WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 5 Discussion A Study of Mental Models Peter Senge (2006) describes a mental model as a “deeply engrained assumption, generalizations, or even pictures or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action” (p. 8). People with a different mental model can see the same […]

WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 4 Discussion The Rise and Demise of the Innovative Entrant System archetypes describe and illustrate common patterns or common behaviors that occur within organizations (Braun, 2002). These archetypes can be utilized as effective tools in two main ways, first, as a diagnostic tool to identify and understand the underlying […]

WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 3 Discussion Detail and Dynamic Complexity Are you overwhelmed by complexity? If so, you are not alone. Peter Senge notes that people are now able to “create far more information that anyone can absorb,” and he continues to say that the “scale of complexity is without precedent” (2006, p. […]

WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 1 Discussion What Is a System? And What Is Systems Thinking? Donella Meadows, the pioneer of systems thinking and author of Thinking in Systems: A Primer, defines a system as “an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something. If you look at […]

WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 2 Discussion Moral Imagination Most are familiar with Nestlé, one of the world’s largest food producers, whose marketing slogan is: “Good food, Good life.” On its website, the corporation states that its three main ambitions are helping children live healthier lives, improving livelihoods in communities, and striving for zero […]

WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 6 Assignment Systems Thinking for Good, Part 1 In the Assignments for this module, you will assume the role of a consultant who has been asked by the upper management team to evaluate an organizational performance problem within an organization. You will present your findings in the form of […]

WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 5 Assignment An Analysis of the Customer Service Issues at Starbucks, Part 2 and Executive Summary In this Assignment, you will integrate your systems thinking and management skills and you will continue to prepare an organizational improvement plan based on your analysis of a case study. Last week, you […]

WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 4 Assignment An Analysis of the Customer Service Issues at Starbucks, Part 1 In this Assignment, you will integrate your systems thinking and management skills and you will prepare an organizational improvement plan based on your analysis of a case study. With this case in mind, this week you […]

WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 3 Assignment An Evaluation of the Dilemma at Benevento Foods: Understanding Cause and Effect and Recommendations for Improvement For this Assignment, you will continue to evaluate the same scenario from the previous week (Benevento Foods). For this evaluation, you will use systems thinking tools to perform a root cause […]

WMBA-6040B/MMSL-6645/WMBA-6040/MGMT-6645 WMBA6040 Improving Business Performance Week 2 Assignment An Evaluation of the Dilemma at Benevento Foods: Thinking in Systems For this Assignment, you will evaluate a real-world business scenario using a systems thinking approach to evaluate the workings of an organization. You will identify areas within the case where systems thinking is applied and where […]