Facilitating organisational change in an organic dairy corporation in Denmark

Summary

This paper focusses on the notion of sustainable development as the challenge of creating self-referential systems that are continually learning how to persist in a complex and ever-changing environment. Drawing on systems theory and practice, a process of organisational change was facilitated within a small organic dairy that had great difficulties surviving the competition in the contemporary Danish food system. Peter Senge’s discipline of creating a shared vision was incorporated into an experiential learning methodology; here it acted as the major catalyst for the organisational learning and change achieved. The findings imply that in order to survive and create the future that it desires, a small organic processing firm needs to learn to be mentally agile with respect to change and innovation within, as well as outside, its existing boundaries. For this learning to be accomplished, facilitating it with a systemic perspective may be an option available to an organisation.