Student Case

An organizational learning disability that Senge calls the enemy is out there explains this phenomena. Managers ofte try to explain reasons feor their problems by blaming other divisions or the market situation. In EPD, we can see that the managers have learned to work together to get a better understanding of why a problem happened and how they can deal with it. This makes a much better atmosphere for organizational learning to take place. When a division manager understands his associates situation, like between marketing and manufacturing, they can better deal with the problems at hand, rather than placing the blame and not acting. When we think of improved coordination with R&D personnel, we can see evidence of better associations between EPD managers all over. Operations and decision making works more smoothly as a manager thinks of themselves as a part of the corporation or system rather than just doing their job . The idea that many people believe that they are their position prevents an understanding of the effects of their actions in other parts of the organization. This causes great difficulties between departments such as marketing and manufacturing in EPD, whose goals should be closely alignedNow that scientist know how their work fits into the overall project, EPD will have much more coordinated work within Allentown s corporate R&D group. Aries de Gues, while serving as coordinator at Royal Dutch/Shell, conducted a survey of 27 firms which were at least 200 years old. The study found certain traits that all of these firms posessed. Some of these traits were:

1. A sensitivity to their environments, and potential changes in it, which represented their ability to learn.

2. A strong degree of cohesion and identity, which were considered to be essential aspects of a company s ability to build a community and persona for itself. Values are often the foundation of this characteristic.

3. Tolerance for