Organisms as organisms case study

Solution Preview

The Military Unit as Part of the Armed Forces' Economic System
An Analysis

First, according to Kelly as quoted by Joe Flower (1995), an organization's similarity with a living organism based on the "organization's reason for being, [which is] like that of any organism, is to help the parts that are in relationship to each other, to be able to deal with change in the environment" (Flower, 1995). The student interprets this as an organization, like a living organism, in order to survive vis-à-vis its dynamic environment where change is a continuous process would have to adopt constantly by learning. In other words, an organization that learns is a learning organization - that is, an organism which refuses to adopt will risk being booted out of the system. Charles Darwin's concept of survival of the fittest comes to mind.

Second, a learning organization can be defined as "one in which all members are individually and collectively willing in heart and in mind to go deeper and broader in their learning process" (Ng, 2004, p. 95). The learning organization paradigm and the concept of knowledge management have received substantial discussion in the literature since the publication of Senge's (1990) seminal book The Learning Organization. The same was extensively discussed by Argyris and Schon, 1996; Armstrong and Foley, 2003; Bierly, Kessler, and Christensen, 2000; Cohen, 1998; Davis and Botkin, 1994; Dowd, 2000; Dumaine, 1994; Ellerman, 1999; Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Drucker, 1997. The literature stresses that organizations can create a key source of competitive advantage, embrace innovation, and improve bottom-line results by developing capabilities for knowledge management and becoming a learning organization (Albert 2006, p. 17).

Third, the military unit, as an independent organization and as a part of a larger organization, faces similar problems which are everyday occurrences for a business and for profit organization which is struggling to transform itself from an ordinary entity to a learning organization to an effective organism. An example of these problems is the difficulty of management in convincing the different components of the organization to adopt the changes the organization must in order to survive, to develop and maintain its competitive advantages. A military unit, an entity which is comprised of individuals from different backgrounds with different cultural and behavioral orientation, is understandably would find a portion or majority of the organization is resistant to changes. However, the researcher believes that the new management paradigm, specifically the learning ...