include competition; economic conditions; physical environment; political and legal atmosphere; socio-economic characteristics; sociocultural elements; population distribution; infrastructure; technological conditions; workforce composition and education of the population (1998: 4). Once an organization could essentially ignore environmental forces but Wood et al. states now an effective organizational design reflects the powerful external forces (1998: 417).Organizations need to know their environment in order to recognize and take advantage of the opportunities it offers, to recognize the constraints it imposes and to seek to turn the constraints into opportunities (Dawson, 1992: 80). To Know their environment organizations must engage in environmental scanning, described by Robbins et al. as the screening of much information to detect emerging trends and create scenarios (2000: 311). Robbins et al. argues that organizations have to pay special attention to the part of the environment that is directly relevant to the achievement of an organizations goals, defined as the specific environment (2000: 102).In Images of Organizations Morgan states as we move into the 21st century we find ourselves living through a period of unprecedented change (1997: 375). Environmental uncertainty, defined by Robbins et al. as the degree of change and complexity in an organizations environment, (2000: 103) must be having an effect on organizations. Theodore Levitt (in Wong et al., 1998: 239) stated his article in the May-June 1983 edition of the Harvard Business Review that two vectors shape the world technology and globalisation. Since Levitt published his article, the development of technology and the growth of globalisation have increased at such astonishing rates that free-thinkers such as Levitt wouldnt have imagined the world as it is today.Globalisation is defined by Ryan et al. as a process occurring in the economic, political, and social...
