Outside Factors of Influence

Within my current place of employment there numerous factors that affect management decisions. Through my work at the YMCA we are constantly evaluating and adapting to the needs of our members, the community at large and the schools in our community. As a membership organization we have to be aware of cultural and economical influences that may factor in to the programs and services that we offer. We are also a seasonally affected organization whether it is sports season, weather seasons or school schedules.

When our managers are planning for our fitness programs the season of year must be considered. An outdoor walking program during January in Ohio will not be well attended. While the factors may determine our goals they don't always have to determine how we act upon those goals. Our plan of action for our sports programs are determined by the resources we have available to us and how best to use them. In this way our managers find ways to organize fro the best results. How our managers lead the organization can be influenced by outside influences in that the motivation for why we are developing a program may be in its benefit to those it serves. The most difficult piece to handle of the outside influence can be the controlling of our managers. Our progress as an organization affects so many, outside of employees, that making corrective decisions has to be in a way to have the least negative impact while doing it quick enough to not cause any more problems.

External factors are going to have some influence on an organizations decisions with more or less influence depending on the type of organization. I believe external factors should be given weight in managerial decision making depending on how relevant they are to the decision. The fine line to walk is not letting outside factors have so much influence to the point where it leads to bad business decisions being made. If this starts to occur it may to time to re-evaluate the direction of the organization and why the outside influences are having so much influence on the company.