The whole South African society is based on a functional approach of doing things. At school we are

taught that we must take certain subjects in order to follow a particular career. Some people study

further and become $$specialists$$ in their respective fields. They subsequently join an organisation

which consists of departments, functions and sections, each one with its own area of specialisation

and self$-$interest. The end$-$result is a situation where a lot of people are performing excellent jobs in

their own fields, very often at the expense of others, and not even knowing what others are doing.

This system of fragmentation means that the collective intelligence that could have been used is

largely eroded by the organisation. Companies are therefore not performing at their optimum level. In

the learning organisation, articulating the total organisation from a systems approach represents an

opportunity to break this vicious cycle.

Analyse the importance of South African organisations adopting a systems approach as advocated

by the learning organisation