Driving forces affecting

organizations

Omar Danish
Strategic Management Course

Driving forces affecting organizations

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Abstract
There are a complex set of key forces that affect organizational behaviour
today. These key forces are classified into four areas- People, Structure,
Technology, and Environment. There is an interaction of people, structure,
and technology and these elements are influenced by the environment.

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Introduction
Every organization has different structure. Those structures created as achieved
organization goal. There are things, situations, events etc. that occur within an
organization that affect the way an organization operates , either in positive way or
negative way. These things, situations, events that affect the way an organization operates
are called driving forces. These driving forces can be illustrate under 2 umbrellas:

Internal driving forces.

External driving forces.

The external driving forces are those factors that occur outside of the company that
cause change inside organizations and are, for the most part, beyond the control of the
company. Customers, competition, the economy, technology, political and social
conditions, and resources are common external factors that influence the organization.
Even though the external environment occurs outside of an organization, it can have a
significant influence on its current operations, growth, and long-term sustainability.
Ignoring external forces can be a detrimental mistake for managers to make. As such, it is
imperative that managers continually monitor and adapt to the external environment,
working to make proactive changes earlier on rather than having to take a reactive
approach, which can lead to a vastly different outcome.
The internal driving forces of an organization refers to events, factors, people, systems,
structures, and conditions inside the organization that are generally under the control of
the company. The company's mission statement, organizational culture, and style of
leadership are factors typically associated with the internal environment of an
organization. As such, it is the internal environment that will influence organizational
activities, decisions, and employee behavior and attitudes. Changes in the leadership
style, the organization's mission, or culture can have a considerable impact on the
organization.
Let us discuss some of the driving forces Internally and Externally that affecting the
organization structure and strategy towards the market.

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Technology
Technology provides the resources with which people work. They cannot accomplish
work with their bare hands. The great benefit of technology is that it allows people
to do more and better work. But it also restricts people in various ways. It has cost
as well as benefits. If any person has lack of technological knowledge he/she cannot
work. Moreover technology decrease per unit cost and improve quality of the
products and services.

In today's competitive environment, successfully adopting and implementing technological

innovations is a necessity for organizational survival. Organizations are under intense pressure to
adopt technological innovations due to financial and technological factors. At the same time,
organizations are influenced by organizational and individual factors which restrain their ability
to implement technological innovations.
Organizations require to learn how to manage the innovation process. Technological
capabilities provide new products, change existing ones, and create a core
competence. Improving the reliability and quality of goods and services is an
important capability. Organizations may need to restructure to achieve the benefits
of new technology.

Different organization apply different technology as per how the standard of their pre-determine
goal. Now a day, day to day different and more powerful technology comes in the market. So,
one competitor organization follow the latest technology then the another competitors must be
follow the latest technology. If they don't follow, then their profitable ratio comes to down and
their customers also reduce and they attracted to the competitors. For Example, in the past we
communicate to each other with letter. We written letter and send in the letter box. Then after two
or three days receiver receive the letter. After the time, the new technology came and we
communicate with the telephone. Then after came the mobile phone we dial a number and
communicate with each other by the voice. For Example, Nokia Mobile Phone Company launch
their new mobile phone with camera and video recorder. So, competitors of Nokia Mobile Phone
Company also apply camera and video recorder in the mobile. If they don't apply it, then
customers attract only for Nokia phone. So, all mobile phone company follow this technology
and they become a competitor to the each other.

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Sharing Economy
An emerging, highly flexible economic network known as the sharing economy
allows people to share resources (such as equipment, services, and skills) with one
another, often at significantly lower cost than traditional retail or employment
arrangements. Many product-sharing transactions involve renters paying a fee to
product owners through an online platform, reaping several inherent benefits to the
consumer-to-consumer system, profits for the product owner, lower costs for the
user and benefits to the environment.

Trust, convenience and a sense of community are all factors in pushing adoption of the sharing
economy forward. Thanks to consumer willingness to try mobile apps, there are lower barriers to
entry when it comes to building brands and scaling up quickly. The innovation clock is now set
to fast-pace, and will get even faster as consumers become more trusting of relationships tied to
social sentiment and communities of users.
The sharing economy has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. Platforms such as
Airbnb and Uber are experiencing explosive growth, which, in turn, has led to regulatory and
political battles. Boosters claim the new technologies will yield utopian outcomes, empowerment
of ordinary people, efficiency, and even lower carbon footprints. Critics denounce them for being
about economic self-interest rather than sharing, and for being predatory and exploitative. Not
surprisingly, the reality is more complex. While the for-profit companies may be acting badly,
these new technologies of peer-to-peer economic activity are potentially powerful tools for
building a social movement centered on genuine practices of sharing and cooperation in the
production and consumption of goods and services. But achieving that potential will require
democratizing the ownership and governance of the platforms (Juliet Schor, 2014).

