Q. What are some internal and external factors that influence organizations?

To research internal and external factors that influence organizational behavior, it will help to think of the types of factors that have been or that could affect companies. So, for instance, things happening in politics could affect companies, as could things happening with technology, etc. Those types of factors are sometimes referred to as PEST, or as PESTEL or PESTLE (for more information on this concept see https://libanswers.umgc.edu/faq/260801).

To think about how some of those factors could affect a company, you can use business databases (https://libguides.umgc.edu/business) to run a search like this:

politic* AND ("org* structure*" OR "org* culture*" OR "company culture*" OR "corporate culture*") 

If there are specific political, technological, etc. events that are of interest, you could search for those things, too.

For example, this search statement would help you find documents that discuss how the recent DEI movement is affecting companies in terms of their org structure and/or culture:

(diversity OR equity OR inclusion) AND ("org* structure*" OR "org* culture*" OR "company culture*" OR "corporate culture*")

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