[Solution] Step 2: How Organizations Adapt to Their Environment

Organizations adapt to changes in the environment chiefly in six ways:

• Information management means getting information about the environment. Organizations use boundary spanners (i.e., someone who has contacts with people outside the organization) and conduct environmental scanning to gather information, and they use information systems to organize information.
• A strategic response may involve choosing to continue doing the same thing, changing course a little, or radically altering the strategy.
• In a merger, two or more organizations combine. In an acquisition, one organization buys another. In an alliance or a partnership, the two organizations maintain separate identities but choose to work together toward a common goal.
• Through organization design and flexibility, an organization may get rid of many of its rules and begin allowing managers more latitude to act on their own discretion so that they can respond quickly to environmental change.
• Direct influence occurs when an organization leverages its strengths to influence the environment to its advantage. For example, it might purchase a supplier to ensure access to materials, market more aggressively to customers, or lobby lawmakers or bargain with government agencies to gain a more favorable environment.
• Social responsibility is the organization's sense of obligation to protect and improve the society in which it operates.