Please read all info in background Turnit in used for grading
Module 4 – Case
Feedback Loop and Organizational Learning
Assignment Overview
XCG
THE EXCELLENT CONSULTING GROUP
COMMUNICATION FROM ART:
Let’s wrap up this project.
So far ABC Company and Whole Foods Market like what we’ve been doing. I have this last project which involves analyzing Whole Foods Market’s feedback loops and organizational learning opportunities.
I want you to take a look at the feedback loops in Whole Foods Market.
REQUIRED READING:
Refer to the background reading on System Feedback Loops.
Case Assignment
Identify one Balancing Loop and one Reinforcing Loop. These feedback loops should be critical to Whole Foods Market’s performance and success. You should have a good idea of what these are from your previous analysis.
Explain each one of these loops – what are the causal factors and how do they affect each other. For the Reinforcing Loop look for an area where there is growth. For the Balancing Loop look for goal behavior. Once you have identified and explained these critical feedback loops identify how Whole Foods Market has generated organizational learning and how they can go further and generate additional organizational learning. What do they need to do to improve their performance further?
Be sure to include references. Turn in the 5- to 6-page paper by the end of the module.
KEYS TO THE ASSIGNMENT:
This is what you need to do:
Assignment Expectations
Your paper will be evaluated on the following seven points:
TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS
Module 4 – Background
Feedback Loop and Organizational Learning
While most models of organizational diagnosis that we have been exposed to in this class recognize the existence of feedback loops none of them really offer a thorough discussion of the complexity of feedback or how it can be used to promote organizational improvement and development. To get a better view of this topic we turn to the work on systems thinking and organizational learning. Much of this literature is based on the work of Peter Senge whose seminal bookThe Fifth Disciplinepopularized the notion that organizations are capable of learning.
In all of the reading pay particular attention to thetwo types of Feedback Loops: Reinforcing Feedback that causes growth and Balancing Feedback that provides stabilizing effects.
Required Reading
This first reading is a good overview.
Bellinger G. (2004). Introduction to systems thinking. Retrieved from http://www.systems-thinking.org/intst/int.htm.
This second reading is quite long and reviews much of the work in the area of learning organizations. Read it all if you like (see menu on left side of the page) but themost relevant part of the paper for this course is part VI which covers systems thinking:
Larsen K. McInerney C. Nyquist C. Santos A. & Silsbee D. (1996). Learning Organizations (Part VI: Systems Thinking) Retrieved from http://leeds-faculty.colorado.edu/larsenk/learnorg/index.html.
If you are still confused about feedback loops here is another tutorial on this complex concept: Feedback Loops in System Dynamics.
Optional Reading
Bellinger G. (2004) theWay of systems.Retrieved from http://www.systems-thinking.org/theWay/theWay.htm
Bellinger G. (2004) Archetypes. Retrieved from http://www.systems-thinking.org/arch/arch.htm.
This is the home page for the extensive site from which much of the material for this module was taken: http://www.systems-thinking.org/index.htm.
There are no reading assignments for SLP 4.