Environmental Scanning and Its Application in Community Safety Partnerships - Case Study Example

St Student Name: xxxx Tutor: xxxx Title: Environmental Scanning and Its Application in Community Safety Partnerships Date: xxxx ©2016 Introduction In today’s world, rapid changes take place that have adverse effects on individuals in various ways. The potential major change in my area is climate change. With the rise in number of industries and manufacturing plants, increasing human population and the use of environment depleting and polluting technology, environmental degradation is becoming a major issue not only in my country but worldwide (Council C.C, 2012). Climate change can have both negative and positive effects depending on the area in which it is applied. In some countries climate change has resulted in an increase in food supply, improved living standards and general economic growth of the country. In most countries however, climate change has had negative adverse effects such as: landslides, floods, hurricanes, and destruction of infrastructure, increased cases of insecurity, poor technology and poverty due to decreased food supply. It is clear that the negative effects of climate change outweigh the positive effects by far. Environmental Scanning and Its Application in Community Safety Partnerships My major point of interest is the effect of climate change on food security and in turn poverty and security levels. When climate change does not favor food production, the amount of food is likely to decrease and this causes a chain of negative consequences with the most threatening being the increase of crime in the community (Berry et. al, 2011). Food is a basic need and the shortage of it forces people to get it by all means possible. For instance, if a family lacks food, the parents will do anything in their power to put food on the table for the family. This causes an increase in crime rates in the community. Crime is usually caused by a number of factors such as: the drive for profit, drug addiction, parental neglect and poverty. Some people are at a higher risk of becoming criminals because of the circumstances into which they are born. Out of all this causes shortage of food due to climate change still remains a major cause of crime. The costs and effects of crime touch about everyone to some degree. The economic and social effects of crime include: it creates fear in people, loss of valuables and jobs, due to the result of crime in the community, the property ladder and house prices decrease because no one wants to live in a high crime rate area, loss of profits by businesses, increase in tax rates so as to mitigate the cost of crime and the general lack of trust among community members (Weisburd et. al, 2016). Environmental scanning is the acquisition of information on the trends, patterns and relationships between the organization and the internal and external environment surrounding it. The environment must be scanned so as to establish the factors that might affect the organization’s success and how such factors can be avoided. Scanning should be able to identify the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the organization faces. In planning and strategy formulation, an organization must maximize on the opportunities and try as much as possible to minimize the threat. Both Internal and external scanning of the environment surrounding the organization are important. In internal environmental scanning, the major concern is on the observance of internal organizational environment. This includes employee interaction with other employees, employee interaction with management, manager interaction with other managers, and management interaction with shareholders, access to natural resources, brand awareness, organizational structure and the operational potential. Methods that can be used to assess the internal environment include discussions, interviews, monitoring and surveys (Item, 2014). In external environment scanning, three correlated environments should be considered for study and analyzed. These are: the immediate industry environment, national environment and the macro-environment. Scanning the immediate industry environment involves studying the competitiveness of the organization in the industry. An assessment of the history, nature and stage of the organization is also important. Analyzing the national environment needs an appraisal of whether the national policies helps in achieving competitive advantage in the globalized environment. Analysis of macro-environment includes exploring macro-economic, social, government, legal, technological and international factors that may influence the environment (Edwards & Hughes, 2009). The analysis of organization’s external environment reveals opportunities and threats for an organization. PESTLE Analysis The information that the management can use for the purposes of environmental scanning can be obtained from various sources, these include: magazines, newspapers, radio, books, clients, commercial websites, internal reports, meetings, internal memoranda, other professional colleagues, internal databases and employees. There are two models of environmental scanning: SWOT analysis and the PESTLE analysis (Dcosta, 2011). SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This is an important analysis for an organization as it helps in understanding both the internal and external environments. The strength of an organization can be: high demand of its product by customers, lower cost of products as compared to the competitors and the maintenance of good customer and employee management relationships. The weaknesses could be: outdated market research data or too many missed deadlines (Vanguelova et. al, 2013). Opportunities include: market gaps such as poor quality of existing products, new line of customer needs and high competitor prices. The threats could be: a lot of competitors producing the same product. It is essential for an organization to carry out a SWOT analysis so as to be able to understand its internal and external environments. The external factors considered are opportunities and threats while the internal ones are the strengths and weaknesses. An organization should capitalize on its strengths and opportunities so as to increase performance. Quick measures should be put in place to be able to avoid negative effects caused by the weaknesses and threats facing an organization (Srdjevic et. al, 2012). PESTLE analysis is a tool used by companies to be able to understand the environment in which they are operating or planning to carry on business from. PESTLE stands for political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental aspects. Before launching a new product in a particular area, it is important to carry out this analysis so as to be able to plan for the future strategically (Dcosta, 2011). Political: These are political factors which affect businesses either positively or negatively. They include the policies set up by the government and the political situation in the country. For example, an increase in tax by the government can cause an increase in prices of products. This in turn causes a low demand of the product thus leading to decreased profits for the business. In areas where there is political instability, businesses face threats of closure due to increased crime rates (Wiltshier & Edwards, 2014). Economic factors: These are the factors that affect a consumer’s willingness and ability to purchase a product offered for sale. For instance an increase in inflation rates would cause the prices of products and services to increase and this leads to a lack of willingness by customers to purchase this product. Other economic factors include: interest rates, economic growth