Discussion – Week 6

Integrated Essay: Sustainability

Whether you identify yourself as such or not, humans are lifelong learners by nature, ever expanding and advancing in knowledge. Learning itself is a process of change and inflation. As such, it is inevitable. When participating in physical exercise, muscles experience new learning.

Consider organizational/operational change as a holistic process, something that naturally affects entire systems, and not just their individual parts. Think about the assumptions that may be made and how they might interfere with the ability to see the wisdom of organizational evolution.

With these thoughts in mind:

Explain and discuss the systems implications of expanding definitions of sustainability to go beyond measurements of environmental impact, and to also include economic and social elements. In order to address this, you might discuss and synthesize the inter-relationships between total quality management, and learning organization approaches to problem solving and action. Think about how systems principles can be implemented in real-world contexts. How might you explain the core, “root cause” assumptions that underlie modern industrial society, and that explain society’s potential inability to sustain itself much further into the future?

Prepare a 4- to 6-paragraph integrated essay based upon this question. Your essay should be written in APA format and should include APA-formatted citations for each reading that you cite.