Journal Entry 4: Environment AssessmentYour integrated 10-year personal and professional strategic plan will be framed by a series of topic typically associated with strategic planning. With a sense of purpose (mission statement) along with a sense of a desired future state (vision) anchored through deeply held beliefs (values), one needs to understand his or her constraints in moving toward a desired future state. An environmental assessment is the term often used to describe one’s current operating environment. Organizations typically consider their current market and customer needs, competitive position, and innovation capacity to understand the business environment. Your challenge is to describe and evaluate your current and future personal and professional environments for elements (e.g., political, economic, social, technical, etc.) which may aid or hinder your ability to fulfill your mission and ten-year vision. In addition, conduct a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is an analytical technique used by organizations to examine their operating environments through identifying strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T) as well as interrelationship between strengths and weaknesses, interrelationship between opportunities and threats (Jones & George, 2011).Strengths and weakness are examined from an internal perspective because these are within the control of an organization. For example, an organization may identify its current ability to attract and retain recent graduates as a strength and a decline in research and design innovations as a current weakness. Identified strengths are normally viewed as assets and weaknesses are viewed as potential liabilities in achieving strategic objectives.Opportunities and threats are examined from an external perspective because these are outside the control of an organization. For example, an organization may identify its ability to exploit a new market segment as an opportunity and increased foreign competition as a threat. Identified opportunities are typically viewed as potential areas to leverage in achieving strategic objectives while identified threats represent potential barriers or challenges to overcome in achieving strategic objectives.Use your Critical Thinking Journal to (1) critically think about and analyze your current environment and desired 10-year environment from a personal and professional perspective and (2) in Step 5 of Paul and Elder’s (2012) Critical Thinking Model, as adopted for the class synthesize your thinking following the guidance contained in the critical thinking journal template.To complete this journal entry, refer to the Journal Entry 4: Environment Assessment Critical Thinking Journal Template.Be sure to use the attached resources as 2 out of the 4 needed sources. The template is attached as well.ReferencesJones, G. R., & George, J. M. (2011). Contemporary management (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2012). Critical thinking: Tools for taking charge of your learning and your life. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
