Organizations are groups of people working together for a common purpose. They are created to produce products and/or services for customers using their resources. The organization’s internal environment includes the factors that affect its performance from within its boundaries. They are called internal factors because they are within the organization’s control, as opposed to external factors, which are outside the organization’s control.

The mission is an expression of the ends the organization strives to attain. The other internal environmental factors are considered the means to achieve the ends. Top-level managers are responsible for the organization’s performance as they develop the visionary mission, strategies, and plans to achieve success. An organizational culture consists of the values, beliefs, and assumptions about appropriate behavior that members of an organization share. The culture has to be based on the mission, because firms need the right culture to achieve their mission.

Organizational resources include human, financial, physical, and informational. Human resources (capital) is the most important, because people develop and achieve the organization’s mission and objectives through the other three resources. Structure refers to the way in which an organization groups its resources to accomplish its mission. An organization is a system structured into departments such as finance, marketing, production, and so on.

Each of these departments affects the organization as a whole, and each department is affected by the other departments. All of an organization’s resources must be structured effectively to achieve its mission.