INSIGHTS ON ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Part 3: Organizational Environment and Uncertainty

The uncertainty in the company’s environment is a central question in the strategic management literature (Ansoff, 1975), being frequently associated to the turbulence, complexity and increasing pace of change managers must deal in their business contexts (Day, Schoemaker, 2006).

The increasing levels of turbulence, uncertainty and complexity of the organization’s environment are elements that have a deep impact on the scanning and intelligence systems and processes (Duncan, 1972, Ansoff, 1975, 1984, Hedberg et al., 1976; Daft et al., 1988).

The increasing level of turbulence in the competitive landscape of an increasing number of industries is something that has been widely studied in the strategic management literature (D’Aveni, 1994; Treacy, Wieserma, 1995; Day, 1997; Conner, 1998; Eisenhardt, Brown, 1999).

The turbulence in the business environment is attributed to an acceleration of the rate of change and to the sudden attributes associated to many of these changes, becoming more difficult the identification of the causes and the forecast of the consequences (Bower, Christensen, 1995; D’Aveni, 1994).

The search and research focused on an increasing amount of information regarding the…