two main rivals, Uber and Lyft, are looking for ways to increase their capacity to serve riders. Both firms, and rivals like them, operate in basically the same way. A person needing a ride uses a smartphone app to alert a nearby person with a car of their location. The driver, usually an independent contractor for the service (meaning they are just a person with a car that has signed up to provide rides in exchange for a portion of the fare the customer pays), picks up the customer and drives them to their destination. Paying for the ride is also handled through the app, and the driver receives about 75–80% of the fare, with Uber or Lyft keeping the balance. 12

The popularity of ride-sharing services has soared, and both companies are constantly recruiting more drivers. However, both companies have also explored alternatives to independent drivers: self-driving cars. Uber and Lyft have taken different paths to develop this capability. Uber has worked to internally develop its own software technology and self-driving car technology, while Lyft has focused on software interfaces that can accommodate other companies’ self-driving cars. 13 Lyft’s partnerships with firms such as Google and GM that are already developing self-driving cars has put it ahead of Uber in the race to get driverless vehicles into its ride-sharing network, and it was able to test self-driving cars in Boston by partnering with NuTonomy in 2017. 14 Lyft offered a demonstration to journalists at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 2018, offering rides in self-driving cars developed by Aptiv. 15 Uber had been testing similar technology in Pittsburgh but suspended its self-driving car program after a fatal pedestrian accident in Arizona. 16

Sources: Ridester (2017). “How Much do Uber Drivers Actually Make? The Inside Scoop.” Ridester.com. https://www.ridester.com/how-much-do-uber-drivers-make/ Accessed July 29, 2017; Bensinger, Greg (2017). “Lyft Shifts Gears With New Driverless-Car Division; San Francisco company to hire hundreds of engineers and open new Silicon Valley office.” The Wall Street Journal . July 21, 2017; Edelstein, Stephen (2017). “Lyft Finally Launches Its Boston Self-Driving Car Pilot Program.” The Drive . Dec. 17, 2017. http://www.thedrive.com/tech/16779/lyft-finally-launches-its-boston-self-driving-car-pilot-program; O’Kane, Sean (2018). “I took a gamble by riding in a self-driving Lyft in Las Vegas.” The Verge . January 8, 2018. https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/8/16860590/self-driving-lyft-las-vegas-ces-2018; and Korosec, Kristen (2018). “Uber self-driving cars back on public roads, but in manual mode/” Tech Crunch . July 24, 2018. https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/uber-self-driving-cars-back-on-public-roads-but-in-manual-mode/.

  • What resource or capability challenges have Uber and Lyft faced because their fast company growth?
  • What PESTEL factors do you think are contributing to the popularity of ride-sharing services?
  • What industry challenges (think of Porter’s Five Forces) does the use of self-driving cars address?

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What Is a Task Environment?

An organization’s task environment is the collection of factors that affects its ability to achieve goals. Common factors in the task environment include competitors, customers, suppliers and distributors. By identifying potential factors that could impede success, the organization has the ability to adapt.

The number and quality of competitors of an organization impact an organization’s task environment. If an organization has many strong competitors, it must produce excellent quality. The demand from customers affects the revenue and profit achieved by a business. Suppliers affect the level of quality and prices paid for products. Distributors help a company get its goods to buyers.

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An Analytical Review and Performance Measures of State-of-Art Scheduling Algorithms in Heterogenous Computing Enviornment

  • Review article
  • Published: 19 February 2024

Cite this article

  • Wakar Ahmad 1 ,
  • Gaurav Gautam 1 ,
  • Bashir Alam 2 &
  • Bhoopesh Singh Bhati   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8476-2798 1  

Task scheduling and resource utilization have always been among the most critical issues for high performance in heterogeneous computing. The heterogeneity of computation costs on a given set of computing elements and the communication costs among computing elements increase the complexity of the scheduling problem. Extensive research proves that the list-based task scheduling algorithms generate the most efficient schedules for complex workflow applications in the heterogeneous computing environment. The workflow applications comprise thousands of interconnected tasks with dependencies. In the last decades, various list-based scheduling algorithms have been proposed to achieve some kinds of performance objectives such as minimization of makespan and energy consumption and maximization of resource utilization and reliability. In this article, various list-based workflow scheduling algorithms have been reviewed from the last two decades with the assumption of heterogeneous computing systems being used as the underlying computing infrastructure. This review process categorizes the algorithms based on scheduling objectives. For a better analysis of the algorithms, each algorithm is compared with other algorithms based on its objectives, merits, comparison metrics, workload type, experimental scale, experimental environment, and results compared. Finally, experimental analysis of seven state-of-art algorithms has been conducted on randomly generated workflow to understand the working of list-scheduling algorithms. The main purpose of this article is to give proper direction to new researchers who are willing to work in workflow scheduling in heterogeneous computing environments.

