The task environment or specific environment refers to the forces outside an organization that directly impact its operations and ability to achieve goals. It includes customers who buy products and services, suppliers who provide necessary resources, competitors who offer similar offerings, and pressure groups that try to influence organizations. Each organization's specific environment is unique and changing, requiring managers to carefully monitor key constituents and shifts in the external landscape to ensure the organization's continued effectiveness and success over time.

1. Task or Specific Environment
Task environment or specific environment refers to the forces and
institutions outside the organization with which an organization
interfaces in the course of conducting its business. Such forces and
institutions are directly relevant to the achievement of the
organizational goals because they have direct and immediate
impact on decisions and actions of managers. The specific
environment of each organization is unique and changes with
conditions. The important constituents of task environment are:
customers, suppliers, competitors, and Pressure Groups.
• Customers and Clients
Customers and clients of an organization refer to those individual
and organizations that purchase its products and services.
Organizations exist to meet the needs of customers through which
they earn large sum of profits. But these customers possess
potential uncertainty to an organization success because of their
changing tastes, preferences, lifestyle etc. Therefore various
organizations are making efforts to improve the quality of their
products and services, stay close with the customers, listen to the
customers about their needs etc.
• Suppliers
Organizations need different resources such as raw materials,
goods and services etc to conduct their operations. Therefore they
purchase these resources from various individuals and
organizations known as suppliers. The term suppliers also include

2. providers of financial inputs (such as banks, insurance companies,
pension funds etc) and labor inputs (such as labor unions,
universities, local labor markets etc). It is the responsibility of each
manager to ensure the steady flow of needed inputs at the lowest
price available in order to maintain the effectiveness of an
organization.
• Competitors
Competitors refer to those organizations that either offer or have a
potential to offer rival products or services. It means that not only
the existing rivals are threat to the success of organization but the
potential newcomers could be disastrous too. Competitors in term
of better pricing, new products, quality services etc represent an
environmental force that managers must monitor along with the
competitive scene for potential newcomers.
• Pressure Groups
Pressure groups refer to the special-interest groups that attempt to
influence the actions of organizations. Such groups have the
potential to influence the success of organization therefore
managers have to be careful in their decisions and actions.
Examples of pressure groups are: MADD (mother against drunk
driving) which has pressurized the bar and restaurant industries.
Similarly PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
has pressurized food restaurants over their handling of animals
during the slaughter process. The power of pressure groups
changes with the change in social and political attitudes. Therefore
organizations have to continuously monitor the major shifts in the
society.