Marketing Assignemnt Systems Thinking - Closed Loop Control

Systems Thinking - Closed Loop Control
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Learning organization
Understanding organization’s operations can be complex; there are several aspects that enable it to operate efficiently. How an organization operates requires good knowledge of all the aspects to develop a complete picture. Peter Senge presents the concept of learning organization through the five disciplines that entails what it means to understand leadership. He analyzes the seven learning disabilities, explaining what each of them represents and how organization function, which is a crucial process in understanding how organizations operate (Senge,2014 p. 9). To understand the concept according to Peter Senge, a spray diagram elaborates this concept.
Peter Senge Five Learning Disciplines
SYSTEM THINKINGFeedbackPERSONAL MASTERYTEAM LEARNINGMENTAL MODEL SHARED VISION personal growth & learning spiritual growth on-job training hidden assumptionscommon aspiration commitment interaction ans sharing reinforcing balancing concerted coordination ccomunication probe ,explore complex issues acheivng the goals LEARNING ORGANIZATION
Diagram summary
According to Peter Senge, the art of understanding an organization relies upon the five basic elements of system thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning. The most important element of system thinking is feedback process. Feedback entails reinforcing and balancing (Taggart, 2010 p.4). An individual can grow or languish depending on which action the manager takes. Balancing is an act where informal requirements increase productivity; it is a matter of understanding how to balance to avoid employees feeling unappreciated (Taggart,2010 p.3).
The informal rules should be valued because formal process affects interpersonal relationships. Personal mastery is an important element because it involves personal growth and learning, a process required by organization leaders to increase their abilities to realize the results they need (Taggart, 2010 p. 5).
Senge believes that people have their sets of assumptions, and prejudices that might affect their interaction these are important elements that need to be identified and find a way of dealing with them by adjusting our mental models(Taggart,2010 p.5). Shared Visions is equally important because it connects employees bonding them together by a common aspiration. A shared vision is a key component of understanding an organization. Team building is a process required or aligns team members to achieve the goal they truly believe in; a team is an essential ingredient for learning in an organization (Taggart,2010 p.5).
A closed loop control model diagram
PROCESSING
LEARNING ORGANIZATION
ACHIEVED GOALS
SYSTEM THINKNG
INPUTS
OUTPUT INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY Shared vision
Feedback path
Mental models Personal mastery
CONTROLS
The learning disabilities according to Peter Senge
Senge believes that it is important to understand certain organization disabilities that impact on how an organization functions because it is the way of having a complete view of the organizational process. The seven learning disabilities identified include identity confusion where people focus only on theory position and develop little interest in their responsibilities (Taggart, 2010 p.1). The second disability is blame game where people tend to blame other in case something goes wrong, the third includes being delusional and not being proactive (Taggart, 2010 p.1).
The other disability is fixation where people are stuck with short-term ideas but not long-term ideas. Boiled Frog is a proverb Senge uses to describe the fifth disability, which means people do not pay attention to the subtle and the dramatic changes(Taggart, 2010 p.2). The other disability where the flow of information that is affected by the organization’s ability to understand complex problems is affected by the fact that managers fail to experience the consequences of their decisions directly. The last disability is the math of management simply wants to uphold their image; joint decisions are watered down (Taggart, 2010 p.2).
How an organization's climate and the existence of the unwritten rules of behavior can lead to the creation of such learning disabilities
Organization leadership can develop unwritten rules of behavior that can create various learning disabilities. Some leaders lack system thinking to address organizational issues, hence failing to promote employee growth, causing a downward spiral because of lack of interaction between manager’s employees (Senge, 2014 p 167). Lack of system thinking diminishes mutual expectations. Leaders tend to look for fixes to problems instead of analyzing underlying issues. Leaders rely on quick fixes worsen the problems in the long run (Senge, 2014 p 233).
Most leaders prefer the traditional leadership styles of domination without involving employees. Employees are unable to connect with the vision .Organization vision that does not reflect on employee's vision, causes disabilities in the organization (Senge, 2014 p 262). Since shared vision is generated from personal vision, hence forming energy of commitment, therefore managers need to understand the difference between personal vision and shared vision. Most managers fail to master the discipline of developing shared vision and impose their vision on employees (Senge, 2014 p 271).
Organization atmosphere where leadership does not promote team growth and development, especially by not handling conflicts productively create disabilities. Conflict is inevitable among team members. People usually disagree and learn important lessons from disagreement, conflicts are part of important interaction among team members (Senge, 2014 p 189). However, managers may fail to acknowledge its importance. Most managers use defensive approach because they fail to admit that they cannot solve all problems (Senge, 2014 p 193).
Managers feel the need to uphold their status where managers are expected to know everything that goes gone in the organization, and this becomes their mental model. People in senior management appear to as if they know when managers internalize such mental model, creating problems (Senge, 2014 p 207). By maintaining such beliefs is dangerous because people tend to keep off from interaction with subordinates. Managers refuse to view things from a different perspective. Leaders sustain ignorance when they keep the spirit of defensiveness because they want to be seen to be effective decision makers (Senge, 2014 p 210).
How a split between espoused theory and theory in use can affect organizational learning
Organizations operate based on assumption compared to what happens described as espoused theory and theory in use. According to Chris Aryris, defensive behavior ...