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Ahmad, W., Gautam, G., Alam, B. et al. An Analytical Review and Performance Measures of State-of-Art Scheduling Algorithms in Heterogenous Computing Enviornment. Arch Computat Methods Eng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-024-10069-8

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-024-10069-8

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task environment and elements

Chemical Found in Popular Cereals Could Cause Fertility Issues!

A chemical found in both Cheerios and Quaker Oats may cause fertility issues…

I’m Tomi Lahren, more next. 

In the age of heavily altered and processed foods, it seems like everything we buy has some kind of issue.

Well a new study by the Environmental Working Group has added to that concern. The study found that roughly 80% of Americans are exposed to a chemical in oat-based foods such as Cheerios and Quaker Oats that could cause fertility issues, delayed puberty and fetal growth problems. 

The chemical is called “chlormequat” and is often added to oat and grain crops to make them easier to harvest. 

When used in animal research, subjects suffered from altered development and growth. 

Though it is considered toxic, the chemical is federally permitted to be used on oats and grains imported into the US. 

I don’t know about you, but I find this very troubling. 

Is there anything left in stores that won’t make us sick?!

I’m Tomi Lahren and you watch my show “Tomi Lahren is Fearless” at  Outkick.co m

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COMMENTS

  1. Task Environment

    Activities Why is a task environment important? A task environment is important because it impacts a company's ability to achieve its goals. For example, customers influence the business's...

  2. Task Environment

    Task Environment of an organization is the environment which directly affects the organization from attaining business goals. In brief, Task Environment is the set of conditions originating from suppliers, distributors, customers, stock markets and competitors which directly affects the organization from achieving its goals.

  3. Internal and External Environment Factors of Organizational ...

    6 Elements of the Industry or Task environment Influence of Internal and Environment on Business Conclusion What is Organizational Environment? Every organization, whether business or non-business, has its environment. The organizational environment is always dynamic and ever-changing.

  4. 4.4 The Internal Organization and External Environments

    Some of the major sectors of a task environment include marketing, technology, government, financial resources, and human resources. Presently, several environmental domains that once were considered stable have become more complex and unstable—e.g., toys, public utilities, the U.S. Postal Service, and higher education.

  5. Organizational Environment: Types and Key Elements

    Task Environment The task environment includes sectors with which the organization interacts directly and that have a direct impact on the organization's ability to achieve its goals.

  6. What Is Task Analysis? Definition, How To and Examples

    The primary purpose of task analysis is to learn things like: How someone accomplishes their goals. The specific steps that someone takes to complete a task. The individual experience and skills that someone brings to completing a task. How the environment affects the person conducting the task. The person's mood and thoughts about the task.

  7. Organization Task Environments: Have they Changed ...

    Changes in three task environment dimensions—munificence, dynamism, and complexity—were assessed for manufacturing establishments in 45 established industries and 43 new industries. In analyses of both the established and new industries, all three environmental dimensions tended to decrease over time.

  8. 4.1 The Organization's External Environment

    The big picture of an organization's external environment, also referred to as the general environment, is an inclusive concept that involves all outside factors and influences that impact the operation of a business that an organization must respond or react to in order to maintain its flow of operations. 4 Exhibit 4.2 illustrates types of gene...

  9. External Components of Business Environment

    Competitors, suppliers, customers, regulators, strategic allies, etc. are the major components of the task environment. These components, directly and indirectly, influence business decisions from outside. They remain outside but very close to the organization. External Components of Business Environment | The Task Environment Competitors:

  10. Dimensions of Organizational Task Environments

    analysis was the organizational task environment, which in-cluded those elements that actively and directly cooperated and competed with the focal organization, as discussed by Starbuck (1976). This task environment mig ht have differed from that specified by Dill (1958) in that it excluded regulatory groups of an organization's environment ...

