Understanding the Intelligent Organisation

Abstract

The notion of organisational intelligence is a relatively new one that has come through from the area of management cybernetics, itself concerned with system viability. Intelligent organisations are connected to learning and knowledge organisations. While defining intelligent organisations outside a cybernetic framework is possible, this is not as comprehensive an approach as it might be. An illustration of this is provided by adopting one model of the intelligent organisation, and illustrating how it can succumb to inherent pathologies of the organisation. Key words: Intelligent organisation, strategy, collective intelligence, management cybernetics.