>>"It is far from clear that 'each part of the organization doing what is
>>right for itself' is a bad thing. I think Stuart Kauffman, in "At Home In
>>the Universe" describes the idea of "patches" as a way for an organization
>>to adapt efficiently to a fitness landscape. Each group ("patch") does
>>what it sees as best for itself, while at the same time watching to see
>>what works for others. When a patch finds a good solution, it changes the
>>problem faced by neighbors..." [Nick Arnett ]
>>
>>How 'bout if the "patch" has selection mechanisms which change the
>>populations of individual within the patch? [DougM]
>
>I'm not sure if you're asking if there is competition within a patch or if
>the makeup of a patch changes. I haven't seen anything from Kauffman
>looking at those twists. [Nick Arnett ]
"Patches" remind me of a firm composed of semi-autonomous, P&L accountable
business units where each Bu competes for Corporate Resources within a
multi-divisional firm . Successful BU's (Patches) expand; unsuccessful
BU's shrink. At any point in time, "organizational learning" about market
success is stored in the pattern of the Bu's boundaries.
The evolving Bu boundaries will be projected onto the external environment
and shape how the corporate organism "perceives" changes in the external
market opportunities. While the corporate organism may easily perceive
those market opportunities which conform to existing Bu charters it may be
perceptually impaired in regards to those opportunities which arise in the
"white spaces" among the Bu's.
If we imagine populations of different management types within a business
unit, a similar mechanism could guide organizational learning within the
Bu. The number of managers of a type that is perceived to be successful
will increase at the expense of the populations of other manager types.
The increased homogeneity of managers may increase the Bu's short run
efficiency at the expense of the Bu's long run effectiveness (i.e.,
ability to adapt to environmental change).
In the limit, we could imagine an organization that "learns" at two
levels, by evolving the management populations within the Bu and by
evolving the Bu boundaries within the firm, while none of the individuals
learn anything - they just continue to exercise they pre-programmed
scripts.
Doug Merchant
Currently On Career Sabbatical
--"Doug Merchant" <dougm@eclipse.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>