Managing the External Environment: Strategic Perspectives

Bringing together contributions from both within and outside the mangement field, this volume focuses on the strategic management of an organization's relationship with its external environment. What are the key environmental changes likely to affect an organization's future? How can the impact of these be analyzed and understood? What is the role of strategic environmental analysis in both anticipating change and proactively creating a desired future? It is with questions such as these that the book is concerned. The first section addresses the need to "contemplate and engage with" the future, examining the issues, the processes, and te management skills and attitudes invloved. The second section then looks at four major domains of environmental analysis - the economic, the political, the socio-cultural and the technological. Contributors explore such themes as the significance for organizations of activist groups, the impacts of national and cross-national governmental interventions, the management of technological change, and key trends in socio-cultural change within Western consumer cultures. Throughout, the emphasis is upon presenting different but complementary "angles of vision" on aspects of environmental change that carry significant ramifications for most organizations. The final section of the book returns to the theme of futures analysis and considers various approaches to strategic planning that address the implications of long-term environmental change.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Exploring the future - management in the 21st century, Spyros Makridakis; proactive management, Gareth Morgan; megamarketing, Philip Kotler; from forecasting to "La Prospective" - a new way of looking at futures, Michel Godet; groupthink, Irving L. Janis. Part 2 Environmental analysis - the economic environment; the modern corporation - origins, evolution, attributes, Oliver E. Williamson; the political environemtn; growth activist groups - how can business cope?, Arion N. Pattakos; the transformation of A T and T, Carol Kennedy; the strategic implications of Europe 1992, Herman Daems; relative deprivation and the concept of reference groups, W.G. Runciman; the social environment; the expressive revolution, Bernice Martin; after the masses, Dick Hebdige; some remarks on informal work, social polarization and the social structure, R.E. Phal; lifestyle and consumer culture, Mike Featherstone; the technological environment; toward a new industrial America, Suzanne Berger, et al; time - the next source of competitive advantage, George Stalk Jr. Part 3 Developing strategy - scenarios - shotting the rapids, Pierre Wack; strategic leadership through corporate planning at ICI, Alan I.H. Pink; strategic planning - which style do you need?, Bernard Taylor; ethical managers make their own rules, Sir Adrian Cadbury.