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Environmental Scan
Conduct an environmental scan and write an assessment in which you focus on both the internal and external factors that could affect your success within your chosen industry.
Introduction
An environmental scan allows you to identify the trends (technical, social, political, economic, and so on), issues, and other factors that are most likely to affect a given industry, thereby helping you determine a strategy for dealing with potential changes.
After an organization has completed a SWOT analysis, it will carefully monitor both the internal and external environments to detect signs of opportunities and threats that could affect current and future plans. This environmental scanning can help an organization identify trends that are most likely to affect the industry, thereby allowing the development of a strategy for change. The right information, at the right time, can determine the future of an organization.
Note: Developing a strategic plan requires specific steps that need to be executed in a sequence. The assessments in this course are presented in order and should be completed in sequence.
Conduct an environmental scan in which you focus on both the internal and external factors that could affect your success within your chosen industry. Include in your scan responses to the following. Be sure to use the information from your SWOT analysis to explain how you will address both the internal and external issues.
- Internal Factors: What specific things do you need to do in order to achieve the position you would like to have? In other words, what do you need to do to climb the corporate ladder in your industry?
- External Factors: Examine the state of the current market or industry. What issues currently exist? How might these issues influence the future state of the industry? How will these issues affect your long-term and short-term goals?
To successfully complete this assessment, you may need to do some research on conducting an environmental scan. Format this assessment as a research paper following current APA guidelines for both style and citing sources, making sure that you also use correct grammar and mechanics. There is no required minimum or maximum page length; however, you should strive to be as detailed as possible in addressing each bullet point, while also being as clear and concise as possible.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies:
- Competency 3: Communicate effectively.
- Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.
- Competency 4: Plan strategically.
- Describe strategies to use SWOT analysis to improve competitive advantage.
- Competency 5: Employ high-performance business management techniques.
- Analyze strengths to determine competitive advantages.
- Analyze opportunities that may be leveraged for competitive advantage.
- Analyze threats to competitive advantage.
- Competency 6: Solve problems within professional standards.
- Analyze weaknesses to determine areas for improvement.
Learning Organizations
Summarize three scholarly articles about learning organizations and use the information in the articles to describe different aspects of learning organizations.
Introduction
Like people, healthy organizations “learn.” An organization becomes a “learning organization” when it develops processes, systems, and human resources that are capable of sharing knowledge, continuously innovating, and benefitting from mistakes and failures as well as successes. This process leads to a corporate mindset of continuous improvement—always striving for perfection along the way, understanding that perfection is a state which will never be fully achieved.
What is the relationship between strategy and structure in designing a high-performance organization? The strategy will determine whether the structure is oriented toward functions, products, markets, geographies, or work processes. High-performing learning organizations have emerging designs that help connect structures of relationships and flows of information that allow them to evolve and transform, reinventing themselves for long-term sustainability.
To prepare for this assessment, use the Capella library to search for articles using the exact term learning organizations. Select at least three scholarly articles to use in this assessment.
For this assessment, complete the following:
- Briefly summarize each of the three articles you selected and explain why you selected each article.
- Use the information presented in the articles to address the following:
- Explain what a learning organization is.
- Describe at least three ways that an organization might “learn.”
- Describe the benefits of an organization being a learning organization.
- Describe any disadvantages to an organization being a learning organization.
Format this assessment as a research paper following current APA guidelines for style and citing sources, making sure you also use correct grammar and mechanics. There is no required minimum or maximum page length; however, you should strive to be as detailed as possible in addressing each part and bullet point while being as clear and concise as possible.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
- Competency 1: Analyze the historical perspectives of the study of organizational structure and design and its applications in today’s world.
- Explain the meaning of “learning organization.”
- Competency 2: Analyze the impact of learning and performance in organizational structures.
- Describe the ways an organization can learn.
- Describe the benefits of being a learning organization.
- Describe disadvantages of being a learning organization.
SWOT Analysis
Conduct an environmental scan and write an assessment in which you focus on both the internal and external factors that could affect your success within your chosen industry.
Introduction
After an organization has completed a SWOT analysis, it will carefully monitor both the internal and external environments to detect signs of opportunities and threats that could affect current and future plans. This environmental scanning can help an organization identify trends that are most likely to affect the industry, thereby allowing the development of a strategy for change. The right information, at the right time, can determine the future of an organization.
Note: Developing a strategic plan requires specific steps that need to be executed in a sequence. The assessments in this course are presented in order and should be completed in sequence.
Conduct a personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. In your analysis, consider the following:
Strengths
- What advantages do you have that others do not (skills, education, experience, certifications)?
- What achievements are you most proud of?
- What do you do better than anyone else?
- What do you think others would see as your strengths?
- Do you have special connections that others may not have?
- What personal resources do you have available?
Be sure to consider how others see you—not just how you see yourself.
Weaknesses
- Are there tasks you avoid doing because you do not feel confident doing them?
- Do you have any negative work habits (often late, disorganized, easily stressed)?
- Do you feel confident about your skills, experience, and education?
- Do you have any personality traits that might hold you back? For example, do you have a fear of public speaking, yet work where you are expected to conduct regular meetings?
Again, consider how others see you.
Opportunities
- Do you have a network of influential contacts that can help or offer advice?
- Is there a need in your company or industry that no one else has been able to fill?
- Are there trends in your company that you can use to your advantage?
- Can you offer solutions to problems within your company?
Threats
- What kind of obstacles are you facing at work?
- Are there co-workers/colleagues competing with you for positions or projects?
- Has the nature of your job changed?
- Does technology pose a threat to your position?
- Do any of your weaknesses pose a threat?
- What threats to your overall plan are there?
Once you have completed your SWOT analysis, identify strategies that you can use to capitalize on your strengths and open up opportunities, and address ways you can minimize areas of weakness and eliminate threats. Consider asking a trusted peer or friend to review your SWOT analysis and provide you with honest feedback. Analyze the feedback you receive and include that analysis in your assessment. Were there aspects of the feedback that surprised you?
To successfully complete this assessment, you may need to do some research on writing a SWOT analysis. Format this assessment as a research paper following current APA guidelines for both style and citing sources, making sure that you also use correct grammar and mechanics. There is no required minimum or maximum page length; however, you should strive to be as detailed as possible in addressing each bullet point, while also being as clear and concise as possible.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies:
- Competency 3: Communicate effectively.
- Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.
- Competency 4: Plan strategically.
- Describe strategies to use SWOT analysis to improve competitive advantage.
- Competency 5: Employ high-performance business management techniques.
- Analyze strengths to determine competitive advantages.
- Analyze opportunities that may be leveraged for competitive advantage.
- Analyze threats to competitive advantage.
- Competency 6: Solve problems within professional standards.
- Analyze weaknesses to determine areas for improvement.