patterns (recession and boom) and foreign exchange rates. Social: This considers the cultural values, norms and customs of the people which the business intends to supply goods with. Other social factors of importance include: language, religion, education and literacy levels, lifestyle and time orientation. Technological: These factors pertain to innovations in technology that may affect the operations of the industry and the market favorably or unfavorably. This refers to automation, research and development and the amount of technological awareness that a market possesses. Legal: These are the laws and regulations that influences the way a company produces, markets and sells its products. For example, consumer laws, safety standards, employment laws, health and safety laws, advertising regulations and product safety laws. Environmental: These aspect of the analysis is crucial for certain industries for example tourism, farming and agriculture. Environmental factors include natural resources that are affected by the processes of selling and marketing products or services. The two main issues of consideration when carrying out an environmental analysis are increased pollution and shortage of raw materials (Mak & Leewing, 2014). A partnership refers to a group of people or organizations that work together for a common purpose. Partnerships are increasing in number because governments are discovering their importance in enhancing economic growth by helping reduce and prevent some of the barriers to economic growth. With increased crime rates, community safety partnerships have been formed to help look into the causes of crimes and help prevent crime. Community safety partnerships are partnerships formed solely with an aim of addressing crime and safety issues. They are usually a combination of police, government agents, well-meaning citizens, businesses and other organization concerned with the safety of the community (Naidoo & Wills, 2015). Community safety partnerships have been found to be more effective in dealing with crimes than other alternatives. MS level 4 studies have found this method of dealing with crimes to be more effective. The benefits of community partnerships include: There is increased reach to the socially excluded parts of the community Access to a wider range of funding sources makes partnerships more effective Due to the shared experience, new and better ways of solving problems are developed Partnerships articulate concerns faced by young people and communicate outcomes The risks of community policing are spread across many organizations as opposed to just one Since resources are pooled together there is reduced costs There is greater capacity to reach and deliver beyond the capabilities of any one organization For community partnerships to be effective, there needs to be strategic planning on its formation and how it will be run. It is not usually possible to have a partnership where all partners allocate the same amount of time and resources. It is however important for all partners to feel that that their contribution however small, have an impact on the partnership (El Ansari, 1999). Efforts should also be made to maximize the input of each partner by reducing the barriers that make it hard for small partners to get involved. Strategic planning is best done while developing the partnership agreement (Home, F.H.T, 2016). A good partnership agreement states the following: the purpose of the partnership, the strategy that will be used to achieve the aims and objectives of the partnership, the basis for membership of the partnership, how decisions will be made within the partnership, the principles that govern the partnership, management of the partnership, sources of funds for the partnership, methods of dispute resolution and the information the partnership will provide to the public. Such strategic prior planning of the partnership ensures success and delivery of effective partnership working (Gillam and Siriwardena, 2013). The characteristics of effective partnerships include: regular updates between the partners, effective communication between the partners, shared roles and responsibilities, trust, dealing with disagreements in a good way, understanding each other’s needs and work and respecting it, contribution by all partners in terms of time, information and other resources, teamwork, working towards a similar aim, regular feedback and realistic ways of evaluating the partnership achievements (Phillips et. al, 2014). Some of the major factors and changes that tend to affect partnership work include: Lack of shared missions and visions Unclear targets Culture clashes Shortage of funds Time limitations, i.e. when the partnership needs to accomplish an objective within a certain time span and it does not meet the deadline. Partnerships which are all talk and no action Bureaucracy overload Lack of a good management team Conclusion The PESTLE analysis can affect the effectiveness of community safety partnerships. For instance the environmental factor. After analyzing the environment surrounding the business and how the business activities affect the environment, the business can be able to reduce such activities thus cut down the rates of crime (Kolios & Read, 2013). In the case of pollution, the business can apply measures such as: understanding and applying the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle, using clean energy resources such as solar, wind and geothermal and eliminating toxins from the air they release into the environment so as to reduce air pollution (Zalengera et. al, 2014). These measures help prevent environment pollution and depletion of the ozone layer. Climate changes caused by depletion of the ozone layer and global warming are reduced. This leads to an increase in food supply and thus reduced poverty levels (Khatri, 2014). This, directly or indirectly, helps cut down on crime rates. This enhances the activity of community safety partnerships by eliminating one of the major causes of crime. Strategic managers must not only recognize the present state of the environment and their industry but also be able to predict its future positions. Where government, law enforcement, businesses and the public work together on prevention, significant and sustained cuts in certain crimes can be achieved in the long-run and permanently (Kolyperas et. al, 2015) Bibliography Berry, G., Briggs, P., Erol, R. and van Staden, L., 2011. The effectiveness of partnership working in a crime and disorder context: A rapid evidence assessment. H. Office (Ed.), Research Report, 52. Council, C.C., 2012. Community Safety Partnership. Dcosta, A., 2011. 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Identifying the criteria set for multi-criteria decision making based on SWOT/PESTLE analysis: a case study of reconstructing a water intake structure. Water resources management, 26(12), pp.3379-3393. Vanguelova, E.I., Nisbet, T.R., Moffat, A.J., Broadmeadow, S., Sanders, T.G.M. and Morison, J.I.L., 2013. A new evaluation of carbon stocks in British forest soils. Soil Use and Management, 29(2), pp.169-181. Weisburd, D., Farrington, D.P. and Gill, A.P.C., 2016. Introduction: What Works in Crime Prevention? In What Works in Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation (pp. 1-13). Springer New York. Wiltshier, P. and Edwards, M., 2014. Managing knowledge transfer partnership for a rural community: The outcomes at Wirksworth, UK. Kybernetes, 43(3/4), pp.629-651. Zalengera, C., Blanchard, R.E., Eames, P.C., Juma, A.M., Chitawo, M.L. and Gondwe, K.T., 2014. Overview of the Malawi energy situation and A PESTLE analysis for sustainable development of renewable energy. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 38, pp.335-347. Read More