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Environmental School of Thought Essay

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According to Mintzberg, the environmental school of thought is a strategy dealing with the forces outside the organization. Unlike the other schools in his book, Strategy Safari, the environment plays a central role in the strategy formation process alongside leadership and the organization where the organization becomes subordinate to the external environment. The environmental school assumptions are that during the formative period of the organization the company shapes itself in response to the environment, but after that period is increasingly unable to respond to the environment. Moreover, the organization long term survival depends on the early choices made during its formative period. Over time, Mintzberg states, leadership becomes …show more content…

Hostility is influenced by competition, by the organization's relationships with unions, government, and other outside groups as well as by the availability of resources to it. The contingency theory figured out a set of responses to the four dimensions mostly about structure and later about strategy.
The second view in the environmental school of thought is the Population Ecology view. Followers of this view believe that the basic structure and character of an organization is fixed shortly after its creation where early action of managers in areas of investments, equipment, and personnel create passivity for future actions. The theory is viewing the organizations in terms of their collective behavior but the organizations' individual survival depends on their ability to acquire an adequate supply and resources. According to the population ecology view, each environment has a finite amount of resources which they refers to as ”fixed carrying capacity” where in a rapidly growing new industry, carrying capacity might support most existing organizations but already in the maturity stage, the carrying capacity may decline and the demand for products will decreases. In such cases, organizations should hold resources in reserve for future emergencies.
The third view dealing with the environment is the institutional view which refers to the pressures an organization faces in its

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