Stubbart C
Long Range Plann. 1982 Jun;15(3):139-45. doi: 10.1016/0024-6301(82)90035-8.
Many authorities have urged companies to set up environmental scanning to assist corporate planning. Some advocates have recommended a unit at corporate level. This would give breadth of view and penetration into the future. It would arm decision makers with accurate forecasts. The information would be broad in scope and future directed. It could provide also assumptions for long-range planning. The Fahey and King study produced a model of corporate scanning types. The data showed that environmental information was built into the plan. Though the political environment was important, scanning was inadequate. The best location for scanning was not at corporate level and most firms used irregular methods. The Thomas study concluded that effective environmental scanning was permanent and multi level and that 'best practice' was continuous scanning. In 1978 the sample organizations were revisited. Five of the twelve have not changed their practice. The factors which encouraged a continuous model were the attitudes of academics and business media, demonstrated success of the units, the right kind of personnel. Contrary influences were changes in top management, decentralization moves, resource cuts, defining the environment and its significance, the availability of scanning competent personnel, surprise itself, and the availability of alternatives e.g. external forecasts.
许多权威人士敦促企业开展环境扫描以辅助企业规划。一些倡导者建议在企业层面设立一个部门。这将提供广阔的视野并洞察未来。它能让决策者获得准确的预测。这些信息将具有广泛的范围且指向未来。它还能为长期规划提供假设。费伊和金的研究得出了一个企业扫描类型的模型。数据显示环境信息已纳入计划。尽管政治环境很重要，但扫描工作仍不充分。扫描的最佳地点并非企业层面，且大多数公司采用的方法并不规范。托马斯的研究得出结论，有效的环境扫描是持续且多层次的，“最佳实践”是持续扫描。1978年，对样本组织进行了回访。十二个组织中有五个没有改变其做法。鼓励采用持续模式的因素包括学者和商业媒体的态度、各部门已展现出的成功、合适的人员类型。相反的影响因素包括高层管理人员的变动、分权举措、资源削减、对环境及其重要性的界定、具备扫描能力的人员的可获得性、意外事件本身以及替代方案的可获得性，例如外部预测。
