8607-507 Understanding the Organisational Environment

Unit Overview

8607-507 Understanding the Organisational Environment is a unit within the ILM Level 5 qualification in leadership and management that helps the learner to improve the understanding of organisational context. The organisational environment is an important aspect to consider when setting up critical activities and practices. It influences the goal-setting process by creating the need and urgency to ensure the organisation is able to maximise its performance within its immediate organisational environment or context.

The organisational environment is categorised as both internal and external environment, which involves those factors that are within the influence of the organisation and those that the organisation cannot change, and this impacts the process of running and managing the organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. 8607-507 Understanding the Organisational Environment addresses the external environment of the organisation to ensure the leaders can understand the role that they should play in strategically placing the organisation to meet its obligations within the market.

8607-507 Understanding the Organizational Environment is a unit that has the aim of developing knowledge and understanding of the macro environment of the organisation. This is important knowledge for middle managers who make operational decisions. The unit is taught in both virtual learning environments as well as in classroom settings. This unit is taught in 24 hours of guided learning and contributes 5 credit values towards the completion of the ILM Level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

Suitability of the Unit

Leaders within different ranks of the organisation should ensure they develop the relevant levels of understanding of the organisation's environment. This helps them to effectively fulfil their mandates and roles within the organisation, which involves ensuring the organisation is productive within its context. Due to the significance of understanding the organisation environment, 8607-507 Understanding the Organizational Environment is a unit that is highly suitable for leaders within the organisation. It helps them to scrutinise the environment and develop strategies within their levels of operation which influence the performance of the organisation.

The unit helps to build techniques and theoretical understanding of the models that can be used to achieve the desired levels of influence over the organisation to ensure it suits in its immediate environment.8607-507 Understanding the Organizational Environment is designed to meet the learning needs of managers. These are leaders within the organisation tasked with managing practices in departments. regions or lines of the organisation. They oversee a larger scope of operation and the market in general.

As such, these leaders need effective mastery of strategies that they can use to achieve the desired levels of performance. The unit is also suited to other leaders within the organisation. Executive managers can use the information within the unit to develop effective strategic level decisions, while the junior managers and team leaders can improve their professional practice within their teams and units. Employees can also pursue this unit to improve their professional and personal competence hence boosting their impact on organisational performance.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Conduct a PESTL analysis of their organisations

• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of using PESTLE as a strategic diagnostic tool for analysing the external environment of other organisation

• Understand the impact of an economic factor that has been derived from the PESTLE analysis on the organisation

• Assess how one political factor from the PESTLE analysis affects the organisation

• Assess the impact of one legal factor from the PESTLE analysis on the organisation

Key Learning Areas

8607-507 Understanding the Organizational Environment focuses on building the understanding of different macro environmental factors that could impact the organisation. The unit, therefore, covers the wide array of factors that could impact the performance of the organisation based on factors and issues that the organisation cannot control. Some of the main areas of learning include:

Macro-Environment Analysis

This area of learning focuses on understanding t eh basic concepts and principles associated with conducting an effective external environment analysis. The learners are taught methods of conducting PESTLE analysis that improve the performance of their organisations. Learners are also taught to understand interventions that can be put in place to create strategic approaches and provide access to information that facilitates conducting macro-environment analysis.

Political and Economic Factors

This area of learning examines a combination of the political and economic factors in play within the external environment of the organisation and how they affect the organisation in general. The learners are taught to understand factors such as inflation, unemployment, trade cycles and exchange rates which are important economic factors. Within the organisation, competition is critical lain, shaping the practice and activities as companies must strive to achieve a level of competitive advantage.

The learners are guided within this unit to understand competition and its impact on the organisation. Political factors that the learners are taught include fiscal, monetary and legal policies, as well as the international policies that impact the organisation, such as Brexit policies. Learners are taught to understand the impact of economics and politics on the organisation.

Legal Environment

This area of learning covers the understanding of the legal systems within the UK that could impact the performance and practices within the organisation. It includes understanding the common law. Sources of law and statutes/ doctrines of precedence within the legal systems. The learners are also guided to understand the sanctions, enforcement and administration of the law within their areas of practice. Collective employment law is important for organisations, and leaders are taught of the specific impacts of trade unions, membership rights and recognition in influencing the development of strategies within their areas of operation. In this area of learning, European law and directives that have an impact on the UK law form an important part. These include aspects such as contract law, breach of contract and international trade law.

Evaluation

Upon completion of the unit, the learners are required to complete a written assessment that determines the mastery of theory and practice based on the concepts learned within the unit. Simulated exercises and supervised practice are also used as formative forms of assessment to determine the practical application of the learned concepts.