The environment of an organization has a huge impact on organizational performance. A primary concern for all organizational managers is obtaining the necessary resources and clients in a timely and efficient manner. The distribution of organizational factors, that is, those individuals, groups or organizations that buy the goods or services of the organization, provide raw materials, new technologies, capital, labor, information and competition, will greatly affect the functioning of an organization. . Managers have the opportunity to respond to environmental factors in a variety of ways. Efforts related to changing organizational activities are called adaptation. Administrators can also choose to control factors by establishing favorable links with them or by influencing their activities.
Depending on the circumstances of the organization, managers can choose to adapt the organization, control the environment, or both. The decision to adapt the organization or control the environment will depend on the domains in which the factors are located. For example, a shoe manufacturer can adapt to the style demands of customers by gathering information on consumer tastes in footwear. At the same time, the company can put pressure on Congress to restrict the importation of shoes from abroad.
Organizational adaptation implies that part or all of the organization is transformed to make its activities more compatible with existing conditions. The greater the amount of uncertainty that arises from the environment, the greater the need for managers to seek a variety of ways to adapt the organization.
To be successful when there is a lot of uncertainty, managers must develop strategies and structures to protect the technical core of the organization. The technical core is the internal operations of an organization, which must be performed in a predictable and orderly manner to be efficient. Therefore, mechanisms must be established that will “isolate” the technical core from environmental factors that may disrupt the internal operations of the organization. These mechanisms can be seen as coping strategies because they are designed to deal with uncertainties. The five coping strategies are buffering, smoothing, forecasting, rationing, and pushing boundaries.