• Review the case study “Bayonne Packaging, Inc.,” (located in this week’s resources) consider the factors that contributed to the company’s first loss in 10 years. Think about how you would use common systems archetypes to analyze Bayonne’s situation. Consider what those diagrams could reveal in understanding the company’s performance problems and which systems strategies could resolve these problems.

For this assignment:

• Using a formal systems diagramming approach, analyze Bayonne’s organizational performance and develop a robust effect-cause-effect tree diagram using the 5-Whys tool, as done previously in the course.
• Create a robust causal loop diagram that incorporates appropriate causal loop logic in the analysis, and which also identifies common system archetype patterns within the diagram. This diagram should describe fundamental system behaviors and outcomes. The diagram itself should be one page and can be hand-drawn or drawn with software. Tables are not appropriate; it must be in the form of a diagram.
• Write a summary description, including specific recommendations, that links directly to both your 5-why and associated CLD analysis (which includes embedded archetype relationships) for improving the packaging company’s operations and the organization as a whole. (1-2 single spaced pages)

• Review Senge’s Chapter 5, “A Shift of Mind and consider organizations where you have worked or with which you are familiar. The organization could be a business, non-profit, or a government agency. Think about examples of detail complexity and dynamic complexity at these organizations.

Prepare the following assignment:

• A comparison of detail complexity to dynamic complexity from a system thinking viewpoint
• Two or more examples from organizations with which you are familiar that illustrate important elements of complexity within the system and that explains the negative impacts of such complexity. (2 paragraphs in length)

REFERENCES

Braun, W. (2002). The system archetypes. In The systems modeling workbook. Unpublished manuscript. Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/faculty/gpr/PAD724/724WebArt…

Olson, M. S., van Bever, D., & Verry, S. (2008). When growth stalls. Harvard Business Review, 86(3), 50–61. Retrieved from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/tu/81bf1058

Wolstenholme, E. F. (2003). Towards the definition and use of a core set of archetypal structures in system dynamics. System Dynamics Review, 19(1), 7–26.

Shapiro, R., & Morrison, P. (2012). Bayonne Packaging, Inc. [Case study]. HBS Case 4420. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School. Retrieved from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/tu/dfb8d9a2

Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art & practice of the learning organization. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Chapter 5, “A Shift of Mind” (Review from Week 3)

Chapter 6, “Nature’s Templates: Identifying the Patterns That Control Events”