Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

Chapter 2.2 External Relations Management
Role of environment
As an open system, an organization can only live as part of a certain environment and in a process
of continuous exchange – receiving from the outside corresponding resources and delivering back
products and waste. Any organization is an element of its environment and must align with the
environment in order to survive. Thus, any speculation about how an organization should look or
what it should do is senseless without due consideration of the specific environment in which it
operates.
An organization is built from elements available in the environment. It should be designed in such a
way that it uses specific resources available in the environment, and delivers certain products that
are in demand in the environment. The shape and structure of any organization reflect the
environment – the optimal structure is the one that fits the environment best. Even a drop of water
can reflect the world. Assuming that an organization is doing ‘right’ things in the ‘right’ way – but
looking only at the organization itself - it may be possible to reconstruct the environment that might
surround it. If the picture does not match the real environment – then something is wrong.
In 2003, the author visited the so-called ‘customer service centres of some Serbian local
government institutions. They were extremely well-equipped with modern computers, and were
mostly doing only one job – issuing local inhabitants certificates that prove these people still have
the same names; this proof was needed every three months to be eligible for any official
transaction. To issue these certificates, the local governments requested that any interested citizen
come personally, wait in line, apply with a hand-written form, and submit a passport showing their
name. It was difficult to understand for whom these ‘service centres’ were designed. Not for local
people, of course. They knew their names, and had passports to prove their names. Locals were
definitely not the clients. Somebody else needed all of these arrangements.
What an organization is doing and for whom, how it is organized or uses resources, with which it
cooperates, etc. - is to a great extent determined by the environment. Any freedom of choice inside
an organization is restricted by the requirements and limitations of the environment. That is why
the design and construction of any organization starts from considering the outside world – it
should be created to be successful in this particular world, not in another one.
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