Environmental Elements That Can Affect Operations of the Company - Case Study Example

The paper "Environmental Elements That Can Affect Operations of the Company" is a brilliant example of a term paper on management. The company has several considerations to make about elements in the immediate internal and external environment that will affect its operations. From the internal sector of the company, the first element is the top management. This especially lies with the direct order that was given by the president of the company Janet Deason (Wayne & Mondy, 2012). It is very practical that even in times of recession; the interests of the company must always be put first in which case profit levels must be maintained high. Without being considered incompetent, the top management always has the legitimate right to look for ways of cutting down on the costs and making a realizable profit.

The second internal factor is the group of employees. The plan is to lay off workers in terms of their seniority levels. This is important as there has to be a determination on who is to be laid off and who remains. Some employees make a big mark on the company and laying them off would be a retrogressive step.

The third internal group is the stakeholder group. These are the owners of the company and directly determine to a high level the management decisions made.

From the external environment, there is the worker’s union. These are always in a hurry to protect as many jobs as possible and the human resource manager is aware of that. Lack of consideration of this group would lead to an industrial action that would in any way turn out wrong for the company.

The second external element is the government and its regulations. There are always laws that regulate employment and laying-off of workers. The HRM manager is concerned that civic leaders and government officials would like to know the steps being taken to minimize the harm to the public. This was equally legitimate.

The third element is the community itself. It is already known that the community is a low-income zone and the company employs around 30% of the people around. Without considering the social responsibility to these people in economic terms, the step would put the entire community against the company.

A fourth external element is a group of competitors. The HRM manager is aware that if they do not lay off workers, they would be forced to increase the prices of their products to remain profitable. However, increasing the price even by 2% or 3% would lead to the company losing its customers.

The last and most important element to consider is the state of the economy. Recession is not a positive aspect of any industry and tough decisions have to be made for the profits of the company to remain leveraged.

Shareholders and their Interests
It is true that Scott needs to consider the interest of the shareholders to the company. Shareholders are very important people and are part owners of the company in which case they provide the capital to run it. The majority of shareholders are people who are those that practically own the company and have the greatest influence on decisions made in the company. If the management considers the plight of the workers, the shareholders are bound to lose more as far as their investment is concerned. They are however always concerned about the returns on their investments (Cooper & Burke, 2011). If the management considers the plight of the shareholders, then employees will have to be laid off and consider a long term operation of the company since shareholders would still be willing to fund future projects by investing more capital.