Internal & External Factors of Management

Internal & External Factors Internal and external factors have a large impact on the four functions of management within an organization. What these factors are and the kind of impact they have depends on the business and its particular goals. McDonald’s goal is reflected in its mission statement which is to “be our customers’ favorite place and way to eat” (McDonalds, 2009). In order to achieve this goal, McDonald’s executives and managers must follow the four functions of management which are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (Bateman and Snell, 2009). They must also understand how internal and external factors impact these functions. Internal factors that McDonald’s managers need to consider include the amount of food to be sold, the number of employees working at any given time, and the customer base of the restaurants. For example, if the company had a goal of selling two million hamburgers a day but only had enough meat for one million hamburgers, then that would mean the goal would not be met. To avoid this type of situation, managers must be sure to order enough supplies to meet the demands of customers and goals of the company. The same is true for the number of employees working at a given time. This involves the functions of planning and organization. The functions of leading and controlling are impacted by the staff and their work ethics. Quality staff members who have good work ethics make it easy for managers to control the way in which goals are met. External factors that can impact the four management functions may include environmental disasters, loss of power, and social responsibility. McDonald’s managers need to be able to plan for situations where it may be difficult or even impossible to serve customers. For instance, if there was a power outage to the restaurant, how would the customers get their meals? The manager would need to plan for whether the store would close temporarily or get a generator so that customers can