  11. Task Environment

    Marketing dictionary | T | Task Environment Task Environment Marketing dictionary Task Environment External environment of an organization which affects its ability to reach business goals. Any business or consumer with direct involvement with an organization may be part of the task environment.

  12. The effects of task environment and organizational agility on perceived

    This study aims to investigate the relationship between task environment, organizational agility, perceived managerial discretion and strategy implementation on unit performance.,Based on the literature review, a structural model was developed. A 74-item questionnaire was circulated among middle managers in sales and marketing.

  13. General Environment Definition & Analysis

    Elements in the broader society that influence a company and its business are what constitute a general environment. ... A company's task environment refers to an organization's ability to obtain ...

  14. Organization Task Environments: Have they Changed Fundamentally over

    Changes in three task environment dimensions—munificence, dynamism, and complexity—were assessed for manufacturing establishments in 45 established industries and 43 new industries. In analyses of both the established and new industries, all three environmental dimensions tended to decrease over time. Sample comparison, however, indicated ...

  15. Task Environment

    Age of Technology In the early craft shop environment, tasks were performed with humans controlling the process and providing the energy to perform the work. In the transition to mass production, people controlled the operation of machines directly but the energy was provided by another source such as electrical energy.

  16. Global Environment

    The two main components of the global environment are the general environment and task environments. The general environments are political, environmental, socio-cultural, technological, economic ...

  17. Uncertainty, task environment, and organization design: An empirical

    We use Prendergast's (2002a) framework as a platform for (1) understanding the relations among the various elements that comprise organization design and (2) analyzing the relationship between two measures of uncertainty - the task environment at the shop-floor level and income variability at the industry level - and organization design.

  18. Anatomy of a Task

    A task is a complete description of how to start and finish work in a given time to reach a goal. Tasks are usually an element of a project consisting of many small and large tasks. Not all tasks are equal. Some are simple and take a short time. Others are complex and need to be broken down into smaller tasks, assigned to multiple people, and ...

  19. Elements of Micro Environment

    The micro environment relates to the immediate periphery of an organization and directly influences the organization on a regular basis. Hence, it is also known as the task environment. It is important for an organization to monitor and analyze all the elements of its micro environment like customers, competitors etc.

  20. 8.5 The Internal Environment

    The internal environment consists of members of the firm itself, investors in the firm, and the assets a firm has. Employees and managers are good examples; they are firm members who have skills and knowledge that are valuable assets to their firms. Evaluating a firm's internal environment is not just a matter of counting heads, however.

  21. General Environment: 6 Factors That Influence Business

    Image description. Many forces can influence how a business performs in the marketplace. When considering strategic business decisions, organizations analyze the six general environmental forces. These forces, which spell out PESTEL, are categorized as (P)olitical, (E)conomic, (S)ociocultural, (T)echnology, (E)nvironment and (L)egal factors.

  22. What Is a Task Environment?

    An organization's task environment is the collection of factors that affects its ability to achieve goals. Common factors in the task environment include competitors, customers, suppliers and distributors. By identifying potential factors that could impede success, the organization has the ability to adapt. The number and quality of ...

  23. What is Specific Environment? Definition and meaning

    Definition: Specific Environment is the part of the external environment of an organization with which it interfaces in the course of conducting its business. Also called: Task Environment. The institutions, stakeholders and forces belonging to this group are directly relevant to the achievement of the organizational goals because they have direct and immediate impact on the decisions and ...

  24. An Analytical Review and Performance Measures of State-of-Art

    Task scheduling and resource utilization have always been among the most critical issues for high performance in heterogeneous computing. The heterogeneity of computation costs on a given set of computing elements and the communication costs among computing elements increase the complexity of the scheduling problem. Extensive research proves that the list-based task scheduling algorithms ...

  25. Chemical Found in Popular Cereals Could Cause Fertility Issues!

    The study found that roughly 80% of Americans are exposed to a chemical in oat-based foods such as Cheerios and Quaker Oats that could cause fertility issues, delayed puberty and fetal growth ...

  26. Navy vows to make maritime environment ...

    February 20, 2024. By. Matthew Atungwu. The Eastern Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy has vowed to make the nation's maritime corridor uncomfortable for criminal elements. The new Flag Officer ...