Successful Project Management, Second Edition
Designed to be practical, stimulating and challenging, this workbook describes the skills, techniques and considerations involved in successful project management.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Successful Project Management, Second Edition
The Outside Environment
Projects are used to bring about change. They are used to concentrate effort and resources on particular outcomes which will make a difference to the world. Some projects, such as the Channel Tunnel, affect the lives of millions of people. Others, such as the rearrangement of the desks in an office, have a much more limited impact. But all projects bring about a change of some kind.
Changes do not happen arbitrarily. There is always some reason, and usually a collection of reasons, why a change is necessary. We will begin this section by looking at some of the forces for change in the outside environment.
There are four types of external pressure which can bring about change in an organization:
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Social forces
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Technological forces
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Economic forces
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Political forces.
They are usually known as STEP forces, from the first letter of each word.
SOCIAL FORCES
These forces come from the society in which we live. They include changes in the way people behave and the attitudes that they hold, and the way that the population as a whole is made up.
ACTIVITY 5
What changes have you been aware of in the last 10 years in relation to:
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Marriage and divorce?
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The age of the population?
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Attitudes to personal health?
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Gender roles?
FEEDBACK
Your answers may be similar to these:
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marriage and divorce An increasing number of marriages appear to be ending in divorce.
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the age of the population There is...
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