Whole Foods Markets Feedback Loops - Essay Example

Analyzing Whole Foods Market's Feedback Loops And Organizational Learning Opportunities Identify one BalancingLoop and one Reinforcing Loop. These feedback loops should be critical to Whole Foods Market's performance and success. So you should have a good idea of what these are from your previous analysis. One Reinforcing Loop Sales demand: This is an example of a reinforcing loop in the food market. In the food market, increasing sales demand before attending to limits of finances may lead to emergency of problems like loses therefore to increase sales demand, one has to attend to the financial limits first. One Balancing Loop Availability of new workers: This is an example of a balancing loop. In the food market, increasing new workers can be a limiting factor to the growth of the market. Explain each one of these loops - what are the causal factors and how do they affect each other. For the Reinforcing loop, you should look for an area where there is growth and for the Balancing loop, you need to look for goal behavior. Once you have identified and explained these critical feedback loops, you need to identify how Whole Foods Market has generated organizational learning, and how they can go further and generate additional organizational learning. What do they need to do to improve their performance further? Balancing Loop A balancing loop is a situation where a feedback reduces the effects of change in a system. It occurs when an action tries to bring two different things into an agreement or any other situation when one tries to provide a solution for a given problem, achieving a given goal etc. It can also be explained as what moves the systems in the direction of the equilibrium. A balancing loop is said to bring a negative feedback. Reinforcing Loop A reinforcing loop is a case where a feedback increases the effect of a change in a system. It can also be said to be a structure that feeds on itself so that it the end product growth or decline. It is said to bring a positive feedback on a system. It can also be described as a vicious cycle or virtuous cycle. A reinforcing loop usually reinforces the behavior of a system to move in the same direction resulting to a growth or a decline. (Haraldsson, 2004, pp. 20). Causal Factors and how they affect the Balancing and Reinforcing Loops Demand The reinforcing loop will either be determined by demand or by subsidy and all of these can affect the profitability of production of organic food. Whenever the farmers’ profitability is low, the other variables found in the reinforcing loop will automatically decrease and whenever the profitability is high, all the other will consequently increase. Subsidies are usually the biggest determinant in the market since market demand is still low and unreliable. Supply A big supply of raw materials reduces the market prices which will automatically decrease profitability for the whole food farmers, which will obviously discourage them. When there is a low supply, there will be high market prices and also the profitability will be high, a situation which will encourage the farmers to join the market. Market Price When there is a low supply of organic food, there will be a decrease in the demand for organic food by retailers and this will result few purchases from the consumers. Also the raw material prices will act as a balancing factor by connecting to the price of organic food. The consumer price usually relies on the costs which are added in the whole food chain of distribution. Consumers The food consumers can only buy whole food when they find it to be appealing or attractive to them and this attractiveness of the whole food can be determined by several various factors like the price and the supply. Usually when the price is low and the supply is high coupled with diversity or variety of the organic food will definitely attract the consumers in large numbers. Equally when there is a high price and the supply is less the consumers will be discouraged from buying the organic food. (Sou 2004:119, pp.127) How the Whole Foods Market has Generated Organizational Learning Organizational learning culture: When people in an organization try to comply with the food market environment as well as solving the problems they face, they learn unconsciously since solving problems and theorizing learning puts different views into process. (Neefe, 2001). Sharing knowledge: People interacting in the market environment transmit and distribute knowledge amongst one another. The ability of an organization to pass or transfer information show portability and power to share and this leads to success. Knowledge should be distributed and shared quickly within an organization. (Neefe, 2001). Work and group learning: Group learning is a crucial element in every kind of learning organization. (Veisi, 2010). In the food market, people learn the significance of alignment with personnel to prevent wastage of energy. System thinking: This is the discipline where one focuses on the entire organization. Different people involved in food market should have a clear picture concerning the objectives of the whole market and know or try to find ways of developing and improving these objectives. Shared vision: The significance of shared vision in a market place provide centralization of energy for learning, makes people to take action and express their dreams, stretches people to desire their ultimate goals etc. Values and shared visions are significant in determining the kind of knowledge that is stored and transmitted by an organization. (Neefe, 2001). Shared vision can be sensible if commitment to a group by creation, principle, and leading practices which we hope to get. (Veisi, 2010). Collaborative leadership: The result of participating in leadership is having the sense of staff partnership. When people involved in food market participate together, each individual feels more useful and thus reduces resistance to change, commits himself to the organization and reduce stress levels. (Neefe, 2001). Competence development of staff: When people are involved in food market, they increase their skill level since they develop competence since each individual competes with his staff members. Human resource development has not yet been attained by higher education but human competence can be planned and systematically worked out. (Neefe, 2001). Improving the Performance of Foods Market further Competitive intelligence: Competitive intelligence is a form of thinking competitively and collecting, processing and storing data for all members of a given organization at any level to assist the formation of future firm and to protect against its current competence. It should be done legally and respecting moral principles such as intelligence and knowledge of the surrounding environment based the certain specified rules. (Rouach, Santi, 2001). This comes from three main areas and these are information science, security studies and collective management. Among the three, only security studies can claim to be the basis for competitive intelligence. (Odendaal, 2004). This is an important discipline in business which can be applied in food market and it has been in practiced since 1980. This competitive intelligence’s origin refers to 1970s but can be credited to Michael Purtz, a Harvard Professor, who in 1980 used this principle to analyze competitive companies and industries. (Du Toit, 2003). Work Cited Fabricant, Florence. "New Market Concentrates On Organic Food". The New York Times, February 14, 2001. Moore, John. "Run, Gun, and Have Fun – Whole Foods Market Style". Brand Autopsy, March 21, 2005. Read More