This is an excellent example of HR Management's role being at every level of the strategic planning process.
At Peoples" Bank, "massive changes began to take place in the business environment of banking with deregulation and the relaxation of ceilings on interest". This affected what people actually did with their money and where they actually put their money; and these two factors affected the whole money market system of banking. This especially affected the competition between the different levels of banks (regional, district, and local) for various (but the same) sources of funds. In the US Navy, their environmental issue was mostly cost containment. "In the Navy's case the HR planners analyzed the labor cost savings of a strategy involving its civilian employees, which would substitute local wage policies for national wage policies" which are higher. The Navy basically began operating HR as a profit center to minimize incremental costs. At Ingersoll-Rand, the company was faced with the opportunity for improved productivity through changes in technology. Then at Maid Bess, the company had the environmental influence of intense foreign competition. .
The sum of the environmental factors that facilitated the actions and changes in each of the organizations was as follows:.
The rapid rate of business change; high uncertainty; rising costs; increasing competitive pressures on the bottom line; the legal environment; increasing demands for new skills through education and retraining; increasing multinational competition and collaborations; and all the rapid technological changes (which is a huge factor). All the new technology causes increased competition by providing vast amounts of market data. This data allows companies to quickly collect, analyze, and interpret changing and emerging customer needs. This affects the rate of business change. Technology also changes the way the work is done; this increases demands for new skills through education and retraining.
