1 What external factors affect your sector?
When we think about the world today, it is clear that we can be greatly affected by events that take place well away from our immediate environment. Although our immediate environment is where we live, work and meet other people in our daily lives, we are also connected to and influenced by factors further from home.
Think about the influence of the internet, social media and cheap air travel – these have opened up many people’s horizons in a way that a previous generation would have believed unthinkable. Similarly, we are now much more aware of the impact that events in one part of the world can have on countries many miles away, for example conflict in the Middle East or a volcano erupting in Iceland.
From another perspective, consider also the influence of different levels of government in the UK. Locally there are parish, district, city and county councils, and nationally there is the UK government at Westminster and the devolved national administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.
Further afield are the European Union (EU) institutions, primarily the European Parliament and the European Commission. The EU will leave an imprint on the UK for some time to come, despite the 2016 referendum result, and this is a good example of the need to keep an eye on quickly changing events. Finally, at a global level the United Nations strives to lead on world issues, such as the environment and poverty, and to hold the line between nations’ competing interests.
The policies and legislation enacted and implemented at each of these levels affect us all, whether as individuals, workers or organisations.
Activity _unit3.1.1 Activity 1 Remote events affecting the workplace
Try to think of at least one example of how your workplace, or a workplace that you have known in the past, has been affected by what appears to be a remote event. What was its impact on your workplace? What type of event was it? Table 1 has two examples to get you started – if you can think of several more, even better!
| Event | Impact on workplace | Type of event |
|---|---|---|
| UK smoking ban | More pleasant working environment; pubs and restaurants providing outdoor smoking areas | Legislation |
| Global recession | UK government austerity policies affecting local services such as libraries, community centres, waste collection, etc. | Economic |
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The specific examples that you provide are not as important as understanding the idea that there are many forces operating across the world that can affect people at a very personal level, not least in their working lives.
The wider context beyond the individual operates at a number of important levels. Just beyond the individual level, the organisation and its structure will be most familiar to you; you looked at this in Week 1. Outside this lies the external context of customers/clients, competitors and suppliers; you will explore this in Weeks 3 and 4. This week, you are considering world trends, national and global economics, and legislative, technological and environmental developments. Being aware of this context will help your understanding of what is happening at the workplace and individual levels. You will examine this in more detail in the next section.