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Connectivity
Connectivity is a very important tool for the communication through or inside the organization
and outside also. The connectivity technology is very boosting last years, and organizations must
go through and to be updated with those new technologies to be able to develop its business
process and productivity.
Also the connectivity here from my point of view is the communication between employees and
departments inside the organizations. How the organization handles these kind of communication
to serve its strategy.
There is another connectivity expression is the connectivity between organizations. Now
organizations should cooperate together to face the market risk. For example: there is trend in the
last few years that the companies and organizations can communicate and integrate through their
systems to serve each others business process flow to be more just on time and take more
accurate decisions towards the demanding risks of the market.
All organizations operate within an internal and an external environment. A single
organization does not exit alone. An organization is a part of a lager system that
contains many other elements, such as government, the family and other
organizations. Any kinds of change in the environment effect the organization.
Citizens expect organizations should be socially responsible. There is a direct impact
of several tread unions of organizations

Globalization
Globalization is a leading concept which has become the main factor in business life during the
last few decades. This phenomenon affects the economy, business life, society and environment
in different ways, and almost all corporations have been affected by these changes. These
changes are mostly related to increasing competition and the rapid changes of technology and
information transfer. To challenge these changes, companies need to keep in mind various
aspects of the main effects of globalization.

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Globalization leads to increased competition. This competition can be related to product and
service cost and price, target market, technological adaptation, quick response, quick production
by companies etc. When a company produces with less cost and sells cheaper, it is able to
increase its market share.
Customers have a large multitude of choices in the market and this affects their behaviors, they
want to acquire goods and services quickly and in a more efficient way than before. They also
expect high quality and low prices. All these expectations need a response from the company,
otherwise sales of company will decrease and they will lose profit and market share. A company
must always be ready for price, product and service and customer preferences because all of
these are global market requirements.
Globalization has drawn every nation into a single economic system, and through social
media, many of us are now participating in a mediated social system as well. As a result,
every companys strategy must address a globalized market in which increasing numbers
of people are participating in social and business communities that transcend national
boundaries.
The power and impact of globalization means that its essential for every company to
understand the current and future impacts of worldwide trends on operations, to develop a
globalization strategy to optimize learning opportunities through exposure to various
markets around the world, and perhaps also to extend its reach to new customers. As
customer communities are also global, no large company can hope operate successfully
without addressing global markets.

Sustainability energy
Energy is the most big and important issue in the economy and business. The industrial
revolutions started and set out with energy. After the oil takes place, and its price is related to the
global economy and its stability. Wars held between countries because of the black gold. But
the oil price isnt stable, in this 2 years its in his lower costs, after it will boost again for sure.

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If CEOs arent focused like a laser beam on energy trends and on figuring out how
those trends might affect their corporate bottom lines they should be. Truth be
told, more and more executives are locked in on the energy market and are
promising to leverage that market to improve sustainability at their firms.

The renewable energy is the future, as every country now make all the effort to change its usage
from oil to the renewable energy. Australia for example took a decision that it will be the first
country to implement the renewable energy and it will become all green at 2050.
The development of renewable energy resources supports economies, creates jobs,
and moves countries toward a cleaner, more reliable energy future.

Knowledge economy
A knowledge-based economy relies primarily on the use of ideas rather than physical abilities
and on the application of technology rather than the transformation of raw materials or the
exploitation of cheap labor. It is an economy in which knowledge is created, acquired,
transmitted, and used more effectively by individuals, enterprises, organizations, and communities to promote economic and social development. Knowledge can either be codified and
written down or tacit and in peoples heads.
The knowledge economy is transforming the demands of the labor market in economies
throughout the world. In industrial countries, where knowledge-based industries are expanding
rapidly, labor market demands are changing accordingly. Where new technologies have been
introduced, demand for high-skilled workers, particularly high-skilled information and
communication technology (ICT) workers, has increased. At the same time, demand for lowerskilled workers has declined.
Information is a most expensive and valuable production factor in the current environment.
Information can be easily transferred and exchanged from one country to another. If a company
have a chance to use knowledge and information then it means that it can adapt to this global
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changing. This issue is similar with the technology transfer issue in global markets. The rapid
changing of the market requires also quick transfer of knowledge and efficient using of that
knowledge and information.
Conclusion
Any organization is an open system between itself and its external environment up to a series of
relationships that influence each other. Organization influence the external environment
primarily through its products and services, but also that it is socially responsible, is geared to
various relationships with other organizations make their mark on the social community to which
they belong. In turn, the external environment affecting the organization's work available in
market information, input supply, the looming trends, new organizational and managerial
changes.
Organizations must be updated and developed with the new technologies, keep growing the
internal knowledge and information, be more connected and opened to face market risks.

Reference
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World Bank
Forbes
UK Essays
Langdon Morris (Serialized Books, The Innovation Master Plan)
Alexander, K, & Alexander, M. D. (2009). American public school law (7 th ed.). Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Juliet B. Schor et al., Paradoxes of Openness and Distinction in the Sharing Economy,
Unpublished paper, Boston College, 2014.
Baojun Jiang, Lin Tian. Collaborative Consumption: Strategic and Economic
Implications of Product Sharing. SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015; DOI:

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